Good works and culture blend seamlessly for Mississauga’s Chinese community, which have helped shape the rhythm of life in our city.
People such as Bernice Kwong who played a pivotal role in celebrating Chinese culture in Mississauga. Born and raised in Victoria by Hong Kong parents, in 1961 she was living in Montreal when she met and married Hong Kong immigrant and civil engineer David Kwong.
In 1975, Bernice founded what would become the Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal to assist new Chinese immigrants to the city. When she and David moved to Cooksville in 1979, she was an early member of the Chinese Association of Mississauga, where she taught English. She also founded the Mississauga Chinese Festival Children’s Choir in 1984, and introduced Lingnan, or Chinese brush painting, to Mississauga as an artist and teacher.
As Bernice was introducing Chinese culture to Mississauga residents, others, such as Dr. Joseph Wong brought Canadian ingenuity to China.
Dr. Wong, immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong with his family, studied medicine at the University of Toronto and in 1987 became a staff plastic surgeon at Credit Valley Hospital. Between 2001 and 2011 he created and led the annual Smile Canada missions, which brought surgeons from around the world to China to correct cleft palates on children, who until then had been shunned and hidden.
Back home he was a member of the Chinese Canadians for Mutual Advancement where he befriended current Toronto mayor Olivia Chow. When, in the early 90s, Chow slipped and broke her cheekbone, Dr. Wong treated her.
“He was sort of a renaissance man all around,” said Chow following Dr. Wong’s death from leukemia in 2014.
The convergence of community work and the arts continues in the next generation of Mississauga residents of Chinese descent, such as Marvel’s first Asian superhero and former Erin Mills resident, Simu Liu.
All of it a testament to the tenacity and entrepreneurial hustle of Mississauga’s Chinese community, which has overcome 19th and 20th century racist immigration policies and restrictive Chinese regimes to become the second-largest cultural group in Mississauga.
According to the 2021 Canadian census, 8 percent of Mississauga residents identify as Chinese. That’s just over 55,000 people – a long way from the 101 Chinese immigrants who lived in Toronto Township in 1961, the earliest official statistic of ethnic origin.
While Chinese immigrants first began emigrating to Canada in the 1850s, they mainly settled in British Columbia, drawn to the emerging mining industry that had sprung up to capitalize on the Yukon gold rush.
A second wave brought Chinese labourers to Canada to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway. However, while the Canadian government needed thousands of labourers for this pan-Canadian project, the colonial government co-led by Louis LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin did not want Chinese workers to settle here because of racist fears.
To discourage permanent settlement, the government only allowed single men to come to Canada, believing that family separation would encourage workers to return to China as soon as their contracts were complete.
Some did, but many remained, hopping on the railway they helped construct to move to other parts of Canada, including Toronto Township. By 1901, Ontario and British Columbia were home to the largest concentration of Chinese immigrants.
These early Chinese immigrants faced significant challenges. Beginning in 1885 the Canadian government of John A. MacDonald introduced the Chinese head tax that each immigrant was required to pay to enter Canada; by 1903 it had risen to $500/person. Then in 1923, the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King introduced the Chinese Immigration Act, which banned Chinese entry to Canada until it was lifted in 1947.
The lifting of Chinese immigration sanctions dovetailed with the rise of the suburbs and through the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese Canadians and Chinese immigrants began their move westward into Toronto Township.
This post-war wave was dominated by middle-class Hong Kong Chinese, most of whom were well-educated, skilled workers who spoke fluent English and who came to Canada following China’s Cultural Revolution and unrest caused by anti-colonial riots.
Mainland Chinese immigrants also began settling in Mississauga in the 1970s. University students were able to become permanent residents in 1973, becoming the first generation of university-educated Chinese immigrants to put down roots in Mississauga.
Together the new city and its new citizens grew together and by the early 1980s, Mississauga and the Greater Toronto Region was home to Canada’s largest Chinese population.
In 1988 the Chinese community financed the building of the 30,000 square metre Mississauga Chinese Centre, a cultural hub that speaks to the history and culture of ancient China.
Located on Dundas Street, just east of Cawthra Road, you won’t need GPS to locate it thanks to a main entrance gateway that stands 13 metres high, with not a nail in sight, constructed solely by wooden studs and 17,000 cubic metres of wood.
In November 1998, the Ontario government recognized the Centre as Mississauga’s first official tourist attraction.
The Square attracts over 750,000 visitors each year and plays host to hundreds of free events and festivals, such as Jackalope, one of the world’s largest, most vibrant, high-adrenaline sports festivals. The event debuted in July 2024, and will return in 2025 and 2026, featuring the world’s best at street and vert skateboarding, freestyle motorcross, BMX, BASE jumping and bouldering, a form of rock climbing with no harnesses.
All of it playing out before thousands of spectators in Celebration Square and the parking lot of Square One, encircled by condos, office towers and subdivisions nearby.
A vibrant, youthful city centre – just as Bruce McLaughlin planned.
You can hear more stories about the people and events that helped shape Mississauga via our podcast, We Built This City: Tales of Mississauga, available on your favourite podcast platform or from our website.