Photos by Eric Havir (left) and Nicholas Manual, Flickr
Bridging the gap between the older generation of Asian Canadians and their offspring has never been an easy feat. The issues that presented themselves years ago, are still very much alive today.
The Classic Conflict
Christopher Lee, a professor from UBC’s English department, identified a general, almost stereotypical, struggle that most immigrant families face.
“Immigrants are by and large a selective group who uproot themselves and move to a new home. The risks are often motivated by a desire for socio-economic (upward) mobility,” Lee says. “Thus many immigrants sacrifice considerably in the hopes of securing better employment and wider educational opportunities for themselves and their children.” He goes on to say that “younger immigrants or children of immigrants often these bear these expectations, setting up the “classic” conflict between generations.”
In this “classic conflict,” the older generation is often the one that upholds the values and culture of their country of origin while the younger generation is more easily assimilated into the new culture. However, because immigration and multiculturalism are such inherent components of Canada’s social history, Lee cautions that the idea that there is a “mainstream” culture to assimilate into is antiquated.
“The discourse of multiculturalism often sets up these sorts of choices by retaining an antiquated notion of ‘mainstream’ culture to which immigrants must assimilate, but things are always more complicated on the ground,” he explains. “While it’s impossible to generalize…the expectation to assimilate can deprive younger Asian-Canadians of the tools to understand the world-views of their elders, while lack of familiarity with Canada means that older generations are processing their lives in Canada differently than their children. These challenges…indicate the ongoing challenge of building a truly multicultural society, a task that involves all of us, Asian or not.”
Compounding Factors
As Lee notes, adapting to life in Canada as visible minorities is a fluid, ongoing process for both old and new generations of Asian-Canadians. Their intergenerational dynamics are influenced by a host of factors, such as their country of origin, when they came to Canada and whether they were recent immigrants or Canadian-born Asian-Canadians.
For instance, the Japanese-Canadian community shows how the classic conflict described above does not always hold. The Japanese-Canadian internment during WWII devastated the generations affected and had a profound impact on their ties with subsequent generations.
Beth Carter, director-curator at Nikkei Place (Japanese-Canadian cultural centre in Burnaby) says, “The Japanese-Canadian internment definitely affected intergenerational relationships. Many younger generations have a great deal of curiosity about the internment. However, many grandparents do not choose to discuss their history…even after 70 years, the social effects are evident through family displacement, the unwillingness of older generations to discuss their history and the huge intermarriage rate (almost 95 per cent).”
Carter says that “after the war, many people strived for assimilation within Canadian society by minimizing their links to their Japanese heritage, and remaining silent about their wartime history.”
While some young Japanese-Canadians may want to learn more about their Japanese heritage, the older generations may be reluctant to share and even encourage the younger generations to assimilate into Canadian society.
Ray Hsu, a post-doctoral teaching fellow at UBC’s creative writing department, offered his own personal experience. While growing up in Toronto as a young Asian-Canadian, his parents would send him to Chinese school to learn Chinese, something which he detested.
Realizing that he has lost his Chinese linguistic abilities now, he wished that he had been more committed to learning Chinese.
“The need and desire for intergenerational bonding is different not only for different people, but also at different life stages of an individual,” he says.
Hsu also observed how some young Chinese-Canadians are really eager to learn from and be mentored by the older generation in the Chinese community. But, the older generation simply tells them that they are too tired and exhausted to teach them anything.
Christopher Lee, English professor, UBC. Photo courtesy of UBC
Intergenerational Engagement
Whether there is a disconnect between the older and younger generations or not, one thing is for sure: different Asian-Canadian communities have made efforts to preserve their heritage and engage with the younger generations.
“Ever since Asians have lived in Canada, there have been many strategies to educate and involve younger generations – there have been language schools, community associations, religious organizations since the mid-nineteenth century,” says Lee.
“While the emphasis of preserving a heritage culture varies from family to family (and very much from location to location), this remains a top concern in Asian Canadian communities to this day.”
Speaking for the Japanese-Canadian, Carter agrees. “There continues to be a very strong sense of family connection within the Japanese-Canadian community. The fight for redress and acknowledgement of the injustices toward the community helped to draw the community closely together,” she says.
“There have been several recent conferences to help promote sharing stories of internment experiences for the sake of younger generations. There are many cultural centres in major centres across Canada, including the Nikkei Centre in Burnaby.”
In addition to this, Carter says, “many Japanese language schools are now available for younger children to connect to their heritage.” In fact, it is Asian culture’s strong values on family and community that make the effects of intergenerational conflicts on Asian-Canadians more pronounced and poignant.
