Opened a new blog. Will post on school adventures. Queen of Scots for everything else :) Will have recipes at some point. Very fresh, still. Don't hesitate to leave comments!
http://nocutsnoglory.wordpress.com/
http://nocutsnoglory.wordpress.com/
Friday 11 October 2013
Thursday 3 October 2013
Hongcouver
Warning: the following contains stereotypes and generalisations. Please do not be offended. Remember: not all opinions are mine; I am a descriptive writer and an anthropologist. ;-)
So Vancouver is generally seen as a very multi-culturally-comfortable city. People from all across the world flock here to live in one of the most liveable cities on the planet. And in the broad scheme of things, everyone is welcome.
Immigrants are not a new phenomenon to this area. Let's not forget that George Vancouver arrived here on a boat himself. Strangely though, as with many areas in the world that were taken over by the White Man in or around the Golden Age, there are definitive boundaries to this broadly advertised xenotolerance, that have surprised me in the last couple of weeks.
Canadians are a friendly people. That is a massive cliché, only because it is true. There is an almost Asian tendency to apologise, an American sense of customer service and an unexpected (by a Dutchie) level of politeness and cheer in almost everyone here. Btw, I think staying here for a while is definitely making me a better person, if only for those three things, but more on that some other time.
Now to get to the crux of the matter: There are a LOT of Chinese people here. Not at all illogical, with the Great Communist State so close by on the other end of the pond, but still. It's striking. Vancouver is nicknamed Hongcouver for it. Some families have been here for generations, some have just arrived. Most of them well integrated and fluent in the language, some not so much. Many Chinese have a tendency to stick within their own communities while abroad. Hence, all the lovely China Towns in all metropolitains, but sticking to your own group can cause friction. Therein lies the problem. 'Canadians' can become vocal in their dislike of the Chinese, and consequentially all things Asian. (Gosh, where have I heard this before....)
The most heard complaint is that wealthy mainland Chinese are driving up the housing prices by buying million(s) dollar properties in cash, living there only for a short period of time before moving back to China, renting out the house for a high price or stationing their UBC-going kids in it, leaving them in charge of the Ferrari. Really; if you see an obscenely expensive car in this city, chances are pretty high a very young Asian boy is driving it.
Xenophobia is of all ages (see the 19th century quote at the top of this blog), and of all places, unfortunately. Still, naively, I had Vancouver pegged as a beacon of multi-culturalism (yeah...naive). Actually, I was quite shocked to hear some very obvious racial slurs on the streets of Van, directed at Chinese. From a cyclist, ignoring a stop sign, yelling "get out of the way you f-ing Chinese", to a man on the bus swearing under his breath about his two neighbors happily chatting away in Chinese, and another man explaining to my mother and me that the situation in which a woman stupidly left her car in the middle of an intersection after a hit and run was obviously due to an ESL-problem (English as a second language).
Anyway, a very positive thing about having East Asia this close is the abundance of good 'Asian' restaurants to balance out the North American establishments. Starting a night out with a smoked meat Poutine and ending it with high-end sushi is completely possible (and, evidently, delicious).
Click for further reading on Chinese immigrants in Vancouver
"We want here a white man's community with civilized habits and religious aspirations, and not a community of 'Heathen Chinese' who can never assimilate with us, or do ought to elevate us, and who can be of no possible value to a state in any capacity other than that of drawers of water and hewers of wood."
- Benjamin Pearse, British Columbia's surveyor general from 1872 - 1872
Immigrants are not a new phenomenon to this area. Let's not forget that George Vancouver arrived here on a boat himself. Strangely though, as with many areas in the world that were taken over by the White Man in or around the Golden Age, there are definitive boundaries to this broadly advertised xenotolerance, that have surprised me in the last couple of weeks.
Canadians are a friendly people. That is a massive cliché, only because it is true. There is an almost Asian tendency to apologise, an American sense of customer service and an unexpected (by a Dutchie) level of politeness and cheer in almost everyone here. Btw, I think staying here for a while is definitely making me a better person, if only for those three things, but more on that some other time.
Now to get to the crux of the matter: There are a LOT of Chinese people here. Not at all illogical, with the Great Communist State so close by on the other end of the pond, but still. It's striking. Vancouver is nicknamed Hongcouver for it. Some families have been here for generations, some have just arrived. Most of them well integrated and fluent in the language, some not so much. Many Chinese have a tendency to stick within their own communities while abroad. Hence, all the lovely China Towns in all metropolitains, but sticking to your own group can cause friction. Therein lies the problem. 'Canadians' can become vocal in their dislike of the Chinese, and consequentially all things Asian. (Gosh, where have I heard this before....)
The most heard complaint is that wealthy mainland Chinese are driving up the housing prices by buying million(s) dollar properties in cash, living there only for a short period of time before moving back to China, renting out the house for a high price or stationing their UBC-going kids in it, leaving them in charge of the Ferrari. Really; if you see an obscenely expensive car in this city, chances are pretty high a very young Asian boy is driving it.
Xenophobia is of all ages (see the 19th century quote at the top of this blog), and of all places, unfortunately. Still, naively, I had Vancouver pegged as a beacon of multi-culturalism (yeah...naive). Actually, I was quite shocked to hear some very obvious racial slurs on the streets of Van, directed at Chinese. From a cyclist, ignoring a stop sign, yelling "get out of the way you f-ing Chinese", to a man on the bus swearing under his breath about his two neighbors happily chatting away in Chinese, and another man explaining to my mother and me that the situation in which a woman stupidly left her car in the middle of an intersection after a hit and run was obviously due to an ESL-problem (English as a second language).
Anyway, a very positive thing about having East Asia this close is the abundance of good 'Asian' restaurants to balance out the North American establishments. Starting a night out with a smoked meat Poutine and ending it with high-end sushi is completely possible (and, evidently, delicious).
Click for further reading on Chinese immigrants in Vancouver
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