NüVoices Podcast: Chinese Canadian Immigrant Histories with Arlene Chan and Melanie Ng

Melanie Ng (L) and Arlene Chan (R). Photos provided by Melanie and Arlene.

My second @Nuvoices podcast outing! It's still completely weird and uncomfortable listening to myself - but I loved this episode, which means a lot to me. I hope you'll give it a listen and be in as much awe of the brave women highlighted here. In this episode, I chat with historians Arlene Chan and Melanie Ng about the first Chinese migrants who made their way to Canada in the 19th century. From there, Arlene and Melanie retrace the throughline of Chinese Canadian migration, from exclusionary anti-Chinese immigration laws to present-day sinophobia found in many Western countries today.

This episode is full of stories about trailblazing Chinese-Canadian women, including Arlene Chan’s mother, Jean Lumb. We couldn't fit all of Jean's story into the episode, so here's a little more from our conversation: Born in Nanaimo, BC, she was one of 12 siblings. She was among the first Chinese Canadian women awarded the Order of Canada and was recognized for her role in changing immigration laws. Even though she was born in Canada, Jean still required a special identification card when the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act became law. That card, issued to all Chinese living in Canada, stated, "This certificate does not establish legal status in Canada." Taken when Jean was just 4, the ID photo is one of the few Arlene has of her mother as a child.

Jean Lumb. Portrait by Cavouk

"She grew up at a time when I think descrimination against the Chinese were at its worst...She went to a segregated school - segregated for First Nations, Japanese, Chinese children…She had to walk past a regular school and everytime she walked past...she'd say, 'why am I being treated so differently?'" Her experiences had an enormous impact, her daughter says. "Even at such a young age, it was something that really guided what she did in her adult years."

Jean and her family lived in Chinatown, but "didn't dare step outside of Chinatown for fear of being beat up -- it was dangerous." They eventually moved to Vancouver during the Depression. At 12, she left school in grade 6 to start working and help support the family. In 1935, at the age of 16, she move to Toronto to help with an older sister's restaurant. Within about a year, she borrowed $200 and opened her own fruit store and quickly earned enough to bring her siblings and parents over from B.C.

Jean lost her citizenship in 1939 when she married. "The law at the time was the wife had to take on the official status of the husband. Because my father was born in China, his official status was 'alien'," Arlene recounted. Jean did not regain her citizenship until 1947 when the Exclusion Act was repealed. "The full circle of that story is that my mother became a citizenship judge and gave the oath of citizenship to hundreds of new Canadians," Arlene said.

In this episode, we also discussed "Nitro", a 1992 Heritage Minute ad, what it got right and wrong. I found it very moving as a kid - this stuff wasn't being taught, and just seeing Asians on TV still felt rare. (Joy Luck Club didn't come out until 1993.)

Melanie also raised an important point during our discussion about how Chinese immigrants and people of Chinese descent in Canada - whose ancestors fought for our enfranchisement - might collectively move forward when thinking about inclusion. "We can also think of ourselves as a settler in this nation-state that we now call Canada, that was founded on the dispossession of Indigenous peoples," she said. "What are our responsibilities to Indigenous peoples? Maybe we can take an approach that's one of solidarity across multiple oppressed peoples...Now that we're here in 2022, with these privileges, we have to think very carefully about what we do with them."

A huge thank you my guests for their time, the NüVoices podcast team for their kind support, and especially Saga Ringmar for the uneviable task of whittling down a VERY long interview and a beautiful job weaving in Shiela's story, Joanna Chiu for bringing her voice to the world. For more stories about Chinese Canadian women, you can also watch this 1997 National Film Board documentary, Under the Willow Tree: Pioneer Chinese Women in Canada by Dora Nipp. https://t.co/TRoRbsUt8s

We always end our podcasts with recommendations and self-care tips from our guests. In this episode, Melanie highly recommends the book "Scarborough" by Catherine Hernandez and the award-winning screen adaptation. "Both film and book are amazing in their own right."

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts here and on Spotify here.