Preview
IN THE SHADOW OF GOLD MOUNTAIN
Written and directed by Karen Cho
Monday, November 22
Boris Roubakine Recital Hall, C105 (U of C)
For many Chinese-Canadians, July 1, historically referred to by some as "Humiliation Day," is a grim reminder of decades of oppression and exclusion on the part of Canada and the Canadian government. A country often praised for its humanitarian efforts and human-rights record, Canada has a dark past frequently ignored in social studies texts and history classes.
Montreal filmmaker Karen Cho, herself a fifth-generation Canadian of mixed Chinese heritage, brings the skeletons out of the closet with her film In the Shadow of Gold Mountain, a documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
"It’s like a page from the Canadian history book was just kind of ripped out and we’re trying to paste it back in," says Cho.
The film follows the personal accounts of survivors of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act and the impact this discrimination has had in shaping the identity of generations of Chinese immigrants and descendants.
From 1885 to 1923 all Chinese immigrants to Canada – the only immigrants ever having to do so – were forced to pay a head tax for entering the country. By 1923, this head tax had reached $500 per person, the equivalent at the time of buying two houses.
On July 1, 1923, the Chinese Head Tax Act was replaced with the Chinese Exclusion Act, which forbade any Chinese to enter Canada until 1947. The acts plunged the Chinese community into debt and separated hundreds of families for 25 to 30 years "That’s an entire lifetime," says Cho.
Both acts were in addition to other human-rights violations, including the horrendous treatment of Chinese labourers, many of them young men who died while building the Canadian Pacific Railway.
"There’s definitely a timeliness to this film," says Cho, noting that most survivors of the act are now in their 90s. "You know, one or two years from now a film like this can’t be made. We’re talking to the last handful of survivors and we’re hearing directly from their mouths about these experiences."
The Chinese-Canadian National Council began a campaign for redress of the head tax in 1984, pushing for a symbolic return of money originally paid to the government.
Twenty years later, the government still has not publicly acknowledged any wrongdoing. This has led to many in the Chinese community, including those Canadian-born, to feel as though they aren’t really a part of the country, Cho says.
And, given the world’s current situation, she says this sense of being unwelcome and unwanted transcends Chinese-Canadians. "It might not be the Chinese population that’s being targeted, but today it’s Muslim people, it’s people from the Middle East," she says. "These kind of attitudes (are) still with us today."
With her film, Cho hopes to educate people about the attitudes behind this kind of discrimination and would like to see the issue of redressing the head tax resolved in the survivors’ lifetimes.
"For sure it’s been a long struggle," she says, but she adds "one should never give up hope." |
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