The Hong Kong Chinese Community :: essays research papers

The Hong Kong Chinese Community     The Hong Kong Chinese community is an affluent, educated, and humppopulation in the Greater Toronto Area. The enigma is why they have only mademarginal inroads into the political arna.Olivia cabbage, a Metro councilor representing the Downtown harbor says "thiscommunity has potential to be very powerful...its nowhere near its potential."Chow is the highest-profile Hong Kong expatriate to win elected office in theGTA. Others include tammy Goosen, Soo Wong, Carrie Cheng, and Peter Lam.Many are convinced that the reason is because Hong Kong "is a compoundplace where they had no say in government whatsoever." "In Hong Kong, theresnever been any democratic procedure until a few years ago." "Chinese culturethrough thousands of years has never had an elected-representative type ofWestern res worlda system. So its not a surprise...(Hong Kong) is not a placewhere lot exercise their democratic rights. " There is a very common tactual sensationthat you should not offend or challenge authority.People have mazed a lot of confidence in politicians because of poorexamples provided by on-going tensions between Communist China and nationalistTaiwan. "We have to educate them and reassure them administration in North America andCanada is very different from what they motto of politics in Hong Kong and China."Dr. Joseph Wong, whose community activism has earned him the Order ofCanada, thinks that despite changes in Chinese attitudes, fear is still anobstacle towards political evolution. People are not afraid to demand for equalrights but the so-called mainstream politics and elected office is stillbaffling to the Chinese. The Chinese communitys history in Canada also plays amajor role in its reluctance to gauge into politics. Following the completionof the Canadian Pacific Railway, the federal government oblige a heavy head taxon new Chinese immigrants. Only from the la te 1960s and early 1970s, theTrudeau government liberalization of immigration that Chinese plurality came toCanada from Hong Kong. In 1979 , he organized a expression to urge thefederal government to admit more "boat people" - community members were appalled."Dont rock the boat" was exactly what they said. They said that Canada hadgiven them a shelter and they should not demand any rights.Later that year, W5 - a CTV public affairs program - aired a segmentcalled Campus Giveaway, which was about Chinese students taking over Canadianuniversities and leaving Canadian students out in the cold. Within 2 to 3months, there were 16 anti-W5 committees. The protest in the end forced W5 tooffer an unqualified apology. Those 16 groups went on to form the Chinese