I was just writing to a friend about the Chinese Exclusion Act in Canada during the late 1800's to early 1900's. I sent her a copy of Price List from my Grandfather's hand laundry which he owned with several partners back in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Despite the incredible Head Tax that was levied against Chinese workers at that time -- as much as $500 a person -- they still managed to come in large numbers to seek their fortunes in North America. $500 represented two years wages at that time so it was no small feat to save up that much money to pay for the opportunity to come to Gim Sun (Chinese for The Gold Mountain; the Gold Rush was so legendary in China it was rumored that even the streets were lined with gold.)There is a growing dissent among the Chinese descendants of immigrant Chinese in Canada that the government should pay compensation for their very racist policies of the time. I for one had been very much against such types of payments as I believe that the past is gone and we should simply move on. However, my brother made a good point: The Canadian Government not only made it difficult for Chinese men to immigrate but also managed to exclude women and children and families from coming with them. Our Mother would likely have come over earlier and my brothers and I would have been born earlier, allowing us more time to spend with them as they got old. As it is, my own children barely remember Grandpa and Grandma at all as they passed away in the early 90's. While all of that is water under the bridge, the fact of the matter is that the Government took in something like $25 million in Head Tax, most of which was pure profit and levied only against Chinese immigrants. In today's dollars, that translates into something like $1.3 billion (without interest!)! Maybe a simple refund of the Head Tax to the direct descendants in today's dollars would be in order? The Canadian Government has so far refused to address this issue.
Anyway, I digress... Check out this price list for the Sam Wah Laundry, note that the prices are in cents NOT dollars. Men's Shirts were 15¢ and Dresses ranged from 15 - 35¢ apiece. What was more remarkable was that Granddad and his partners all still managed to save enough money to retire back to China as wealthy men. Granddad actually owned a huge mansion back in the family village along with the local general store and stable as well as another house in a town nearby. All this despite the fact that they stacked the odds against him when he arrived in Canada. Unfortunately, when the Communists took over, Granddad and his family had everything confiscated and they were literally tossed out into the street with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
2 comments:
Excellent post. I'd like to see an entire series with views on immigration by the affected persons or their direct descendents. This is interesting stuff and can be directly related to our existing situation vis a vis immigration policies.
Robert,
I remember in Milwaukee, WI, 1946 or 47, being with my mother, who in her general ditziness, neglected to bring the claim check for my father's shirts (no starch, collar; lite starch, cuffs) to a Chinese hand laundry.
The overworked owner, who had undoubtedly heard every excuse about why a customer could not produce the legal claim for the shirts, said to her (and I kid you not, as these words were burned into my memory), "No tickee, no washee!"
Such is both the minutia of Personal memory, National mythology, and an example of the impedimenta to which all of our immigrant relatives had to put up with.
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