Hello everyone, I am learning from history.
At the just-concluded 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ice hockey game, the Chinese men's ice hockey team that participated in the Winter Olympics for the first time finally lost to the world's no. 1 Canadian team 2:7, ending the men's ice hockey team's first Olympic journey.
Although it did not win a medal, the Chinese men's ice hockey team was not afraid of strong enemies and dared to fight, which left a very deep impression on the audience in front of the TV, and the most familiar of them was the naturalized player, captain Ye Jinguang!
Ye Jinguang, born on April 25, 1985 in Vancouver, Canada, is 37 years old, the oldest of the Chinese Olympic athletes.
But in the hockey world, Ye Jinguang is also the most well-known star of the Chinese team, he joined the Colorado Avalanche team when he was in Canada, and then in the first season with the team in the NCAA (American University Sports Association) League, Ye Jinguang was elected "Best Rookie in the East Region".
After graduation, Ye Jinguang entered the NHL (North American Professional Hockey League) as he wished, completing 174 games in five seasons, scoring 56 points, becoming the best Chinese male player in the history of professional ice hockey in the world.
Photo note: Ye Jinguang, captain of the Chinese men's ice hockey team
Ye Jinguang is a native of Guangdong, and according to public media reports, his great-grandfather came to Canada by boat in 1881 via the Pacific Ocean.
The mention of Chinese workers is another ironclad proof of the persecution of the Chinese by western powers.
In the early Qing Dynasty, many coastal poor people were abducted and lured to Southeast Asia, known as "selling piglets", these Nanyang Chinese workers were engaged in high-risk occupations with a mortality rate of more than 50%, and countless "piglets" paid the price of blood, sweat and life for the development of plantations and mines in Southeast Asian colonies. Roughly estimated, from 1800 to the eve of World War II, the cumulative number of Chinese workers who actively and passively went to Southeast Asia was more than 10 million.
After the Opium War, human traffickers from Britain, Portugal, Spain and other countries wantonly plundered tens of millions of Chinese workers in China as coolies.
Photo note: Chinese workers
First of all, human trafficking itself is a very profitable business, which has been proved as early as the black slave trade;
Secondly, Chinese workers are willing to endure hardships, labor efficiency is far more efficient than blacks, and the price is still low.
For example, in British Guiana at that time, the sugar produced by five hundred black slaves could be produced in Cuba by only one hundred and ninety Chinese indentured coolies.
The price of a black slave is one thousand yuan, while the price of a Chinese worker's contract coolie is only four hundred yuan.
Photo note: Gold Rush Huagong comics
By around 1850, due to the discovery of gold in San Francisco in the west and the construction of the Pacific Railroad, they also joined the ranks of Chinese workers who lacked coolies.
According to rough estimates, from 1849 to 1882, more than 300,000 Chinese workers were trafficked to the United States by various means, and after the Chinese workers set foot on American soil, they had to do the hardest and most tiring work, but not only took the least money, but also had no protection, and even suffered from the exclusion and abuse of white racists.
Photo note: The Pacific Railroad runs through the United States
Tens of thousands of Chinese workers sacrificed their lives in the construction of the Pacific Railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, which crossed the entire territory of the United States, but during the opening ceremony, the Americans did not even allow the Chinese workers to participate, and fired them all.
Later, when the economic crisis broke out in the United States, the white people threw the spearhead of the high unemployment rate on the heads of Chinese workers, so they set off a huge scale of Chinese anti-Chinese activities in the United States, and there were more than 200 well-documented massacres, burnings, beatings, and expulsion of Chinese workers. In 1882, the U.S. government reneged on its promise and abrogated the treaty and strictly banned Chinese workers from entering the country.
This is true in the United States, and it is also true in Canada.
At that time, just by using a message of "Canada recruiting workers to build a railway", many Chinese civilians did not hesitate to sell their land and raise money for the journey to Canada, but what awaited them was an extremely difficult journey.
Photo note: The oil painting "Chinese Worker Ship" was made by Cheng Jungle in 1984
According to the "British Colonists", in 1860, a ship from Hong Kong to transport Chinese workers there, when aboard the number of people on board was 280 people, after a 64-day "twists and turns" voyage, only 68 people arrived in British Columbia, Canada (present-day British Columbia).
But after the Chinese helped Canada build the railway, the Chinese were greeted by complete discrimination in Canada's law. In 1885, Canang University issued the Chinese Immigration Law, which required Chinese to pay additional poll tax when they entered the country.
Because the Qing Dynasty was weak and unable to confront diplomatically, Canada, after tasting the sweetness of the poll tax, constantly revised the bill to increase the poll tax against the Chinese.
Photo note: Chinese workers involved in the construction of the railway
By 1903, a Chinese worker was charged a poll tax of up to $500 upon entry, the equivalent of a Chinese worker working in Canada for ten years without eating or drinking.
From 1885 to 1923, Canada replaced the Poll Tax with the Chinese Exclusion Act, during which time Canada collected about $23 million in poll tax on 82,369 Chinese, an amount comparable to the cost of building the entire Pacific Railroad.
It was not until June 22, 2006, that Canadian Federal Chancellor Harper, on behalf of the Canadian federal government, apologized to the Chinese for the "poll tax" policy and promised to pay compensation to the victims of $20,000 per person.
On June 22, 2006, then Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to the Chinese for the "poll tax" policy
It can be imagined that in these one hundred and fifty years, Ye Jinguang's family has actually had a rather difficult life.
According to Ye Jinguang's own account, more than a hundred years ago, when his great-grandfather left home, he could not read and could only speak Cantonese. However, the elders in the family have not forgotten the motherland and have been telling about China in the form of word of mouth. Ye Jinguang's grandmother often told him about China, and Ye Jinguang's name was also given to him by his grandmother.
Referring to his grandmother, Ye Jinguang said regretfully: "Unfortunately, she died when I was young, otherwise my understanding of the motherland would definitely be more profound." ”
If there is a Chinese athlete who stands on the highest stage of ice hockey 20 years later, and people ask him why he practices ice hockey, he will answer "In 2022, I watched the Chinese team's game", that is the success of our generation.
Ye Jinguang's parents have also been searching for roots in Guangdong and hope to rebuild the family's family tree.
When Ye Jinguang was 5 years old, he began to play ice hockey in the front yard with his father, and he also liked ice hockey. When Ye Jinguang was a young boy, he set himself three major goals: the first was to get a full scholarship to pay tuition and complete his studies, the second was to be able to work hard in the professional ice hockey league, and the third was to participate in the Olympic Games and be able to play.
Picture note: Ye Jinguang in the game
Later, Ye Jinguang was admitted to Boston University's crime scene investigation major, and after graduation, he became a reserve RCMP. Because of his college major and the harmonic sound of his name, many Chinese fans like to call him "Officer Ye".
In the 2017-2018 season, Ye Jinguang joined China's first professional hockey club, and then with a stable and excellent performance, Ye Jinguang was selected for the Winter Olympic team and put on the Chinese team shirt with the letter "C (captain)".
Before the match between the Chinese team and the world's number one Canadian team at the Winter Olympics, Ye Jinguang tweeted:
Many friends have asked me if I would like to stay here after the Olympic Games, and of course I am willing to move forward for the new Chinese ice hockey.
Text/Take history as a mirror
Graph/Network
Resources:
Ice Hockey Ye Jinguang Weibo
An apology that is a hundred years late: looking back at the history of Chinese workers' blood and tears in the past century from Canada's Chinese Exclusion Act
The descendants of Chinese laborers chose to return to China to play, Ye Jinguang: Chinese can also play hockey!
"Captain China" spit out his wish: We are ice hockey guides