Early Chinese History Term Paper

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Immigration, Spatial, And Cultural Aspects of the Canadian Pacific Railway

At the turn of the 19th century, Chinese emigration began in Canada. The Chinese saw Canada as a place for new and prosperous opportunities in order to send money and goods back to their relatives in China. Voyagers from Hong Kong to Canada would take three weeks on water. Often they left China after being poverty or destitution.

From the 1880's up till the 1920's the kind of labor the Chinese were involved in was the raw work of a beginning industrial economy. The Chinese workers were either semiskilled or skilled and worked in the British Columbia salmon canneries and sawmills. While some worked in the factories and sawmills, still others worked farming, clearing land, or becoming shopkeepers, peddlers, or even restaurateurs. The Chinese immigrants who were unskilled, typically found work in the laundry trade.

Before the 1920's however, Chinese people have lived in Vancouver since 1788 with the first small group of artisans, 50 in total, were contracted by Captain John Meares to aid in setting up a trading post on Vancouver Island to sell and trade otter pelts. Only until 1858, that the Chinese began immigrating to Canada in waves thanks to the Fraser River Valley gold rush. (Tan, and Roy 34) In Barkerville, British Columbia the first Chinese community formed. The Chinese population grew from there to 6,000 by 1860 in British Columbia.

The wave of Chinese who came during this time period were often young peasants from South China. Southern China at the time had both political unrest and rural poverty, prompting the Chinese immigrants to seek financial and political stability elsewhere. During the 1870's and 1880's a third wave of Chinese came to Canada and began construction on the Canadian Pacific Railway past the Rockies. The CPR had 15,000 Chinese laborers employed by the end of 1885.

Although some have the figures at over "17,000 Chinese came to Canada from 1881 through 1884." (FCCRWC 1) Where they came from was also debatable with FCCRWC stating: "Several thousand came from the coastal areas of the United States where they helped build the American transcontinental railroad, but the majority arrived directly from southern China." (FCCRWC 1) Sadly, the workers' pay was low, earning $1 per day, half the pay of a white laborer. Although seen as unfair, the CPR saved an upwards of $3-5.1 million in construction expenses.

On top of the low pay, the Chinese laborers suffered immense losses with Chinese laborers being killed during landslides and careless dynamite explosions. Some have even stated that for every one mile of the railway, one Chinese worker died. Research shows the numbers were triple with 3 worker deaths per mile. However there were no records at the time to confirm.

After completion of the CPR, many Chinese people were ignored and left to defend themselves. There was no legal recognition for any of the Chinese who worked on the railroad, even when they constructed and built the most difficult section. They were instead dealt the Chinese Head Tax. Ironically, thanks to the CPR being finished, more Chinese immigrants were able to go to Canada and spread out across the country. Some were even able to save up enough money and go back to China in search for a wife. Many of the first waves of Chinese immigrants were male and needed to find someone to marry. (Rylatt 54) So most decided to go back to China to find a suitable wife

Coming back however proved difficult due to laws put in place that kept Asians from going to Canada and the U.S., namely women, to control the Chinese Canadian population. Heavy taxes and fees were often given to Chinese men who came back with Chinese women often limiting how many Chinese women made it back to the country. When they were allowed in, they found it hard to connect with the people from there.

Many Chinese railway workers and the Chinese that immigrated to Canada had trouble finding a place to call home. Railway workers were always moving from place to lay down the railroad while others had to constantly work in low paying jobs just to survive. Since the Chinese communities were still small, often time's Chinese couples were isolated, with some seeking connection through the few established communities.

In British Columbia, after the initial gold rush was over, many Chinese mining companies sprang up. Some Chinese were even able to go into the service industry in the mining towns with Victoria being the main center for Chinese immigrants in Canada.

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At that time, despite discrimination and laws placed to keep the Chinese population from growing, the Chinese had the same legal rights as Canada's white residents. Canada was not a country at the time and applied the rules for white immigrants to Chinese immigrants. "The Aliens Act of 1861 provided that the aliens, resident for three years within the colony who took the oaths of residence and allegiance, had the rights of British subjects." ("History of the Chinese in Canada." 1)

With the Chinese deciding after the CPR construction to head into other industries, Canada began to feel a Chinese influence. As Downey recalls in his blog: "At Historic Fort Steel BC, you can see the Lum Laundry clapboard building on the edge of town." (Downey 1) He remarks how all the Chinese children that came from the Lum family became professionals along with others like Mr. Wong and his family who ran a local Chinese restaurant. The Chinese had some success in their business endeavors and gained roots within Canada. They were starting families, saving money, and working to make their dreams of a sustainable life a reality.

Geography of the Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway was a huge undertaking at the time. It was one the main reasons Canada began its expansion and eventually became its own country. The area within the Selkirk Mountain Range was chosen to be the best location for Canadian Pacific Railway's (CPR) rail route for various reasons, some including acquiring jurisdiction within South-eastern British Columbia and potential profit from the beautiful scenery in future tourism ventures. However, the Roger Pass region, the region that the Chinese laborers built on, was the most difficult obstacle the CPR would face.

The first steps to construction were embarking on expeditions. These early expeditions helped find a Pass through which the operation and construction phase could begin. Walter Moberly, Albert Perry and A.B. Rogers were the three men responsible for locating Roger's Pass in hopes of finding a route through the Selkirks. Even though most credit A.B. Rogers finding the pass which was then named after him, all three men made possible the eventual discovery of Rogers Pass.

In 1865, it was Walter Moberly, the first commissioned by the Government of British Columbia, to search for a feasible railway pass through the Rocky Mountains. Through his continual efforts of rail mapping, Moberly found Eagle Pass, through the Monashees. In early fall he came to the junction of the Illecillewaet and Columbia Rivers. He then set forth to the Selkirk Mountain range September 17, 1865 up the Illecillewaet River, from the junction at the Columbia River.

Early on through the expedition Moberly's crew found the Tangier River, and deemed it unsuitable for a railway due to further exploration of the area. The crew headed back to the junction and delayed further expeditions until the spring. By 1916, this phase ended and the CPR head to deal with several challenges, one of which was terrain which was affected by the mountainous avalanches that would fall there annually. Not only that, the terrain offered little in terms of food with railway workers often dying of scurvy.

A geography study by Cleveland and Dewar, described the location of the CPR.

"Revelstoke in the west and the junction of the Beaver and the Columbia Rivers to the east, including Rogers Pass. Rogers Pass is a narrow valley, situated within the Selkirk Mountain Range, located within Glacier National Park. It is renowned for its steep mountain terrain, picturesque scenery and heavy snow fall (highest annual snowfall in Canada 12 meters (40 feet)." (Cleveland, and Dewar 2) Rogers Pass summit stand at 1,330 m in elevation with its location being in between Revelstoke (480 m) and Golden (800m) in the south-eastern corner of British Columbia. The roughly high elevation, the densely wooded areas, the cold weather in the winter, and the lack of civilization anywhere around the area, made it a difficult place to live long enough to build the railway. Many who worked there had to bring their own supplies.

When analyzing the geography surrounding Rogers Pass, one can't help but see why CPR needed the help of so many additional workers. Rogers Pass posed numerous difficulties both in natural hazards and technical challenges. "Construction crews had to deal with threats ranging from equipment malfunctions to forest fires, but the most significant threat to railway and life….....

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