The Chinese-Canadian experience in the 19th and 20th centuries provides a classic example of the role of history in the process of nation building, the creation of an "imagined community" (Stanley 477). The era of anti-Asian exclusion (1880s to 1940s) in Canada played a central role in the emergence of "Chinese" identity. Benedict Anderson describes the “imagined community” as one that is built through emotional connections with one another. Anderson states that the community "is imagined because the members of the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, never meet them, or even hear of them, but in the minds of each lives the 'image of their communion' (Anderson 1991). That said, Chinese Canadians felt a strong bond with each other due to the strong sense of Chinese nationalism created by the covert and overt displays of racism that Canadians inflicted on Chinese immigrants during the completion of the Canada in 1885. The Pacific Railway united Canada as a nation and essentially defined who was Canadian through the role of the media. The Canadian public disenfranchised Chinese immigrants, even though they played a central role in the unification of Canada through the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Due to manifestations of racism and discrimination, Chinese immigrants banded together, inevitably leading to the creation of the imagined community. By creating emotional and intellectual ties with China, Canada's Chinese community has formed the "imaginary community." made to feel out of place and unwanted in Canada, thus leading to the imagined community. Chinese immigrants came to Canada as residents, hoping to...... middle of paper ......o ultimately maintain these connections, Chinese Canadians began to educate their children in Chinese and English. Linking them intellectually to China would be a necessary agent of Chinese nationalism. Therefore, the “imagined community” was created through emotional and intellectual connections with China. Works Cited Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. 2nd ed. London: Verso. 1991.Mar, Lisa R. “Beyond Being Others: Chinese Canadians as National History.” BC Studies 156/157 (2007): 13-34. Spencer, DR “Race and Revolution: Canada's Victorian Labor Press and the Question of Chinese Immigration.” » The Public 12.1 (2005): 15.Stanley, Timothy J. "'Chinese, Everywhere We Go': Chinese Nationalism and the Guangdong Merchants of British Columbia." Canadian Historical Review 77.4 (1996): 475.