Chinese Diaspora History Canadian Chinese The Concubines Children

Chinese Diaspora • • • History Canadian Chinese The Concubine’s Children (Double Happiness) (Happy Together)

Chinese Diaspora: History • Traditional Chinese emigrants since 16 th 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 hardearned 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)

The Concubine’s Children • setting- • Vancouver‘s Chinatown (mah-jonng parlour and tea house), • Nanaimo’s, • Prince George & • Chang Gar Bin (廣東)

The Concubine’s Children: characters Chan Sam Chow Guen Leonard (adopted) May-yin Wife no. 0 & 2 daughters Wife no. 1 Yuen Ping & Nan Winnie Denise Cheong 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.