Who Built the Canadian Pacific Railway? Chinese Workers from Hoisan Josie Chan Traditional Canadian historiography, at least until the in South China. Hlee Yep comprises Four Districts Charter of Rights and Freedoms of 1982 spurred a along the southern belly of China and the Pearl River more multicultural mandate, has excluded immigrant Delta and is geographically the most distant region and aboriginal stories told by themselves. There are from Guangzhou (Canton). Hlam Yep, in contrast, Chinese voices in the academy now, but they speak comprises the three counties closest to Gong Jiu, and only from a post-World War II perspective. This is a it consequently enjoys economic benefits derived laudable step towards recognizing racial diversity, from its proximity to the capital. Within Hlee Yep the but racial diversity is not only visual (red, yellow, county furthest from urban economic benefit was black, white and brown) but also linguistic. Within Hoisan (aka Taishan or Toysan), and consequently its each ethnic category there is a sonic diversity. The people led the exodus to Gold Mountain. Residents post-war presentation of Chinese in Canadian history from the Hlee Yep region comprised 62.7% of the imposes the Cantonese dialect, but in reality Chinese Chinese CPR workforce. By contrast, only 2.5% of immigrants spoke and still speak a variety of differ- the same workforce came from Hlam Yep. The di- ent dialects. The voices of Chinese railroad workers alect that Hlam Yep people speak has been simplified are scarce in Canada in part because of an oversim- to ‘Cantonese’ (or ‘provincial speech’) whereas the plification of a complex sonic diversity. Most of them Hlee Yep dialects are generally referred to as Hoisan came from a region in South China that had numer- Wah, Hoisanese or simply Hoisan. Hoisan was the ous dialects. In particular, it is significant that the dominant sound in North American Chinatowns until majority of labourers employed in building the Cana- the mid-1960s, but while statistics exist on Cantonese dian Pacific Railway through the Rockies spoke di- and Mandarin speakers in Canada today there are alects other than Cantonese. (Lai, 1977). none on Hoisan speakers. Hoisan thus represents a Most Chinese who worked on the Canadian Pa- significant gap in the soundscape of Canadian culture cific Railway in Alberta and British Columbia came and history. from the region of Hlee Yep (aka Sze Yi or Sei Yup) 62.7% of Chinese CPR workers were from the Four Districts of Hlee Yep (Li, 2000, 14, with my highlights and inset map) 14 Hoisan dialects are presented in various translitera- ing table gives the Hoisan (Taishanese) equivalents to tions throughout the English literature about Gold- names previously transliterated using national [Man- Mountain. There can easily be confusion in the trans- darin pinyin] and provincial [Cantonese, various sys- literation from Chinese to English because of the use tems] dialects. In transliterated Mandarin Taishanese of three different dialects by the transcribers (namely, (or Taishan Hua) is the equivalent term for Hoisanese Mandarin, Cantonese and Taishanese). The follow- (or Hoisan Wah). Most present-day popular representations of Chinese tonese or English. The majority of Chinese railroad railroad builders conspicuously omit any reference to workers’ descendants in Canada now speak English. the Hoisan dialect. In its place one finds either Can- In their search for roots, they will encounter many 15 stories of injustice and discrimination, such as those So far this has rarely been the case. The works in the scrawled on the walls of the Victoria Detention Cen- table below by writers of Chinese descent initiated tre and that on Angel Island in the USA. Another the discussion about early Chinese immigrants in form of discrimination has been the suppression of North America. However, none of the works men- their families’ original language. To rectify this tioned in the top portion of the second column of this omission it is important to ensure that the Hoisan table use the Hoisan dialect, although it was in fact dialect of the railroad builders is heard again. the dominant voice of the railroad builders. Works about Chinese Works by Chinese Works by Chinese railroad builders Royal Commission 1884 In the Shadow of Gold Mountain Wong Hau Hon Parliamentary Debates Ghost Train White Canada Forever Dragon's Gate Pierre Berton Iron Road Tim Rogers Canadian Steel, Chinese Grit China Men On Gold Mountain Angel Island Victoria Detention Centre Songs of Gold Mountain Works about Hoisanese Works by Hoisanese Works by Hoisan railroad builders Eighth Promise Uncle Ng ? Victoria Detention Centre Songs of Gold Mountain Angel Island Chinese immigrant stories in the anglophone North American Media Ignoring the Hoisanese dialect results in an inade- the following page. For example, current English- quate representation in this literature of railroad language works re-imagining their history include builders such as those shown in the photograph on Paul Yee’s play Ghost Train and Cahn Ka-Nin’s op- 16 era Iron Road. Both works are based on primary authentic voices from the recent past, they are not the sources (the personal documents of Chinatown resi- voices of railway workers themselves. For that one dents before the Head Tax era), and both equitably must look elsewhere. This is the story of my own and imaginatively portray females in leading roles. search to find those voices. Yet although they are valuable and in some ways Chinese Construction Workers Building Track in the Canadian Rockies While attending Freedom Asian Arts School in tional song. But they nonetheless possessed a distinct the summer of 2006,1 I saw the National Film Board musical culture of their own, and we need to research documentary, In the Shadow of Gold Mountain, made and reconstruct this as best we can. by Karen Cho in 2003. This is a well-contextualized Just as the Chinese railroad builders contributed personal history in which a third-generation half- to Canada as a nation, Chinese artists and profession- Chinese film director travels on the Canadian Pacific als are continuing that contribution, although they are Railway to find her roots. Along the way, she en- still relatively silent. However, more works have counters an old paw-paw (grandmother) whose Hoi- been forthcoming that are breaking the stereotype of san complaints are subtitled in English. This is be- the silent Chinese. The play Ghost Train (Yee, 1996) lievable, as I have met many a complaining Hoisan helped to break the silence, but what was heard was paw-paw. But during childhood visits to the Oxford English and Cantonese, not Hoisanese. Similarly, the Street Seniors’ Home, I would also hear tapes of opera Iron Road (Chan, 2000), and the documentary Chinese songs. Yet there is no Chinese or Chinese- Canadian Steel, Chinese Grit (Li, 2000), equate Can- Canadian music in the film, just a 1920s flapper tune tonese, rather than Hoisanese, with the spoken Chi- and a choir from a seniors’ home singing “O Cana- nese of the railroad builders. The documentary that da”. As an ethnomusicology student, I was surprised circulated in five Toronto middle schools to accom- and very disappointed by this omission. The Chinese pany viewings of Iron Road erroneously and rather seniors’ home’s chorus singing “O Canada” sounded nostalgically laid a Cantonese reading of a poem over more like a plea for state recognition, rather than an a classic Cantonese opera track. This collision of nos- assertion of cultural traditions or proud music- talgic sentiment and inaccurate dialect is abhorrent to making to earn public appreciation. How could this my ears. Moreover, Iron Road is primarily the voice well-intentioned film-maker overlook the musical of a Chinatown merchant from Sam Yup (The Three voice of Chinese Canada? After all, Cantonese operas Districts), which was closer to the capitol of Guang- are well-documented in Victoria’s Chinatown since zhou than Hlee Yep (Sei Yup, or The Four Districts). 1925. No doubt many Hoisan speakers did listen to But why slight the Hoisanese dialect when it has been and embrace the dominant musical culture of Canada, integral to the construction of this country? Those especially in public, and even in private Hoisanese poverty-stricken farmers turned railway labourers did did not necessarily express themselves through tradi- the most difficult work and still they receive the least 17 credit for it. How ironic that today’s Cantonese- Being so assimilated indicates that Clarkson’s pers- speaking Chinese community is perpetuating in itself pective does not differ from the dominant Canadian the very same lack of recognition that CPR foremen one, which is summarized in her own words: gave to their Chinese workers! This is surely based on an urban prejudice which labels Hoisan people as The Chinese workers first came here for the rail- intolerant ‘rednecks’, or at the very least cultureless way, and they were forgotten people in many ways, because they didn’t have a name, because ‘country bumpkins’. These socio-economic differ- they came in such huge numbers, because they ences are, to say the least, problematic when they were virtually indentured labour, like slaves, and distort history in this way. they died in great numbers as well. But they con- The problem is not limited to these four works. tributed an enormous amount to the building of Another example is a novel which romanticizes the this country. Without the railway, you wouldn’t railroading experience, China Men by Maxine Hong- have this country of Canada. (Li, 2000, 158). Kingston (1989). Moreover, in writings that tran- scribe Chinese poems and translate them into English How is this cultural erasure, albeit ‘well-intention- and in other accounts of the early Chinese immigrant ed’? The problem is that it perpetuates the standard experience, the transliterations of Chinese names and nationalist story of Canada’s genesis: that Canada places are in Cantonese.