Archives mensuelles : octobre 2011

«Les Chinois ne veulent pas apprendre le français et ne veulent pas s’intégrer dans la société québécoise». – Mythe ou réalité?

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«Qui ne voudrait pas apprendre le français, la langue de la majorité? »     – Kenneth Cheung

« Je me sens comme un sourd-muet, ne sais pas le français ici. »  – Dong Qing Chen

Pendant la réalisation de ce film, je n’ai rencontré aucun chinois au Québec qui ne veut pas apprendre le français. Les gens apprennent le français, soit par choix ou par nécessité, afin de trouver un emploi et survivre ici. La francophile Lya Wu Bin de Québec demande au gouvernement de faire plus, de donner aux minorités un sentiment de sécurité et moins de stress, pour les aider à intégrer et apprendre le français.

Apprendre la langue est une étape cruciale vers l’intégration, mais un sentiment d’égalité et d’accès égal au travail et aux institutions donnera les sino-québécois la possibilité d’intégrer complètement. Sans emploi, les minorités auront besoin d’aide pour apprendre la langue, la première étape vers l’intégration et à trouver un job.

Les parents qui travaillent, comme Lin et Ben He à Rimouski, ils font de gros efforts pour apprendre le français quand ils trouvent le temps, mais leur fils de 4 ans, Simon, va grandir parlant français avec un accent Rimouskois.

Les jeunes sino-québécois, grâce à la loi 101, parlent couramment le français. Mais leur combat reste celui de l’acceptation et de l’inclusion dans les réalités quotidiennes du Québec. Toutefois, leurs parents, les immigrants récents et les immigrants à venir, vont continuer à lutter pour l’intégration, avec ou sans l’aide des divers niveaux de gouvernements.

wgwd

From the Cutting Room Floor (2)

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“Sometimes what was left out may be as important as what was left in” –  A Wise Old Film Editor

We are entering the stage of the rough edit with our editor Meiyen Chan, who did such a masterful job editing “Moving the Mountain.”

Here are more provocative discoveries I made along the road that may or may not make the final cut.

  • Sophie Zhang’s and Rosalind Wong’s take on Chinese Canadian (CC) culture vs Sino-Quebecois culture is very interesting. Their feeling is that while there is a vibrant CC culture there is no such thing as a Sino-Quebec culture.
  •  Cedric Sam’s insights on media and lack of cultural representation of Chinese and other minorities may explain why Sino-Quebecois culture is pre-nascent. When he tried to set up an Asian club at the elite Collège Brébeuf, someone scribbled “Ghetto” over the poster.
  •  There are 95,000 Chinese in Quebec, 85,000 in metro Montreal. Only 4% of government jobs are filled by minorities (30% of population). Very few minorities are represented in the major institutions of Quebec. Is lack of representation in the mass media and mass culture linked to problems of integration and the lack of job opportunities for the Chinese and other minorities?
  •  Do young Chinese have a special passion for Quebec in order to stay here? That’s the question posed by Robert at the Chinese Social Club. Young Chinese in Quebec are products of Bill 101 which gives them better opportunities to integrate into the majority, while adopting the French language and Quebecois culture; they feel a sense of belonging here.  The question is more pointed at their parents and grandparents, why did they stay? Did they have the passion? Perhaps they didn’t have a choice.

We can look at these issues under the rubric of:

  • Cultural tension, assimilation, integration, cultural nationalism/chauvinism, interculturalists, multiculturalists, or just staking a place in Quebec, remaining true to one’s own identity, as in the case of Bethany’s uncle.

More later …..

From the Cutting Room Floor (1)

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“Sometimes what was left out may be as important as what was left in”                                                                                                                                                    –        A Wise Old Film Editor

We are entering the stage of the rough edit with our editor Meiyen Chan, who did such a masterful job editing “Moving the Mountain.”

Here are some of the more controversial discoveries I made along the road that may or may not make the final cut.

  • At the Jardins de Métis, where Bethany fell in love with Quebec, there came to light a historical alignment of stars between the development of Canadian capitalism and early Chinese immigrants. The Jardins de Métis is owned by the Reford family.
    • The summer home of Lord Mount Stephen, 1st president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), was built inside the present Jardins de Métis grounds, overlooking the magnificent St. Lawrence River.
    • The government granted the CPR $25M to build the transcontinental railway. The Chinese not only built the CPR in the West but also helped finance it with the $23M paid in Head Tax.
    • The Chinese, being major customers, also contributed to establishing the Reford family empire in the rice business. Alexander Reford, director of the Jardins de Métis, told me that the Mount Royal Rice Mill (MRRM) was set up in Victoria by Robert Reford in 1885 (year of completion of the CPR) to mill rice from the far east to supply the Chinese population in BC. Ottawa imposed a tariff on foreign milled rice to keep the price of rice milled in Canada artificially high.
  • Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s recent delegation to China included Winston Chan, a young member of Conseil supérieur de la langue française.  Quebec Inc. has been courting the new social-capitalists of China for some time now, including major participation in the famous Three Gorges Dam project. The state monopoly Hydro-Quebec  and Engineering giant SNC-Lavalin were actively involved in that project.

More later. …..