Week 6: 06.19-06.25 Vancouver

——— Continue to Explore Chinese Immigration Among Yum Cha Culture 

The final week we still explore more about Chinese/Cantonese migration history based on the group project topic Yum Cha. It’s a little bit tough to finish the research by only a month, but I’m so happy and excited because we made it finally. For the group project, I pretty enjoy on the part of editing and creating the film although it was my first time to create the film.

Relating to Yum Cha, I remembered that my family especially my parents will go for yum cha every day. Even though there is typhoon pounded the place they lived, or they stayed in other places for traveling, my father still continued to go to dim sum restaurant. As such, yum cha, for my dad, has played a great important role in his life. It can be the place that he can get relax, receive knowledge and news, as well as gather and chat with friends. He usually read the newspaper and drink green tea during yum cha. During the weekend, he will invite his friends to yum cha together. However, I consider that most of the people go for yum cha will do the similar things as my father. For the people who like yum cha, they believe yum cha has become their daily habit, and it is difficult to change this habit because yum cha means a lot for them. When my father came to Vancouver, he felt the dim sum restaurants such as Kirin and Deluxe in Vancouver are similar to the restaurants in his hometown and Hong Kong. This kind of thinking makes me remind that the couple I had interviewed at Floata Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown, they expressed this statement as well. Maybe they are right, yum cha culture in North America has brought over by Cantonese immigrants from southern China.

Moreover, I went to White Rock on Saturday. I found an interesting thing that there is not so much overseas Chinese in White Rock; but in the city of Vancouver, there are lots of overseas Chinese lived in. Therefore, is it mean Chinese immigrants prefer to live in the city rather than the small town after they migrant to North America? Is it because people can earn more money if they worked in the city? I guess yes because overseas workers are so hard working to make money, they can even continue to work during the holidays with no breaks.

Lastly, there are only a few days left for this course. I really enjoy it because I can receive numerous knowledge and information about Chinese migration history. For instance, the most important issue we discussed at the beginning of the course, is that Cantonese may disappear among hundred years, had made me think a lot. One thing I am for sure is that there are fewer and fewer people speak Cantonese as well as its dialects. Because the policy of school from kindergarten to university in Guangdong province, students are not allowed to speak Cantonese. Therefore, many little kids are encouraged to speak Mandarin and they would not use Cantonese in their daily lives. As a result, to protect Cantonese language and its dialects become an essential action and mission for us. We have responsibilities to pass Cantonese to our descendants.

Photo: White Rock Beach

Photo: White Rock Beach