DIRECTED BY WILLIAM GING WEE DERE AND MALCOLM GUY
PRODUCED BY MALCOLM GUY, PRODUCTIONS MULTI-MONDE
DISTRIBUTED BY CINEMA LIBRE, 4067, BOUL. ST. LAURENT, SUITE 403
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, H2N1Y7, CANADA
1993. 85 minutes
Reviewed by Cindy Hing-Yuk Wong
In this informative and empathetic documentary, the filmmakers follow individual and family history to try to interpret Chinese roles in Canadian history. In many respects, this work complements other Chinese-Canadian fictional works like Bone, and Half Moon Cafe. It may also provide context and counterpoint for the recent Chinese-Canadian feature-length film, Double Happiness by Mina Shum. Together, these works address the multicultural landscape of contemporary Canada with its ever-growing Asian populations, and should raise questions for students about the differences among Chinese diasporas.
William Ging Wee Dere and Malcolm Guy present the film as a quest for Dere’s personal history. To learn who he is, he seeks his roots: what kind of lives his father and grandfather led, especially as Chinese-Canadians in the early 1900s under various forms of institutional racism.
Chinese-Canadian history shares many traits with that of the U.S., including restrictive immigration and bachelor societies. Canada imposed a head tax of $500 on Chinese immigration from 1885 to 1923, followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring all Chinese immigration to Canada. The film uses these events and the later compensation/redress of this head tax to provide a basic structure. Within this, the documentary loosely follows chronology and geography from Dere’s family home in southern China, to those of his grandfather and father who first came to Vancouver, and finally to Montreal. Dere’s ancestors were laborers and laundrymen, subjected to unjust legislations. After much struggle, with Chinese-Canadians’ involvement in the Second World War and the subsequent repeal of the immigration act, Dere, his mother, and siblings all immigrated to Montreal. With the redress of the head tax, Chinese-Canadians, who survived many different forms of prejudice, have finally become full citizens of Canadian society. The film ends with a ritual visit to the ancestors’ graves, including Dere’s daughter opening a new, yet continuous, phase in Chinese-Canadian history.
Dere and Guy have assembled and interpreted varied materials—first-person narration, archival news headlines, photos, TV news, footage of family gatherings, Chinatown scenes, and interviews with family members and friends. These are interspersed with solo performances by Chinese-Canadian artists to weave the histories of the Dere family and Chinese-Canadian families together since the turn of the century. While it is refreshing to see the filmmaker in the film, making reference to his own role in making this documentary and inserting his own voice to the text, the film remains a largely non-selfconscious autobiography. Dere’s voice-over sometimes becomes too overpowering and one-dimensional even as it celebrates the long struggle of his family and all Chinese-Canadians. Furthermore, no contextualization deals with other Chinese populations of Canada today, such as recent Hong Kong immigrants.
Overall, nonetheless, the film provides a wide-ranging and informative history of Chinese-Canadian life. The topic merits even more explorations within the constantly changing landscape and peoples of Canada.