POEM

Information

Which Would You Rather Do?

Why the Chinese 

Chose to Come to Canada

You, Whoever You Are

You, whoever you are!...

All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, indifferent of place!
All you on the numberless islands of the archipelagoes of the sea!
All you of centuries hence when you listen to me!
All you each and everywhere whom I specify not, but include just the same!
Health to you! good will to you all, from me and America sent!
Each of us is inevitable,
Each of us is limitless—each of us with his or her right upon the earth,
Each of us allowed the eternal purports of the earth,
Each of us here as divinely as any is here.

by Walt Whitman

BACK

 

Poor living conditions, an instable government, unsafe environmental conditions (floods, earthquakes and famine) and lack of opportunity caused many Chinese people to consider leaving their country at the end of the 1880's. Hearing North America referred to as the Golden Mountain and a land of plenty caused the Chinese to leave what was familiar.

 During the eighteenth century there were two major periods in which there was high Chinese immigration. The first one came during the Fraser River Gold Rush in 1858. In June of that year ,Hop Kee & Co. of San Francisco agreed to pay $3,500, plus an extra $20 for each passenger, to bring over 300 Chinese immigrants over to Victoria Island.  By the 1860's there was about 7,000 Chinese in British Columbia, most of them working in the gold mines. The Chinese received poor daily wages. Most of it went to paying for their board. The second period of immigration was in the late 1880's when lots of Chinese workers were recruited to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Andrew Onderdonk arranged for about 8,000 Chinese men to come to Canada. Some of these men came from the USA , but most of them came directly from China. The Chinese immigrants were miserable. The working conditions were gruesome and unsafe. Many were submitted the dangerous task of running into a mountain tunnel to drop dynamite, and rushing out, hoping that the dynamite wouldn't explode before they got out. An estimate of about 1,500 Chinese workers died during  the construction of the railway. Almost 4 Chinese passed away for every mile the railway gained. 

They must have had a lot of determination to leave behind their family's and come all the way to a foreign country. But then again ,there weren't that many privileges in China either. 

BACK

 

Which Would You Rather Do?

 Stay in China and ...

POSITIVES

  • see your family every day

  • have no racism

  • be familiar with the culture and the language

 

 

 

 

NEGATIVES 

  • experience extreme poverty

  • experience droughts, floods and typhoons

  • experience not being able to be yourself

  • experience corrupt government 

 

 

Or Move to Canada and...

         POSITIVES

  • be able to start your own business

  • have more space to live

  • create a better life for your children

  • follow your dreams

  • live in a better climate, free from drought, famine and frequent earthquakes 

  • be able to send your children to school

 

 

 

NEGATIVES 

  • experience the racism that existed in Canada

  • experience hardship, disease, and exposure during the construction of the C.P.R Railway 

  • experience leaving your family and maybe never seeing them again

  • experience not being able to understand the language or to be understood

  • experience the "white demons" and their actions

 

BACK

 

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