By Bill Chu  

Why reconciliation? There are voices saying, ”Forget it and move on”; “Why rock the boat when we are doing well?”; and “What good would acknowledging our history do?”    

Someone else has said, “Peace is not a lack of war.”

Peace is also not a subservient coexistence with  another group that has expressed no acknowledgement or remorse  for discriminating against  the Chinese for a century.

Reconciliation is about bringing back such groups to hear the truth in history, to express appropriate remorse, and to undertake to treat each other with respect.

Secondly there is the issue of our identity. For the Chinese in the diaspora, they lack an appropriate historical frame of reference.

If they orient themselves only toward China’s history, then they soon will find themselves and be seen as being irrelevant in their new countries.

If they orient themselves toward their new country’s history, the problem is most new countries they end up with—like Canada, the  USA, Australia, New Zealand, etc.—have a hidden but long history of discrimination against the Chinese.

Here in B.C., without the current culture and curriculum painting Chinese as cofounders and builders of the province, non-Chinese will see themselves as the hosts and the Chinese as guests. This will likely  result in inequities from school playgrounds to work.

Since discrimination dies hard as we happen to live near the former epicentre of racism against the Chinese, we have little choice but to seek reconciliation.  

For older Chinese-Canadians, they might know some history of the Chinese pioneers. But since that is not acknowledged by the bigger society, it often becomes a deep  and heavy secret in their hearts.

A World War II veteran once lamented to me that in a few years, all the veterans will be gone and so would be the stories and history of their era.

Still others, because of their unacknowledged history, continue to subconsciously behave as second-class citizens.

Without a history to position and guide them, the more affluent, newer Chinese immigrants settle down into a laid-back living.

They become part of a massive consumer society, but have little if any engagement in sharing the pains of this country—e.g. the plight of the Native people.

Ironically, we also fell into such a role in the former colony [Hong Kong]  where the given freedom is to make money. Will being a "consumer" be our identity and destiny? What if we become poor?  

For the less affluent, they will likely encounter more discrimination as the competition for white- and blue-collar work increases in a poor economy.

Such encounters do not generally inspire one to good citizenship or setting roots in Canada  

Finally we have to seek true reconciliation because we are seeing false reconciliation marked by the following signs:

1. False reconciliation trivializes the oppression. During BC150 celebrations, there were banquets and celebration in Victoria's Chinatown. We heard lots of political rhetoric about the contributions of the Chinese. However the province did not and still has not acknowledged its horrific history against tens and thousands of Chinese, nor has it considered incorporating that into B.C.’s school curriculum.

2.  False reconciliation bypasses the victims. This year New Westminster is planning its 150th birthday celebration. On April 4, we contacted the  mayor and  council and asked them to consider incorporating redemptive actions toward Chinese Canadians.

On April 21 they sent back a simple acknowledgement of our e-mail, while on April 9, they quietly called the president and VP of CBA [Chinese Benevolent Association]  of Vancouver to go to New Westminster.

These two had been informed by me of the historical wrongs by New Westminster towards the Chinese, yet they chose to agree without conditions to participate in the New Westminster  150th anniversary  parade.

In so doing, New Westminster bypasses the victims: all Chinese Canadians except two.

In fact, the city  even bypassed CBA of Canada, which is the group historically connected with the former CBA of New Westminster. Instead they chose to contact CBA of Vancouver, which was formed only in the 1970s!

I suggest the bigger Chinese public should decide whether it is appropriate for any Chinese group to celebrate the history of a city  that has shown no remorse over its terrible treatment of our forefathers.

3. There is no apology. The province as well as  New Westminster  so far has expressed no apology for being the epicentre of racism against the Chinese. Without a sincere feeling of remorse, would any society turn from its discrimination toward the Chinese?

Amid a rising China, B.C.’s white elites and politicians are flocking to China. Would Chinese both here and there be fooled into thinking that this  province had always been good to the Chinese?

Bill Chu is president of Canadians for Reconciliation. This is a slightly edited version of a speech he gave today in East Vancouver.