Chinese Diaspora

• History

• Canadian Chinese

• The Concubine’s Children

• (Double Happiness)

• (Happy Together)

Chinese Diaspora: History• Traditional Chinese emigrants since

16th C

• Three kinds: Indentured workers, Free Artisans, Traders.

• Areas: South-East Asia, Hawaii, North America , the Caribbean, South America (Mexico, Peru)

• 華僑、中華民族之花果飄零、華裔

Chinese-Canadian : History• free entry (1858-84)

–1880 and 1885 railroad workers

• restricted entry (1885-1923)– 1904 -- 500-dollar head tax

• exclusion (1924-47) • selective entry, 1948 to present “liberation” of

China 1949 p. 68-

• recent Taiwanese, Hong Kongese and mainland Chinese immigrants

Chinese diaspora & flexible citizenship

Traditional Chinese Diaspora: Characteristics

• Adaptable, resilient, • a high level of family and clan

solidarity; close-knit (monetal) relationships • invited by the “colonizers” • Sojourners -- “un-assimilable”? “quiet,”

wicked (CC. p. 62)

and “a human machine”• e.g. “a Chinaman’s chance”

• the yellow peril phobia

Contemporary Chinese Diaspora: Characteristics

• All over the world: hard to generalize and impossible to unite

• discriminated against still for their hard-earned wealth

• flexible citizenship

• sense of dual or multiple identity

• e.g. “Imperialism of Syntax”

Canadian Chinese during the Exclusion Period:

Historical Phenomena• China Town as a Bachelor Society• 1921 census--sex ratio

– Vancouver 10/1(5,790 males and 585 females)

– Ottawa 30/1 (273 males and 9 females)

– Halifax 60/1 (138 males and 2 females)

• Racism v.s. Solidarity (Tang), Opium and Mah-jong (CC p. 62)

• Ways of Asserting Masculinity

Some photos

head taxes--50 in 1886, 100 in 1900, 500 in 1903

1923- Chinese Exclusion Act

Some photos (2)

• setting-- • Vancouver‘s Chinatown (mah-jonng

parlour and tea house),

• Nanaimo’s,

• Prince George &

• Chang Gar Bin (廣東 )

The Concubine’s Children

The Concubine’s Children: charactersChan Sam

May-yin Wife no. 1

YuenPing & Nan

Winnie

Chow Guen

Leonard(adopted)

Denise Cheong

Wife no. 0 & 2 daughters

John Chong

The Concubine’s Children: Chronology (present 1987)

• 1848 -- Chan Sam leaves his family• 1922 -- arrives in North America p. 61• 1924 -- May-ying’s arrival• 1929 -- return to China p. 63• 1930 -- back to Canada, Winnie’s birth• 1935 -- second return• 1940 -- Chow Guen (Nan died in 1942)• 1948 -- Winnie left Chinatown • 1987 -- Winnie’s trip

The Concubine’s Children:

Issues (1)• A family broken into

two and linked together by the daughters trip back to China.

• the image of the coat p. 59

• the photo of the two girls

The Concubine’s Children: Issues (2) Family relationships

• The Influences of Institutionalized Racism on Family Relationships

• A. Gender -- Chan-Sam and May-Yin The Canton House ( 廣東酒家 )

in Nanaimo's Chinatown years after

May-ying worked there

The Concubine’s Children: Issues (2) Family relationships

–their marriage: a hunting knife under his side of the mattress (63)

–May-ying as a waitress (63)

–May-ying as a Concubine (63)

–Wife No. 1 -- p. 64: dutiful and submissive

The Concubine’s Children: Issues (2) Family relationships

• B. Parenting

• Chan-Sam the house 65; p. 71

The Concubine’s Children: Issues (2) Family relationships

• B. Parenting• Chan-Sam• --being fatherly from afar (69; 71)• -- does not belong in Nanaimo,

missing home 58-59• --sacrifice the famly in Canada

for the sake of the family in China

The Concubine’s Children:

Issues (2)• May-ying --scary; strong woman

"cutting and curling her hair to look older to conform to the illegally purchased birth certificate” (62); (p. 63)

May-ying• Dressing Winnie as a

boy

p. 55

Leave her husband 63; 65; 66

May-ying

• claimed back the rites of love (67)–gamble her love on Chow Guen,

get a son Leonard

• about the death of Nan 68

• Her later years (73-74)

The Concubine’s Children: Issues (3)

• Family -- and a daughter’s sense of identity

• May-ying’s influence on Winnie– the family photo (p. 60)

– Winnie neglected; Strictly disciplined 66-67 like a checked baggage, 68; dressed as a son 65

– Winnie’s bruises, shame p. 67

The Concubine’s Children: Issues (3)

Family -- and a daughter’s sense of identity

• Winnie's rebellion– diligent work at school; – decides to quit school and get married p.

69; – the grandfather’s money to buy a house 69– the father and then the mother live with

them a while – final brokeup 70; 75

The Concubine’s Children: Issues (3) Many kinds of family

• Paper daughter 69 • Ping 77 --"I don't

deserve this; I was not born here."

• Winnie: no more shame (p. 61) immigration--liberation 77

May-ying & newborn Ping.