"Yeah, but where are you really from?" It’s a question familiar to many Chinese-Canadians who grew up feeling torn between different cultures, identities and places. This Sunday, seven young Montrealers of Chinese descent will share a roundtable discussion on what it means to be Chinese in a multicultural Canada.
"The media plays such a huge role in how others see us," says Shuang Liu, a Marianopolis College student who helped organize the discussion. "When you think about Chinese food, you think about General Tao. When you think about a Chinese guy, you think he must do kung fu and talk like ‘Ching-chong ching-chong.’ The influence is huge and how I perceive myself is not really separate from that."
Like many young Chinese-Canadians, Liu has struggled to find her place in Canadian society. Born in Beijing, she immigrated with her family to ethnically homogenous Sherbrooke when she was two years old. After a few years of being the only Asian kid on the playground, Liu adopted an English name, Melissa, to better blend in. It wasn’t until after her family had moved to more cosmopolitan Montreal that she decided to change it back. "I’m still trying to find that balance between how Chinese I am and how Canadian I am," she says.
Cedric Sam, another roundtable organizer, thinks the discussion will be a perfect opportunity for Chinese-Canadians to ask questions, share experiences and vent frustrations. "It’s a way to speak out, to say that we’re here. I would have liked to have had a thing like this when I was growing up," he says.
General Tao, Kung Fu and Ching-chong: Chinese Identity in a Multicultural Canada will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 3, at the Chinese Family Service Centre (987 Cote) in Chinatown. The discussion will be in English and French. For more information, email cfsgm@googlegroups.com.
13 comments
ching chong bing bang donng, long duck duck dong bing bang ding and dannng! chinese have had civilization for how many thousands of years, twenty thousand? if they want to refer to the sing-song quality of their patois as ching chong, so be it! they were philosophizing existence way back when when leather was still in vogue with europeans, europeans didn’t like their lifestyles back then and if they even remotely drempt of chinese culture, they would’ve quickly adapted to it i’m just saying. as well, chinese are all hands and feet, so respect!
Being a teacher, I’ve had the opportunity of working in different environments. When I worked in rural Quebec (98% French), stereotypes were everywhere. All Italians were crooks, all fashion designers were gay and all Chinese people talked funny.
Teaching downtown where in a group of 30 students, I had 13 different nationalities gave me another perspective. Tolerance and acceptance come from contact and exchange between every cultural community.
I believe that such a conference is interesting but should not be limited only to the Chinese community. If we are ever going to understand each other and avoid creating cultural ghettos, we need to open up to everyone!
This is really great that chinese are adressing this issue because it is a rampant one and not only for chinese but for every other culture preent in Canada! Your born here or raised here from a young age and don’t know what you really are. For example in this case are you chinese or canadian and if you consider yourself both then should you speak english or chinese and if you don’t speak chinese does that make you any less chinese…. should you know hip hop or traditional chinese dance or both and if you don’t what does that mean…and the list goes on. And it is the same for all of the younger generations of every culture here in canada. Kudos to the chinese for bringing it to light, it truly will help others in their culture and maybe other cultures do the same.
It isn’t just for the Chinese to muse over on how much of them is one culture and then the other, young kids should be and are proud of the heritage they had which goes back so many thousands of years. Unfortunately even though cultural barriers are supposedly less marked than before, there are people out there even educated ones, with their heads screwed on backwards that give people wanting to assert a Canadian identity, a rough time. I do teach languages to Chinese and Koreans today and if they want to identify themselves between both cultures that is their business. If they want to forget about their Chinese past that is their perogative. If they want to find their older relatives in China who worked so that their grandchildren could have a better quality of life here, all well and good. There is the best of both worlds.
When I overheard a medical student hitting on a girl of Polish origin at Starbucks, he wouldn’t leave her alone on her origins. It came to a point of time where he wanted to know how much if her was Polish! After a while the questioning became absurd, if the girl tells him she identifies with being Canadian, leave her be, I thought. So she replied, “I have nothing to do with Poland” and she doesn’t. So all he did was snicker back as thought to say, that isn’t so. What I am getting to is that idiots such as this immature medical student jock should be watched out for, they’re the ones that make ethnic origins an issue! And if he was uncomfortable about where she was from, leave her alone and hit on someone else who can share your American pie with you!
I get that question pretty often too, but I think most of the time the question people really mean to ask is “Where are your parents originally from?” I feel sad that visible minorities have to feel they don’t belong somewhere because of their ancestry.
Shuang Liu says”When you think about Chinese food, you think about General Tao. When you think about a Chinese guy, you think he must do kung fu and talk like ‘Ching-chong ching-chong.’” Funny, I don’t think those things when I see a chinese person. Maybe this is because I come from a family of Caribbean descent and I have some idea of what it’s like to be looked at and thought of in stereotypical ways. When I look at a person, I look at them as a person and not as Chinese, Arabic, Latin, Black, Greek etc.
I wish everyone would just do away with the labeling. If you’re born and/or raised in Canada you’re Canadian. Why are you going to call a black person an African-Canadian if that person doesn’t come from Africa? Does anyone call a white person a Swedish-Canadian?
As for being culturally confused, maybe it takes time to learn about both cultures. I love the fact that I can enjoy both Canadian and Caribbean cultures. I’m still learning about the Caribbean side. Every day is a learning experience.
I can relate somewhat about the discussion at hand. I’m filipino and don’t even know how to speak the official dialect of my country and feel outcast when others are speaking with each other in that dialect. I was raised without much contacts of other filipinos until recently, so I don’t really feel like I belong with them anymore. Slowly but surely though, I’m learning it and getting in touch with more filipinos than before!
To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what you are or who you think you belong to, either Canada or your native country; as long as you feel comfortable, then you have nothing to be ashamed of or confused about.
Hey, just curious but who here *hasn’t* grown up feeling torn between different cultures? No, seriously, not to make light of this roundtable discussion but who here hasn’t struggled a little to find their place here? If you come from a mixed heritage in any way odds are that you feel for what these Chinese-Canadians are trying to do but trust me, we are all in the same boat here. Living in Canada is no picnic but living in Montreal, Quebec amplifies that anxiety by a thousand because of all the francophone/anglophone crap that comes with living here. My heart goes to these people but join the fuckin’ club already.
I grew up in the west island. I thought I was white, because I didn’t differentiate colours. When white kids did the ching chong stuff to me (and they did), I wondered why. Some teachers tried to tell me I was yellow, but to me I didn’t see myself different. But I as I grew over I realised I’m not like everyone else.
As I started working I found it odd that some people did speak to me in Chinese (French Canadians) and I couldn’t speak that. I could maybe in my dialect, but my mom and dad are overseas Chinese that don’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese. So I don’t speak Mandarin, I speak a bit from what I self taught myself but it’s pretty pathetic. I also found it odd French Canadians also asked me if I was a real Chinese, till I realised all asians are call Chinese.
I also learnt a lot of Canadians believe they know a lot about another culture, because Canadians are very multicultural. It is that belief though that keeps a lot of Canadians ignorant. A lot believe Chinese food is all General Tao Chicken or something really deep fried with sweet sauce. Or real Chinese food is weird, like some sort of animal that no one eats (thank you Jackie Chan in Hour). A lot STILL believe Chinese movies are either cheap and crappy from the 70′s, or stylistic and pretty like Crouching Tiger (which many Asians don’t find special).
I find a lot of Canadian Born Chinese would accept it as a life in Canada, where in all honesty we don’t have to. We should be proud. I’m going to go to the talk. I’d like to tell them my experiences growing up, being the one few Chinese in the West Island. Tell them of them of the racists I met, and how I didn’t do anything. But now I understand, I am Chinese-Canadian. I eat my chicken feet and my general tao. I watch Hockey night in Canada and Jet Li kick some ass. I know some kung fu and I can ice skate. Now all I need to be the perfect Chinese Canadian is to speak Chinese to add to my French/English.
I am not Chinese but I also never like being asked about my ethnic origins. I don’t want this special detail to give the other person an advantage over me. For example I may be pressured into entering a transaction because that other person and I share the same cultural roots. Although I was born in Montreal and am thoroughly Canadian, the fact that my parents were born in Europe and speak with a less than perfect accent sometimes makes me feel like an outsider. I may be criticized for not having a good mastery of the languages of my ancestors and not sustaining their cultural traditions but I feel this is nobody’s business. Some people with perfect accents work at MacDonald’s while a well known personality with a peculiar accent is the governor of California. It is sometimes a good idea to be named John Smith so people won’t bug you.
For those who know about the student bodies at McGill there were so many splinter groups for Chinese and Asian students that one could very easily get a headache. If you were born in North America then go over here ..Koreans to the left..Speak Mandarin and not Cantonese then we are the group for you!! So while it understandable for those Asian Canadians have a degree of frustration regarding their identity there is also the other side of the coin with regard to new immigrants from the pacific rim who are having a hard time integrating into Quebec’s social fabric. That may be why there is that closely knit network of communities whether you are in Verdun..Lasaslle ..Atwater or even the Eaton Centre….
What most people don’t realize is that General Tao chicken is actually very North American in origin, presumably having started in some “Chinese” restaurant in New York – trying to make something that the “whites” would enjoy – something with chicken, something a little spicy but not crazy spicy, something sweet and saucy – something that’s presumably the opposite of what traditional Chinese food is. Fact is – most of what we consider “Chinese food” in North America – is not very Chinese at all ( just like – Mexican food is hardly Taco Bell or “Carlo’s & Pepe’s” ). Ironically, most of what passes for Chinese food, is served in Chinese owned restaurants – go figure.
I suppose I can relate to this article. I know it isn’t easy being the different one in a society dominated by white people. I grew up hearing these remarks all the time and it is offensive. Even if it was a joke, I don’t find racial comments funny, nor do I respect these people. It is frustrating to have to deal with these inconsiderate idiots because they have no idea how it does affects our self esteem. Mocking our culture does not make you look any cooler. Seriously, some people should learn to have some respect.
with their narrow-ish eyes, and straight non-stick shiny shiny hair, and yes the general Tao and Kung-Fu, not to mention the sad one about the extra small condoms(i dont know who came up with thats one) plus the driving problem then yea i would see the problem. but in Canada most of us people are quite open and dont really care we all know that its a bunch of garbage. I’m Indian and we have our fair share of stereotypes but i would still think the Chinese are worst off except for the “their really smart” which i also suffered from…and people found out that im not. but most Asian people I have met do have their bunch of Asian friends which they can chill with and probably do their own thing, and blow some steam off.