‘Humiliation Day’, A Look Back at the Impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act

Canadian Time Machine

Chinese-Canadians have a long history in Canada. In the 1880s, thousands of Chinese men helped build the Canadian Pacific Railway for a fraction of the wages paid to other labourers. Immediately after the railroad's completion, the Canadian government imposed the head tax, a fee that was exclusively applied to most people arriving from China. Soon enough, though, the government found that the head tax was not "enough" to dissuade immigration, and on July 1st, 1923, they passed the Chinese Immigration Act, also known as The Exclusion Act. The law barred Chinese immigrants from entering for nearly 25 years, with very few exceptions, and many came to refer to the date the law was passed as “Humiliation Day”. In this episode we’ll hear about the intergenerational impacts of the legislation on Vancouverite Gillian Der and her family. We’ll also speak to Dr. Melissa Lee, the CEO of the Chinese Canadian Museum. She’ll tell us about an exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of the law, called "The Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act,” which features identity documents collected from the time of the head tax through the years of the Exclusion Act.

To read the episode transcripts in French and English, and to learn more about historic Canadian milestones, please visit thewalrus.ca/canadianheritage.

This podcast receives funding from The Government of Canada and is produced by The Walrus Lab.

Check out the French counterpart podcast, Voyage dans l'histoire canadienne.

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