Early Occupations of Chinese Workers In Alberta

Arriving in Edmonton around 1918, Dan Mah recalls working 16 hour days, seven days a week in one of the city’s many laundries. In return for his hard work, he received 50 cents a day. “That means I made about $15 a month,” he reflected[40]. Mah’s experience was not uncommon in the years before the Second World War in Alberta. Due to systemic barriers and racial discrimination, most Chinese had virtually no choice but to toil in low-paying service jobs if they were to make a living.

The most common form of employment in the early Alberta was the laundry business, followed by Chinese restaurants and grocery stores. Laundry work was especially grueling, as it required workers to soak, scrub, and iron clothes by hand. Moreover, customers expected prompt and high quality service. There were no breaks or holidays. For most Chinese, the daily routine consisted of working, eating and sleeping. [41]

Aside from these occupations, Chinese residents also found jobs as hotel workers, vegetable peddlers and unskilled labourers. After 1900, many were increasingly employed as domestic servants in wealthy Calgary homes. In fact, many white families viewed Chinese houseboys and coachmen as status symbols. Paid $25 per month, Chinese servants were expected to lighten the domestic burdens of the family, work hard and offer courteous service. [42]

Chinese in rural areas often found work as cooks on Southern Alberta ranches. Aside from preparing meals, they washed clothes, cleaned barns, raised chickens, planted gardens and performed various other chores. Chinese workers on one ranch along the Bow River were credited with inventing a unique system of serving large numbers of ranch hands at one sitting. Platters of food were placed on a circle in the middle of a round dining table and diners were told to help themselves as the food came round. The Lazy Susan was thus born.[43]

It was not until the late 1940s and early 1950s that occupations other than those in the service industry opened up to Chinese Canadians. Prior to 1947, they were not only barred from citizenship but from professions that required one to be a citizen. These professions included law, pharmacy, accounting and politics. As racial prejudice lessened and employment and educational opportunities opened up, post-war Chinese Canadians began enjoying greater upward mobility. [44]