Remembrances of Canada-China Relations: 1788 to 1970
October 13 2020 was the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Canada and the People’s Republic of China. To mark the occasion the Ottawa Canada-China Film Festival prepared a paper, Remembrances of Canada-China Relations from 1788 to the Establishment of Canada-China Diplomatic Relations on October 13, 1970: A history featuring audio, visual and cinematic records. This survey of 232 years of Canada-China history features 13 movies and documentaries, 5 TV news reports, 4 radio reports / programmes, 10 pictures or images of historic events or documents, 3 links to significant banks of documents and images, and 1 music video. This material, which is largely available free online, brings to life important people and events over the centuries.
We invite you to join us for a tour of our history and to allow your imagination free reign as you bear witness to key moments and events: triumphal celebrations; Canadian financing of Chinese revolutionaries; grinding poverty and hard work; racial strife; war time alliances that too quickly turned to war; repeated examples of complex international diplomacy that strained Canada’s relations with larger countries; and patient negotiations motivated by visions of a better world.
Along the way you will meet the Chinese smiths and carpenters who played a role in ensuring that western North America became part of the British Empire; Sun Yat-Sen the founder of the Chinese republic; the Chinese immigrants who built the CPR; 80,000 indentured Chinese labourers crossing Canada for the European front in WWI; Norman Bethune marching with Mao’s 8th army; the son of a Canadian missionary charged with setting up diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China; front line Canadian soldiers fighting to keep Japan out of Hong Kong and 11 years later fighting the Chinese in Korea; and two Canadian Prime Ministers who faced down American Presidents to advance relations with China.
Filmography of Canadian-Made Images
About China and the Chinese
Professor Gary Evans paper, Filmography of Canadian-Made Images About China and the Chinese. was prepared at the time of the 40th anniversary of Canada-China diplomatic relations. This annotated filmography covers four decades from 1941 to 1970 and 46 films. It reflects many social and political transformations. As time passes, these images serve both as a reminder of what has passed and as a statement of how different times have become. With this record, historians, anthropologists and archeologists looking back a century from now will likely have a better idea of how to explain the realities of these times. Seen chronologically both today and tomorrow, the images may take on new meanings as events that were important once might become less so, or issues that were tangential may assume a deeper significance retrospectively.