Canada seems like an unglamorous place to go in a world that offers London, New York and Paris.
But Cantonese people have been going there since June 28, 1858, when Lee Chong and 300 other men arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, to join the gold rush. More than a million Chinese immigrants have followed. Between 1980 and 2000 alone, 362,000 people moved to Canada from Hong Kong.
When people started to leave Hong Kong before the 1997 handover, Vancouver and Toronto were their destinations of choice, but that would not always have been the case.
The 100 years that passed after Lee and his family settled in Victoria were not good times for Chinese-Canadians. They faced racism from people of European ancestry who feared being overwhelmed by Asian immigration.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Chinese were denied the right to vote, effectively banning them from government jobs. A crushing head tax of up to C$500 (HK$2,960) was imposed on Chinese immigrants, in part to discourage labourers from bringing their families from China and settling down. At the time, it was enough money to buy two houses.
As the number of Chinese in Canada increased, so too did tensions. In 1907, an anti-Asian riot swept through Vancouver's Chinatown, destroying many businesses. In 1917 and 1918, the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia made it illegal for Chinese-owned restaurants and laundries to hire Caucasian women.
Finally, from 1923 to 1947, the Chinese Immigration Act banned almost all immigration from China to Canada.
