Moving the Mountain

In the late 1850's, Chinese immigrants began arriving in large numbers in Canada, attracted by gold discoveries in the Fraser River Valley. Many of the newcomers were young who found work as cooks, servants, store employees and laundrymen. In 1885, the Chinese were accused of taking away jobs and the federal government imposed Head Taxes on new Chinese immigrants. In 1923, the Exclusion Act barred almost all Chinese from entering Canada. This law meant that the men who were already in Canada, could not bring their wives or children to Canada to join them. It created the phenomenon of lonely 'married bachelors' in Canada, and 'Gold Mountain widows' back in China. World War II was a turning point for Canada's Chinese community. A small number of Chinese Canadians had fought in the war, and they were rewarded in 1947 with the abolition of the Exclusion Act. During the 1950's and 1960's, families were reunited after decades of separation. To find out more about his family roots, William Ging Wee Dere, a Montrealer of Chinese origin, follows in MOVING THE MOUNTAIN the history of the Chinese in Canada. With Malcolm Guy, a friend and fellow filmmaker, Dere made a four-year odyssey that took him across four generations of Canadian Chinese. Also he visited his ancestral village in southern China. MOVING THE MOUNTAIN draws its name from a legend about an old man who begins moving a mountain shovelful by shovelful, planning to pass the unfinished task on to his descendants.