Reaching Gold Mountain
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REACHING GOLD MOUNTAIN REACHING GOLD MOUNTAIN: DIASPORIC LABOUR NARRATIVES IN CHINESE CANADIAN LITERATURE AND FILM BY MALISSA PHUNG, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Malissa Phung, April 2016 McMaster University DOCTORATE OF PHILOSOPHY (2016) Hamilton, Ontario (English) TITLE: Reaching Gold Mountain: Diasporic Labour Narratives in Chinese Canadian Literature and Film AUTHOR: Malissa Phung, B.A. (University of Alberta), M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor Donald Goellnicht NUMBER OF PAGES: x, 289 ii LAY ABSTRACT This project examines representations of Chinese labour and Asian-Indigenous relations in Chinese Canadian literature and film. By focusing on how Chinese Canadian writers and artists honour and remember the nation-building contributions and sacrifices of Chinese labourers in stories set in Canada during the period of anti-Chinese legislation policies such as the Chinese Head Tax and the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act, this thesis provides a critical look at the values and ideologies that these narratives may draw upon. It asks whether it is possible for writers and artists to commemorate Chinese labour stories without also extending the colonization of Indigenous peoples, forgetting the history of Asian-Indigenous relationships, or promoting work ethic values that may hinder community building with Indigenous peoples and respecting Indigenous ways of living and working off the land. This study explores questions of history, memory, national belonging, social justice, decolonization, and relationship building. iii ABSTRACT This project provides a coalitional reading of Chinese Canadian literature, film, and history based on an allegorical framework of Asian-Indigenous relationalities. It tracks how Chinese labour stories set during the period of Chinese exclusion can not only leverage national belonging for Chinese settlers but also be reread for a different sense of belonging that remains attentive to other exclusions made natural by settler colonial discourses and institutional structures, that is, the disavowal of Indigenous presence and claims to sovereignty and autochthony. It contributes to important discussions about the experiences of racism and oppression that typically privilege the relations and tensions of diasporic and Indigenous communities but hardly with each other. What is more, this study aligns with a recent surge of interest in investigating Asian-Indigenous relations in Asian Canadian, Asian American, and Asian diaspora studies. The political investments driving this project show a deep commitment to anti- racist and decolonial advocacy. By examining how Chinese cultural workers in Canada have tried to do justice to the Head Tax generation’s experiences of racial exclusion and intersectional oppressions in fiction, non-fiction, graphic non-fiction, and documentaries, it asks whether there are ways to ethically assert an excluded and marginalized Chinese presence in the context of the settler colonial state. By doing justice to the exclusion of Chinese settlers in the national imaginary, do Chinese cultural workers as a result perform an injustice to the originary presence of Indigenous peoples? This thesis re-examines the anti-racist imperative that frames Chinese labour stories set during the period of Chinese exclusion in Canada: by exploring whether social justice projects by racially marginalized iv Ph.D. Thesis – Malissa Phung; McMaster University – English and Cultural Studies. communities can simultaneously re-assert an excluded racialized presence and honour their treaty rights and responsibilities, it works to apprehend the colonial positionality of the Chinese diaspora within the Canadian settler state. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The knowledge that informs this work comes from my experiences as a second generation settler descendant of Sino-Vietnamese immigrants who have resettled on the territories of the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakado, and Tongva peoples. I am honoured and privileged to currently live and work as an uninvited guest on the territories of the Huron-Wendat, Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Completing this project would not have been possible had it not been for the love, support, and guidance of many. I remain deeply indebted to the following mentors, family members, and friends. I must thank the members of my supervisory committee: Donald Goellnicht, my thesis supervisor, snake mother, and confidante, who always believed in me even when I forced him to play the heavy; Daniel Coleman, my first reader and pedagogical mentor, always encouraging and graciously patient with my relentless ideas and approaches over the years; Nadine Attewell, my second reader and woman scholar of colour mentor, who has helped me sharpen my theorizing and feminist awareness so I can navigate in and out of academic contexts with more confidence and power; and Helene Strauss, my former second reader, who assisted me in the beginning stages of putting together a project that would have the most meaning to me. I must also thank Larissa Lai, my external examiner, and Rita Wong, my intellectual/poet/activist/feminist heroes, for not only attending my defense but writing such impactful poems, stories, and scholarly criticism over the years. Your creative and vi Ph.D. Thesis – Malissa Phung; McMaster University – English and Cultural Studies. critical works have influenced me in multifaceted ways. When I grow up, I want to be like the both of you! Thank you for sharing the gift of your vision. I must thank my family for loving me unconditionally and imparting the knowledge and understanding that I needed to write this dissertation. This is your collective footnote: Ngoc Luu, my mum; Thanh Luu and Thu Hung Luu, my Poh Poh and late Gong Gong; Hoa Phung, my Ba; Ha Moc Phung and Dao Hang Phung, my Ah Ma and Ah Ye; Khoi Nguyen, my late stepfather; and Vi Nguyen, my one and only em. Cám Ơn. I must also thank my partner Aaron Surty, the love of my life, and the Surty family—Soli, Lily, and James—for welcoming me into their lives at such a crucial finishing stage. Having a warm roof, full belly, and time off from teaching after I ran out of graduate funding gave me the time and space that I needed to push through the final chapters and revisions. Thank you for your unconditional support and generosity. As for my chosen family, friends, and colleagues, who have stood by me when all I wanted to do was hide in my mole hole, thank you for listening, thank you for all the positive vibes and encouragement over the years, for trying to understand the parameters of my diss, and of course, for commiserating with me via text/FB/email and exchanging bellyaching laughs over many bowls and plates of grub: Jennifer Adese, the bff I wish I had in high school; Jessie Forsyth, my daily check-in partner; Sandra Isaacs Muse, fellow poetess/land defender; Sharlee Reimer, shoe sister/original work date buddy; Carolyn Veldstra, cohort buddy/girl talk expert; Vinh Nguyen, running partner/brother from another mother; Kasim Husain, former roomie/GW partner; Cassel Busse, fellow feminist vii Ph.D. Thesis – Malissa Phung; McMaster University – English and Cultural Studies. rage builder; Kenneth Huynh, the Sino-Vietnamese academic brother I’ve always wanted; Colleen Daniher, my Asian Adjacent; Phanuel Antwi, my other other; Asha Jeffers, laugh sister/karaoke partner; Tom Laughlin, coh-bro comrade; Chris Andersen, diss bootcamp supervisor from an alternate dimension; Samuel Lopka, creative muse; Carla Hedin, soul mate/other laugh sister; and Kim Nanuan, MX/feminist philosopher woman of colour I’ve always looked up to. Last but not least, I must dedicate this project to my estranged relations, Aunt Sheila and my two cousins. May we be reunited once again. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 This Is Not Our Land: All We Have Are Labour Stories Where Are Our Stories? 1 Epistemological Origins 10 Disappearing Moon Café: An Allegorical Framework 20 CHAPTER ONE 49 Migrant Dreams for Yellow Rock: The Myth of Gold Mountain Introduction 49 Gum San: The Land of Yellow Rock 52 Land Relations 61 The Rush for Mythic Gold 65 “a foreign land of white ghosts” 70 Sojourning the Earth for Property and Personhood 78 CHAPTER TWO 93 Working to Belong: Confucian and Protestant Settlers in Chinese Canadian Literature Introduction 93 Settler Labour Narratives 95 Work Ethic Ideologies 99 Model Minorities, Model Nation Builders: Rewriting Yellow Perilism 107 Confucian Patriarchy, Hegemonic Masculinities 118 “Be a Gum Saan Man!” 118 “‘making a mountain by accumulating the sand’” 125 Model Settlers, Unruly Women: Bearing Diaspora and the Settler Nation 132 Model Dream House 132 Matriarchal Abjection 142 Asian-Indigenous Proximities 154 “catch[ing] fish like the Indians did” 154 ix Ph.D. Thesis – Malissa Phung; McMaster University – English and Cultural Studies. CHAPTER THREE 165 Re-Reading the Archive of Chinese Exclusion in Richard Fung’s Dirty Laundry and Karen Cho’s In the Shadow of Gold Mountain Introduction 165 Narrative Impulse in Dirty Laundry (1994) 170 Pedagogical Imperative: In the Shadow of Gold Mountain (2004) 174 Postmemory of Chinese Exclusion 179 Reclaiming (Queer) Intimacy in the Archive of Chinese Exclusion 189 Multiple Absences Haunting the CPR 210 Decolonial Lessons from the Archive of Chinese Exclusion 226 CONCLUSION 235 Asian-Indigenous Relationalities: Literary Gestures of Respect and Indebtedness Epistemology of Respect and Gratitude 235 Literary Gestures of Indebtedness 243 Migrant/Refugee Gratitude: “the best gift of all” 250 “How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?” 260 WORKS CITED 265 x Ph.D. Thesis – Malissa Phung; McMaster University – English and Cultural Studies. INTRODUCTION This Is Not Our Land: All We Have Are Labour Stories It happened at a meeting between an community in northwest British Columbia and some government officials. The officials claimed the land for the government. The natives were astonished by the claim. They couldn’t understand what those relative newcomers were talking about.