Project recalls discriminatory law against Chinese people in early 1900s Regina
CBC News | Posted: November 14, 2016 5:14 PM | Last Updated: November 14, 2016
Lost Stories project unearthing untold stories of Canada's past for 150th annviersary
In 1924, Regina restaurant owner Yee Clun was not allowed to employ white women. In fact, no Chinese immigrants were allowed to hire white women without being granted a municipal licence.
Undeterred, Clun applied for the licence and was subject to public hearings, where many came to his defence.
Clun was denied a licence, and the law preventing him from hiring white women was not struck down until the 1960s.
His story is one of four being told in the Lost Stories project, which finds and shares the untold stories of Canada's past.
Project director Ronald Rudin feels Clun's story is reflective of Canada's racist past and how women and immigrants have historically been treated.
The story doesn't play out, necessarily, the way we would expect. - Ronald Rudin, project director for Lost Stories
Rudin told CBC Radio's Morning Edition that the law came out of a collective unease that the Chinese community was nearly exclusively male, and women would not be safe there.
The reason the community was overwhelmingly male was because Chinese families were not allowed to immigrate as groups, Rudin said.
"There's a great irony there, of course. They were in that situation because of the discriminatory immigration laws," he said.
But the issue was more than just government policy as social movements, specifically some women's movements, were in favour of the law.
"You find women's groups who maybe we would think, in some context, would have been more open to people being treated equitably were on the other side of that story," said Rudin.
"The story doesn't play out, necessarily, the way we would expect."
The Lost Stories project tells three other unheard stories, which will be prepared for Canada's 150th anniversary next summer.
In Regina, a public art project telling Clun's story and how the Lost Stories project came together will be put up on Halifax Street and 11th Avenue at the Art Park.
The project is currently looking for artists to participate.