Being a rugged outdoorsy Chinese-Canadian. What’s that all ‘aboot’?
- Chinese immigrants may not always have been welcome in Canada, but they are now its largest minority and have as much claim on ‘Canadianness’ as anyone else
- It’s not all about flannel shirts and beer commercials. One day, the white community will be a minority, too
Growing up in Canada, Ken Ho never quite felt like he fit in. At his Vancouver high school, children of Chinese descent like himself were either perceived as studious nerds, or wealthy “Fresh Off the Boat” international students.
He could see little of himself either in Canada’s history or its contemporary culture – and he certainly wasn’t anything like the flannel-clad white men proudly proclaiming “I am Canadian” in the popular beer commercial for Molson Canadian.
To be both Chinese and Canadian seemed almost contradictory given the degree of foreignness with which Chinese-Canadians have long been associated.
But then in his late teens, Ho discovered “traditionally Canadian” outdoor pastimes like hiking and mountain biking. As he rode down into lush valleys, and climbed the snowy mountaintops western Canada is so famed for, Ho felt a new sense of “Canadianness”.
“I can’t say taking up these sports had nothing to do with a desire to prove how Canadian I was,” says Ho, now 40 years old.
