Cha, Brenda
Over 130 interviews with Chinese Canadian women were conducted for the book Jin Guo: Voices of Chinese Canadian Women. Produced in 1992 by the Women’s Book Committee of the Chinese Canadian National Council, Jin Guo was intended to fill the gap in historical accounts of Chinese Canadian women’s history. Researchers traveled across Canada to interview Chinese Canadian women of various ages and backgrounds. The book’s authors, Amy Go, Winnie Ng, Dora Nipp, Julia Tao, Terry Woo and May Yee, organized the book around themes and patterns that emerged across multiple interviews – feelings of isolation and culture shock upon arrival in Canada, memories of parent-child relationships, the importance of education, the working lives of women, discrimination, cultural identity, marriage and dating, family life, perspectives on aging and retirement, and examples community activism. The interviews conducted for this project are stored at the Multicultural History Society of Ontario’s archives. This collections database includes a large cross-section of interviews conducted for Jin Guo – in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
In this interview, Brenda Cha describes her involvement in Vancouver, British Columbia’s Chinese Cultural Centre, including the role it plays in uniting the immigrant and Canadian-born Chinese populations. She also discusses the impact of Chinese schooling on her life, and how the creation of a photography exhibit about the Chinese community helped her reflect on her heritage.
Brenda explains the distinct division between the overseas Chinese community and her own Canadian-born Chinese community as a result of misunderstanding and barriers in language, using her experiences with overseas students at the University of British Columbia to illustrate this point. She also explains how the groups have much in common, going on to discuss her attempts to bridge the gap through her work at the Chinese Cultural Centre.
Brenda was born in Vancouver and attended Chinese schools regularly as she was growing up. Although she says she did not learn much from Chinese school, particularly about history and culture, she expresses appreciation for the friendships formed there.
Brenda reflects on her work developing a photographic exhibit of the Chinese community in Vancouver between 1880 and 1947. This exhibit helped to demonstrate the role of Chinese Canadian women during this time period, and acknowledged Chinese Canadians’ struggle to be recognized by the government and larger Canadian society.
Brenda also discusses her education and career as an architect, as well as the important friendships she forged through her involvement in the Chinese communities in Vancouver and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Brenda concludes by stressing the importance of Chinese heritage as a part of her identity, encouraging other Canadian-born Chinese to embrace their heritage.
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