Film Exercise 1: In the Shadow of Gold Mountain PDF

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Reflection and answers to question about the documentary "In the Shadow of Gold Mountain" with link...

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Humanities 345-101-MQ Dawson College rofessor Jared Toney

Riad Rzaini (

36580)

Film Exercise 1: In the Shadow of Gold Mountain https://www.nfb.ca/film/in_the_shadow_of_gold_mountain/ Why did Chinese migrants choose to come to Canada? How were they treated once they arrived and resettled in Canada? Chinese migrants decided to come to Canada because of the “financial” opportunity that working in Canada would give them. A lot of chinese migrants came from the poor working class such as farmers and industrial workers. Ths opportunity attracted the chinese working class to come working on the railroads to “get back rich” (as the speaker said). Once they arrived, the migrants were nearly treated as slaves as they had to spend a lot of time in their assigned “house” which felt like a prison. They were paid as little as 1$ per day. Racial discrimination took place as they were pushed to crate a Chinese guetto known as Chinatown. What was the head tax? Why did it specifically target Chinese immigrants? The head tax was enacted to restrict chinese immigration in Canada. It was a tax especially made for chinese due to a racist ideology meant to “protect” the white labour from losing their jobs.

What effect did the Exclusion Act have on Chinese families? Do you think the present-day Canadian government should compensate (redress) Chinese Canadians today for the head tax that their ancestors paid? Why or why not? The Exclusion Act had a devastating impact on chinese families because they could not migrate to Canada which caused the workers to be separated from their families for a long time. (23 years for one of the interviewed men). The Canadian government should compensate families who have proof that their ancestors paid the Head tax. I personally think that the compensation should be a tax exemption, not a refund with inflation interests because the government would have to spend as much as 3 billion dollars from taxpayers pocket which wasn’t their fault nor the present government's. This solution serves as a symbolic apology to, at least, acknowledge this horrible past.

Humanities 345-101-MQ Dawson College Profe r Jared Toney

Riad Rzaini

80)

Near the end of the film, one speaker suggests that this is “living history.” What does he mean by this? In what ways is Chinese Exclusion still relevant to present-day Canadian society? What the speaker meant was that this history is still relveant among the present Candian society. A lot of families are still suffering from this separation with their loved one, childrens of the same family may be living different lives with different cultures since they were separated at a young age. This racist and inhuman treatment brought enormous repercussions to present families who simply and rightfully so, cannot forget their difficult past. For instance, even the 83 year old men (Gim Wong), is still very emotional when he is asked about discrimination incidents that happened when he attended Canadian schools. Some memories stick with us no matter what......