Week 2 Diary

Feelings on the stories of “A Newcomers’ Guide to Vancouver”

From my perspective, the first two people are certainly Canadian as they are either the next generations of the First Nations or the First people there. Even though they have been there before the real “Vancouver” has been there, they were in that territory and practiced the traditional cultures, languages and customs for that place. No matter how their own traditions were not fully access to the new comers, I think they are still the real Canadian. Actually to me, I know about Canada but it was my first time to hear about First Nations People. Before doing my mini presentation that day on “Musqueam”, I thought the indigenous-styled statues in UBC are just for decorations without any historical meaning. I couldn’t believe that Vancouver has such a history. I as a foreigner to Vancouver, I haven’t heard of any of them before. I guess even my cousins who are CBCs know a very little of them as well. Of course we can say that the First People are hardly “Canadian” as they have different languages and cultures with the modern form of citizens (I am not so sure), but to me, I think their traditions and cultures did affect the Vancouver nowadays, maybe it’s just less obvious or being masked by something else. The old things would always be shedding impacts and lights on the recent dynamics. Therefore, they are Canadians.

 

For the stories about the immigrants, their common ground is that they are born in other countries, then moved to Vancouver in order to have a better life while encountering some difficulties for adapting a new culture. To me, they are real Canadians only if they had been in Canada for some time, get adapted to the culture, get involved in the community in the sense that they don’t feel embarrassed or isolated because of their ethnicity. If a person just finished the processes of immigration or get the passport of Canada because of family reasons, I can hardly define them as Canadians as they haven’t get immersed into the local cultures. Of course they can be officially Canadians as well because of the residential proof, but they aren’t the real Canadians if they don’t even know the cultures there. Everything has to go in process and every steps count. It is cruel to say that you are not a Canadian if you don’t get involved in the culture, but isn’t it the reality that we have to admit? People affects the formation of a culture and the culture affects people as well. For example, quite a number of people in HK are born in Canada but being brought up in HK as their parents just wanted their next generations to have one more passport or one more identity. Even though my parents as well planned to treat me this favour that time before I was born, I still think people like this are not Canadians as they haven’t been to the country and get involved there. People just holding the passport cannot be treated as real citizens.

 

In these stories, the immigrants did so much to try to understand the Canadian cultures and to get accepted. One mentioned that they are afraid to be judged, especially in a new environment. That’s very true. Even though they cannot be treated as real Canadian when they first come, their attitudes are very much appreciated. And most of them are the leaders of some social projects or helping immigrants, they are doing good to the Canadian society and already been a time there, so all of them there are Canadians to me. Two of them mentioned that their professions are not recognized in Canada, this is what my relatives that migrated to Toronto experienced that time as well. As I am not close to them, I just barely heard from my parents that they have had a very difficult time when they were newcomers. One more thing that worth to say is, people come to a country to look for new opportunities or simply because they like that country, to me it’s a very important step to be the citizen of that country. You need to have a motive to settle in a new country, so you try to understand the new cultures and try to let others understand yours as well. And as a newcomer, you should change if your issues contradict with those in the new country, like if they didn’t recognize your law profession, you accept the fact as it’s indeed a new country. Every country has their rules, you follow them like a normal citizen as you are in this country but not because you are a newcomer. It isn’t that newcomer has to follow the rules but everybody in that territory.

 

To me, for those who have the motives and time to stay in the new country, willing and able to get involved into the new cultures, they are all Canadians. Yet, at the same time they have the identity of another country as well. There’s no contradiction in having two identities. This is something related to my interview to the Canadian I did on Canada Day.

 

Interview to a Canadian

I actually went to the Granville Island for the celebration of Canada Day with one of the UBC friend and with her own friends for some time. She is a Taiwanese-Canadian who migrated to Vancouver when she was two. She said she was always asked by people that “Where are you really from?”as she has an Asian face, which made her confused about the identity. Because of this, she cannot solely define herself as a Canadian due to the Taiwanese heritage and immigration history. She is confused about how to equally represent two cultures in her life. Yet, the sense of belonging of being a Canadian comes from the support of her friends and family here.

 

This actually made me think of the first time we met them in Kaiping, that I will always ask them a first question like “Where are you from?” or “Where are your family come from?”under curiosity just because they are Chinese-Canadians. I have never thought of this question would be something that made them confused about their own identities (There’s a sharing in Kaiping about bilinguals and identities, I felt shocked that time once I realized this is such an important and touched issue to them.)

 

I agree what my friend said about her feelings in being a Canadian. I understand her struggles in that. This is true that a default impression by us to a western would be their iconic gold hair and foreign faces. Without this, people that haven’t talked to you wouldn’t consider you as a western. This is very normal. I know a lot of UBC students in this program has the struggle of “Where are you really from”, I think they are all Canadians if they migrated here when they were very small that have no ability to think. They are not the one to make the decision to migrate, it isn’t a main point that they were born in Asian countries and as immigrants, but the place they were brought up matters. To me, through the interactions with them, I can feel the difference between us based on the way we talked, the values, the way we engaged in classroom cultures, the topics we found interest in. Even for the same issue, we have different interpretations and different reactions. The point we found to be interesting in one issue can be very different, this is what one of the thing I found in Kaiping as well. Therefore, it is the Vancouver cultures that affect them, but not their original heritage in Asian countries that define them. To me, they are Canadians as they are being affected by the cultures and have a role in affecting the cultures as well. They live a Canadian lifestyles, they know about this country and this is the place they have the most chance to expose to. I understand it may be ashamed to tell people that I am a Taiwanese/ Hong Konger but I don’t know how to write and read Chinese or you don’t know the cultures in your hometown, given that you have that face. Yet, it is a limitation when cultures become to mix and migration happens. I know some of their parents restrict them to go back to the home countries or learn that language as parents want them to get fully immersed into the culture in Canada and better opportunities are here. It made them frustrated when they realized they are different from Native Canadians but at the same time they are the same. I think they need some time to digest. I believe they can resolve this crisis much better when they were working and start to contribute back to the Canadian society, or realizing that Canada is really a mix of immigrants that they are not the only one.

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