Chinese-Canadian History in Mississauga, Part 2: Family Separation

Reflecting on Asian Heritage Month in May, this is the second of a four-part article series from Heritage Mississauga's UTM internship student Daston Babakan that explores early Chinese connections in historic Mississauga.
Read Part 1 here.

Image of Tong Lok Chau and family at the CNE, Toronto

For most people, family is the most essential social unit they are a part of. We rely on our families for most things in our lives, from emotional to material support, all the way to understanding who we are as people. But for members of Chinese community in Canada, prior to 1947, they faced a life of separation from their families for decades. Many were never reunited due to Canada’s discriminatory Immigration policies. Continuing our series of the Chinese Exclusion period's effects on early Chinese residents in historic Mississauga, we will explore how this familial separation affected our Chinese community.

Loneliness and Separation

One of the defining features of the Chinese community in Canada before 1947 was that it was primarily made up of “married bachelors,” meaning they were married but their wives and families lived in China.  The reason for this separation had to do with legislation and the social environment of Canada at the time. Prior to 1923, the Chinese Head Tax made it unaffordable to bring over family members. Later, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 eliminated even that small hope of bringing their families to Canada. Even if one did have the financial means to bring their families over prior to 1923, the racialized environment that the Chinese were subjugated to during this period would have made this option an unattractive one. 

Instead, the common practice at the time was for men to return to China (for a short period) and get married, then come back to Canada where they would work and send money to their families in China. The more economically well-off Chinese men would return to China for one or two years. However, their visits were limited to no more than two years as per the Chinese Immigration Act (1923) or else they would risk not being able to return to Canada.  One may wonder why more single Chinese women did not come prior to 1923. A main reason for this was the high cost of the Head Tax and traditional Chinese norms. Many Chinese could only pay the Head Tax after their families pooled their money together, meaning that families had to put all their eggs in one basket. Further, patriarchal Confucian norms in China valued women as bearers and carers of children, while men were viewed as breadwinners.  In truth, even Canadian societal norms held similar beliefs, making Chinese men more likely to send larger pay checks back home than their female counterparts due to gender wage disparities in Canada. The result of all this was a vast sex disparity. According to scholar Arlene Chan, in 1911 there were 280 Chinese men for every Chinese woman, and in 1931 there were 124 Chinese men for every Chinese woman. 

1931 Census, Toronto Township, Page 21, LAC

Family Life in historic Mississauga

When looking at historic Mississauga, one can find many examples of spousal separation in census data. According to the 1931 census data, out of the 29 Chinese men living in historic Mississauga around 50% were married. While there could be a chance that some of these men had wives in other parts of Canada, it is more likely their spouses remained back in China. For example, on the 1931 census data, eight married labourers were recorded by the census enumerator in Port Credit. The enumerator wrote a note beside the names explaining, “they are all married but their wives are in China”.

For the single men living in historic Mississauga, finding a wife would have been almost impossible. When looking at the census reports (which are separate documents from the census data) and their section on gender breakdowns for Peel region, which also includes Brampton and Caledon, they note that there was only one Chinese woman in 1931, seven in 1941, and 17 in 1951. These Chinese women would have been the only real socially acceptable marriage candidates, slim pickings indeed. For those men who were either single or unable to return to China to get married, their prospects of marriage were low. The gender disparity caused by these policies also helped fuel the stereotype of Chinese men being effeminate. For example, scholar Micheal Park points out that in the USA, exclusion and anti-miscegenation laws were crucial factors in emasculating the male population by barring Chinese men from “heterosexual norms and ideals such as the nuclear family formation”.  As the situation was very similar in Canada at the time, such views were also likely widespread locally.

For those single Chinese men in Canada, their best opportunity for marriage was with the few Chinese women in Canada, or to risk social ostracization within their own community and harassment from the Canadian community and authorities by engaging in an interracial marriage.  However, interracial marriages were heavily frowned upon by the wider Canadian society. Even amongst the Chinese community, there was a taboo against marrying non-Chinese women.

Crop from 1931 Census, Toronto Township, Page 21, LAC

Interestingly, however, during our research, we found a marriage certificate for Charles Sing and Amelia Joslin, who came to Port Credit while living in Oakville to get married.  While Charles Sing was a Chinese man, Amelia was an Irish Canadian woman.  What made this case even more interesting was that Amelia had also married another Chinese man before Charles Sing by the name of Charles Fong, whom she had a son with named Fred Lee.  It was after Charles Fong’s death that Amelia married Charles Sing. In the 1931 census of Oakville, we found another interracial couple - a Chinese man named Joseph Ming and an Irish woman named Emily Poole, who together had one daughter named Wanda Ming.  What these marriages could show is that while interracial marriage was discouraged, some did find love regardless of societal norms. 

While being separated from their families and being denied any real opportunity to establish families in Canada, the Chinese migrants had to seek community elsewhere. Likely, separation and loneliness played important roles in the establishment of Chinatowns and the reliance on clan relationships and internal community supports. But for rural places without such connections, like in historic Mississauga, Chinese immigrants had to be creative when seeking out community. For example, when a Chinese laundry along Peter Street in Port Credit was robbed in early February 1946, the robbers inadvertently ended up crashing a Chinese New Years party held by the owner Sam Lee.  While there may not have been a large Chinese community here, people were still coming together in friendship and celebration despite their difficult circumstances. 

Story of William Mark, Globe and Mail, 1941

War and Separation

Family separation was all the more tragic with the start of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), and later the Second World War (1939-1945). A story from the Globe and Mail from 1941 detailing a robbery that took place against a Chinese man named William Mark who owned a restaurant in Port Credit speaks to the heart-wrenching reality many Chinese dealt with while separated from their loved ones. The article reveals that he had immigrated to Canada 30 years prior but returned to China to marry, eventually having children in China. An adept businessman, he had also bought a store in China that eventually expanded to four stores, which were meant to support his wife and kids and later his retirement. But after he returned to Canada to continue working, the Sino-Japanese war began and things would take a turn for the worse. First, his stores were destroyed by a Japanese bombing campaign and later two separate bombing campaigns would result in the death of two of his children and his wife. The money that had been stolen from Mark had been money he was saving for his children back home, along with money he raised for the Chinese war relief fund.

The story of William Mark sadly highlights an all-too-common story for the Chinese community during the war years. While many other immigrant groups were able to bring their wives and families to Canada and keep them safe, the Chinese were unable to do so. One effect was that many would lose contact with their families after the outbreak of war, not knowing if their families were alive or dead.  Additionally, the war made sending money back home incredibly difficult. As these Chinese men in Canada were the main source of income for their families it forced the wives and children of these men to have to find alternative ways of making money to feed and shelter themselves.  In the case of William Mark, his wife was forced to leave her village in order to find work to support the family, only to tragically die soon after.  Unfortunately, we do not have the rest of William Mark’s story but considering the fact of war and the death of his wife, his children likely suffered greatly.

Although this is a story from our past, the impact of the Chinese Immigration Act can still be seen in Mississauga today through the family of Jeannette Chau. While Jeannette and her family originally immigrated to Toronto, today Jeannette and her family live here in Mississauga. The story of her father Tung Lok Chau, and her grandfather, Fut Jun Chau, speak directly to the issue of family separation during the Exclusion Era.

In 1921 Jeannette’s Grandfather Fut Jun Chau immigrated to Toronto at 13 to seek work and make money for his family back in China. As mentioned earlier, there were very few options for marriage here in Canada, so when he came of age, he made the trip back to China in order to marry. It was then that he married Jeannette’s grandmother Mu Ling Lui with whom he would have one child, Jeannette’s father Tung Lok Chau. However, due to the Chinese Immigration Act, Fut Jun Chau could not bring his wife and son to Canada with him, so Mu Ling had to raise Tung Lok in China on her own. During this period, they were still able to maintain contact, but that all changed with the start of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937. During this period, the family lost all contact with Fut Jun in Canada, as Mu Ling and Tung Lok had to flee where they had been living in China. The loss of contact during the war left Fut Jun Chau in limbo, wondering whether his wife and son were still alive, a story that was sadly all too common during this period for many Chinese Canadians. It would be years before Mu Ling was eventually able to contact her husband in Canada, and it was during this period of uncertainty that Fut Jun reluctantly felt the need to move on, ultimately marrying another woman.

Family Reunification

Even after the Chinese Immigration Act was abolished in 1947, the family reunification process took many years. In the case of Jeannette’s father, it was only after Jeanette’s grandmother, Mu Ling Lui, was able to contact Jeannette’s grandfather, Fut Jun Chau, that eventually Fut Jun was able to bring over his son to Canada in 1954. This was seven years after the repeal of the Chinese Immigration Act. Due to the many years of separation, reuniting with his father in many ways was like meeting a stranger.

Census reports on the sex ratio of Peel region's Chinese community may give us hints as to how long reunification took. Likely, many of the women listed in subsequent census reports after 1947 were wives married to men in the area, though this cannot be verified as census data past 1931 are not yet available. With that said, the sex ratio can hint at how long it took for families to be reunited in Mississauga. However, it is also important to remember that these statistics are for Peel Region at large, and do not represent Mississauga solely.

Looking at the census report of 1941, which was the last census before the end of the Chinese Immigration Act, we can see that out of the 77 Chinese people living in Peel Region, 7 were females.  By 1951, the first census after the end of the Chinese Immigration Act, there were 17 Chinese women out of the 91 total Chinese (19%).  By 1961, this number increased to 53 Chinese women out of the 142 total Chinese (37%).  It was only by 1971, after the introduction of the Points System, that we would see the gender ratio become close to even, with there being 355 Chinese women out of the total population of 655 Chinese individuals (54%). Indeed, the statistics show that it took many years for Peel's Chinese community to recover from the discriminatory immigration laws in the early 20th century.  

Overall, Canada’s immigration policy towards the Chinese community up until 1947 tore families apart and led to loneliness and isolation. Through the limited primary sources we have, we can see that the Chinese in Mississauga faced similar issues of separation from their wives and children back in China through census data and newspaper articles. Additionally, this separation did not end immediately with the repeal of the Chinese Immigration Act but took decades for many to finally be reunited with their families. For many, the years of separation left an indelible scar on the population, with husbands, wives and children reduced to strangers.