Reflecting on Asian Heritage Month in May, this is the second of a four-part article series from Heritage Mississauga's UTM internship student Daston Babakan that explores early Chinese connections in historic Mississauga.
Read Part 1 here.
Read Part 2 here.

Reflecting on Asian Heritage Month in May, this is the third of a four-part article series from Heritage Mississauga's UTM internship student Daston Babakan that explores early Chinese connections in historic Mississauga.

In our last article, we covered the effects the Chinese Immigration Act (1923) had on early Chinese immigrants in Canada in terms of our most basic of communities, that being family. But another area in which many people find community is religion. Aside from the community that religion can provide, religion is also a source of moral and philosophical teachings. In this article, we will look at how the Canadian policies against the Chinese before 1947 affected the Chinese community, specifically focusing on how the environment of the time may speak to why Mississauga did not fit the expected religious trends of the rest of Canada's Chinese community.

The National vs. Local Religious Makeup

Regarding the religious affiliation of the Chinese community nationally, the large majority had kept with their original ethnic religions. When looking at the census reports between 1901 to 1921 on the religions of both Chinese and Japanese, around 70% were either Buddhist or Confucian in 1901, which changed to around 67% in 1911, and 69% in 1921. Later in the 1931 and 1941 censuses, which considered the Chinese community independently, the Confucian and Buddhist population comprised 53% of the Chinese community in 1931, and then 65% in 1941. On the other hand, Christianity only comprised 21% of the Chinese community in 1931, and then 28% in 1941.

Considering such statistics, it is interesting to note that based on the 1931 census data in Toronto Township (historic Mississauga), around half the Chinese community here were Christian. Other communities near Mississauga seemed to share a similar trend, as according to the 1931 census data for Brampton and Halton region, almost all the Chinese population belonged to Christian denominations. One significant difference, however, is that while in Brampton and Halton Region the Chinese primarily belonged to United and Presbyterian churches, in historic Mississauga around a third belonged to the Anglican church.

Chinese Christianity in Historic Mississauga

Unfortunately, we do not have any firsthand accounts of these early Chinese settlers and their personal religious beliefs while living in historic Mississauga a century ago. However, we have come up with a few educated guesses that may help us understand why early Chinese immigrants here were much more likely to belong to Christian churches than the national average.

One possibility was that the Chinese joined churches for pragmatic reasons. When looking at the cultural relationship that Chinese people had with religion at the time, they were vastly different from those of Western Christians. Members of the Chinese community viewed religion through a pragmatic lens. They did not believe that they were tied to a single or even multiple deities but prayed to deities in order to have their requests fulfilled. This meant the Chinese were willing to worship deities of many different religions so long as these deities delivered worldly benefits. In other words, they would pray to various deities for different benefits, and if praying to one deity did not lead to the desired outcome, they would search for another that would.

During this time, there were almost no support networks for the Chinese from Canadian federal or provincial governments. This meant that in terms of social and financial support, the Chinese community had to look for support from within their own communities. Upon settling in Canada, the Chinese community in cities quickly established their own 'Chinatowns' and support networks. Chinatowns afforded the Chinese community a refuge from the wider, often hostile, Canadian population, and offered a sense of belonging. Clan organizations and the Chinese Benevolent Foundation proved crucial in offering social and financial support to the Chinese community within urban areas. However, in rural Toronto Township (historic Mississauga), there was no Chinatown, meaning that the Chinese had to deal with the wider society on a day-to-day basis. More importantly, there was also no Chinese Benevolent Foundation, so they had to find social and financial aid elsewhere.

This is where churches could step in. Christian (mainly protestant) churches at the time were the only real source of support from wider Canadian society. Although Protestant churches during this period were not always uniform and positive towards the Chinese, they were among the few Canadian organizations that attempted to help outsiders. Many churches offered support and programs to the Chinese community. For instance, they offered English classes, sponsored social programs such as picnics, and clubs, and even provided the Chinese with medical and legal assistance when needed.  Of course, this was also done to convert and assimilate the Chinese population into their own brand of Anglo-Canadian religious, moral and cultural standards.  Nonetheless, these were essential programs coming from the few people in Canadian society who believed in treating the Chinese population with some level of dignity.

Considering the Chinese pragmatic view of religion, where one was not tied to a single deity, joining a church did not necessarily go against their prior beliefs. Crucially, adherence, even half-heartedly, to Christianity would have offered some social benefit while living in a predominantly Christian community.

This could explain the only story relating to religion that we have from Mississauga at the time. In 1930, the Port Credit News released an article entitled “Gardiners Breaking the Lord’s Day Act.” It reported that there was "considerable protest" from Mississauga residents who believed that Chinese produce sellers were violating the Lord's Day Act, which was an act that prohibited business transactions from taking place on Sundays or gardening taking place with the intent to sell. Allegedly, Chinese gardeners on Dundas Street were “hoeing their cabbages and thinning out their beets, preparatory to the trek to markets the next day” which was a violation of the Lord’s Day Act.  Although we do not know for certain if these gardeners were Christian, breaking the Lord's Day Act would not have necessarily gone against their notion of religion in which religion served a practical purpose rather than being an all-encompassing lifestyle. This meant that there was no real practical or philosophical reason not to work on Sunday. In a time when many Chinese Canadians were not paid equally to their white counterparts and were desperately saving money for family members in China, having an extra day for work would have certainly been beneficial. Additionally, the practical nature of Chinese religious philosophy could also explain why there were more Anglicans in historic Mississauga compared to other rural communities. Rather than joining a specific church for doctrinal reasons, they likely chose a church based on practical considerations. In historic Mississauga there were more Anglican churches than any other domination, making them the most practical to join.

Aside from pragmatic reasons, there may have been a greater willingness to convert to Christianity in rural communities due to a less hostile atmosphere to the Chinese compared to the cities. For instance, scholar Jiwu Wang points out that the success of Protestant missions in converting the Chinese to Christianity was intimately linked with the social conditions that the Chinese faced from wider Canadian society. He points out that prior to 1947, missionaries had little success converting the Chinese because the Chinese (rightfully so) were often unwilling to hear out Christian missionaries after receiving harsh treatment from Canadian society. After the end of the Chinese Immigration Act and the lessening of racist sentiments towards the Chinese, the Chinese community became more willing to talk to and learn about the Christian faith from missionaries, and eventually convert.  

Therefore, if historic Mississauga's rural Chinese were more likely to be Christian than the national average prior to 1947, perhaps this points to less discrimination in the area such that these Chinese immigrants felt more comfortable accepting Christianity. According to Arlene Chan when speaking about the fascinating story of Gretta Wong Grant, Canada's first Chinese female lawyer who was from London, Ontario, smaller communities tended to be more accepting of the Chinese. This did not mean that there was no racism, as the Wong children did face incidents of racist name-calling and not being included in certain social activities.  That said, the level of discrimination never seemed to reach what could be found in larger cities like Toronto.  Indeed, in terms of the driving fears against the Chinese community, one of the strongest was the economic fear of whites losing employment opportunities to the Chinese. But the Chinese were not competing for the same jobs in rural settings. In Mississauga, for example, most Chinese people worked as cooks, restaurant owners, laundrymen, or temporary labourers - all jobs which were not in high demand by the rural white population. Additionally, the Chinese community was very small and thus did not threaten the white demographic majority

Evidence of rural communities' greater acceptance of the Chinese population may be seen by nearby Oakville, where two cases of interracial couples can be found, with one of those marriages even taking place in Port Credit. These unions may show more sympathetic sentiments towards the Chinese, as well as possible religious conversion. When looking at cities like Toronto, there were many cases of interracial couples being harassed both by the public and the authorities.  Perhaps these more sympathetic views towards these rural Chinese immigrants helped lead the Chinese here to be more willing to accept Christianity compared to their urban counterparts.

Sadly, unless one day we can find primary accounts from these individuals it is impossible to say with certainty what the Chinese in historic Mississauga truly believed. But while that may never happen, in the future, if more work on the experiences of the Chinese community in rural Ontario is written, we will hopefully be able to gain more insight into the beliefs of historic Mississauga's Chinese population in the early 20th Century.