Chapter 8 - by Intikhab Amir

‘Canadians born in immigrant families: neither this nor that’

Canadians born in immigrant families happen to have their own strange problems. They usually are caught between two cultures. They find themselves between the devil and deep blue sea. They are caught between the cultural influences of their adopted country and their parents’ native country.

Sek-Lung is one such example, a Canadian born in a Chinese immigrant family. His Grade One teacher at Strathcona School calms him “Sekky,” because, “it was more Canadian.” He also seems convinced with the idea since he has not got ‘no Old China history in his brain.’ “Different root, different flowers,” Grandmother believes.

But, these children tend to have peculiar problems. They grow amidst an identity crisis. They are neither Chinese nor Canadian – born without understanding the boundaries, no brain.

Choy helps the reader to understand these children’s problems. They don’t enjoy good command over their parents’ native language, they lack the understanding about rankings for acquaintances and relatives used in their parents’ native language. In Sek-Lung’s case, the Chinese rankings were overwhelming and mind-boggling. “For every one term in English, like ‘First Cousin’ or ‘Aunt,’ there were ten Chinese terms. Jesus, for example, had something like eleven brothers and sisters whose Chinese kinship terms, as a footnote, took up half the page.”

“These rankings,” Kiam agreed, “they’re more confusing than Confucius.” For him Chinese is confusing, whereas English words seemed more forthright and blunt, but there were no English words to match the Chinese perplexities.

Sek-Lung’s Grandmother’s friend Mrs. Lim wants to make him believe that he was a Chinese. He considers himself a Canadian. At times, he gets so exhausted that he wishes that his skin would turn white, hair go brown, eyes widen and turn blew.

But cultural integration without economic prosperity remains a far cry. Learning English does not guarantee immigrants’ chances to get a good job. Despite learning English and going to universities immigrants remain unemployable ‘because only Canadian citizens could qualify as professionals.”

“For if you were Chinese, even if you were born in Canada, you were an educated alien – never to be a citizen, never a Canadian with right to vote –‘an educated fool’ in the words of some old China men, or a ‘hopeful fool’ in the words of those who knew the world would soon change.” There seems to be no shortage of ‘hopeful fools’ even in today’s Canada.