page_title: East Asian Canadians
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: East Asian Canadians / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Title / Titre&#160;: Chinese at work on C.P.R. (Canadian Pacific Railway) in Mountains, 1884 / Chinois travaillant dans les montagnes pour le Chemin de fer du Canadien Pacifique, 1884 Creator(s) / Créateur(s)&#160;: Ernest Brown Date(s)&#160;: 1884 Reference No. / Numéro de référence&#160;: MIKAN 3194432 collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;... collectionscanada.gc.ca/ourl/res.php?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&amp;... Location / Lieu&#160;: British Columbia / Colombie-Britannique Credit / Mention de source&#160;: Boorne &amp; May. Library and Archives Canada, C-006686B / Boorne &amp; May. Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, C-006686B
context_page_description: East Asian Canadians are Canadians with ancestry, origins, or citizenship from East Asia. The term East Asian Canadian is a subgroup of Asian Canadians. According to statistics Canada, East Asian Canadians are considered visible minorities and can be further divided by nationality, such as Chinese Canadian, Hong Kong Canadian, Japanese Canadian, Korean Canadian, Mongolian Canadian, Taiwanese Canadian or Tibetan Canadian.
  As of 2016, 2,140,920 Canadians had East Asian geographical origins, constituting 6.2% of the Canadian population and 34% of Canada's Asian Canadian population.
context_section_description: The first record of East Asians in what is known as Canada today can be dated back to 1788 when renegade British Captain John Meares hired a group of Chinese carpenters from Macau and employed them to build a ship at Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. After the outpost was seized by Spanish forces, the eventual whereabouts of the carpenters was largely unknown.
  In the mid-late 19th century, early settlers from East Asia (China and Japan) emigrated to Canada, predominantly settling in British Columbia.
caption: Chinese labourers working on the Canadian Pacific Railway, 1884
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