Canada has been enriched by one of the most colorful cultures in the world - the culture of China.
During the nineteenth century there were two waves of Chinese Immigration into Canada. The first occurred during the Fraser River gold rush of 1858. In June 1858, Hop Kee & Co. of San Francisco agreed to pay shipping agent Allan Lowe $3,500 to bring 300 Chinese and 50 tons of merchandise to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island, plus an additional twenty dollars for each additional passenger. Throughout the summer and fall, scores of Chinese immigrants arrived at Victoria from California, while later, others came directly from Guangdong.
多姿多彩的中華文化給加拿大這片土地增添了不少文化色彩。
在19世紀，有兩股華人移民潮湧至加拿大。第一次是在1858年的弗雷澤河淘金熱期間。1858年6月，美國三藩市的合記公司（Hop Kee＆Co.）同意向貨運代理Allan Lowe支付$ 3,500，將300個中國人和50噸商品帶到溫哥華島的維多利亞堡，以及每增加一名乘客，額外增加20美元。在整個夏季和秋季，數十名中國人從加利福尼亞州抵達維多利亞堡，其後，一些華人更直接來自中國廣東省。
By the early 1860s there were about 7,000 Chinese in B.C., the majority working in the gold mines. Chinese workers were poorly paid, receiving meager daily wages, most of which went to paying for room and board.
The second wave of Chinese immigration to Canada was in the 1880s when Chinese labourers were recruited to build the British Columbia sections of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Andrew Onderdonk, the contractor responsible for the project, arranged for over 18,000 Chinese men to come to Canada. Although some of these workers came from the United States, most arrived directly from China aboard chartered ships.
The lives of the Chinese labourers were miserable. An estimated 1,500 Chinese died from hardship, disease and exposure during the construction of the railway; almost four Chinese perished for every mile of the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed.
到1860年代初，卑詩省約有7,000名華人，其中大多數在金礦工作。中國工人的工資很低，每天的工資微薄，其中大部分用於支付食宿。
第二次的華人移民潮發生在1880年代，當時中國華工被徵募到加拿大太平洋鐵路的不列顛哥倫比亞省段。負責該項目的承包商安德魯·昂德登克（Andrew Onderdonk）安排了18,000多名中國人來加拿大。儘管其中一些工人來自美國，但大多數工人是直接從中國乘船過來的。
當時中國工人的生活很悲慘。在鐵路建設過程中，估計有1,500名中國人死於辛勞過度，疾病和嚴寒的天氣；加拿大太平洋鐵路線建造每一英里，便有約四個中國人喪生。
Pre 1923
Preface
1858-1884
Period of Free Entry: Coming to Canada
自由入境時期: 進入加拿大
Reasons for Coming to Canada
華人移民加拿大的原因
In the nineteenth century massive problems struck China. Overpopulation (between 1787 and 1850 Guangdong’s population almost doubled from sixteen to twenty-eight million) made farmland scarce and the land owners charged their peasant-tenants very high rents. Poverty and hunger increased dramatically.
Wage-labour jobs became scarce after China’s defeat in the First Opium War (1839-1842) when four new treaty ports were opened, diverting trade away from Guangdong, and putting many people out of work. Lower priced foreign manufactured goods also undercut the native Chinese product industry.
Law and order broke down when the Taiping Rebellion swept through China between 1850 and 1864. Over 20 million people were killed (a horrifically high number when compared to Canada’s present population of 30 million) and the ongoing warfare prevented farmers from maintaining their fields and harvests. Banditry and piracy grew under a weakened central government, and peasants also faced natural disasters such as floods and droughts. These crises forced many Guangdong residents to emigrate, with the intention of eventually returning.
在19世紀的中國，面臨種種困難。人口激增（1787年至1850年之間，廣東人口幾乎翻了一番，從1600萬人增至2800萬人），導致耕地稀缺，地主向農民收取很高的租金。貧窮和飢餓急劇增加。
中國在第一次鴉片戰爭（1839-1842年）失敗後，薪酬性工作變得稀缺，當時四個新的條約口岸被開放，貿易從廣東轉移到其他地方，並使許多人失業。舶來製造品的價格較低也削弱了中國本土的貨物生產。
太平天國運動在1850年至1864年席捲中國時，治安遭到破壞。超過2000萬人被殺（與加拿大目前的3000萬人相比，這一數字高得驚人），持續的戰爭使農民無法維持耕種和收成。在中央政府被削弱的情況下，盜匪和海盜行為日趨嚴重，農民也面臨著自然災害，例如洪水和乾旱。這些危機迫使許多廣東居民設法遷徙外地，但莫不盼望有重返故鄉的一天。
The Chinese Immigration Act
and Head Tax
華人移民條例和人頭稅
Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in late 1885 came at the same time as an economic depression hit British Columbia. Thousands of Chinese immigrants were left unemployed. They moved eastward for survival, some coming to Alberta to work as ranch cooks, kitchen help, or to open cafés and laundries, while others continued on to Montreal and Toronto.
The first major law limiting Chinese immigration, the Dominion Immigration Act of 1885, was enacted as the railroad neared completion. For years there had been strident calls from white British Columbians to restrict the entry of the Chinese immigrants who were accused of driving out white labourers and pushing down wages because they worked at lower rates.
Under this act, Chinese immigrants entering Canada were required to pay a head tax of $50, and no inbound ship could carry more than one Chinese immigrant per fifty tons. The tax was raised to $100 in 1900 and increased to $500 in 1903. A total of 24 million was paid out by the Chinese immigrants for the Head Tax from 1885 to 1923. No other immigrant group was ever forced to pay such a fee to enter Canada.
Many white Canadians thought the head tax insufficient, and in scattered locations across the country, riots and disturbances heralded a growing discontent with immigration policies. Between 1875 and 1923, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia passed numerous laws against Chinese immigrants. For example, Chinese immigrants were prohibited from being hired on public works projects in 1897. The 1920 provincial Election Act reaffirmed that all Chinese immigrants were disqualified from voting.
1885年底，加拿大太平洋鐵路竣工，同時經濟不景氣席捲了不列顛哥倫比亞省。成千上萬的中國人失業。他們向東遷移以求生存，一些人來到艾伯塔省做牧場廚師，幫廚或開咖啡館和洗衣店，而其他人則繼續前往蒙特利爾和多倫多。
鐵路即將完工時，頒布了第一部限制華人移民的主要法例，即1885年的《移民法》。多年來，不列顛哥倫比亞省白人一直強烈呼籲限制中國人入境，並指責中國人以接受較低的工資而使白人工人被驅逐，並拉低了工資水平。
根據該法案，進入加拿大的中國人必須繳納50美元的人頭稅，並且每50噸進港船舶不得攜帶超過一個中國人。該稅在1900年提高到100加元，在1903年增加到500加元。從1885年到1923年，中國人總共支付了2400萬加元的人頭稅。沒有其他移民團體被迫支付這種費用進入加拿大。
許多加拿大白人認為人頭稅不足，在全國各地分散的騷亂和騷亂預示著人們對移民政策的不滿情緒日增。在1875年和1923年之間，不列顛哥倫比亞省立法議會通過了許多針對華人的法律。例如，在1897年禁止在公共工程項目中僱用中國人。1920年的《省選舉法》重申，所有中國人都沒有投票權。
By the early 1860s there were about 7,000 Chinese in B.C., the majority working in the gold mines. Chinese workers were poorly paid, receiving meager daily wages, most of which went to paying for room and board.
The second wave of Chinese immigration to Canada was in the 1880s when Chinese labourers were recruited to build the British Columbia sections of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Andrew Onderdonk, the contractor responsible for the project, arranged for over 18,000 Chinese men to come to Canada. Although some of these workers came from the United States, most arrived directly from China aboard chartered ships.
The lives of the Chinese labourers were miserable. An estimated 1,500 Chinese died from hardship, disease and exposure during the construction of the railway; almost four Chinese perished for every mile of the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed.
In the nineteenth century massive problems struck China. Overpopulation (between 1787 and 1850 Guangdong’s population almost doubled from sixteen to twenty-eight million) made farmland scarce and the land owners charged their peasant-tenants very high rents. Poverty and hunger increased dramatically.
Wage-labour jobs became scarce after China’s defeat in the First Opium War (1839-1842) when four new treaty ports were opened, diverting trade away from Guangdong, and putting many people out of work. Lower priced foreign manufactured goods also undercut the native Chinese product industry.
Law and order broke down when the Taiping Rebellion swept through China between 1850 and 1864. Over 20 million people were killed (a horrifically high number when compared to Canada’s present population of 30 million) and the ongoing warfare prevented farmers from maintaining their fields and harvests. Banditry and piracy grew under a weakened central government, and peasants also faced natural disasters such as floods and droughts. These crises forced many Guangdong residents to emigrate, with the intention of eventually returning.
Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in late 1885 came at the same time as an economic depression hit British Columbia. Thousands of Chinese immigrants were left unemployed. They moved eastward for survival, some coming to Alberta to work as ranch cooks, kitchen help, or to open cafés and laundries, while others continued on to Montreal and Toronto.
The first major law limiting Chinese immigration, the Dominion Immigration Act of 1885, was enacted as the railroad neared completion. For years there had been strident calls from white British Columbians to restrict the entry of the Chinese immigrants who were accused of driving out white labourers and pushing down wages because they worked at lower rates.
Under this act, Chinese immigrants entering Canada were required to pay a head tax of $50, and no inbound ship could carry more than one Chinese immigrant per fifty tons. The tax was raised to $100 in 1900 and increased to $500 in 1903. A total of 24 million was paid out by the Chinese immigrants for the Head Tax from 1885 to 1923. No other immigrant group was ever forced to pay such a fee to enter Canada.
Many white Canadians thought the head tax insufficient, and in scattered locations across the country, riots and disturbances heralded a growing discontent with immigration policies. Between 1875 and 1923, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia passed numerous laws against Chinese immigrants. For example, Chinese immigrants were prohibited from being hired on public works projects in 1897. The 1920 provincial Election Act reaffirmed that all Chinese immigrants were disqualified from voting.
