Canada is a spacious and beautiful country. The novelist Eileen Chang has described it as "blue skies and green grass . . . clean as though washed in water." But having lived in Hong Kong and loving China she has also called it "lacking human warmth." Now, though, people from Hong Kong are stumbling over themselves in the rush to get there.

According to a survey by the Hong Kong Immigration Service, Canada is the "destination of first choice" for emigrants wishing to leave the British colony. Some 5,500 people emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada during the first quarter of last year, a large number of them professionals and directors of large companies, and not a few of them influential and eminent figures in the community.

The departure of people like these has pushed Hong Kong to the verge of an unprecedented shortage of professional and managerial personnel. At the same time it has changed the face of several large Canadian cities--especially that of Toronto, the nation's manufacturing and commercial center. Toronto now has the best Cantonese restaurants outside China, fulltime Chinese-language television programming, magazines and videotapes flown in from Hong Kong, performances to packed houses by popular Hong Kong entertainers --in short, all the "amenities of home."

Toronto has been a popular destination among Chinese emigrants not only from Hong Kong but also from other parts of Asia. Those from Taiwan, who number about 30,000, are mostly computer engineers, doctors and business investors. Canada has accepted around 80,000 refugees from Vietnam, most of whom are Chinese in ancestry. And the country also has many third--and fourth-generation Chinese from Mainland China, the Philip-pines, and other places in Southeast Asia.

The total number of people of Chinese ancestry living in Toronto is estimated at around 250,000 to 300,000 and is expected to surpass half a million by the year 2000.

Why is Toronto so attractive, particularly for people from Hong Kong?

The big date of 1997, the year when the British intend to hand the colony over to the Communists, is clearly an "invisible hand" pushing the city's populace across the seas. As long as they can come up with $20,000 or $30,000 Canadian dollars (one Canadian dollar is worth about 80 cents U.S.), the people of Hong Kong can apply to immigrate to Canada as investors.

"We've already become saturated with doctors and lawyers," says Charles Chu, a Toronto attorney. He quotes a government report showing that the most sought-after occupations at present include electronic repairmen, TV and radio announcers, nuclear engineers, and--"you'd never guess," he adds with a laugh, "but funeral home directors, firemen, and private detectives are right at the top of the list."

Some Hong Kong residents who fail to make the grade attempt a desperate ploy: they try to pass themselves off as refugees from the mainland. They fly first from Hong Kong to the mainland and then from there to Canada, and they destroy their documents on the plane. They apply for political asylum as soon as they get off, and then just wait and see.

"The whole process can stretch out for four or five years," says Wei-kai Ku, city editor of a Toronto newspaper, "so there's a good chance of hitting on a general amnesty."

The would-be refugees are mostly men. Many younger women take the "marriage route," with matches arranged through a third party for a fee.

As for Chinese from Taiwan and Southeast Asia, their reasons for immigrating are much simpler. "Canadian taxes may be on the high side, but the social welfare system is really good," says Lily Ho, a representative of the R.O.C Tourism Bureau in Canada.

Canada has another big drawing card for immigrants, especially those who've suffered their fill of anti-Chinese sentiment in Southeast Asia: it promotes a policy of cultural pluralism and prohibits discrimination against minorities by law.

Twenty years ago nine-tenths of the immigrants to Canada came from Europe and the United States, but today in the province of Ontario alone reside people of nearly a hundred different nationalities from around the globe.

Minorities in Canada today not only enjoy political power but also are also provided with social services and encouraged to preserve their individual cultures and mother tongues.

"The government doesn't demand that immigrants 'melt in,' only that they maintain a certain cohesion," says Ch'en Lu-shen of the Chinese-Canadian Intercultural Association. "New immigrants usually feel that life is about the same as it was in the old country, and they don't have much of a problem adjusting."

Perhaps it's just this kind of "make yourself at home" atmosphere that has caused more and more Chinese to immigrate to Canada. Their three top choices are Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria, with Toronto in first: it may not be as beautiful, but it has more job opportunities. After settling their families in their new homes, many businessmen fly back to Hong Kong to earn some extra bucks before 1997. There's a street in Vancouver known as "widows' street" where a lot of lonely wives try to kill time together while their "jet set" husbands are away.

Actually, Canada wasn't such a friendly and open-armed place in the beginning. The first Chinese who went there were sold as laborers to build the railroads and work in the gold mines, and they were subject to harsh exclusionary laws. It was only later, after the government lifted the laws and adopted a policy of cultural pluralism, and particularly with the great influx of immigrants over the past ten years, that the image and social position of Chinese people in Canada have changed completely for the better.

In 1983, according to statistics of the Sing Tao Newspapers, Canada already had more than 2,000 physicians and over 100 licensed lawyers and accountants of Chinese ancestry.

"Except for high-level officials in the federal government," Wei-kai Ku says, "Chinese have made it into every profession."

Making it in mainstream society is a common aspiration of the younger generation of Chinese Canadians. But for recently arrived immigrants to fully relate to their new society is not so easy.

"It might not be such a problem for people from Hong Kong because they've lived all their lives in a colony," says a man named Fan Wei, who moved to Canada with his family when he was a teenager. "But people from Taiwan or the mainland always have a rootless feeling, no matter how well they may be doing."

His wife, Yuan-fen, agrees. Their favorite song is "Taipei Skies"--I've traveled abroad

And been through a lot,

But the skies of Taipei

Remain in my heart.

And whether the future

Be cloudy or blue,

My only desire

Is to spend it with you.

[Picture Caption]

Because of investments by large numbers of people from Hong Kong, real estate in Toronto's Chinatown has skyrocketed in value.

Social welfare in Canada is quite good, including comprehensive medical care. Shown above is part of the square in front of a children's hospital in Toronto.

Many local Chinese worship at this statue of Kuanyin in north Toronto.

Although the R.O.C. and Canada lack formal diplomatic relations, Chinese organizations can display the R.O.C. flag without hindrance.

Now that they have raised their economic power, Chinese Canadians have begun to pay more attention to their cultural life. Concerts and other cultural activities are often held in the community.

Attorney Charles Chu, who often handles cases involving immigration problems, is an immigrant from Hong Kong himself.

Shown above is part of the square in front of a children's hospital in Toronto.

Social welfare in Canada is quite good, including comprehensive medical care.

Many local Chinese worship at this statue of Kuanyin in north Toronto.

Although the R.O.C. and Canada lack formal diplomatic relations, Chinese organizations can display the R.O.C. flag without hindrance.

Now that they have raised their economic power, Chinese Canadians have begun to pay more attention to their cultural life. Concerts and other cultural activities are often held in the community.

Attorney Charles Chu, who often handles cases involving immigration problems, is an immigrant from Hong Kong himself.