By Jimmy Yan
British Columbia is now home to nearly 600,000 Chinese Canadians including PRs, accounting for about 11% of the province’s total population. Given such a substantial size, it is essential to update our knowledge of this diverse community and support Chinese Canadians to better integrate into our Canadian society.
Promoting bilingual (English and French) and multilingual cultural interactions can foster quality communication. When the Chinese Canadian community actively integrates, it not only enhances resilience and inclusivity but also enables our Canadian society at large to navigate turbulent international dynamics confidently, creating a win-win scenario.
Since the Pandemic in 2020, there has indeed been an increase in violent cases targeting Asians. However, thanks to the efforts of advocacy groups, anti-Asian discrimination has gained attention and has been contained. Nonetheless, the advocacy itself has faced criticism, some of which arose from Chinese immigrants internally.
Within the Chinese community, geographical terms like “Hong Kong,” “Taiwan,” “Mainland,” “overseas,” or “cross-strait” are conflated with ideologies and political stereotypes. Diversity as well as cultural and social nuances are completely lost in political confrontation. If we could refer to the 1910 *Geography Textbook of China* from the late Qing Dynasty, terms like “the Capital and 22 Provinces,” along with Mongolia, Qinghai, and Tibet may be used, more practically and accurately, to describe the diverse origins of Chinese Canadians.
When we realize that the Chinese Canadian community is a multilingual and multicultural group, it is natural that this community will have differences in terms of perspectives and attitudes toward its future. We must avoid generalizations and oversimplifications through a singular, biased and condescending point of view.
Due to the diversity within the Chinese Canadian community, including variations in economic development, religious practices, and geographical origins, their levels of integration differ significantly. Some have lived in Canada for generations, with descendants who no longer speak the Chinese language or dialect. Some are recent immigrants who have just begun their journey of integration. Others, despite decades of residence, remain marginalized because of their education, gender, marriage, and socioeconomic status.
While it is important to encourage the community to learn English or French, expecting them to become proficient in an official language to the point of eloquently advocating for their human rights, easily overcoming stereotypes or discrimination, and thriving in Canadian society is like asking them to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
Thus, alongside learning official languages, Chinese Canadians should be encouraged to use their mother tongues—including Chinese dialects—freely to facilitate quality communication. Moreover, learning Chinese is no longer solely an internal community and cultural need; an increasing number of non-Chinese individuals, such as British Columbia Premier David Eby, are learning Chinese.
In this way, integration shifts from a top-down imposition to a two-way, bilingual or multilingual interactive model. With advancements in technology, promoting Chinese and improving proficiency in Canada’s official languages are no longer in conflict but instead, they are complementary to each other.
If our community remains in a tribal mindset, we will face stagnation and decline. However, the better our community becomes a solid part of Canada’s multicultural framework, the greater capacity we have to embrace different opinions and resist division.
Canada is a multicultural society, and so is our Chinese Canadian community. The notion of “willful blindness” or “cloud of suspicion” to Chinese parliamentarians ultimately lies in the mainstream community’s unfamiliarity with minority communities. If we agree that the Chinese Canadian community is inalienable in our Canadian history, the best solution to achieve unity is not through surveillance but through dialogue like what we are doing today.
- Jimmy Yan joined Access Justice in 2003 and served as its System Architect, Project Manager, and Acting Executive Director before its merger with Pro Bono Law of BC. He immigrated to Canada in 2001 from Shanghai. His father is a violinist; his paternal grandfather a dental surgeon; and one great-grandfather is a minister of the Anglican Church of China and another an admiral of the Northern Seas Fleet and the Republic of China Navy. Jimmy is a tennis player, swimmer, runner, and triathlete.
Disclaimer
Voices & Bridges publishes opinions like this from the community to encourage constructive discussion and debate on important issues. Views represented in the articles are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the V&B.