Taiwanese Canadians

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Taiwanese Canadians
Total population
Overseas Taiwanese in Canada
(2016 estimate)
173,000 [1]
Taiwan-born Canadians
(2021 census)
65,365 [2]
Ethnic Taiwanese Canadians [lower-alpha 1]
(2021 census)
64,020 [2]
Regions with significant populations
Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal
Languages
Chinese (Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka), Formosan languages, English, French
Religion
Chinese folk religions, Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism

Many Taiwanese immigrants have recently (as of 2011) settled in Vancouver, B.C., forming a growing and stable Taiwanese Canadian community; however, it is often overlooked due to the presence of a larger Hong Kong Chinese immigrant base. Many of these immigrants from Taiwan, especially those without family or relatives in United States, find it easier to immigrate to Canada. These Taiwanese immigrants are also relatively wealthy and like many of the Hong Kong Chinese can afford Vancouver's high cost of living. The Greater Vancouver metropolitan area offers comfortable living and the conveniences of modern Chinese shopping centers with a vast array of restaurants, eateries, and grocery stores that provide the foods and entertainment that reflect the modern trends that the Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese were accustomed to prior to arriving in Canada. Because Vancouver has more Hong Kong Chinese than Taiwanese, the fashions and products available largely reflect the modern trends of Hong Kong more so than Taiwan. This is in contrast to the Santa Clara Valley/Silicon Valley and San Gabriel Valley in California where there are concentrated communities with larger proportions of people of Taiwanese heritage and where many Chinese shopping centers, restaurants, supermarkets, and other retail businesses tend to reflect more of the modern Taiwanese trends. There are T & T Supermarkets in Canada as opposed to 99 Ranch Markets in the United States.

Taiwanese Americans

Greater Vancouver also attracts Taiwanese American visitors from the Greater Seattle Area in the United States (approximately 200 km south of the Canada–US border). Vancouver is the only large Canadian city that is close in proximity to another large city just south of the Canada–US border and where both cities have well-established Chinese and Taiwanese communities.

The Greater Seattle Area overall has a larger and longer established Taiwanese population than Vancouver, but its Taiwanese residents are spread out over a vast area and not as highly concentrated in one area as those in Vancouver. The few "Chinese" shopping center complexes in Seattle's International District (Chinatown) may be owned by Taiwanese and/or Chinese people but cater mostly to other Asians such as first-generation Southeast Asians of Vietnamese and Cambodian heritage. Shops particularly in the heart of the International District are owned by older-established Cantonese/Toisan Chinese Americans (the descendants of the first Chinese who built up most of the Chinatowns in many American cities). Seattle is much closer to Vancouver than to San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles (all located in California with large Chinese and Taiwanese communities).

The Greater Vancouver area has amenities for Taiwanese and Chinese communities quite similar to these large California metropolitan areas. Despite the long wait times at the Canada–United States border customs, it is still worth a road trip up to Vancouver for food and commercial products (i.e., music CDs, books, snack items) from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Many Taiwanese Americans from the Greater Seattle Area and other Asian American hubs also have business and social connections and family ties to the Taiwanese Canadian families in Vancouver. University and college students of Chinese and Taiwanese heritage (primarily from the University of Washington's Seattle campus) make frequent road trips to Vancouver.

Notable Taiwanese Canadians

See also

Notes

  1. I.e., those who responded "Taiwanese" when asked what their ethnic identity was.

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References

  1. "Overseas Chinese Affairs Council - Taiwan (ROC)" (PDF). OCA Council.
  2. 1 2 "Profile table, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population – Canada". Statistics Canada. Government of Canada. February 9, 2022.
  3. "Statistical Yearbook of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council, Republic of China (Taiwan)" (PDF) (in Chinese). ocac.gov.tw. 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
  4. "CIC Facts and Figures 2003" (PDF).
  5. "CIC Facts and Figures 2009" (ASP).
  6. "Census Profile".
Taiwanese Canadians
Traditional Chinese 台灣 加拿大人
Simplified Chinese 台湾裔加拿大人