Читать книгу The Chinese in Toronto from 1878 - Arlene Chan - Страница 11
ОглавлениеWhen the house is set in order, the world is established on a firm course.
— THE BOOK OF CHANGES, 9TH CENTURY BCE.
The Chinese remained isolated socially and residentially from Canadian society and retreated into their own economic and social circles. Falling back on their own traditional systems, businesses and community organizations developed and flourished through a complex network of clan, regional, and political associations. The overseas Chinese were already accustomed to turning to such organizations for leadership and support.
In China when rural farmers migrated to the cities in search of work, they were treated as outsiders. Accustomed to leaving their villages for extended periods of time, Chinese from the same village or district banded together into organizations for protection and mutual aid. These regional associations (hui guan) were dominated by wealthy merchants who took on a governing role, overseeing taxation, population registration, and political decision making.
In Canada, merchant leaders organized similar associations. When the Chinese immigrants arrived, they knew where to turn for help. These associations were the lifelines for the bachelor phase of Toronto’s early community and havens in an alien and unwelcoming environment. Membership offered support, companionship, and a link with the cultural traditions of the homeland. The associations provided services, otherwise unavailable to the Chinese, in the way of settlement assistance, help with sending remittances to China, lodging, and employment.
If they have any quarrels or conflict of interest, the family association will step in and try to solve their problems without going outside the big family association. One of our Chinese sayings is translated, “Don’t wash your dirty linen in public.” If you need help you can go to the family association.1
A critical function of the associations was the banking system. Since Chinese were denied loans from Canadian banks, the only way of securing funds for opening a business, purchasing land, or other financial needs was through their associations. Operating like a credit union, groups of people pooled their financial resources to help others borrow money.
If you wanted to borrow some money for an emergency or to buy a piece of new equipment like a washing machine, you could go to the association … Each association would have groups of about twenty-five men. Approximately every two weeks, money would be available to the highest bidder. Generally it was on a Sunday when it would open up.2
This money-lending system, called the “three benefits societies,” worked well in a small community where everyone was known and affiliated with a clan or district association. The three beneficiaries of the “three benefits societies” were the borrowers, the shareholders, and the association. Although defaults in payment were rare, a guarantor, usually a close kinsman, was required as a safeguard. This credit union system remained as a significant function of the associations until western bank services were made available to the Chinese in the 1960s.
The period from 1900 to 1923 saw the rapid development of traditional associations. The four types were clan or surname associations (kung so or tong), district associations (hui guan), community organizations, and political associations.
Clan and District Associations
Surname and home territory were used as eligibility for membership in the clan and district associations. The early immigrants, who came to Canada in the 1880s, were predominantly (87 percent) from Si Yi, meaning Four Counties or Districts, and San Yi, meaning Three Counties or Districts, all southwest of the capital city of Guangzhou in the Guangdong province (see Table 7).3 The four counties in Si Yi are Taishan, Kaiping, Xinhua, and Enping, the homebase for 64 percent of the immigrants. Nearly one quarter of all Chinese immigrants came from the Taishan county alone, a mountainous coastal region where the agricultural output could only support its population of half a million people for four months out of the year.4 Twenty-three percent migrated from the San Yi district with its three counties of Panyu, Shunde, and Nanhai.
With their roots in the Pearl River Delta of the Guangdong province, these immigrants constituted the most homogeneous of all the waves of Chinese immigration. Being mostly male and young in age, they shared similar socioeconomic status, levels of education, and employment prospects. They spoke a local dialect of Cantonese, each one distinct but readily understood for communication. Taishanese, the dialect of the Taishan county, was the language of the early Chinese community. A Taishanese person meeting a Xinhui person on the streets of Toronto could identify one’s hometown as soon as that person spoke.
TABLE 7
Origin of the Early Immigrants
| Location | In Pinyin | In Cantonese |
| Province | Guangdong | Kwangtung |
| District | Si Yi | Sze Yap |
| Four Counties | Xinhui | Sun Wui |
| Kaiping | Hoi Ping | |
| Taishan | Toi Shan | |
| Enping | Ying Ping | |
| District | San Yi | Sam Yap |
| Three Counties | Nanhai | Nam Hoi |
| Panyu | Poon Yue | |
| Shunde | Sun Dak |
Source: Chinese Canadian Genealogy, “Geography of Chinese Emigration,” Vancouver Public Library, www.vpl.ca/ccg/Geography.html.
Migration patterns were usually based on extended family relationships. Immigration laws favoured the relatives of Chinese already in Canada, and visits home resulted in the migration of more Chinese from the same village or clan. Sponsors of a fellow villager or clansman provided living quarters and work; businessmen often sponsored relatives to work in their laundries or restaurants. As a result of these processes, the departure of males from certain villages was significant, and the villagers became dependent on remittances that were sent from far-away places. Often, these villages were far more well-to-do than neighbouring ones that did not have any of their men working overseas. An additional outcome of this migratory pattern was that Chinatowns in Canada were dominated by men from the same district or with the same surname. In some cases, there was a strong correlation among lineage ties, jobs, and residence. As an example, most members of the Ma clan from Taishan county ended up as cooks and servants in Nanaimo, British Columbia.5
Although government records do not list the precise origins of Toronto’s early Chinese, most were likely from the county of Taishan. Common surnames were Lee, Lem, Wong, and Chan.6 Depending on the village language, the same surname was pronounced and spelled differently. For example, Lam, Lem, Lim, or Lum are the same name. Since clan members shared a founding ancestor, it was not unusual for men with the same surname to be from the same village and related in some way, however distantly. As noted in Denise Chong’s The Concubines’ Children, “If there was one Chinese law of the universe, it was loyalty to gee gay yun, to one’s own people. In the homeland, it was to family, village and clan — sometimes one and the same.”7
Wayson Choy described the significance of surnames in his novel All That Matters:
Everyone in Chinatown seemed to know everyone else. You only had to say your surname, mention any Kwangtung county — Sam yup, Sze yup, Chungshan, Heungshan — even mention Canton, Hong Kong, speak of any of the city or village dialects — and smiling strangers would link you to a chain of kinfolk.8
The most popular surnames of Lee, Mak, Lem, Wong, and Chan represented the largest and most powerful family associations, whose members dominated business, social, and political life. Less predominant surnames, insufficient in numbers to support single surname associations, were grouped into multiple surname associations. One grouping was for the surnames, Lui, Fong, and Kwong. Another multiple surname association, Lung Kong Kung So, grouped four surnames: Liu (Liu), Guan (Kwan), Zhang (Cheung), and Zhao (Chiu). In this instance, the grouping was based on an age-old brotherhood of four heroes during the historical era of the Three Kingdoms (220–280 C.E.). Lung Kong Kung So was established in Toronto in 1911. In 1922 the Lung Kong Kung So bought the property at 24 Elizabeth Street, tore down the building, and replaced it with a three-storey centre for its members.9
The Lung Kong Kung So Association purchased the property at 24 Elizabeth Street, tore down the building, and built this three-storey headquarters.
In 1910 there were 10 clan and two district associations in Toronto (see Table 8). The most prominent family association halls were located around Dundas Street and Elizabeth Street, the centre of the Chinese community.
TABLE 8
Clan and District Associations in Toronto, 1910
| Association Name | Type |
| Lung Kong Kung So | Multiple surname association (Liu, Kwan, Cheung, Chiu) |
| Soo Yuen Tong | Multiple surname association (Lui, Fong, Kwong) |
| Lem Si Ho Tong | Single surname — Lin (Lem) |
| Li She Kong So | Single surname — Li (Lee) |
| Wong Wun Sun King So | Single surname — Huang (Wong) |
| Mark Chee Hing Tong | Single surname — Mai (Mark) |
| Low Kong Kung So | Single surname — Wu (Ng) |
| Wong Min Shing Kung So | Single surname — Huang (Wong) |
| Kwan Lung Si Tong | Single surname — Guan (Kwan) |
| Hong Tong Kung So | Single surname — Hong |
| Kwong Chow Hui Kuan | District association — Guangzhou (Kwong Chow) |
| Kwong Hoi Hui Kuan | District association — Kwong Hoi |
Source: Adapted from Richard H. Thompson, Toronto’s Chinatown (New York: AMS Press, 1989), 64.
The family association for the Chen (Chan) surname was established later, in 1918, as Chin Ying Chun Tang.10 To the outside world, these organizations presented a picture of solidarity and cohesiveness; from the inside, out of sight of the host society, the struggle for scarce resources of wealth, prestige, and power was fought.
Community Associations
The governing body of the clan and district structures was the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (zhonghua huiguan). First organized in 1884 in Victoria, this organization was the top tier of the associations, with overall responsibility for maintaining order in the community, defending against external threats, and fighting discrimination. Until an official consulate was established in Ottawa in 1908, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association assumed Chinese consulship in Canada and acted as the government within the borders of Chinatown.11 The merchants, who were the leaders in the association, were the ones with financial and social influence that enabled them to deal with the world beyond Chinatown. They negotiated with the city government and police and established an important link between the Chinese and the host establishment. Even though the Chinese lacked the right to vote, the association gave Chinatown a voice. The Toronto branch was established in 1920 on Elizabeth Street.
The association collected funds through a $2 exit fee levied on anyone who returned to China.12 This money was used for operating expenses and also to pay for return fares for members who lacked the financial resources to return on their own. The exit fees also offset costs incurred in shipping the bones of deceased Chinese to their respective ancestral villages, a service that the association coordinated across Canada.
Sending bones to China was important because the belief was that their burial in ancestral homes would save the deceased from becoming wandering spirits in a foreign land. Bodies were buried twice, the first time in shallow graves immediately following death. After seven years, the bodies were exhumed, the bones cleaned, placed in a bag labelled with the person’s name, home county, and village name, and shipped to Victoria. Once there were sufficient numbers of bags of bones, these were shipped to Hong Kong, then to their respective home villages in China for a second burial in the ancestral plot. These shipments occurred about once every seven years and continued until 1940.13
Despite these arrangements, only a few had their remains shipped back to China; most were buried where they died. Even among those bones that were shipped to China, many were unclaimed and buried without ceremony at numerous sites. One such graveyard had been set up in the county of Xinhui in 1892 for the remains of 387 deceased workers who had no families to claim their remains. The inscription marking this burial ground states:
The remains of deceased Chinese which were shipped back to this town from various ports in Gold Mountain. From the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu to February of the 18th year, in addition to those claimed and buried, there still remained 387unclaimed, and they were buried here on February 23rd this year.14
In Toronto there was a holding section at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery for the bones awaiting shipment to China.15
Political Associations
The fourth type of traditional organization was the political association. Membership was open to everyone, and it was not an uncommon practice for leaders in the family associations to become prominent in the political ones as well. Most significantly, the political associations served a need in the community by opening membership to the Chinese who were not entitled to join the clan and district associations. They also provided a means to obtain and respond to information about the socio-political changes in China.
Chinese immigrants were keenly interested in news about the homeland, as China was poised for change to modernize its government, industries, army, and navy. There were two main groups of modern-day political activists: the reformers, who advocated reform and modernization of the Qing government, and revolutionaries, who wanted to overthrow a regime they considered beyond redemption. These two group’s political activism had origins dating back to 1644 when the Manchus defeated the Han people and established the Qing dynasty, and resisters formed secret fraternal societies that came to be known as Zhi Gong Tang. For the next 250 years, anti-Manchu rebellions were organized to restore the Hans and Chinese rule. The secret societies became associated with other terms, like triads and tongs, which in turn became linked with criminal gangs in modern usage. The term triad was first coined by Dr. William Milne in 1821, due to the prevalence of the number three in the names of the societies.16 Tong means “meeting hall” or “a place to meet.” Both terms originally referred to legitimate political organizations, and there is no evidence that these early Chinese societies were criminal ones.
Barkerville, British Columbia, was home to the first Zhi Gong Tang in Canada. More than 40 chapters were established in neighbouring settlements, like Quesnel Forks and Rossland. Vancouver saw the Zhi Gong Tang established there in 1892. By 1900, this political association had a membership estimated between 10,000 and 20,000 across Canada.17 Zhi Gong Tang filled the role of mutual aid societies by providing welfare support, and creating a sense of belonging among the immigrant Chinese. There was a place for social gatherings, traditional ceremonies, and celebrations. Spreading anti-Qing propaganda and raising money for the political struggle in China, however, were the main objectives of this organization.
In Toronto, Zhi Gong Tang was first listed in the 1905 city directory as a laundry under the name of Chee Swing Tong at 192 York Street, an error that was corrected the following year. The building was described in The Toronto Star in 1905:
A square wooden sign covered with an inscription in Chinese, and decorated at the corners with terra cotta silk tassels that look like elongated pool pockets, is fitted below the first window. Just to impress the fact that this is a Chinese Masonic society upon the heathen English, a black and gold sign upon the door reads: “Chee Kung Tong, Chinese Freemasons.”
The news article further reported that a barber shop occupied the ground floor, a meeting room on the second floor, and a joss house, or Chinese shrine, on the third floor.18
The only non-Chinese man to have seen the interior of the joss house, at the time, described the third floor in great detail in the Toronto Star. He found a shrine with “an idol” that was adorned with “brilliant colored silk,” long scrolls on each side, and burning incense in front. There were five or six images of “gods” and “ancestors” in various parts of the room:
Gifts of various articles lay in front of the shrine and my conductor explained that the members of the society worshipped these gods and the spirits of their ancestors, which he gravely assured me hovered around when the priest was at his incantations. He intimated that filial piety was the root of all Christian virtues.19
The global interaction of events in China and Canada was heightened by Sun Yat-sen, a member of the Zhi Gong Tang and a revolutionary. Sun Yat-sen, an activist without a country, lived a precarious life on the run. He actively solicited financial support from the Chinese living abroad in North America and Europe to fund the overthrow of the Manchus.
In return for their financial contributions to this cause, overseas Chinese leaders received charters as official spokesmen of the Chinese government — an added boost to their prestige and legitimacy in the community.
Sun Yat-sen saw Canada as important to the support of his revolution, and he stirred up anti-Qing sentiment in the Toronto Chinese community for the cause. On February 15, 1910, he attended a meeting at 55 Queen Street West, after which time his appeal for funds netted $10,000 from the Toronto Zhi Gong Tang branch, which mortgaged its building.20 The following year, on March 29, he made another visit that coincided with the failed Huang Hua Kang uprising in Guangzhou, a revolt that had been financed in part by the Toronto branch.
On the other side of the political spectrum, with respect to the Qing government, were those who advocated reform and modernization rather than an overthrow. A group of these political reformers led a 100-day movement to modernize China’s political and economic systems and establish the emperor as a constitutional monarchy. The Empress Dowager intervened and banished the reform leaders into exile. One was Kang Yuwei, who visited Canada in 1899 to further his cause. He established the first Chinese Empire Reform Association in Victoria and, within six years, 11 branches were opened, the Toronto one in 1903 on Queen Street East. Kang Yuwei returned for two more visits to Canada in 1902 and 1904.
On the 10th day of the 10th month, October 10, the Qing dynasty was finally overthrown in 1911 after 10 failed attempts, and the Republic of China was established in 1912 with Sun Yat-sen as its first president. Out of this new government was founded the Guomintang (National People’s Party), which incorporated a democratic model of governance. In Toronto 1,500 Chinese gathered at Victoria Hall to celebrate the end of dynastic rule and the founding of the republic. A grand parade was followed by a celebratory banquet held at the Chinese Freemasons’ hall.21 The Double Ten, for the 10th day of the 10th month, is celebrated every year in Taiwan.
The new Republic of China did not usher in stability as had been hoped. A year later, Sun Yat-sen resigned and power fell into the hands of another revolutionary faction, led by Yuan Shikai. A military leader from north China, Yuan undermined the fledgling democracy by ruling as a dictator until his death in 1916. The government was subsequently splintered by feuding warlords, who brought further unrest and violence to China.
Overseas, the Guomintang quickly established itself as a political party under the name Chinese Nationalist League and developed branches across Canada. Toronto held the first Eastern Canada Conference in 1916. Now a direct competitor of the Zhi Gong Tang, the party selected key individuals, to bolster membership. One notable was Cheng Tianfang, who served as the head of the Guomintang in Toronto and chief editor of the Shing Wah newspaper while he was studying at the University of Toronto. The thesis of his doctoral dissertation was “The Oriental Immigration to Canada.” After 1926 he returned to China, where he led a distinguished career as an educator and diplomat.
As the popularity and importance of the Guomintang grew, Canadian officials were persuaded that the members of this political party were violent radicals who posed a danger to Canadians. In 1918 the Guomintang was banned by the Canadian government and closed down for six months. The political party weathered the storm and re-established itself in 1919.22
The Guomintang established itself in Toronto as the principal community organization during the Second World War.
For their part, the Zhi Gong Tang became known as the Chinese Freemasons by 1920. This organization, a former supporter of Sun Yat-sen, became an adversary of his Guomintang party when the rewards for supporting his successful revolution did not come to fruition. The Freemasons reorganized themselves and expanded to 65 branches by 1924, predominately in the West, with 43 in British Columbia. A new internal organization, the Dart Coon Club, opened across the country to foster athletic activities, like martial arts, tennis, basketball, and lion dancing.
When Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, a thousand Chinese marched along Queen Street, University Avenue, and Dundas Street to attend a memorial service at Victoria Hall.23 He is still esteemed as the Father of Modern China for freeing China from the Qing dynasty.
Chinese Newspapers
The early Chinese newspapers in Canada were communication vehicles of political reformers and revolutionaries. Reading newspapers to obtain news was not a tradition for the Chinese. Newspapers were expensive, and the literacy rate in China was estimated at only 3 to 5 percent.24 However, a keen interest in the events and welfare of China developed and fostered a strong readership in the overseas Chinese community, and the political associations took full advantage of this by making newspapers readily available.
This group of men gathered on November 18, 1942, to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Shing Wah Daily News.
In 1903 Vancouver became home to the first Chinese newspaper, which the Chinese Empire Reform Association published.25 A second paper, the Chinese Times (Dahan gong bao), was established by the Zhi Gong Tang political organization in 1907 to promote the society and recruit members. In 1928 a second newspaper, the Chinese Times (Hung zhong bao), was published under Zhi Gong Tang’s new name of the Chinese Freemasons. It started as a weekly newspaper, then continued as a daily from 1929 until 1956.26 A local Toronto version that cost $1.25 per month or 6 cents per issue was published from an Elizabeth Street premise.27
The Guomintang party established a weekly newspaper, Shing Wah, in 1916, and its office was located on Hagerman Street in Toronto. In 1918 the paper was shut down during the temporary ban of the Guomintang organization by the federal government. The newspaper resumed publication in 1922 as a daily under the name Shing Wah Daily News. It became one of the largest Chinese newspapers in the Dominion. News feeds came directly from Chongqing in China, first by radio to Hong Kong, then by cable to San Francisco, and to Toronto by overland wire.
Religious Life
When the Chinese came to Canada, they brought with them, almost wholesale, their cultural and religious practices. Joss houses, or Chinese temples, date as early as 1862 in Barkerville, British Columbia, and were commonplace in the early Chinese settlements. “Joss” means god or idol, and shrines were installed with statues and portraits from the Buddhist and Taoist faiths, like the goddess of mercy and god of wealth.
Ancestor worship also figured prominently, and the clan associations placed ancestral altars in their main halls. Typically, presiding over a table laden with burning incense, flowers, and plates of food, there would be a portrait of the clan ancestor. The Chinese believed that ancestors’ souls protected their families and ensured good health, happiness, and wealth. Ancestor worship was a vital component of filial piety, an observance that was important in Confucian ideology. Every spring during Qingming, the Pure Brightness Festival, families made trips to the cemetery to show respect for their ancestors.
MISSIONARIES
The Christian faith gained a foothold in China with its 400 million potential consumers; missionaries descended on the treaty ports to save as many “heathen Chinee” as possible. If there was success in converting the Chinese living abroad, the assumption was that these Chinese Christians would return to China and evangelize the heathen population of millions. Missions in Canada were from three major Protestant denominations that took to task the teaching of Christianity. The Methodist Church, later becoming the United Church, organized its Chinese mission in Victoria as early as 1885; the Presbyterian Church, in 1892; and the Anglican Church, in 1917. Other denominations, like the Baptists, Salvation Army, and Seventh Day Adventists, became active in the 1920s.
The China Mission seminary, later named the Scarboro Foreign Mission, was founded in 1918 for evangelical work in China. Featured on the cover of its magazine for three years was the caption “400 million pagans in China; 33,000 die daily unbaptized.”28 The seminary settled on Kingston Road in 1924 after several moves. From 1918 to 1940, 53 priests were trained to work in China. Among the graduates of the mission was Father Paul Kam, who was born in China. Trained as a catechist, he had made it known that he wanted to become a missionary priest and work in his homeland. Monsignor Fraser took heed and in 1918 brought him to Canada, where he was ordained in 1925 as Canada’s first Chinese priest.29 After years of missionary work in China, he was imprisoned in 1952 by the new Communist government as it cleaned house of all missionaries and church leaders. He endured several years in a labour camp and died in 1959.30
Another missionary noted for his work in China was Reverend George Leslie Mackay, a Presbyterian missionary who graduated from Knox College, Toronto, in 1866. Nicknamed the “Black-Bearded Barbarian,” he was the first Canadian missionary sent to China and was instrumental in the missionary movement that swept Ontario from 1880 onwards. He became a national hero in Taiwan, where he established a hospital, 60 chapels, and in 1872 the first Canadian overseas mission. He was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church in 1894.
The evangelical training soon expanded into China. From 1911 to 1914, young Chinese men were trained in the mission schools there and assigned missionary work in Canada. Educated to speak English, they preached to both Chinese-born and Canadian-born members of their congregations. By the 1920s, Toronto was the headquarters for the Eastern Canadian Chinese Mission, the Canadian Presbyterian missions, and the United Church missions in China. The Eastern Canadian Chinese Mission was headed by religious leaders like Reverend William D. Noyes, who had served in China for 17 years. Reverend Noyes, who spoke fluent Chinese, came to Canada in the early 1920s.31
CHURCHES
The Presbyterians were active in running their schools and mission. The Chinese mission of the Presbyterian Church in Toronto was part of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and was intended to help with the integration of Chinese into Canadian society. English classes were the big draw for attendance at church. The early Chinese immigrants had little to no contact with Christians in their homeland, and they did not seek out local Christian communities upon their arrival. A definite attraction was the offering of language lessons. From the missionary perspective, English language instruction was the prerequisite to instilling religious doctrines and Christian values. For the Chinese, English was the key to success for acceptance and greater access to Canadian society.
