Ryan Lin is Taiwanese Canadian, and it is important that we refer to him as such
Over the past few weeks, I have seen a lot of people on the internet refer to Ryan Lin as Chinese Canadian, which is inaccurate at best.
Lin described his heritage as "half Japanese and half Taiwanese on his father's side" in a Sportsnet interview. Although it is very common for people to include the Taiwanese Canadian diaspora under the umbrella term of Chinese Canadians, those with Taiwanese roots often do not identify with the label of Chinese Canadian due to a myriad of reasons.
Throughout its history, Taiwan was colonized by numerous forces including the Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and China.
In 1895, during the First Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded by its then colonizer, the Qing Dynasty of China, to the Empire of Japan. The Island will remain under Japanese colonization until 1945, when Japan surrounded in World War II.
In 1949, after they were defeated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War, the Kuomintang (KMT) fled to Taiwan and colonized the island. Mainland China and Taiwan only resumed exchange in the late 1980s, but no official peace treaty was ever signed.
The ceding of Taiwan to Japan and the KMT fleeing to the island after their defeat are the main reasons why the CCP does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, but instead claims that it is an overseas territory of the People's Republic of China; despite the fact that Taiwan has its own currency, military, and democratic government. The stance of the CCP has remained the same, and the CCP has made it clear that they are willing to annex Taiwan by force, such as through carrying out military drills around the island.
2. Taiwanese diaspora in the Lower Mainland
The tension between Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese doesn't just dissipate after they immigrated to another country. In the Lower Mainland (Vancouver and other surrounding cities in British Columbia), Chinese Canadians from the Mainland and Taiwanese Canadians are two distinct group with different cultural identities, customs, and in some cases languages. They run in different circles and operate cultural spaces that are independent from one another.
It should also be noted that Taiwanese Canadians is a relatively small diaspora. According to the 2021 census, out of 550,590 Canadians of Chinese descent living in BC, only about 45,000 are Taiwanese. As a result, Taiwanese Canadians are underrepresented in media and sports, and are often conflated with Chinese Canadians, even if members of the diaspora don't necessarily agree with being labelled as such.
Charlie Wu, a prominent figure in the Taiwanese Canadian community in Vancouver, BC, wrote the following about his own struggles with maintaining his cultural identity.
(Excerpts from Charlie Wu: I am a Taiwanese Canadian, not a Chinese Canadian)
Circling back to the Sportsnet article. Let's take a closer look at what Lin said about his roots:
Lin described his heritage as Japanese and Taiwanese on his father's side. He also identified as being Asian Canadian. As far as we know, he has never referred to himself as being Chinese Canadian.
As such, I believe that it is important to refer to Lin according to what he identifies as: Japanese Canadian, Taiwanese Canadian, and Asian Canadian. It is reductive to default to the label of Chinese Canadian when someone has specifically stated that they identify with other cultural groups.
The cultural identity of the Taiwanese Canadian diasporas is a complex topic that cannot be fully encompassed in a single post, but I hope this post provided some insight as to why it is a sensitive topic for many, and why this conversation should be approached with more sensitivity and care.
Some additional reading material about the history and cultural identity of Taiwanese Canadians:
Taiwanese Canadians (The Canadian Encyclopedia)
The evolution of Taiwanese Canadian identity
Taiwanese-Canadians navigate 'tricky' relations with people from China (Vancouver Sun)
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