Chinese Canadian Research Articles

Friend or Foe? A Mixed-Methods Study on the Impact of Digital Device Use on Chinese–Canadian Children’s Heritage Language Learning

Friend or Foe? A Mixed-Methods Study on the Impact of Digital Device Use on Chinese–Canadian Children’s Heritage Language Learning

The M in Multiculturalism Stands for Myth: The Performative Idealization in Canada’s Multicultural Policies

As described on the Government of Canada’s online database, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act of 1988 is a piece of federal legislation intended to recognize multiculturalism as a fundamental characteristic of Canadian society and to preserve diverse cultural identities (Ministry of Justice, 2014, p. 1). Despite this promise, the Canadian government has failed to adequately recognize the various cultures that have been assimilated and destroyed in the name of preserving the Canadian identity. Further, many of these communities suffer from the results of institutionally constructed hate that has been directed towards them to this day. Examining the origins of Canada as it developed through the lens of Chinese Canadian and Indigenous communities, this paper will examine how assimilation is encouraged for members of these groups and new immigrants in present-day Canada, most notably in Quebec. By looking at the past and present contexts of Indigenous and Chinese Canadian communities as well as assimilation tactics in Quebec that prevent various emerging cultural identities from developing, this paper will argue that multiculturalism is sold as a performative idealization in Canada.

“Trying to twist your way out of your skin” — different faces of Chinese Canadian experience in selected poems by Grace Lau

The notions of inclusion, exclusion, and otherness remain at the core of the diasporic experience and an integral part of the history of Chinese diaspora in Canada. In her debut collection The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak (2021), Grace Lau, a Chinese Canadian poet, explores these ideas and their impact on individuals and on the whole Chinese diaspora. Through the analysis of four of Lau’s poems — “When Yuhua Hamasaki Went Home”, “3 a.m. Communion”, “Pedicure at Pinky’s”, and “Escape Artist” — this article discusses how the poet connects experiences of inclusion and exclusion with both historical instances of prejudice and discrimination and their modern counterparts, highlighting the role consumerism plays in those processes.

Delayed Access to Medical Care and Psychological Distress among Chinese Immigrants in Canada during the Pandemic.

The psychological impact of medical care accessibility during the pandemic has been widely studied, but little attention has been given to Asian immigrants in Canada. This study aimed to fill this literature gap by using a cross-sectional survey, which aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese immigrants in North America during the second wave of the pandemic. The study focused on Chinese immigrants aged 16 or older in Canada. Covariates included sociodemographic variables, delayed access to medical care (i.e., treatment or health assessment), and other COVID-19 related variables. We used logistic LASSO regression for model selection and multivariate logistic regression models to evaluate the association between delayed access to treatment/health assessment and psychological distress outcome, as measured by the COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI). Missing data were handled using multiple imputation. Our study included 746 respondents, with 47.18% in the normal CPDI group and 36.82% in the mild-to-severe CPDI group. Most respondents were originally from Mainland China and residing in Ontario. Over half have stayed in Canada for at least 15 years. The multivariate logistic regression models identified significant risk predictors of psychological distress status: delayed access to medical care (OR = 1.362, 95% CI: 1.078-1.720, p = 0.0095), fear of COVID-19 (OR = 1.604, 95% CI: 1.293-1.989, p < 0.0001), and social loneliness (OR = 1.408, 95%CI: 1.314-1.508, p < 0.0001). Sociodemographic variables and other COVID-19-related variates did not significantly impact the study's outcome. Our findings shed light on the importance of timely medical care access to psychological well-being among Chinese Canadians. Reliable health information, mental health support, and virtual care tailored to immigrants should be considered to mitigate this impact and promote their overall health and well-being.

Cultural Exclusion and the Transformation of the Cultural Landscape: The Origins of Anti-Chinese Racism in Canada

Anti-Chinese racism in Canada is a social structure of racialized exclusion that over time came to be built into the settler colonialism that continues to shape the country. Colonizers of European, and especially of British and French origins, have consequently created the cultural landscapes that constitute the country (i.e., its material constructions and dominant cultural overlays). When read against these landscapes, people of Chinese origins and members of other racialized groups continue to be positioned as aliens who do not belong in the country in way in which people racialized as white are not. Focusing on British Columbia (BC), Canada’s westernmost province, and the historical activity of people of Chinese origins, this paper traces the history of anti-Chinese racism and its links to Anglo-Canadian settler colonialism. Canada has long been linked to China, and the Chinese entered BC at the same time as Europeans before the country existed. Despite this, Chinese people have repeatedly been positioned as threats to Anglo-Canadian dominance, and especially to control over the land and its resources. Chinese Canadian resistance to racist exclusions, along with that of other groups, has led to the elimination of legislated exclusions. However, historic exclusions continue to shape cultural landscapes and popular understandings of who belongs and who does not. Remaking these landscapes requires an antiracist project of pursuing common projects that cross over racialized differences to remake the territory in ways that affirm the presence of all the peoples of Canada.

China-Canada Economic Relations in the Early 21st Century

In Canada's corporate and political communities, it is now commonly acknowledged that China is becoming a global economic superpower. For instance, it is now accepted knowledge that all companies, and even all government agencies, must create a "China Strategy," whether or not they conduct any business with China directly. Since the conclusion of the Cold War, China has assumed a larger role in world geopolitics and gained the attention of the most influential political figures. Canada is a prime example of a selective or specialized power today and looks to have established its steady place in international affairs. In order to assess the position of the modern People's Republic of China (PRC) in Canadian foreign policy, this paper explores Canada-China relations from the most current angle. This study examines several facets of bilateral ties, including human rights and democracy, economics and commerce, the ability of Chinese Canadians to advocate and their impact on Ottawa's PRC policies. An overview of the development of ties between Canada and China is also included in the article.

Living with dementia: Exploring the intersections of culture, race, and dementia, stigma.

Research documents the presence of stigma and discrimination as key components in the lived experience of dementia. However, to date, there is limited understanding regarding how social location, particularly as it relates to culture and race, may shape this experience of stigma and discrimination. In this qualitative exploratory study, personal interviews were held with ten Chinese Canadians living with dementia focused on better understanding how culture, race, and dementia stigma influence their experiences. From the onset, themes related to stigma and discrimination were woven into the participants' stories about living with dementia. Consistent with other research, all participants described an increased sense of vulnerability and invisibility related to how both they and others responded to their diagnosis of dementia. Participants also provided examples of how this experience of stigma was compounded by culture, race, and immigration status. Importantly, these acts of stigma and discrimination were both externally and internally imposed, resulting in feelings of lack of safety and insecurity. This research draws attention to the increased vulnerability that accompanies a diagnosis of dementia and illustrates how this may be heightened by one's culture and racism.

Insights into Chinese Canadian culture: enablers and barriers for fruit and vegetable intake.

Fruits and vegetables (F&V) play a vital role in promoting health and preventing diseases. Numerous studies have demonstrated the association between F&V consumption and reduced risks of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mortality. Despite the high priority of public health in promoting F&V intake, Chinese immigrants in Canada often fall below national guidelines in their consumption. Understanding the factors influencing F&V intake in this community is crucial for developing effective interventions. This study used an applied ethnographic research approach to gain insight into the enablers and barriers that influence F&V intake among Chinese-Canadian adults in Richmond, BC. Semi-structured interviews and 'photovoice' group sessions were conducted to gather qualitative data from community participants and health care providers (HCPs). The research identified four key themes: (1) Cultural differences around how vegetables are perceived, consumed and prepared; (2) Motivators and strategies for increasing vegetable and fruit intake; (3) Lack of culturally relevant dietary education and resources; and (4) Importance of value in vegetable/fruit-related decisions. Participants showed a strong preference for the traditional Eastern diet, with cost of food and lack of knowledge about Western vegetables acting as barriers to dietary diversity. The study also highlighted the need for culturally tailored educational resources to effectively promote F&V consumption. By adopting a multi-modal approach, incorporating both interviews and 'photovoice' sessions, this research provided comprehensive insights into the participants' perspectives and experiences related to F&V intake. Understanding these factors can guide the development of culturally appropriate interventions to increase F&V consumption among Chinese-Canadian adults in Richmond, BC, and potentially improve their overall health and well-being. Future studies should consider the heterogeneity within the Chinese immigrant population and target a more balanced representation of age groups to further enhance our understanding of F&V intake patterns in this community.

Peritraumatic Distress among Chinese Canadians during the Early Lockdown Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Sociodemographic and Pandemic-Related Predictors

The current study investigates the peritraumatic distress of Chinese residents living in Canada and identifies the associated sociodemographic and pandemic-related predictors during the initial phases of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown (i.e., from April 2020 to June 2020). A final sample of 457 valid participants aged 18 or older completed an online survey in which peritraumatic distress was assessed with the COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI). The results showed 32.76% of the sample was in the mild to moderate range (i.e., 28–51) and 5.03% in the severe range (i.e., 52 to higher) for peritraumatic distress. The hierarchical regression models on the continuous CPDI score identified life satisfaction as a consistent protector for the CPDI (absolute values of βs = −1.21 to −0.49, ps &lt; 0.001). After controlling for life satisfaction, the following sociodemographic risk factors were identified: being middle-aged, being employed (relative to retired people/students), living in Ontario (rather than elsewhere), and a poor health status. Furthermore, the following pandemic-related risk factors were identified: a higher self-contraction worry, more of a COVID-19 information authenticity concern, a higher future infection rate prediction, and a higher personal health hygiene appraisal. The results of our study shed light on cognitive, experiential, behavioural, and sociodemographic factors associated with peritraumatic distress for Chinese residents living in Canada during the early outbreak stage of the pandemic.

One Label Doesn’t Fit All: Self-Labeling Practices Within the Chinese Immigrant Community in Canada

Ethnic minority populations, such as the Chinese and other racial minority communities, have traditionally been the targets of physical and social harassment. The onset of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has reignited the racism, violence, and xenophobia faced by individuals of Chinese descent across North America. As a result, there is now a spotlight on the Chinese immigrant experience and the capacity for these individuals to authentically communicate and present their identities, specifically through the use of self-labels. In a mixed-methods investigation, we assessed the preferred self-labels among a sample of the Chinese population in Canada and sought to uncover the meanings imbued in the labels they use to describe themselves across different contexts. In addition, the relationships between label preferences and measures of ethnic identity and language were examined. Although bicultural labels (e.g., Chinese Canadian, Canadian Chinese, Hong Kong Canadian, etc.) were the most preferred, there was a variety of labels used, suggesting a more complex meaning in the choice of self-labels. Implications for identity and self-categorization are discussed.

Anti-Chinese Racism and the Structure of White Supremacy: An Anti-essentialist Antiracist Perspective on Canadian History

Racisms are among the social structures that shaped Canada’s past and are shaping Canada’s present. Anti-essentialist antiracism accounts for these structures by recognizing that there are many different racisms, but all racisms meet conditions of racialization, of the organization of racializations into exclusions, and of the enactment of negative consequences on the excluded. These conditions lead to strategies for antiracist research, which are key to rebuilding the linkages between people that racisms destroy. This paper builds a theoretically informed argument while examining the historical and present-day experiences of Chinese Canadians. Engaging with present-day realities, moving beyond common-sense explanations that individualize racism, and building on the sources of the racialized and excluded make evident the structure of racism. Chinese language sources document the “apartheiding” of Canada and its effects. They also enable the dialogical re-reading of dominant sources to pinpoint moments of organizing this structure into the world. Today, historically produced cultural narratives and the cultural landscapes of modern cities mark those racialized as Chinese as people who either do not belong or whose presence needs explanation. These narratives and landscapes are the products of the anti-Chinese racism that was built into the settler colonialism that made Canada.

"Weighing the Pros and Cons of Everything": A Qualitative Descriptive Study Exploring Perspectives About Living Donor Kidney Transplantation From Parents of Chinese Canadian Pediatric Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease.

As of 2021, more than 6000 children and youth in Canada were living with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), for which kidney transplantation is considered the preferred treatment by health professionals. Research shows that living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) has superior allograft and recipient survival compared to deceased donor kidney transplantation (DDKT). However, in a pediatric setting, the choice of LDKT or DDKT is a summative consideration of factors weighed carefully by the patient's family, health care team, and patient. Decision-making surrounding transplantation may be more complex for racial and ethnic minorities as culturally specific values and beliefs are interwoven within dominant understandings and concepts of health and accepted models of health care. For example, Chinese Canadians have an increased risk of ESKD, yet reduced access to LDKT compared to White patients, despite being the largest visible minority population in Canada. The objective of this qualitative study is to deepen our understandings of the decision-making process surrounding DDKT versus LDKT among parents of Chinese Canadian pediatric patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Qualitative descriptive study design. The Nephrology Program at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Caregivers of Chinese Canadian patients with CKD, 18 years of age or older, and who spoke English, Cantonese, or Mandarin. One-on-one, semistructured interviews were conducted virtually, by a member of the research team and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was used to explore participants' shared experience. Seven interviews were conducted with 6 mothers and 1 father of 6 Chinese Canadian pediatric patients with CKD: 4 patients had undergone a kidney transplant, and 2 were not yet listed for transplant. Analysis of data highlighted that cultural influences affected whether parents shared with others about their child's illness and experience. The cultural understanding that it is inappropriate to burden others contributed to the creation of an isolating experience for participants. Cultural influences also impacted whether parents asked others to be a living donor as participants articulated this would place a physical burden on the living donor (e.g., potential risk to their health) and an emotional burden on the participant as they would be indebted to a willing donor. Ultimately, parents' decision to choose DDKT or LDKT for their patient-child was a result of evaluating both options carefully and within an understanding that the ideal treatment choice reflected what was best for all family members. Findings reflect experiences of a small sample from a single recruitment site which may limit transferability. Parents in this study felt that they had access to the necessary evidence-based information to make an informed decision about the choice of DDKT versus LDKT for their child. Participant narratives described feeling isolated within cultural communities of family and friends and participants' suggestion of benefiting from increased support may guide future research directions. Practitioners can offer direct and indirect support to families, with recognition of the importance of cultural values and family-centered care on decision-making within families. Opportunities are needed for accessible, virtual social support platforms to increase parental feelings of culturally mediated peer support from parents who share similar experiences.

Open Secrets: Methods and Archives in Chinese Canadian Histories

From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, anti-Chinese immigration laws structured the restriction and exclusion of Chinese migrants in Canada. However, Chinese strategies used to circumvent these laws were open secrets. This article examines the strategy of paper family migration to investigate the following ethical and methodological dilemmas: What is a secret? How might we study secrets without exposing community knowledge? How do we find archival traces of people who do not wish to be found? Chinese migrants created paper families when they purchased the identification papers, and performed the identity, of a person who was legally admissible to the country, a process I call passing. My contribution to this forum takes paper families as an opportunity to consider the role of secrecy in both Chinese migrants’ passing and efforts by immigration agents to regulate them. I argue that secrecy conditioned knowledge production for Chinese paper families and state officials. Rather than approach secrets as hidden knowledge, I understand secrets as a particular kind of knowledge. Doing so not only avoids the risks of exposing passers but offers a method for studying secrecy that foregrounds understandings of why these secrets were produced, how they were kept, and what they achieved.

User-Centered Design and Usability of a Culturally Adapted Virtual Survivorship Care App for Chinese Canadian Prostate Cancer Survivors: Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Cultural adaptations of digital health innovations are a growing field. However, digital health innovations can increase health inequities. While completing exploratory work for the cultural adaptation of the Ned Clinic virtual survivorship app, we identified structural considerations that provided a space to design digitally connected and collective care. This study used a community-based participatory research and user-centered design process to develop a cultural adaptation of the Ned Clinic app while designing to intervene in structural inequities. The design process included primary data collection and qualitative analysis to explore and distill design principles, an iterative design phase with a multidisciplinary team, and a final evaluation phase with participants throughout the design process as a form of member checking and validation. Participants indicated that they found the final adapted prototype to be acceptable, appropriate, and feasible for their use. The changes made to adapt the prototype were not specifically culturally Chinese. Instead, we identified ways to strengthen connections between the survivor and their providers; improve accessibility to resources; and honor participants' desires for relationality, accountability, and care. We grounded the use of user-centered design to develop a prototype design that supports the acts of caring through digital technology by identifying and designing to resist structures that create health inequities in the lives of this community of survivors. By designing for collective justice, we can provide accessible, feasible, and relational care with digital health through the application of Indigenous and Black feminist ways of being and knowing.

Honoring the Care Experiences of Chinese Canadian Survivors of Prostate Cancer to Cultivate Cultural Safety and Relationality in Digital Health: Exploratory-Descriptive Qualitative Study.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most commonly diagnosed nonskin cancer for Canadian men and has one of the highest 5-year survival rates, straining systems to provide care. Virtual care can be one way to relieve this strain, but survivors' care needs and technology use are influenced by intersecting social and cultural structures. Cultural adaptation has been posited as an effective method to tailor existing interventions to better serve racialized communities, including Chinese men. However, cultural adaptations may inadvertently draw attention away from addressing structural inequities. This study used qualitative methods to (1) explore the perceptions and experiences of Chinese Canadian PCa survivors with follow-up and virtual care, and (2) identify implications for the cultural adaptation of a PCa follow-up care app, the Ned (no evidence of disease) Clinic. An axiology of relational accountability and a relational paradigm underpinned our phenomenologically informed exploratory-descriptive qualitative study design. A community-based participatory approach was used, informed by cultural safety and user-centered design principles, to invite Chinese Canadian PCa survivors and their caregivers to share their stories. Data were inductively analyzed to explore their unmet needs, common experiences, and levels of digital literacy. Unmet needs and technology preferences were similar to broader trends within the wider community of PCa survivors. However, participants indicated that they felt uncomfortable, unable to, or ignored when expressing their needs. Responses spoke to a sense of isolation and reflected a reliance on culturally informed coping mechanisms, such as "eating bitterness," and familial assistance to overcome systemic barriers and gaps in care. Moreover, virtual care was viewed as "better than nothing;" it did not change a perceived lack of focus on improving quality of life or care continuity in survivorship care. Systemic changes were identified as likely to be more effective in improving care delivery and well-being rather than the cultural adaptation of Ned for Chinese Canadians. Participants' desires for care reflected accessibility issues that were not culturally specific to Chinese Canadians. Chinese Canadian survivors are seeking to strengthen their connections in a health care system that provides privacy and accessibility, protects relationality, and promotes transparency, accountability, and responsibility. Designing "trickle-up" adaptations that address structural inequities and emphasize accessibility, relationality, and privacy may be more effective and efficient at improving care than creating cultural adaptations of interventions.

Negotiating Chinese Canadian Masculinity: Fred Wah’s Diamond Grill

Negotiating Chinese Canadian Masculinity: Fred Wah’s Diamond Grill

“Fearing your own queer self”: Depictions of Diasporic Queer Experience in Grace Lau’s Poetry

The intersection of migrant and queer experiences constitutes one of the core motifs of The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak (2021), the debut poetry collec- tion by Grace Lau, a Chinese Canadian poet. Through a series of interconnected vignettes, Lau provides an insight into her experiences as both a Canadian and a Chinese immigrant, a lesbian and a failed model child, an aficionado of traditional Chinese culture and an en- thusiast of contemporary Western popular culture. The mosaic of experiences illustrates the complexity and intricacy of the author’s identity/ies. Through the analysis of three poems (“The Levity,” “The Lies That Bind,” and “My Grief Is a Winter”), supported with references to the theoretical works on Asian North American writing and queer Asian mi- grant experience, the article discusses Lau’s depictions of queerness and her experiences as a Chinese immigrant in relation to the Canadian LGBTQ+ community, white queer liberalism, and internal politics of the Chinese diaspora. It proposes to see Lau’s poetry as an example of biomythography, a form of autobiographical writing showcasing how encounters with different communities shape the subject. In the process of disentangling her complex ties with the Chinese diaspora, the white Canadian LGBTQ+ community and her own family, Lau reveals the impact of her interactions with those different groups as she can finally express her identity as a queer Chinese Canadian.

The Low-Back-Merger Shift: Evidence from MENA Americans in the Upper Midwest and southern California

Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) Americans are an understudied speech community in sociolinguistics. In terms of racial classification and identification, MENA Americans have been legally and historically classified as white but are not socially perceived as white (Beydoun, 2013, 2015). While early immigrants from MENA regions to the US were mostly Christians, ever since 1947, the majority of immigrants from MENA regions to the US have been from Muslim backgrounds (Orfalea, 2006); this demographic change can result in more ethnic visibility for MENA Americans in the US (cf., e.g., Shryock &amp; Lin, 2009, for a discussion of ethnic visibility of MENA Americans in southeastern Michigan). Higher ethnic visibility can in turn lead to certain linguistic performances on the part of MENA Americans. Several studies have looked at the interaction of ethnic identity/visibility and local vowel patterns such as the merging of the low back vowels (the vowels in THOUGHT and LOT1). For example, Hall–Lew (2009) showed that Asian Americans in San Francisco took part in the low back vowel merger and high back vowel fronting, which both index local meanings being part of the California Vowel Shift (Eckert, 2008). Going beyond one particular locality, Wong and Hall–Lew (2014) demonstrated clear influence of local dialect on the speech of Asian Americans in two different localities, with Asian Americans from NYC having distinct low back vowels and those from San Francisco merged low back vowels. Comparing the speech of three different ethnic groups in the multicultural context of Toronto, Hoffman and Walker (2010) explored two features of the Canadian Vowel Shift: the retraction of TRAP and the lowering and retraction of DRESS. Their findings showed that while Chinese Canadians disfavored these two patterns, British/Irish and Italian Canadians favored them. In another study in the context of California English, Cardoso et al. (2016) looked at subclasses of the TRAP vowel in the speech of Chinese Americans and white Americans of San Francisco. They found that the nasal split of TRAP (it being raised when followed by a nasal consonant, and being retracted and lowered when followed by an oral consonant) was more advanced for white speakers than the Chinese group. Cardoso et al. (2016) associated the observed difference to the social meaning of the TRAP nasal split in California indexing white or non-Chicanx social personae.

“Hot+Noisy” Public Space: Conviviality, “Unapologetic Asianness,” and the Future of Vancouver’s Chinatown

Questions of change and the future have become increasingly salient in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the last decade, as gentrification proceeds apace. Various actors have used the neighbourhood’s public spaces to express their visions of Chinatown’s future. These claims are articulated through attempts to demonstrate and strengthen the vitality of Chinatown in the face of growing narratives of its putative decline and death. By engaging with the contemporary sociological literature on conviviality, where relatively “thin” versus more radical conceptualizations of conviviality are being debated, and putting it into conversation with both the geographical literature on the politics of public space and political theory discussions of agonism, we argue that the uses of public space must be analyzed without romanticizing conviviality or consensus in order to understand the productive possibilities of “political conviviality” and agonistic encounters. Our focus is the “Hot+Noisy Mahjong Socials” held in recent summers in an iconic plaza in Chinatown. These are organized by a community group that builds connections between mostly Chinese Canadian youth and largely Cantonese-speaking seniors. These groups espouse a goal of “place-keeping” in the context of planning trends toward “placemaking.” Through this case, we consider how activists from marginalized communities build solidarities through agonistic “place-keeping” in the face of gentrification and threats of cultural erasure.

Impact of the overseas Chinese diaspora on Canada's economic development

China today is the largest country in terms of population on our planet. The Chinese diaspora also occupies a leading position in the world. According to various sources, in 2021 the total number of the Chinese living abroad was 38.9 million people. There is a large Chinese diaspora in Canada with a rather interesting history. There are now 1.92 million Chinese Canadians living there. The Chinese living in this country have influenced and continue to influence its economy as a fairly active part of the population.