By the Honourable Yuen Pau Woo, Senator for British Columbia
Among the biggest challenges for adult learners of the English language is the idiomatic use of certain words, which can convey multiple, sometimes contradictory, meanings.
One such word is “Haha”, which is an onomatopoeia of laughter. Across different languages and cultures, variations of “Haha” are recognizable as a spontaneous verbal response signifying lightness, amusement, or humor.
The modern use of “Haha” has taken on more complex meanings, especially in the context of social media, text messages, and other forms of digital communications. Receiving a “Haha” in response to your message or post can mean genuine amusement on the part of the recipient (who may have physically laughed and wanted to transcribe that action), but it could also mean sarcasm, mockery, or disinterest.
Used with emojis and other signifiers, “Haha” can be leveraged to convey raucous laughter (“Hahahahaha”), irony, affection, intrigue, embarrassment, horror, and more. The same is true of “Haha” ( 哈哈 ) in Chinese, where there is an even more bewildering range of emotional nuance and secondary meaning to the expression.
Which is why Ha Ha! Canada is such an apt title for this volume of short essays on the experience of Chinese Canadians. Originally written in Chinese, the contributions to this volume range from tales of wonderment and incredulity to stories of lament and resolve. In whatever translation, they convey joy, candor, introspection, spontaneity, and insight—reflecting the multiple meanings of a modern “Haha”.
As a collection, Ha Ha! Canada is a fresh take on how newcomers see Canada—in all of its glory and with all of its warts. While it is timeless, in the way that the immigrant experience is timeless, the context for immigration to Canada in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is not the same as it was for earlier waves of migration to the Foreword Ha Ha! Canada 2 country—especially in the case of Chinese Canadian immigrants.
Contemporary immigrants to Canada seek a better life, as did previous generations of migrants, with many fleeing poverty, insecurity, persecution, or physical and emotional stress in their native countries. But many others already had a high standard of living in the places they left, and came to Canada seeking more than a better paying job or a bigger house. The “more” that they seek varies from immigrant to immigrant, but it usually boils down to belonging. The essays in Ha Ha! Canada are fundamentally about the quest for belonging and for whatever the “more” means for each of the writers.
Many first-generation immigrants, even highly skilled and successful individuals, accept that belonging may not be attainable in their lifetimes, but they expect it for their children and subsequent generations. Indeed, the sacrifices they put up with (jobs and income well beneath their qualifications; lower status; separation from extended family; and loss of social networks) are gladly borne for the sake of their offspring.
Despite hardships and unmet expectations, the overwhelming sentiment of the essays is a belief in the promise of Canada and a desire to contribute to the country. In recent years, there has been much discussion about the “uncontrolled” influx of immigrants to Canada and the unintended negative impacts on housing affordability and other social ills. The flipside of this account—which is much less discussed–is the unfulfilled ambitions of the very newcomers who came to build a better Canada through their skills, volunteer work, and taxes. Unfortunately, the unmet expectations on both sides do not contribute to a positive environment for deeper integration of immigrants into Canadian society, or the building of social cohesion.
I would like to thank and congratulate Dr. Ally Wang Li for her vision and dedication in publishing Ha Ha! Canada. As someone who is actively involved in community service and who advocates forcefully for the rights and freedoms of immigrants, Dr. Wang has 3 Foreword many Haha stories of her own to tell. By assembling this volume, she has given voice not only to the authors of the stories, but to the many others (me included) who can see themselves in those stories.
P.S. For more information about Ha Ha! Canada, please contact hahacanadabook@gmail.com