Cantonese migrant networks, white supremacy, and the political utility of apologies in Canada

ABSTRACT

Using the specific example of the attempts of the municipal government of Vancouver in 2018 and the provincial government of British Columbia in 2014 to apologise for historical anti-Chinese legislation in Canada, this paper illustrates how Cantonese migrant networks shaped and were shaped by the politics of white supremacy in Pacific white-settler nations, and argues that historical narratives about historical anti-Chinese discrimination that erupt at these moments of apology and reconciliation aspire to shape future politics by producing historical frames for civil society that are broadly inclusive and based primarily neither on ethnic identification nor shared exclusion in the past but on aspirational narratives of more inclusive belonging in the future. They also provide at the same time a narrative of belonging for migrants who trace ancestry to very different parts of China and with divergent identities and migratory pathways to identify with each other’s histories and to belong to a ‘Chinese’ diasporic past and future marked by resistance to racism and white supremacy in Pacific settler colonies such as Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Included in this future are Chinese who were excluded in the past, allowing those who identify as Chinese a path for belonging.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese migration
• migration networks
• Chinese diaspora
• Cantonese
• government apologies

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.