Audio recording of interview with Yoke Yee Chong conducted by Vivienne Poy and Paul Chan (interpreter) in Victoria, B.C. Interview mainly in Hoy Ping dialect and Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Yo Ke Yee Chong (paper bride) immigrated in 1952, interviewed in Victoria - Born in Hoiping - As the family was very poor, she didn’t have much chance for an education, and only attended school for a few years. Her father was working in the Philippines, and because of the war, he wasn’t able to send money back to them in China. They were still luckier than others because they had enough to eat. - Immigrated to Canada at age 22, 1952. Husband was Canadian born. The marriage was arranged. She had never met her husband before, but her mother had. This was his second marriage. - Husband’s 1st marriage - he was sent back to China at age 15 to get a wife. He refused at first, but was finally married at age 17, and became a father at 18. Because of the Exclusion Act, his wife was not allowed to come to Canada. After the War and the repeal of the Exclusion Act, some time in 1946-47, he applied to bring his wife and children to Canada. However, in 1951, she died. - After the first wife died, he sent money back to China to ask a marriage broker to help him to find a wife. 1951 was soon after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, and many Chinese were looking for a way out of of the country. For the women, one way was to be a picture bride to Gum San. That’s why many women or their families sent their photos to the marriage broker. The husband wanted someone who is tall and strong. Mrs. Chong said that she was picked not only was she the prettiest, she was also tall, taller her future husband. - After Mrs. Chong was picked, she went to Hong Kong to await further news. At that time, it was still easy to get to Hong Kong from China. Mr. Chong sent money for her up-keep as well as for her immigration to Canada. she received letters, sometimes once a week, and sometimes once every two weeks. It took a total of 9 months before she was granted immigrant status. - Everyone was surprised that she never had a personal interview with the immigration officer. - Mrs. Chong’s understanding was that she was not given immigrant status because she was a picture bride, but because the children of her future husband needed someone to look after them. His youngest daughter had to be given away for someone to care for her because he couldn’t manage. She believes that the immigration officer was sympathetic to the children. - A deposit had to be given before Mrs. Chong was allowed to come to Canada, which guaranteed that, when she met her future husband, if either of them decided not to marry, there would be enough money for her to go back to China. Mrs. Chong then had her medical, and her future husband bought her a boat ticket. - In order to get into Canada, could a person get married, and once become landed, divorce? - it seemed that it was very difficult to get divorces until Trudeau’s time. - The ticket Mr. Chong bought was for a bed in an eight-bedded room on the boat, which cost $400.00. But Mrs. Chong ended up in a thirty-bedded room (with many bunks), and she was happy to receive a refund of $50.00. The boat went to San Francisco (no boats traveled directly to Vancouver at that time), and the trip took 18 days. To get to Vancouver, she had to take a train for 2 days. With Victoria as her final destination, she took a six-hour boat trip from Vancouver. ( There were only two trips per day, one in the morning and one at 11 pm at night.) Mrs. Chong took the night boat. - The age difference between Mrs. Chong and her husband was 13 years. - Mrs. Chong left Hong Kong on Nov. 7. The marriage took place at a church in Victoria on Jan. 3. The first daughter was born in November 1953. - Mr. Chong worked as a welder in ship-building from 4pm to 11 pm. During the day, he had a shop repairing shoes. Mrs. Chong helped him at the shop until the birth of their 3rd child. He had 3 children from his first wife and five with Mrs. Chong. She was very busy looking after all of them. She said life was difficult then, not like it is now. - There were very few Chinese in Victoria at that time. Most of the men who could send for a wife were old. Many of them were not able to to bring a “paper wife” or “fiancée” until at least 1954-6, so Mrs. Chong’s immigration in 1952 was a very special case. - Mrs. Chong felt that life is so much better for this present generation. Everyone has the chance to go to university. Of her five children, she mentioned that one son is a policeman and the youngest daughter is an MLA in Victoria. - In the old days, you couldn’t just go out for dim sum. If you wanted any, you have to phone someone who knows how to make them, who will make them for you. These are then taken home to be cooked yourself. - Mrs. Chong did not feel discriminated herself, but her husband, who was born in Cumberland, told her stories of fights between the whites and the Chinese, and how the minister stopped the fights. - She felt very fortunate being in Canada. Reflecting back, it was like winning a lottery, since everyone wanted to come to Gum San. - Her first trip back to Hong Kong was in 1957 when she saw how difficult life was for the majority of the people there. There were refugees everywhere, and couldn’t find work. Women were on the side of the streets mending nylon stockings, and if they had work, they were lucky to make $10 HK a day. Many lived in crowded rooms with bunk beds shared by families. In 1971, she went to Hong Kong and the Philippines. In 1977, she went back to the village in China with her husband and she saw that people didn’t have much to eat. - Mrs. Chong had no religion, only ancestral worship. She didn’t have much of a chance to learn English, and still only speak the village dialect.

Audio recording of interview with Irene Leong conducted by Vivienne Poy in Victoria, B.C. Interview conducted in English.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Irene Leong, immigrated in 1967, (Child), interviewed in Victoria. - Born in 1962 in Hong Kong. - Irene’s mother was born in China. She left China soon after the Liberation by the Communists in 1949. The family owned a lot of land in China. Her mother remembers hiding in the bushes during the fighting. She escaped to Hong Kong. After she was settled, she was able to get her own mother out to Hong Kong. This was possible up to the early 1950s. Other members of the family were not able to get out. - Irene’s mother was widowed at a very young age. Irene remembers her father working in a department store, and her mother did some embroidry and made plastic flowers for some extra income. - 1965-6, the family stayed in Macao for one year. - The family, consisting of her mother, sister and Irene, came to Canada in 1967. Soon after Irene’s father died, her mother was desperate. Through introduction of friends as well as her brother in Toronto, she married a Chinese Canadian man. She believed that was her only way out of a desperate situation. After all, everyone wanted to go to Canada, and here was an opportunity. This man had a wife in China, and one in Canada, but was separated from the one in Canada. Irene’s family have never met the former (Canadian) wife or the children from that marriage. No one knew whether he was actually divorced or not. Within the Chinese community, the separation was accepted as legal. - It was everyone’s dream to go to Gum San, and Irene’s mother was no different. She believed that she was giving her family a better opportunity in Canada, and the only way was by marrying this man. The marriage took place in Hong Kong. Irene believes the reason was that it was easier to go through Canadian immigration in Hong Kong than Macao. - When Irene’s family came to Canada, she was 5, and her sister was 3. It was her first time in an aeroplane. She was scared, not because of flying, but because she was leaving her grandmother behind. At that time, it was her grandmother who raised her, while her mother went to work. - From Hong Kong, instead of going straight to Vancouver, the family went to Toronto first to see an uncle (mother’s brother, whom she had not seen for a very long time), and then changed plane to Vancouver. They didn’t stay in Toronto. - When they first arrived, they discovered that the step-father was a market gardener, growing mainly Chinese vegetables, so the family lived on a farm. The step-father rented the farm from white Canadians who were very nice to them. Irene’s family was scared because they didn’t know English, and couldn’t communicate with the owners. Her mother had a high school education in Hong Kong, but since she went to a Chinese school, she had little knowledge of English. - A house was provided for the family, but Irene and her sister were not allowed out of the house. She believed that it was because they had to take on a lot of the responsibilities of the house work. Her mother also worked on the farm. She was very disappointed by the environment they ended up in, because that was not the way the step-father had presented himself when he met her. Irene said she cried a lot. - Later, the step-father bought a house on Fiscard (?) Street, where there was a garden in front, growing vegetables for China town. He continued to work in the other farm he rented. He marketted the vegetables himself, driving them in a green truck, going door to door. - Irene’s mother held three jobs, cleaning houses during the day, helped with the growing of vegetables, and she washed dishes till midnight at Strathcona. Irene would go after school and help her with dish washing. - Irene’s step-father was very abusive, and the whole family learnt not to say anything. This situation has affected Irene to the extent that she said she would never want to get married. She has had two relationships. She would never want to be controlled by a man like her mother. - Irene remembers Victoria as being a very lonely place, even in Chinatown. It certainly was not like Hong Kong or Macao where it’s always teaming with people. - When Irene started school, it was a difficult experience. Not only was there language problem, but because of customs and clothing, and the visual differences, the 8 Chinese children stuck together, having little communication with the other children. Mrs. Waring, the teacher from grade school, took Irene under her wings because she realized how tough it was for her. Irene was also a plump child, and “children can be mean.” She was referred to that “Hong Kong person”, and therefore different. When she was invited to a birthday party, she believed that it was because she was a novelty, and not because she was [regarded] as a friend. So never went to one until she was in grade 3. - By grade 7, Irene felt everything was falling into place. She had more confidence, especially when she will be leaving. By grade 8, it was easier because she was among a lot more students, many of whom she didn’t know before. There was no longer the familiarity, eg. “my mom gave her those hand-me-down shoes”, and she was no longer judged by her background, or that she was the girl from Hong Kong. By then, it was the 1970s, there were many more immigrants, and so a lot more diversity in the schools. - Irene’s step-father was never a provider. It was her mother who made the money. The step-father never owned anything, he only rented. He did pay the rent and provided the family with food, but that was with the money Irene’s mother made. When he was not working, he would be out drinking. Every night, he would return home drunk. Irene’s grandmother would put aside some of the vegetables the son-in-law had, and sell them stealthily to have money to feed the grandchildren. When she had her pension cheques, she also used it towards the grandchildren. They were never lacking and never starved because of the grandmother. - The step-father took all the good pieces of jewelry Irene’s mother had. Some he sold, and some were still in his safe deposit box after he died. These were identified as belonging to her. What he had left her with were the pieces that were not so valuable, which she sold to bring her mother over to Canada. - Irene and her sister were never allowed to have friends home, and that was because their step-father didn’t want outsiders to know what the family situation was like. - In 1969, a younger brother, Donny, was born. The situation became worse because the step-father never wanted this child. Irene remembered one instance when her step-father told Donny not to touch the wood stove, and when he did, the step-father put his hand on it to burn it. Irene still remembers the [blisters]. - In 1971, Irene’s grandmother came to Canada to help out. She saw the abusive situation and told her daughter to go back to Hong Kong. Irene’s mother never did because it would be a loss of face. - Irene was responsible for the younger children until grandmother came to Canada, so she got more abuse from the step-father because she would sometimes tell him he was wrong. The children were not allowed in the house until the step-father came home at 6pm to unlock the door to let them in. They would just wait on the porch even in the winter, and when they needed to go to the bathroom, they had to do it in the snow. Mother would have the food prepared before hand, and Irene was responsible for cooking the rice and reheating the food. Mother went to work at 7 am and returned at midnight. She accepted her life because others worked as hard in the Chinese community. She would never talk about the abusive situation at home, and never left her husband. - One day, they found that the step-father was gone. He piled pillows under his sheets and they thought he was still sleeping until they checked. He never told them where he was going. They found out he went to Vancouver because he had cancer, and the hospital in Victoria couldn’t accommodate him. - Irene never left her mother. When she had her first partner, her mother moved in with them. At that time, her step-father was already in hospital, dying of cancer. Irene is very protective of her mother and said she would never leave her. She felt she was more like a mother to her own mother, being the eldest child, taking care of her as well as the youngest siblings. Her grandmother died in 1980. - Grandmother had fights with the step-father because of his abuse, and as a punishment, he wouldn’t give them any food. Grandmother “was smart”, she would use the vegetables he had put aside, and walked to China town to get eggs and sawyer sauce, and the children would have that with their rice. Sometimes, an egg would have to last a week. - The money her mother made was all given to her husband, so the family never had money. When grandmother had her pension, Irene’s mother told her to put it aside for herself. - Irene’s mother said her life in Canada was worse than being in prison, because in prison, you know you would be getting out some time. For her, there was no end to her suffering. She was forever filled with a sense of duty to the man who gave her family a chance to be in Canada. She even felt guilty that she couldn’t be in Vancouver to take care of him when he was dying of cancer. She tells her family that they should be grateful to him for their being in Canada. - After the step-father died, Irene’s mother and grandmother pooled their resources and bought a house. They were very frugal people. Irene’s mother felt that she was, afterall, still better off than many others because now she had a house, and she was thankful for that. She did believe that, for all her suffering, her children had a better opportunity in Canada, until about 5 years ago. Now, she looks at her friends in Hong Kong, especially those whose children are doing well, she’s not so sure. Philosophically, she said the time has passed, and she couldn’t relive her life again. She felt gratitude to the man who gave her an opportunity when she believed she had no option. - Irene finished grade 12, and got into Ryerson (Toronto). For her high school graduation, her mother gave her a trip to Trinidad to visit her cousin (on her mother’s side). By then, step-father was already in hospital in Vancouver. While in Toronto, Irene suddenly woke up at 4 am and said to her girl friend that she was never going to see her grandmother again. That same day, at noon in Victoria, her grandmother died peacefully, on August 16, 1980. Irene returned to Victoria, and saw the state her mother was in, and never left again. They worked at a relative’s store at Colwood. The intention was to go back to school a year later, but Irene stayed , and it’s been 10 years. - Irene’s mother would not look back. She only looks forward to what she will do that day, or to the grandchildren growing up, and there are 4 at the moment. - Now Irene has 2 children from 2 relationships. She is finding that by not getting married, the situation in the case of separation is worse than being married. - Irene’s brother Donny would not go to his own father’s funeral, and the family had to force him. Irene went for the sake of her mother. She felt even closer to her mother since she had her own daughter. She expressed that her her mother was even more than a mom.

Audio recording of interview with Norma Chan conducted by Vivienne Poy in Victoria, B.C. Interview conducted in English.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Norma Chan, immigrated in 1964, (principal applicant), interviewed in Victoria - Born in Kingston, Jamaica. - The family immigrated to Hong Kong when Norma was about five years old, (after the 2nd. World War). Their father, who had been in Jamaica a long time, didn’t want the children to grow up there, and particularly didn’t want them to intermarry with the locals. There were 5 girls and 2 boys in the family. It was his wish that they learn Chinese language and customs. - When they arrived in Hong Kong, they went to fetch their grandmother (father’s mother) from China. - Their uncle, father’s brother, arranged housing for the family. Norma did not have a good first impression of Hong Kong. She found it very confusing. - Norma went into grade 1 at a Catholic school, St Claire, on Bonham Rd. which was later moved to Pokfulum Rd. Norma stayed at the same school until graduation from High School. - As overseas Chinese, the children didn’t know any Chinese, and were put in a special class for overseas Chinese children. The teacher did not apply much discipline to the children, and Norma regretted not learning as much as she should have. - Norma attended secretarial school after high school graduation. It was a technical college (around 1956). The training was for one year. Her first job was with the Hong Kong Naval Depot. She had to take a boat to an island where the Depot was. She worked as a secretary for one of the officers there. When her oldest sister went to the U.S., Norma took over her job working for an import-export rice company. She was only there for a few months. - Norma’s next job was for Jardine Engineering, and remained there for a few years, working in a steno pool for one of the Directors. Her next job was for an American import-export company. She stayed there until 1964. By then, her second oldest sister left Hong Kong for San Diego to study. There, she met her future husband, but neither could stay in the U.S. as immigrants, so, they went to Burnaby, B.C. - By 1963, the eldest daughter had married a doctor in Hong Kong, and the rest of Norma’s sisters have left for the U.S. and Canada. Norma felt that perhaps it was time to make a move too. - in 1963, Norma intended to visit her sister in Burnaby, B.C. She went to Canadian immigration in Hong Kong to get a visitor’s visa, but was persuaded by the immigration officer to get an immigration visa instead. “In the 60s, it was very easy to immigrate to Canada.” The immigration officer told her that if she didn’t want to stay in Canada, all she had to do was to leave. - After all the medicals etc., Norma left for Canada in Feb. 1964. She took the President Cleveland (had a wonderful time with a lot of young people on the boat), and docked in San Francisco. She visited her American boss’s sister in Oakland, and then took a train to Vancouver. - She stayed with her sister initially, and looked for a job. In that case, it was very easy too. She wrote letters of application to different companies, and got a job offer within 2 weeks. It was with an engineering company. “It was even easier than getting a job in Hong Kong.” With her secretarial background, she was very employable, and the working conditions were very similar. However, she found that the Chinese bosses in Hong Kong were more aggressive, and her bosses in Canada were more polite. Norma was very impressed with Canada. - After working for a few months, Norma quit her job to travel to Phoenix, Arizona, to visit another sister. In January, 1965, she returned to Burnaby, in a [huge] snow storm. By then, her younger sister had immigrated to Victoria, B.C., (where there was very little snow) and Norma went to see her to see how she was doing. - In Victoria, Norma shared a basement suite with her sister and her girl friend. She found work with a law firm, Owen Flood, and again, it was very easy for her to find work, it took her about a week, “there was no problem at all”. All she had to do was to go to an employment office and there she’ll find which company needed secretarial help. - Norma met Paul Chan when she was working at Owen Flood. Paul came over to Canada in 1950, together with his mother and younger brother. Paul’s grandfather paid the head tax to come to Canada. He and his son (Paul’s father) ran a laundry in a tiny little fishing village up island. - Norma and Paul were married in 1965. Paul worked in a saw mill and is very much a people person. When Norma got pregnant soon after, she was told that it was the policy of the company that she should resign. After the birth of their son, 9 months later, Norma went to work for the Department of Public Works. She believed that the government would treat the employees better, and that her job would be more secure. The Department became B.C. Buildings Corporation. - When Norma had her second child in 1969, there was no such thing as maternity leave. Because her baby arrived early, she took time off the day before she was born. Normal leave taken was only for three months. “At least they let me work even when my pregnancy was showing.” Human Resources told her to write a letter to the Department to say how much she needed her job in order that she could come back to it after taking time off. She felt “degraded” that she had to write a letter saying that not getting her job back when she returned would cause tremendous hardship to her family - “Conditions are very different now. You can take one year maternity leave with pay, and, if you want to take another year to look after your child, you can extend it for another year.” - Norma remained with the government for 29 years, and just retired 3 years ago. Paul worked at the same saw mill for 30 years, and was let go at age 58, with a good package when the mill closed. - Norma had always felt welcome in Canada, even though Paul, her husband, had told her about discrimination, not only against the new immigrants, but also against the Canadian-born Chinese. (Paul was a naturalized Canadian who grew up in Canada). She found Canadians very kind and nice, and she was very impressed by the country. She made comparisons between the behavior of the ordinary people in Hong Kong and those in Canada. In Canada, people would pick up magazines that have fallen from the rack in grocery stores, and bus drivers would actually back up the bus when they saw her running for it. This would not happen in Hong Kong. - Norma believed that immigration to Canada was so easy for her was because she possessed a needed skill in this country, and that she was also English speaking, which meant that she posed no problem integrating in Canadian society.

Audio recording of interview with Shun Oi Lim conducted by Vivienne Poy in Victoria, B.C. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Lim Chan Shun Oi, (dependent), immigrated in 1966, interviewed in Victoria - Born in Macao in 1941. Her father was on one of his visits back from America. Because war broke out, her mother told her husband to go back to L.A. right away before it’s too late. The older son went with him. A certificate had to be bought for the son since he was probably born before the father went to America. However, when Mrs. Lim was born, the son’s name was put on it, with the purpose of selling it in the future. As a result, Mrs. Lim did not have proof of birth, as a child of an American citizen. - It became very difficult for the father to send money for the family during the war, so the family went back to the ancestral village, Sun Wui, in China. Mrs. Lim went through primary school in the village, then was sent to Gong Mun city to attend secondary school. - In her third year of secondary school, 1959, her father was visiting Hong Kong. She had never met him before. The family, (her mother, sister-in-law and her) applied for permission from the Chinese government to go to Hong Kong. They came out through [Shenzhen], and Mrs. Lim met her father for the first time. - Mrs. Lim’s mother didn’t want to leave the graves of the [ancestors], so she arranged to have another woman live with her husband in America to look after him. From this woman were born 6 children. The arrangement was that Mrs. Lim’s birth certificate was given to the son of the sister of this woman, so he would have a chance to go to America. - In Hong Kong, Mrs. Lim didn’t go to school except on a part time basis. She also learnt something of Chinese medicine. The interest was that her father was a Chinese herbal medicine doctor in the U.S. She would sometimes take some handwork home to do as her friends did. The family was comfortable, and she didn’t really require to work. - She met her husband in 1966 when he came back from Canada to Hong Kong to look for a wife. They were introduced in Hong Kong, and he approached her mother for permission to marry her. - At the time, Mrs. Lim didn’t even know what he did for a living. He was about 10 years her senior. The marriage took place in Hong Kong. He worked as a cook. She said, “It was a gamble,” but she was fortunate. Her father-in-law was very nice to her. - Her husband bought the boat tickets so that they could both return together, but Mrs. Lim was found to have worms in her medical, so he ended up returning a month earlier, and she came by plane. - Mrs. Lim was satisfied with her circumstances, and everyone was very nice to her. They rented a room to live in. After about a month, she was expecting. She asked her father-in-law to borrow $500.00 for a down payment for a house, and he said he didn’t have it. But later, he changed his mind, and bought them a house. He said he had to be fair to both sons, since the one in China had a house to live in, this one should too. - Mrs. Lim didn’t work when she arrived. Friends of the family were very kind and arranged for her to learn English. Then she got pregnant, and was sick all the time. She had three children in three years. - Soon after Mrs. Lim got pregnant, Mr. Lim formed a partnership with some friends to open two restaurants. They lost a lot of money. Finally, with the help of friends, Mr. and Mrs. Lim opened a small restaurant. Since Mrs. Lim didn’t know enough English, they had to hire people, and she stayed at the back to help. They worked 16 hours a day. Her in-laws helped to take care of the children for a while until 1974. After they left, Mrs. Lim would have the children go to the restaurant after school, and sleep there until the restaurant closes for the night, then took them home. They all rose early to go to the restaurant before 7 am, since they also served breakfast, so the children must rise early and go with them. - At one point, when her eldest son was in school, he suffered from [diarrhea] and [vomiting], and the health department would not let the children go to the restaurant anymore. Mrs. Lim needed help at home, so she arranged to have her widowed sister and her family immigrate to Victoria to help out. (1974-5) This was granted within a week in Canada, but permission was not granted on the Chinese side, so Mrs. Lim ended not having household help at all. Fortunate, the children were good. By the time the youngest was in grade three, the children were quite independent and could look after themselves. The grade school was close to where the restaurant was. However, the children wanted to go to Chinese school after school, and tht was out of the area, and the Lims couldn’t take them because of the restaurant. One of their customers, a Canadian-born Chinese, offered to drive the children, and he did this for 51/2 years. Again, the Lims felt they were blessed with good friends. This friend even helped them enlarge their house in anticipation of Mrs. Lim’s sister and her family’s arrival. Mrs. Lim looked to him like a daughter to a father. - Her mother-in-law came to Canada from Hong Kong in 1972, but after 2 years, she wanted to leave. Father-in-law liked staying in Canada. They returned a few times. The last time her in-laws came back to Canada was in 1984, he died a month later. Her mother-in-law then went back to China. - Mrs. Lim worked with her husband in their own restaurant for 27 years, since 1978. It was not in [Chinatown], and served both Chinese and Western food. In total, her husband worked in the restaurant business for 31 years. Her husband is a good cook, and they were known for their soups in their restaurant. She pitched in with everything, from cooking to washing the toilets. At the beginning, they had to hire quite a few staff because of her lack of knowledge of English, but they were not making ends meet, so Mrs. Lim had to learn enough English to at least understand taking orders. She was fortunate that their patrons were very kind and helpful when they were short-handed, and will help to pour their own coffee as well as help to clean up the tables. All she had to do was to make up the bills. “No matter whether they were new or old customers, they were that helpful.” - Working the way she did, 6 days a week, and Sunday was a day to do house work, Mrs. Lim developed high blood pressure. She would sometimes fall asleep in the restaurant. Her customers would often pour their own coffee and leave the money on the table without waking her. She would also get teased for falling asleep. She was affectionately called Oi by everyone. - Her [husband] is still alive, and they are both retired. Former customers are now their friends, and they have very nice neighbours. When she shovels snow, neighbours often come and help. She makes a comparison to the people in Hong Kong, who would not be as nice or as helpful. - The Lim’s children are independent and all doing very well. None of them is in Victoria. A daughter is working in UBC, and a son is a computer engineer working in the U.S. Mrs. Lim compares the life of her generation to this present generation, and she is happy with the independence of her children. - In the old days, Mrs. Lim was too busy to do a lot of house work, and she reflects that now when she has the time, she aches all over, and it’s difficult for her to do it. She goes to [chiropractor] for relieve. - In 1990, the Lims applied for their nephew (his brother’s son) to come to Canada. Immigration allowed it because they had a business, and they provide employment, but they could only trust their own people with the key to the business. Mr. Lim’s brother wanted to stay in China, and would only come to visit. The nephew didn’t like working in the restaurant, and needed to look for work. Mrs. Lim again was thankful a customer of theirs was very kind by offering to drive her nephew to find work, and by giving him a book to learn English. The nephew is now working in Vancouver, is married, and have 3 children. He often goes to visit the Lims.

Audio recording of interview with Nui Kan Wong and her husband (Heng Fung Wong), conducted by Vivienne Poy in Victoria, B.C. Interview mainly in Sun Wui (Xinhui) dialect and Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Wong Nui Kan , immigrated in 1978, (family reunification), interviewed in Victoria - Born in Sun Wui county in 1928. - She was the eldest of 6 children in the family, so had to help with looking after the younger siblings, as well as helping her mother with the work in the fields. She only had a few years of schooling. They owned some land in the village. - During the War, Mr. Wong’s family in China were on the verge of starvation because they didn’t have any land to farm. They were very poor. Mr. Wong’s father had a restaurant in Saskatoon. And when the 2nd world War was over, he sold it to return to China with some money, and to see to his son’s marriage. Because of the suffering his family went through during the War, he bought land to give them security. Little did he realize that the political situation in China was such that ownership of land would bring disaster to his family. - Mr. and Mrs. Wong families were almost neighbours in the village, and the children’s marriage was arranged between the two families in 1946. - With the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the land bought by Mr. Wong’s father was confiscated, and the family suffered because they were considered belonging to the land lord class. - Mr. Wong went to Hong Kong in 1955 and stayed there for 10 years before immigrating to Canada. Mrs. Wong remained in the village in China with their 4 children. - Mr. Wong’s mother went to Hong Kong to see her younger son (under the age of 21 and not married) before he left for Canada, and she stayed in Hong Kong. Mr. Wong’s second son went to Hong Kong with her. Mr. Wong was able to send this son to Canada in 1968. - Mr. and Mrs. Wong described what life was like in the village under communist rule. Now that the government owned everything, everyone worked for the government for points, the maximum being 10 points per person. At the end of the year, the total earned by the village is then divided into points. There was never enough to eat for the family. The children were put in government nursery while the parents worked. - Because the Wongs were considered land lords, life was like that of prisoners except they were not locked up. Landless peasants were spared this ordeal. There was no such thing as freedom for them. They had to report to work every morning to the village cadre on their knees, when they would be assigned work for that day. Such as cutting a hundred catty of firewood, or repair a dam. At the end of the day, again, they had to report back, on their knees, everything they had done, including what they ate that day. That was before the communes were established, and everyone ate at public dining hall. If one were sick, the person still had to report in the morning. If the cadre believed that person, then work was spared that day, otherwise, the person still had to work. For a woman who’s pregnant, she still had to work untill labour started. If she had a small baby, she had to carry the baby on her back, and what women did was to attach a fan to shield the baby from the sun. - After the repeal of the Exclusion Act, children of Chinese Canadian over the age of 21 could not come to Canada as dependents. - Mr. Wong immigrated to Canada in 1965, and by that time, he was already 31. He came under very unusual circumstances. - In the federal election of 1963, a large donation was given to the Conservative party by a Chinese Canadian who wanted to bring his son (who was the same age as Mr. Wong) to Canada. The immigration rules were bent, not only to allow older children, but also those who were already married could also come in as dependents. It was because of that incidence that Mr. Wong was able to come to Canada in 1965. - Mr. Wong held 2 jobs in Canada - in a variety store as well as as a cook in the Chinatown Care Centre when it’s established. The Centre accepted people from every ethnic [background], but a majority of them were Chinese. There are many care centres like this one in Victoria, but this is the only one that served Chinese food. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wong retired at age 66. Mrs. Wong being one year younger than he. - In 1970, Prime Minister Trudeau visited China, and agreements were made between the two countries for family reunification in Canada. Mr. Wong applied to the Canadian Immigration, filled in the form with the information of his family in China, but the local Chinese officials wouldn’t let them out. Mr. Wong found out from his MP that the procedures were correctly done by Canadian immigration, but it was not complied with by the Chinese side. The Wongs believe it’s because of jealousy on the part of the officials because they themselves couldn’t leave the country. - On one of the visits of the Chinese Ambassador to Victoria, Mr. Wong asked him to inquire about the case of his family. Whether he did or not, Mr. Wong could not be sure, but soon after, Mrs. Wong was allowed out of China, and that was in 1978. She was 50 years old. Mrs. Wong believes that it was because of Deng Xioping’s policy that made the country freer. Mr. Wong applied for the rest of the family to come out, one at a time. The problem was not with the Canadian government, nor the Chinese central government, Mr. Wong believed it was the village government which made it so difficult for them. He believed that, as long as there are family members in the village, the family overseas will have to send money back for their living expenses, which would help the local economy. - Both Mr. and Mrs. Wong believe in the market policy of Deng Xiaoping, and that if it were not for him, many like them would not have been allowed out of China. They condemned Mao Zhedong for their suffering, and for the death of a lot of Chinese people. They do regret that the public security is bad now that there is freer market economy. - Mrs. Wong worked in the hot house, growing vegetables for a few years, then she worked in a restaurant. And when the Chinatown Care Centre was built, Mr. Wong also applied for a job for her there. He was the cook and she helped with the laundry. Mrs. Wong described her working experience as pleasant, and that everyone was kind to her. One Caucasian boss kept trying to teach her English, but she said she couldn’t catch on. - Mrs. Wong compared her life in Canada to that in China. She said in China, no matter how hard you work, you still had nothing, and they lived in fear all the time. But in Canada, they can enjoy the fruits of their labour, and they have freedom. - Today, two of the Wong’s children are in Canada, one is married in Hong Kong, and the eldest son remained in China. - Mr. Wong said that in the early 1980s, it only took 6 months for a [fiancée] to immigrate to Canada, but now (2001) it sometimes take up to 2 years. His explanation was that he believes that there are many more Chinese immigrants, and this has caused a backlash in acceptance. - The Wongs would not want to return to Hong Kong or China to live, because there is always the fear of lack of public security. They are used to the life in Canada and all their friends are here. They do return to visit frequently, not only because of their children and grandchildren, but Mrs. Wong’s mother is still alive at the age of over 90. - Today, for an independent to apply to come to Canada, such as Mrs. Wong’s niece, who was hired to look after an elderly couple, the qualifications are often too high. She needed to have at least a high school education, and to be a care giver, she also needed to have a certificate of training.

Audio recording of interview with Joyce Chin conducted by Vivienne Poy in Victoria, B.C. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Joyce Chin (paper daughter), immigrated in 1952, interviewed in Victoria. - Born in Toi Shan in 1931, the youngest of three children. Attended school in Canton (Guangzhou) when Japan invaded China. She had 3 years of secondary school. When the communists arrived in Canton, there was a lot of upheaval, her mother told her to return to the village. - In 1949, some of the Nationalist troops retreated to Toi Shan, and there was no peace in the countryside. Retreating soldiers and spies were kidnapping villagers for ransom. Mrs. Chin’s older brother was kidnapped. Mrs. Chin took a trip to Canton (Guangzhou) to get money that was wired by her father to get her brother back. Soon after his release, her mother took him and left for Hong Kong. Mrs. Chin went to Hong Kong a little later. - When Mrs. Chin arrived in Hong Kong, she attended an English school for 2 years. - Mrs. Chin’s grandfather originally went to the U.S. on a student visa. Since there were many relatives living in Victoria, he was asked to join them. His English was very good, so he was often asked to work as a translator. He died while working in Toronto. He also had a business in Victoria, which was left to the care of hired help. - Grandmother brought her son (Mrs. Chin’s father) and daughters to Victoria. After grandfather died, Grandmother took her younger daughter with her to return to China. Mrs. Chin’s father, like most overseas Chinese men, went back to China to marry Mrs. Chin’s mother. He then returned to Canada. - When Sun Yatsan was in Canada raising money for the revolution, Mrs. Chin’s grandfather travelled with him for the cause. Grandfather also smoked opium, $2 a day, which was a lot of money in those days. Grandmother wanted him to give it up, but he couldn’t. When people gave him gifts, it was often opium. The production of opium was allowed in Canada. They existed in [Chinatown]. - At the end of the 2nd World War, Canadian Immigration allowed ethnic Chinese to become citizens, and to bring their family members to Canada. - When Mrs. Chin was born, her father reported the birth of a son instead of a daughter, so that the certificate could be used for a boy. When Canada allowed Chinese to immigrate again, Mrs. Chin’s older brother used her certificate and reported as being younger than he was. He was, at that time, over age to be allowed to immigrate as a dependent. He immigrated in 1950 with his mother. - Mrs. Chin’s father owned green houses in Victoria, growing flowers and vegetables. His flowers were so nice that he supplied Government House on a regular basis for their floral arrangements. The green houses were located fairly close to the Government House. He was using liquid chemicals or fertilizers, and gained the name of “scientist.” - Mrs. Chin immigrated to Canada in 1952. Her father bought her a birth certificate from someone (whose father had reported the birth of a daughter to the Canadian government) whose age approximated hers. It cost $800.00. Buying paper to come to Canada became a very frightening experience. The person who sold the paper slipped up when questioned, during the time he was also bringing other members of his family to Canada. Mrs. Chin was also questioned. She decided that she was going to tell immigration, and to get back her own name (she was under an assumed name). Canadian government realized what was happening with false papers in immigration, and in 1963 declared an amnesty to all those who would come forward. Mrs. Chin received an official letter from the government with her real identity in July, 1963. At the same time, her older brother got back his own age instead of being 7 years younger (Mrs. Chin’s age.) - Mrs. Chin reflected on the condition in China, and concluded that Canada is a nice country, and that it is a free society. Their neighbours were always nice to them. She commented that everyone called her mother “Ma.” - She attended the Central High school, but didn’t learn much. She blamed it on the fact that she was already 22, and was in a class with teenagers, and she couldn’t catch up. - Mrs. Chin met Mr. Chin (who immigrated to Canada in 1950) in Victoria, and they married in 1956. The parents knew each other. - Mr. Chin owned a grocery for ten years, and Mrs. Chin helped. The hours were from 9am to 9pm, which was very hard. After, he got a job with the Ferry service between the islands. - Mrs. Chin didn’t work outside of her home, and she attributed that as the reason she never had the reason to learn much English. But now, she does help seniors and new immigrants as a volunteer, in filling tax forms etc., which means she had to know enough English. - Their son is a chiropractor and their daughter works in computers. They are very satisfied with life here. - They are [Christians], and follow religious teachings. They first became exposed to Christianity by bringing their children to Sunday school. Mrs. Chin believe that children who go to church are better children. - “The reporting of the birth of children to the Canadian government was not at the time of birth, but at the time when the father wanted to bring his family members to Canada. The Canadian immigration only had the record of the time the person travelled to China, and the length of his stay. That’s why some actually reported having 2 children if they stayed more than a year. It was anybody’s guess whether any children was born at all.” These papers were sold to make money. The price for a boy was as high as $3-5 thousand dollars. Mrs. Chin’s was only $800.00 because [hers] was for a girl. - Mrs. Chin’s view on the head tax is that, if those who wanted to pay to come to this country, it was up to them. Their [descendants] have benefitted from being in Canada, living in a free country. The head tax was a very small price to pay.

Audio recording of interview with May Wong conducted by Vivienne Poy in Victoria, B.C. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:May Wong , (Dependent), 1958, interviewed in Victoria - Born in the village of Hoi Ping in 1929. Attended school in the village. She said they always had enough to eat because her family farmed the lineage land, and even during the Sino-Japanese War, they had not suffered. - Married in the village at the age of 18. Husband was born in Canada, and went back to the village at the age of four and a half and grew up there. His village is quite close to hers. - In the 1920s, economic situation in Canada was bad, and her husband’s father asked his wife to bring the children back to the village to live because life would be easier. The wife had 2 sons and a daughter with her, and she was also pregnant. Two of the children (one of whom was Mrs. Wong’s husband) were left in the village in the care of a woman the family hired, and the wife brought two children back to Canada with her. War broke out in China, and communications were cut. After the 2nd World War, the father wanted his son (Mrs. Wong’s husband) to get married first before coming back to Canada. - The Wong’s were married in 1947, and Mr. Wong left his wife in his village in China and came back to Canada. In the mean time, Mrs. Wong lived with the woman who brought her husband up, whom she called “foster mother.” She was very kind to Mrs. Wong. They developed a close relationship. In later years, Mrs. Wong sponsored this woman (who didn’t have any family, and who had brought up her husband) to Canada as her own mother so that she could look after her in her old age. - Mrs. Wong’s own mother remained in China where she has a son and a daughter. Mrs. Wong felt that she would be well looked after in her old age. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wong went back to see her. Mrs. Wong’s nephew blamed her for not getting her own mother out to Canada instead of her husband’s “foster mother.” - In 1954, he asked Mrs. Wong to go to Hong Kong. At that time, it was very difficult to get out of China. The reason she was allowed to come out was that she had kept her status of her own family, which was that of “landless peasant”, and not that of her husband’s family, which was “wealthy peasant” because they owned land. - As a “landless peasant”, even though she was living in her husband’s village, after Liberation (1949), the village cadre allowed her to join the youth groups and participate in their activities, as well as attending school. So, in effect, she didn’t suffer. It seemed that the authorities didn’t have the record that she was already married, so when she applied to go to Hong Kong, she applied to go there to get married because her [fiancé] was returning from Canada for the wedding. She was given the permission to leave for 3 months. She and her husband’s “foster mother” went to Hong Kong and stayed for three years before leaving for Canada. They rented a room to live. They were supported by money sent from her husband and her father-in-law. - Mrs. Wong immigrated to Canada in 1958. Mr. Wong’s reason that she had to wait for so long was because he didn’t have the money at the time, and he didn’t want her to come yet because life was hard. - When she first arrived, she worked as a dish washer until she got pregnant, then she stopped. She had 2 children. When the youngest was about 6, she sponsored Mr. Wong’s “foster mother” to Canada, who lived with them to help with the children, and Mrs. Wong went back to work. - Since Mrs. Wong knew little English, she worked in the kitchen in restaurants. She got a job washing dishes at Oak Bay Marina for $1.00 an hour. The chef liked her and asked her whether she would like to learn to make salad for $1.10 an hour. She did this for about 10 months, but the restaurant’s business didn’t go well and she was laid off. A friend of hers recommended her to work at the Empress hotel since they were hiring a lot of people. She worked as a salad maker there, making hundreds of salads everyday. She remained there for 28 years. Her hours were from 6 am to 2.30 pm. At the beginning, she was the only ethnic Chinese and the only woman in the kitchen, but later, there were more. - Mr. Wong worked in a saw mill for over 30 years. - Mrs. Wong appreciates being in Canada because she is free to do or say what she wants. She said in China, if you have a little more, people will be jealous of you, and if you have less, they will look down on you. She had not experienced discrimination in Canada especially when she had always worked for white Canadians. - Mrs. Wong retired at age 60, urged by her husband and their children. She had a good pension from the Empress Hotel. She appreciated the working condition there. She now has the freedom to travel all over the world and is very happy. - Mrs. Wong felt that Canada had given their children the opportunity they would otherwise not have, both in education and in job opportunities. Their son is working in Vancouver and the daughter is a nurse in the Middle East. - The Wongs have no religion.

Audio recording of interview with Ng Sui Kan conducted by Vivienne Poy and Paul Chan (interpreter) in Victoria, B.C. Interview mainly in Toisanese (Taishanese/Hoisanese) and Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Leong Ng Sui Kan, (Dependent) 1953, interviewed in Victoria. - born in 1911 in Toisan. Family leased land to farm. Mrs. Leong was used to helping with farm work. - Had three years of schooling, and got married at the age of 17. Mr. Leong was born in 1909. When he was sent to Canada around the age of 13 or 14 as a student, it was just before the passage of the Exclusion Act, but students were allowed to enter under the age of 14. (Many Chinese boys who entered as students didn’t stay as students very long. It was just a way of fulfilling the immigration requirement.) After he came, 2 more ships brought Chinese to Canada, and then Exclusion came into effect. - When Mr. Leong was 18, he left Canada to go back to China to get a wife. He stayed 3-4 months, and then returned to Canada. Three years later, he returned, and this time, Mrs. Leong got pregnant with their first son. When the son was almost a year old, he returned to Canada again. - Staying away for three years at a time was normal because few could afford the trip and to stay away for months at a time in China without working. The only exceptions were those who worked in fish [canneries]. It was seasonal and the pay was quite high. These were known as suicidal jobs because they had to work like machines. Many of them would go back to China every year when the [cannery] was closed (off season) in Canada, and to help with the farm work in the village back home. - During the 2nd. World War, Mr. Leong was prevented from returning. In the mean time, in order to support herself and her son, Mrs. Leong bought used clothes to sell in war time China. Sometimes she would be gone for days while her son had to look after himself. That happened to a lot of children when poor parents had to work. A group of children will help each other to make meals. - After the War, around 1948, he went back again, and Mrs. Leong was pregnant with their daughter. After the daughter was born, he returned to Canada again. - In 1953, Mrs. Leong and their 5 year old daughter came to Canada. In the mean time, Mr. Leong’s uncle had taken their son to Hong Kong for schooling and to work. Mrs. Leong believes that she and her daughter were allowed out of China because they were not land owners and were poor. - The Leong’s son returned to China to marry his former girls friend, and brought her to Hong Kong. They had 2 children. For a while, the son was not working, and the parents needed to send [money] to support his family. In 1955, they all immigrated to Canada. - Mrs. Leong worked in everything - green houses, outdoor farming, Maplewood factory where she slaughtered chickens, cleaning streets. She said she did the same kind of work in the village in China anyway, so doing the same in Canada didn’t make any difference. She worked till she received her old age pension. - Mrs.Leong was happy to be in Canada because she didn’t mind working hard. In China, no matter how hard you work, you still could go hungry, and sometimes, when you want to work, you couldn’t find any. - Mr.Leong worked as a waiter in Chinatown, and because there were so many mouth to feed, (4 in Hong Kong and 3 in Canada), Mrs. Leong had to work very hard. - Their son worked for BC Ferry and is now retired, and the daughter is a teacher.

Audio recording of interview with Georgina Wong conducted by Vivienne Poy in Victoria, B.C. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Georgina Wong, (dependent) immigrated in 1961, interviewed in Victoria - Born in Hoiping, Guangdong province, 1943. She was the only child by her own mother. Her family was well off and they owned a lot of land. Her father worked in the Philippines, but her mother didn’t like to go there and chose to stay in China where they had a very nice house. Her mother’s family also owned land. Mrs. Wong didn’t know her father at all. She has only seen [photographs] of him, and his only knowledge of her is also only from photographs. She only knew that he sent money for his family’s support. He had another family in the Philippines. When she was grown up, her father had sent money for her to visit the Philippines, but she said there was no point. - When she was in Grade 3, she had spent time in school in Canton (Guangzhou) when her mother was there. Then when she returned to the village, Mrs. Wong went back with her. - When Mrs. Wong was a teenager, her mother sent her to school in Canton (Guangzhou). She remembers that school was fun. She lived with a distant relative. Then her mother came from the village to see her, and then left for Hong Kong. A year later, when she was 15, 1958, she applied to go to Hong Kong. If she were to apply in the village, it would have been very difficult. She applied from Guangzhou for a one-month student pass to visit relatives in Hong Kong. Her mother was already there. She had to buy a return ticket to say that she would return when school started again at the end of the summer. The line up for the train from Shenzhen was so long that people sometimes wait for weeks, so an uncle advised her to take the route through Macao. While in Macao, she had to get an ID card before she was allowed to go to Hong Kong, and the wait was 6 months. In the mean time, the aunt who went with her to Macao had returned to Guangzhou and she stayed at a friend’s house. - Mrs. Wong, as a student without a school, and as a teenager, had nothing to do. She went out all the time. One day, she met a distant relative who said a group of them were smuggling themselves to Hong Kong, and would she like to join them. The cost was $200 per person. She, of course didn’t have the money, but the person who arranged the trip said that her mother can pay when she got to Hong Kong. The group went by boat. She remembers that the trip was very rough and she was very sea sick. She said she was too young to be scared. When the water police were near, they were told to go below. She believes that the police had been paid, and they just did that as a routine. The boat load landed in Aberdeen and were met by someone who took the group by public bus to Southorn Playground in Wanchai. She was then led to look for her mother who lived on Tsing Nin Street. Her mother was out shopping for food, and the person would not leave until her mother paid her. It cost $20. Her mother was surprised to see her because she wasn’t expecting her daughter so soon. She was horrified to hear that her daughter came with smugglers to Hong Kong. - Mrs. Wong went to evening school in Wanchai for three years, from 7pm to 9 pm. It was 1958, and it was very difficult to get into good schools even for Hong Kongers. - One day, when Mrs. Wong returned home from a movie with a friend, she met an old friend of her mothers whose granddaughter was married to someone in Montreal. The friend asked her mother whether her daughter might like to go to Canada, because a nice young man by the name of Wong is back in Hong Kong looking for a wife. Her mother said that her daughter was too young. She was only 17 at the time. However, if she like this Mr. Wong, and wish to marry him, she would give her blessing, “since it would happen sooner or later anyway.” - Mrs. Wong’s mother worked in a factory in Hong Kong making gloves, as well as bring hand work home, such as beading shoes etc. Mrs. Wong like to help her mother in the beading. She said Toishan people like working, whether they have money or not. They can’t sit at home. - When Mrs. Wong’s mother left China in 1955, it wasn’t too bad for the land lord class yet. But she was only allowed to leave China herself, not with her daughter. The Chinese government believed that she would always go back if her daughter was there. At that time, it only took her a week to get her papers to leave. Mrs. Wong’s father was going back to Hong Kong to bring his wife to the Philippines, but she decided not to go, since he already had another wife there. - Mr. Wong’s grandfather came to Canada to build the railway. His father paid $500.00 head tax to come to Canada. He went back to China every three years, and each time his wife got pregnant, he would return to Canada. There were 4 daughters and 1 son (Mrs. Wong’s husband.) Mr. Wong came to Canada at age 13, and the following year, his mother and 2 sisters also immigrated. - The Wongs met and went together for about 2 months and got married (1961). Mr. Wong returned to Canada first. Mrs. Wong went by boat, and arrived just before Xmas. - Mr. Wong was sponsored to come to Canada when he was 13. He stayed for 10 years before going to Hong Kong to look for a wife. He and his sister are partners in a store, and since his sister just had a baby when he got married, he needed to return quickly to look after the business. - Mrs. Wong felt that she was very fortunate because when she arrived, she had a new house to live in. She helped in their own store for about three years, until it was sold. Her husband then worked for the Royal Bank, looking after many Chinese accounts. At that time, her mother-in-law was looking after the children, so she wanted to continue working. She felt she was very lucky not to have to wash dishes. She got a job in a restaurant making sandwiches and salads. This lasted a few years, then the Wong’s bought a gas station, tore it down, and built their own Chinese restaurant. - The restaurant is now sold, Mr. Wong took a computer course, and he now works as a self employed accountant. - The Wongs have 2 sons, and each have a daughter. - The Wongs are not religious. They practice ancestral worship. They do return to China and Hong Kong frequently for visit.

Audio recording of interview with Chow Quen Lee and her son (Yew W. Lee, who served as the interpreter), conducted by Vivienne Poy in Ottawa, ON. Interview mainly in Hoy Ping (Kaiping) dialect, Cantonese and English.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Lee Chow Quen, (dependent), immigrated in 1950, interviewed in Ottawa - Born in Hoiping, 1911. Went to school in the village. The girls and the boys were at separate schools, and in fact, in different villages. Only those with money could afford to go. The girls were not allowed to talk too much. The family had nine children, 2 girls and 7 boys. - Mrs. Lee’s Grandfather had many businesses - import-export of a variety of goods, such as kerosene (from the States), foodstuff, dried fish etc., production of peanut oil (pressed by hand), buying and selling of grains, metal tools. All the sons went into the family businesses. They were established in Changsha, Hong Kong and Canton (Guangzhou) They were in very big business. As a young girl, Mrs. Lee had helped in taking the cash in the business in Changsha. All the family lived in the same vicinity in 6 houses. - Mrs. Lee’s father was the no. 2 son. Many of the brothers came to North America, but many also went back because of discrimination. One of the brothers went to Shanghai University, taught school and university, and represented China in Swimming in the Olympics. Mrs. Lee believes that her father came to Canada as a merchant because there was no record that he ever paid head tax. He died in Ottawa when she was 5 years old. He was known as a translator. His bones were shipped back to China. - Hers was a “blind” marriage. Her husband came to Canada in 1913 paying $500.00 head tax. He was also from Hoiping. He was 38 when he married Mrs. Lee who was 19. Mrs. Lee said he was handsome and good-natured. Her family figured that if he was from Gum San, he must be well off. There was the myth that everyone from North America was rich. Age was of no importance. She really didn’t have a choice whether she wanted to get married or not. After the marriage, Mr. Lee came back to Canada. - Mr. Lee had many [siblings]. Other sons went to the States and to Mexico. Mr. Lee worked very hard in Canada, sent money home, but a lot of it went to the brother in Mexico because he needed money for his business. Mrs. Lee blamed this for a lot of their suffering. The remaining family lived together in China, the mother-in-law, the daughter-in-laws and the children. Those brothers who were overseas tried to send money home for their support. Because there wasn’t enough money to go around, she even had to share a room with her mother-in-law. On each return, Mrs. Lee would get pregnant with another child. - During the Sino-Japanese war, and the civil war in China, there was no communication between her and her husband for a period of about 13 to 14 years. Mrs. Lee was on her own to struggle for the survival of her children. She worked and was able to but some land to farm, (which was taken away just prior to her coming to Canada), and she grew vegetables. Some members of the extended family went to cut grass, dry them and sell them. Some went to cut firewood. They would use shrimp paste to cook turnips that they grew for food. When there were extra turnips, they would dry them and keep them for food. This was a very hard life for a woman who had never laboured as a young girl before. - Exclusion Act was repealed in 1947, and Chinese were given citizenship in 1948. Mr. Lee got his citizenship right away and went back with the intention that he might choose to stay in China . However, he saw the civil war raging and decided to bring his entire family to Canada. During that time, Mrs. Lee gave birth to their youngest son. - Mrs. Lee immigrated to Canada in 1950 with the entire family. The family owned a restaurant Capital Cafe close to a big arena in Sudbury. It was also near the railway station, so business was very good. Mrs. Lee was helping with washing dishes, but because of the standing, her feet became very swollen, so she needed to do something else. She wanted to look after the cash register, but Mr. Lee doubted that she could manage without the knowledge of English. Despite that, she learnt all the necessary words to cope, including the names of the cigarettes they sold. She was good in math, and she knew what things cost, and how much they should be sold for. She managed very well even during lunch hours when they sold hundreds of lunches. Business prospered. It was a good thing that she came to Canada to help, otherwise, everything would have been left to the waitresses. - A lot of the business was from miners who would have their lunch pails filled for them. These miners were mostly single men with meal tickets who looked to the Chinese restaurant as a centre for their social life, where they could meet and have their food. There were 30,000 men working in mining in Sudbury’s hay day. There were altogether 5 or 6 restaurants in the area. - The business became so profitable that the Lees opened another restaurant, China House, with Mr. and Mrs. Lee running one each. They brought a lot of relatives over from China to help out, and the eldest daughter’s husband also helped in the business. - Mr. Lee worked until the day he died at the age of 72. He died of a concussion on the back of his head. Mrs. Lee was [suspicious] that it was foul play, but there was no proof. After he died, her own children were not interested in the restaurant business, so it was sold to her son-in-law, while she still had some financial interest in it, She bought an apartment building and rented that out to get by. She sent her younger children to school in Ottawa. Since then, the boom in mining in Sudbury is gone. In the early 80s, around 40,000 thousand people were layed off in Sudbury. - Mrs. Lee still owns a house in Sudbury, but lives in Ottawa in her own apartment most of the time, where she’s near her younger son and his wife. Always the business woman, she says that they should have bought property in Ottawa when her 2 younger children went to school in Ottawa in the 70s, but they didn’t, and unfortunately, the properties they had in Sudbury has devalued greatly. - Mrs. Lee reminisced about her difficult life. She spent her early years struggling to raise her children in China, and when she was widowed, she was again left to raise her teen-age children on her own.

Audio recording of interview with Yvonne Chiu conducted by Vivienne Poy in Toronto, ON. Interview conducted in English.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Yvonne Chiu, immigrated in 1968 (independent), interviewed in Toronto - Born in 1944 in Shanghai. It was near the end of the Sino-Japanese war, so there was a lot of rejoicing. However, it was also the beginning of the civil war in China. - In 1949, her family (parents and an older sister) was probably one of the last family to leave Shanghai before the Communists took over. The family moved to Hong Kong. It was a very [difficult] time because her father was not able to find a job, and her mother had to go out to work for the first time in her life. Her father went to the Whampoa Military [Academy] in Canton (Guangzhou) because he wanted a military career, but because of the Japanese invasion, his dream was not realized. In Shanghai, he was the manager of a prestigious dance hall, so they were very well off. Her mother found a job as a book-keeper-accountant, and she was able to support the family. - Yvonne was put into the St. Paul’s Covent school in 1949. Her mother had researched the schools well, and found that in that school, the children were each given a bottle of fresh milk everyday at recess, which was a big deal in 1949 in Hong Kong. There was also an orphanage attached to the school at the time, and it was there that Yvonne learnt to care for those who were less fortunate than she was. - In 1957, Yvonne transferred to St. Paul’s co-ed College because it had a better academic standing. She finished Upper 6 at St. Paul’s, and her mother died. She felt that she needed a change of environment. Her mother had, in 1954, thought of sending her older sister to Canada, so Yvonne thought Canada would probably be a good place to go to. - In 1963, Yvonne came to McGill U on a student visa, where she did her BsC and one year of her MsC. Her future husband, John, had just finished his medical degree in Hong Kong, so she went back to Hong Kong to get married. She then persuaded John that there was a better future in Canada, so John applied to Ottawa, and since she had not finished her degree in Hong Kong, she finished it in Ottawa, under the aegis of McGill. - Both Yvonne and John applied to immigrate to Canada before they were married, so Yvonne came under the status of independent immigrant. It was easy for her because she already had a degree from McGill. - She came to Canada in 1968. Her husband John applied as a medical professional with 2 years’ experience. It was the Canadian [license] that he needed, so he applied as an intern at the Ottawa civic Hospital, even though he had already done that in Hong Kong. There was no point system at the time. Her degree from McGill was sufficient for immigration in Yvonne’s case. - Yvonne worked in research at the Ottawa Civic until their son was about 1 year old. In 1973, when John finished his training at the Ottawa Civic in Radiology, they moved to Montreal so that John could train in Neuro-radiology at the Wilder Penfield Institute. After the year was finished, Rene Leveque had come into power, and they believed they could never be accepted in Quebec, they decided to move. John sent out 120 letters for a staff position in Radiology, and had 4 replies, and one of them was in Toronto, the North York Branson Hospital. It suited him fine because his brother and sister were in Toronto. Unfortunately, his brother died just before they arrived. - In 1974, Yvonne started to work for U. of T., known as Scarborough College at the time, but is now U.T. at Scarborough, as a tutor. At that time, the universities had a lot of money, and professors could afford to spend less time with undergraduates, who would be taken care of by the “middle managers” - the tutors, and use more of their time for graduate students and for research. She is still doing the same work at the moment. It is Yvonne’s duty to look after the students of one professor, the administration of the courses, and the students’ problems. she looks after the ordering of materials and books, and makes sure that the courses run smoothly. If the professor is sick, Yvonne will take over the lecture. At one point, the university was trying to get rid of the tutors, and it couldn’t. Tutors are on 5-year contracts. Retirement age is the same as the professors. They are tenured and yet they have to sign the 5-year contracts. - Yvonne became a Canadian citizen earlier than John because her 4 years at McGill were counted as 2 years of residency. At the time, the residency requirement was a total of 3 years, so Yvonne became a citizen in 1959. - There was no ceremony to become a citizen at that time. Yvonne went into an office, a few questions were asked of which the answers were obvious, she swore allegiance to the portrait of the Queen and that was it. It was over within 5 minutes. - She thought she fitted very well in Canada, even as a student. The first important event when she was a student at McGill was hearing of the death of President Kennedy. Life in Canada is very different from the conservatism in Hong Kong, but she valued her experiences of her childhood. Canada is, to her, the best country in the world to live in. - She didn’t feel discrimination when she came to this country because she didn’t see it in that sense. There weren’t that many Chinese then, particularly at McGill. As a student at McGill, she was asked whether she lived on a boat, (because of Aberdeen), or why she didn’t wear a pig tail! she just thought they were annoying questions. People were, however, very kind to her, and she was always invited for many long weekends. She didn’t have to fight for her marks in any way in university. Because the French and the English were fighting against each other, in the post office, the French person would ignore the English person in the line, and would speak to her very nicely. - She spoke about her experience in job discrimination. In her last year at McGill, 1966, there were people who came to the school to offer jobs to graduating students. She was offered a research job, but at 75cents to the dollar of the offer to a male graduate in her class with lower marks than hers. She made up her mind to go into graduate school because this was not acceptable to her. She feels that today, at her level, this kind of discrimination is not happening. She believes that being talented is not good enough, you have to be smart, and know how to socialized. - She thinks there is now more discrimination, especially in Vancouver. Just because she looks different, she is often presumed to be ignorant. She thinks maybe she is getting older and more crabby. - She is fully bi-lingual in English and Chinese, and fully bi-cultural. She took a French course while she was baby-sitting her son in Montreal, and even though she has forgotten a lot of it, it is in the back of her mind. - Economically speaking, they were typical of that generation of young Canadians, they had $2000.00 between the two of them. Whatever their parents gave them, they put it in the bank. John started at $400.00 a month, and because Yvonne was working, she had a lot more money, so she looked after most of their bills. John’s income continued to go up, and when he finished his residency, he was earning $25,000.00 a year, which was a lot of money in those days. John was only able to increase his income to $800.00 from $400.00 per month, as an intern, because of the success in bargaining of the Profession Association of Interns and Residents of Ontario, on which he and Hugh Scully worked. They also bargained for better working hours for the interns and residents. - Socially, they had a lot of friends from every community. She liked cooking and being at home. She did a lot of chauffeuring, and everything else that mothers did. Until their son was 16, she didn’t do any volunteer work at all. - They are of the Catholic faith. She actually started her volunteer work at the church on Saturday mornings, bringing her son with her, and this went on for 4 years. When her son was no longer interested, she brought her church together with the Catholic Women’s League, she raised money, and later became the bazaar chairwoman. - By 1986, when their son was 16, Yvonne found she had a lot of time on her hands, so she helped John in the Education Foundation of the Federation of Chinese Canadian Professionals (FCCP) She raised some money in 1987 for the Foundation. Then Dr. Fai Liu of the Monsheong Foundation asked her to help. She left them in 1990. Also in 1987, she became a docent in the AGO and still is, as well as being a member of the Board. - The Chinese Cultural Centre approached her for help n 1990, and she participated. She also joined the Board of the National Ballet, and that was only because she was spotted by someone that she went to the ballet 3 times a week. She said they didn’t know that her husband was busy working all the time, and besides, she enjoyed ballet. It was at the Ballet Board that she met James [Pitblado], who became her mentor and taught her how to be a board member. She was on the Ballet board for 6 years, and then was approached by the Opera Board. She loved the opera, and had already started to speak for the opera - the pre-opera chats. She felt that she was good at outreach and convincing people. She now also sits on the Board of Roy Thompson Hall.She is now an Advisor of the Chinese cultural Centre. - She stays out of politics because her father’s family had political infighting. There were 10 siblings, and they belonged to [opposite] parties in China. So, the grandparents’ parties, such as birthdays, always turn out to be shouting matches. Her father became disillusioned by Chiang Kaishek very early on, and decided to go into business and stay out of politics.

Audio recording of interview with Aster Lai conducted by Vivienne Poy in Toronto, ON. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Aster Lai, (dependent of brother) immigrated in 1977, interviewed in Toronto. - Born in Hong Kong in 1949, the 6th of 7 children. Her parents escaped with some of the younger children from China before the communist took over. Her father was working with a lawyer at that time. Right after they left for Hong Kong, the lawyer was executed. - The family had a very hard time in Hong Kong. They had a small factory doing [embroidery] to make a living. They were from Swatow, which is very famous for [embroidery]. Her father was a scholar and a teacher in China. Her mother was trained as a doctor in Tokuang hospital, in Canton (Guangzhou) and she had saved a lot of people during the war. In Hong Kong, because of the difficulty in licensing, she couldn’t work as a doctor, but she helped a lot of the poor people there, for very little pay, and often not getting paid at all. When she was called, often it would be at night, or sometimes in a rain storm. On top of that, she had 7 children, and her health was not good, as well, she had asthma. - Aster went to a Baptist primary school. She was constantly sick as a child and was often hospitalized in public wards in the government hospitals. The doctors have told her parents many times that she would die, but she is still here. She believes that God wants her to stay alive for a reason. Her parents told her that the night she was conceived, an angle appeared in her mother’s dream. So she believes she is here to serve people. - Because of her health, she didn’t start school until she was 7, and even then, she often didn’t want to go to school, and often returned home after she’s been sent. She remembers from grade 2 on, she was at Piu Doh Girls’ school. She stayed there until graduation from [high] school in 1968, and entered Chung Chi College (now part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong) to study music. She had always loved music. - After their stint with the [embroidery] company, her father worked for a fruit canning company. During his years in Hong Kong, even though he used to argue with people who wanted to spread Christianity, he was converted to the extent that he wanted to be a minister of the church. He worked at Chek Lup Kok spreading the [gospel]. The whole family was baptized in the Baptist Church in 1964. The mother continued to work in health care as an assistance because she didn’t have a license. - Aster had been making her own money teaching piano since she was 14. Many of her siblings have already left for countries overseas because her parents wanted them to leave Hong Kong because they feared Communism. - She was in Chung Chi College for 1 year, and came to Canada in 1969, sponsored by her brother who was already here. Her brother was in the false hair business. “It was very easy to come to Canada at that time.” - She studied at the Royal Conservatory for a very short time, but returned in 1970 because of a young man, Lai Tak Ng, who came out of China by himself, who was 8 years her senior, and her parents were against her going with him. That was the original reason why they wanted her to leave Hong Kong. When she was 17, her parents insisted that she become engaged to a young man she didn’t like. She also needed to get away. - She returned to Hong Kong without her parents’ permission. She then worked very hard to make money by teaching. She and Lai Tak Ng were married, saved up enough money to go to Vienna. By the time they went, they had a daughter, and they stayed in Vienne until 1977. In the mean time, her parents immigrated to Canada in 1971. - In 1977, she still had landed immigrant status in Canada. But now, there were 3 of them, they applied again as immigrants to Canada from Vienna. It was very easy. When they were interviewed by the immigration officer, they talked mainly of music. The reason Aster wanted to come to Canada was because her parents were here. Lai Tak Ng’s family members remained in China, and in order to get them out, he needed to be a Canadian. They actually liked Vienna a lot, and were doing extremely well there. There were very few Chinese, and the Viennese were interested in Chinese culture. Of the 40 overseas Chinese students, she got the job as manager with a large department store in their import business from China. She realized then that she had a talent fo business. She had a lot of press in the papers, and the trips with the whole family were paid by the company. - They immigrated in 1977. Aster’s second brother, a psychologist in Red Deer, applied for them to come to Canada. They were interviewed in Vienna, and were told by the immigration officer to apply as music teachers instead of as musicians, that was because, at that time, Canada needed more music teachers. From the time they applied, to the time they were granted immigrant status, was only 2 months. - They came to Toronto to be with her parents. At the beginning, she went to Manpower to try to get work. She believed it would be difficult to get a teaching job as a piano teacher because she is a young Chinese woman. She wasn’t able to get any work at all. She then went to her church, and offered to teach the minister’s 3 children piano with or without pay. Soon, she had many students, and before she knew it, she was sending them to competitions and to take exams. She also got work playing the piano for ballet classes. These classes were very long, and she said she got backaches from them. Within a year, she had so many students that she didn’t have any more time to play for these classes. - Aster’s husband is a conductor, and her daughter is studying music in New York. She now owns Aster’s Music House, with three locations in Toronto.

Audio recording of interview with Irene Chu conducted by Vivienne Poy in Toronto, ON. Interview conducted in English.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Irene Chu, (student visa 1963, 1965 dependent), interviewed in Toronto - born in Shanghai in 1938 - father left China for Hong Kong in 1948. There were tens of thousands of acres of land registered in his name, as well, he had a stock brokerage firm called “Humber Thumber”. He knew he would be [targeted] by the Communists. Her mother didn’t want to leave at first, and only left after the Communists took over the country. She wanted to believe that the Communists would only be there for a short time, so she left all her valuables behind in Shanghai. She even left all her [jewelry] with her neighbour. - The six children were left in Shanghai in the care of 3 servants. They were quite happy, because in the Communist regime, there were a lot of meetings and activities, and the students didn’t have to be serious about studying, and without the parents there, they were free to do whatever they liked. - In 1952, the children finally got the exit visas to go to Hong Kong. The reason they were allowed out, Irene believes, was that there was enough money in Shanghai for them to live, and they were not receiving any support money from [outside], so there was really no reason for the government to keep them there. Those people who were getting remittances from overseas had a much more difficult time. - Three sisters, a younger brother, Irene and a servant left Shanghai in August 1952. Her eldest sister didn’t want to leave because she was having fun, and her friends were all there. However, by December, she changed her mind, and left for Hong Kong. - 2 months after Irene arrived, her family arranged for her to go to a Chinese school, True Light (Jun Guang). The environment was totally different, the Cantonese culture was strange to her, and she could only speak Mandarin and Shanghainese. She went to school the first day in shorts, but the school was very conservative where all the students wore cheongsam. The headmistress told Irene she couldn’t come to school like that. So the next day, she went in jeans, and again, she was reprimanded by the head mistress. The following week, her cheongsam school uniforms were ready, so she could go to school in uniform. She only stayed there for three months, because her mother insisted that the children go to an English school. - By the time the children came out to Hong Kong, their aunt and grandmother decided that it would be too much of a risk for them to bring the mother’s [jewelry out]. It was then still in the neighbour’s safety deposit box. If the children were caught with it, they would not be allowed to exit. It was finally confiscated by the Red Guards in the 1960s. Strange enough, the contents were recorded. In the 1980s, the family was contacted, and compensation was made in cash, but the evaluation was ridiculous, eg. $50.00 for a carat of diamond! The money had to remain in a bank in Shanghai. - Through a friend’s help, Irene’s mother was able to get all the children into a school called St Rose of Lima, ran by the Franciscan nuns. Irene had to be put back to primary school even though she should have been in Middle school. Eventually, she was able to catch up with her English, and caught up with the other students. That’s why all the children became Catholic. The nuns were very good teachers and good to them. - Her father lost a lot of money in business in Hong Kong. Her mother was very unhappy and cried all the time. As a refuge, the children would go to church and became very devout. Irene went to church every morning and every evening for 10 years(1952-1963). Because Irene played the piano and the organ, she would be asked to play for the parish, as well as for all the weddings on Saturdays and Sundays. She would help with all the hosts for communion, washed the altar for the church, and counted the collection money on Sunday night. - The St Rose of Lima school used to only go up to Form 3, and then the children would go on to commercial schools. Because Irene and her sister were very good students, the headmistress decided to add classes to go up to school cert. Irene and her sister were in the same class, and theirs was the first class that [attended] the school cert. After school cert, Irene went to Marynor to attend Lower and Upper 6. - In 1959, she went to Hong Kong university, with the intention of studying Math. But the Math professor was very discouraging, because he believed Math should be for men and not women. On the other hand, the English Professor was very accommodating, and encouraged Irene to take English. She graduated in 1962 in English Literature. - She was by then already engaged to Donald, her future husband. The two were in the same kindergarten and primary school in Shanghai. By grade 5, he and his family left for Hong Kong. Throughout the 11 years she was in Hong Kong, she never met him. Donald went to McGill to study Medicine, and eventually was in the rooming house with Irene’s cousin. This cousin was always very proud of his cousins, the 5 girls in Irene’s family, and had pictures of them with him. One day, Donald went into the cousin’s room and saw Irene’s picture, and said he went to school with her in Shanghai. The following summer, when Donald went back to Hong Kong, he looked her up. A year later, they got engaged. Just before, her mother passed away. She was in 2nd. year university. - After graduation, she went to teach 1year in Math in Marynor. she then applied to go to McGill. - In 1963, Irene came to Canada on a student visa to McGill to study English Literature and to be with Donald, who had intended to go back to Hong Kong after he graduated from Medicine. They were married in Montreal. She felt very lucky to be accepted by McGill in post graduate school because very few were accepted from Hong Kong at the time. She studied for 1 1/2 years. When she had her first son, she was trading baby-sitting with a PhD student who lived upstairs, and who also had a baby. But when the PhD student had her second baby, she decided to postpone her studying, so Irene lost her baby sitting arrangement. She also discontinued her studies. - In 1965, when Donald graduated, because of the political situation in Quebec, and the fact that he couldn’t speak French, he couldn’t [practice] there. He applied to intern at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. He was making about $200.00 a month, which was just enough for rent. Irene needed to go to work. - By that time, Irene had her second child. She was accepted to teach at St. Joseph College school. There, again, she taught Math but also English. However, she couldn’t just go and teach. She needed to go to summer school to get a license, but then she couldn’t go to summer school without being a landed immigrant. So, she went to apply, but was told that she couldn’t apply unless her husband applies also. As a woman who is married, she had no right to apply as a landed immigrant. Those were the rules then. - Donald then applied to be an immigrant, not because he wanted to be Canadian, but because Irene needed to get a job. Irene then was a dependent on his application form, which made it possible for her to attend Ontario College of Education (OCE) - In 1966, after Donald’s [internship], they decided to go back to Hong Kong. He made all the arrangements and they went back. But, by the end of the year, there were riots in Hong Kong, which was the spill over from the Red Guards riots in China. They were back in August, and Donald’s parents had an apartment for them to live in. But because Donald’s sister was getting married in November, the apartment was given to her instead, and the parents were going to get another apartment for them. Donald was very angry, and within a week, he wrote to St. Mike’s to apply for a residency in Radiology. He was accepted. The parents thought that it was because of the riots that their son wanted to leave. - In Jan. 1967, Irene was pregnant again. This time, her in-laws gave her the ultimatum that, either she had an abortion, or else leave the two children in Hong Kong while she and Donald came back to Canada. They contend that their son was going back to Canada for more training, and having 3 children with them would be too disturbing for him. Being a very subservient daughter-in-law, she had the abortion. She wasn’t sure whether it was legal in Hong Kong or not, but a relative of theirs from China was doing abortions in Hong Kong, and Irene was brought to her office for the procedure. She was also under the impression that Donald also wanted her to have the baby aborted. Being a catholic, it bothered her a lot. She was so tense and stressed that she was put on tranquilizers. In May, 1967, they were back in Canada. - Soon after they were back, Donald got his citizenship (due to all the years he spent at McGill). At that time, the requirement of residency was 5 years. Irene got hers a bit later as an “attachment” of Donald. A letter was sent to her to let her know that she had become a citizen. - Irene was very happy to be back in Canada, but Donald felt that he should be in Hong Kong, and always felt very foreign in Canada. After a while, the practice was so good that it would not have made sense to move back. But the last few years of his life, he did spend a lot of time there. - When they first returned, as a resident in Radiology, Donald was only making a couple of hundred dollars, so he took a part time job with a clinic in Scarborough. The reason he went into Radiology was because he believed that because he was Chinese, no one would accept him as a doctor. After 2 months in [Radiology], he realized he was only looking at films all day and no patients. In the mean time, in his part time job, he was very well [received] by his patients, so he decided Radiology was not what he wanted. He left the programme and joined the clinic as a salaried helper in general practice in 1968. The administrator wanted him to join the partnership, which meant putting up $20,000.00. He checked the books, and found that the administrator was taking all the money while the doctors had to work hard just to get by. For $20,000.00, he could have his own practice. So, he left the clinic and looked for an office space. One of the drug salesmen told him that Markham was a good town to have a practice because there were only 5 doctors there. Irene and Donald drove on the weekend to see the area, and talked to the people in Markham, and in Unionville, they discovered that there was no doctor in the area at all. - On the Old Kennedy Rd. and just north of [Hwy]. 7, there were about three hundred new houses, with a strip plaza there. On the upstairs of the strip plaza, Donald rented a 2 bedroom apartment to start his practice. The rent was a lot cheaper than the commercial rent downstairs. He was busy right from day one because there was no doctor in the area. A year later, the land lord offered Donald space downstairs with exclusivity in the plaza. - Donald started to look around, and there was a house, just around the corner. At that time, Unionville had a by-law that would allow a doctor to practice from a private home without living there. He bought a 3-bed room house and practiced from there until he died. Subsequently, Irene also had her real estate office in the basement. When Donald passed away, the house was rented to tenants. Irene recently sold it. - After the Chus came back to Canada, Irene stayed home looking after the children and at the same time, she gave piano lessons to the children in the neighbourhood. They would have a recital in her home once a year. - In the mean time, she also took up oil painting, and was exhibiting and selling her paintings. Later, she also had a painting work shop in her home. This came as a surprise because she was very poor in drawing as a child. However, she had always liked oil painting. One day, she was flipping through a Simpson’s catalogue and saw an oil painting set for $19.95. She started by copying a picture of a Chinese junk, and decided that it was very good. So she enrolled in the Agincourt Collegiate evening course for beginners, as well as getting herself a private teacher. The teacher asked her to join the Scarborough [artists] guild, and take part in the exhibition. There was a group who were the jury who decide whether the paintings were good enough for exhibition. That was how she started. Her first painting sold for $40.00. Later, she was invited to exhibit in various synagogues, and most of her customers were Jews. - In her volunteer work, she helped with the establishment of the Chinese school, and in that school, there was a Chinese painting teacher, and from that teacher, Irene also picked up Chinese painting techniques. She was also invited to show in various galleries in Toronto, and unfortunately, because of the recession, they are now closed. She is now starting to build up her portfolio again. - Irene did a great deal for the community as well as fund-raising. She was [appointed] by the [Mulroney] government as a citizenship court judge and later, also became an immigration appeals judge. - Irene remains religious in a spiritual sense, but she is no longer a practicing Catholic. When she came to Canada, she still went to church every Sunday. In 1965, when she was pregnant with their second child, Donald was interning and was working at St. Mike’s on Christmas day. She went to church with her sister (her husband, a doctor, was also on duty at the hospital). There was a heavy snow storm when the Mass was over, they tried to get a cab, but they couldn’t. They asked the other parishioners to give them a lift to Leslie and Lawrence, and Don Mills and Eglinton, and no one from the entire church would do it. In the end, a policeman who was just getting off duty saw them knee deep in snow, and gave them a lift. She became very disillusioned by that kind of “Christian” spirit. - Irene still continued to go to church. When they moved to Agincourt, because of the building of the new church, for 5 or 6 weeks, during the sermon, the pastor talked about nothing but asked for money. She became very fed up. She decided that she would just keep god in her heart, and live an honest life, but she wouldn’t go to church anymore. Occasionally, she would go to a Buddhist temple. - At one time, she was interested in running in politics. That was the time when the country was talking about [Multiculturalism], and she was very vocal. When she had her exhibitions, she would talk about the [multicultural] aspect of her paintings. The Scarborough Education asked her to speak, and her profile was raised in the community. She was also helping in various fund raising. When Bill Davies was Premier, his executive assistant asked Irene if she was interested in running in politics. At that time, Scarborough was one riding under Thom Wells, and it was going to be split into two. By that time, the Chinese population in Scarborough was already 10% to 15%, and if Irene took one of the riding, and if the Chinese all came out to vote, she would get in. And if she won, she would more than likely to get a portfolio, because she was Chinese and a woman. She considered it, and decided not to run. She believed that Donald wasn’t very keen. - 1978, the Council of Chinese Canadians in Ontario, CCCO, held a conference at the Toronto Hotel. Dr. Xi, Director of ROM, and Prof. Jerome Chan of York U. were guest speakers on the topic of [multiculturalism]. The next year, they were going to hold another conference, and needed a [coordinator]. Irene applied and got the job. The conference was called “Living and Growing in Canada, Chinese Canadian Perspective.” It was planned for November, 1979, at the Royal York Hotel, with 600 participants. In September, “Campus Giveaway” was aired on CTV. At the beginning, Irene was not aware of it, but the students down town were very upset, and asked for help from many people. Lawyers, Chinese and non-Chinese, told them they had no case. When they heard about the preparation meeting, they found out that Irene was the [coordinator]. They went to her, showed her the segment of the film, and asked to have the floor in the conference so that they could air this issue. When Irene saw it, she said “of course.” - Because of the issue being aired in the conference, there had to be follow-up. An ad hoc committee was set up “CCCO against W5.” She was going to chair that committee and have certain number of participants, but Donald was very much against it. So, instead of Irene, Donald chaired it. The reason he was against it was that she was slipping in her house keeping, in giving him care, and that she was getting too involved with the community. she still did all the background work, wrote a lot of things, contacted a lot of people, went to speak to a lot of them, but he was the one on the film, [getting] all the headlines. So Donald became the Chairman, and Joseph Wong became the Vice-Chairman. Prior to April, CTV wanted to negotiate. By the time of the conference, they had solicited help from 17 cities across Canada. all the people came to the conference and donated money. It was decided that the Chinese Canadian Council for Equality should be formed. 2 years later, the name became Chinese Canadian National Council.

Audio recording and Transcripts [Extended notes] are restricted.

Audio recording is restricted. Anonymized Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy available upon request.The interview subject immigrated to Canada independently in 1966.

Audio recording and Transcripts [Extended notes] are restricted.

Audio recording of interview with Angelina Kwong conducted by Vivienne Poy in Toronto, ON. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Angelina Kwong, (dependent of father) 1969, interviewed in Toronto - Born in [Chongqing] in Jan. 1950, the youngest of 4 children. - Her father worked for the American air force. When the communists took over in 1949, the family waited for the birth of Angie in Chongqing, then went back to their village, Hoiping, [Guangdong] Province. Her father left for Hong Kong in Feb. 1950. The family stayed in the village for 5 years. - The family left for Hong Kong, bit by bit. In 1952, her older sister left for Hong Kong, and from then on, it became very difficult to leave. A reason was made up that the daughter was getting married, and the family must be at the wedding of the eldest daughter. Angie’s mother brought her and her 12 years old brother to Hong Kong. The oldest sister who was 16 years Angie’s senior, stayed with their grandmother, and came to Hong Kong 2 -3 years later with another relative. The family was able to be re-united in Hong Kong in 1958. - In 1960, Angie’s eldest sister’s [fiancé] applied for her to come to Canada. His father lived in Canada, but sold the report of his birth to someone else. The father subsequently bought another cert from somebody in order to get him to Canada in 1958. After he arrived, he applied for Angie’s sister. - The family had a very difficult time in Hong Kong because her father couldn’t take any money out. They were very poor. In 1967, during the riots in Hong Kong, her older brother had just graduated from 2 years of drafting. The Canadian immigration policy allowed independent immigrants with skills to apply. He applied. - At that time, there were many “paper brides” of the same age as Angie, as well as those who barely knew their husbands, and took a chance to have a new life to come to Canada. Fortunately, despite their poverty, Angie’ parents were very much against it. She was able to finish grade 12 in Hong Kong. By then, her brother was settled in Canada, and could sponsor his family. - Her father was a mechanic, and her brother’s employers gave a letter guaranteeing him a job when he got here. At the same time, her eldest sister gave the guarantee that, if the need arises, she would support them. This made their application very easy. Angie and her other sister were both under 21, so the whole family came to Canada in 1969 and had another family reunion. - She was very happy to be in Canada. The family had borrowed a lot of money to come, so they couldn’t afford to send her to much more schooling. The oldest sister didn’t end up helping them at all. The family rented her house to live in. - Angie went to George Brown College to study Commerce for 2 years, and then came out to work. In 1971, she started working as a clerk at the head office of CIBC. Her other sister worked with OHIP. Together, the family was able to buy their own house in 1972. Angie remained working in CIBC for 9 years. - In 1973, Angie married Ken Kwong. They met in 1968 while Ken worked in Citibank in Hong Kong. Ken had studied at the Baptist College for 1 year before that, and since he couldn’t get a degree, he left to work at Citibank.10 months later, Angie left for Canada. Ken promised to be in Canada within 3 years. Ken saved up for 2 years, and applied to go to a junior college in California. Within 10 months, visa was granted. He used it as a stepping stone to Canada. He did 2 years work in 1, and then transferred to Boston U. Then, he and Angie could be closer. He graduated in 3 years, and they were married in 1973. - Angie has been in Canada over 30 years, and she is happy and thankful that she is here. She feels that Canada gives a lot of opportunities to immigrants, and as long as you are willing to work, you’ll succeed. She compares Canada favourably to the U.S., to Australia and New Zealand. she feels little discrimination in Canada. After working for 9 years, she has served her community for 18 years. - In 1983, because of her son and daughter, she got involved with the Chinese school of the Mon Sheong Foundation every Saturday morning. From then, she got to know more people in the community. In 1987, she became a member of the Board of the Mon Sheong Foundation. From 1990, she became more involved with the fundraising for the Foundation. She also started the Fun Run on Mother’s Day, a joint fundraising effort for Baycrest and Mon Sheong. She also spent her time organizing events for the old people in the Mon Sheong Home. She learnt a lot from working with the community and learnt about people’s characters. Over 21 years, the Chinese school has grown from about 60 students to thousands of students. She has no regrets in all that she was involved in, and is thankful for the [opportunities] Canada gave her and her family. - She has a lot of opportunities to speak to new immigrants parents who send their children to the Chinese School. She always remind them that they must think of themselves as Canadians first, but Canadians of Chinese heritage. She opposes people who only take the benefits from Canada, and not contribute to this country. Many work and make money in Hong Kong and don’t pay any taxes, but they bring their aged parents here to get old age pension, and when they are sick, they come back for free health care. Some even boast that it’s cheaper to buy the plane ticket than to pay for medical care in Hong Kong. As a tax payer, she feels she’s being taken advantage of. - Angie’s family has no religion. - Her son was born in 1976, and her daughter in 1980. The children are doing very well. Her son excelled in academics, and is now a doctor. Her daughter just graduated from university, and will continue in Accounting at U. of Waterloo, and because it’s co-op programme, she actually works in Toronto.

Audio recording of interview with Susan Kan conducted by Vivienne Poy in Toronto, ON. Interview conducted in English.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Susan Kan (dependent - co-applicant with husband) 1968, interviewed in Toronto - Born June 30, 1941, the youngest of 3 children from parents of an arranged marriage. - Completed secondary school at St. Paul’s Co-ed College, and continued at Northcote Teachers Training College for 2 years. She taught visual art and English for 6 years in secondary school in Hong Kong. She then requested to be transferred to elementary school to get some primary school experience before they came to Canada. So, she taught 1 year in elementary school. She had planned to apply in 1967. - Got married to Miki Kan, also a teacher, in July, 1965. In 1967, there were political turmoil in Hong Kong. At the same time, they would like to look into new opportunities for themselves, as well as being independent from their parents. Life in Hong Kong was too complicated, and they would like to have a simple family life. - They wanted to apply to immigrate to Canada. They applied together, and after 1/2 year, they were asked to have the medicals. They put the reasons for immigration as exploring teaching opportunities in a new country. And beside the above reasons mentioned in the last paragraph, they also stated that both husband and wife had decided to start a new life. In the newspapers in Hong Kong, 2,000 teaching jobs in Canada were advertised. Half a year after the medicals, they were notified that they had 1 year to make their decision to make the move (1967-8). Susan quit her job, but Miki didn’t because he wanted to make sure they could cope with the life style in Canada, so he took a leave of [absence] for 1 year. Susan was sure that she would like Canada, and really didn’t want to go back to Hong Kong after leaving. In her first year in Hong Kong, she was never home sick. - June 7, 1968, they landed in Vancouver with their daughter. It was their first time ever in Canada. From Vancouver they flew to Saskatoon where Susan’s sister was. She was in shock. She thought it would be like the James Bond movie, full of highrises, but couldn’t believe that it was all flat land. Susan stayed with her sister while Miki flew to Toronto to find a job. Within 2 weeks, he got a teaching position in Brampton. He flew to Saskatoon to pick up Susan and their 11/2 year old daughter. - Miki had a university degree and Susan did not, and they have both taught in Hong Kong. But the Canadian system recognized Susan’s teaching diploma more so than Miki’s. He had to make up courses before he was given the job. He took them from that June and started work in September. Susan was not teaching because their daughter was too young. In 1969, when Susan looked for work again, she only needed a telephone interview. The Principal of the school mistook her as Mrs. Kent, and got a shock when he met her for the first time. She taught elementary school in Mississauga for 11 years. The system of teaching in the school changed a great deal, from closed areas to open concept, to French immersion. she took different courses to cope with the changes. She had to learn how to teach English in a French immersion school. After 11 years, she was still the most junior in priority among teachers who didn’t know French, and lost her job. But she was offered interviews in Peel county, however, she would have no choice of the location. - Their first home was a rented townhouse. The cost was $160 / month, $50 for heating /month. With a salary of $3,000.00 a year, there was very little money left. Despite that, they still had to find a way to send money home because Miki’s parents expected it. It was very difficult for them to send $50.00 home every month, and still, the parents felt that it wasn’t enough. Among some of their family members, they still considered Canada was Gum San, and that everyone was rich. In fact, in comparison to the pay in Hong Kong, after deductions, teachers made more than in Canada. The standard of living in Canada was higher in Canada, but people had less money. But Miki’s parents had higher expectations. They were contributing to his parents in Hong Kong by paying them rent in one of their rental apartments, and Miki also had to work for free for his father every Sunday teaching art at his father’s studio. - By 1974, every new teacher had to have a degree before they could teach. If Susan had stayed on teaching, she would not have to do that, but she wanted time off for her children, and out of ignorance, instead of taking a leave of [absence], she left. So, when she returned, she needed to have a degree. She took half a course a year, which lasted 10 years. She took the go-train to these courses at U. of T. and Erindale College. By the time she was home, it would already be 11pm. She also took summer courses. By 1978, she could afford to take a year off, her mother came to help, and her mother-in-law came to help as well. She was able to complete 10 courses. she got her degree. - Near the time for their retirement, in their 50s, Susan and Miki found out that there was a window open, saying that in teaching, the magic number was 90 for one to retire without penalty. eg. when she was 55, if she had taught 35 years, she could retire without penalty. It would be 75% of the best five years of one’s income. Even the time she took maternity leave would have counted as a full year, and the years that she taught in the British Commonwealth would be counted if she applied. By then, the way the superannuation was calculated was different from the 1970s, and Susan only needed to pay back $10,000.00 which was worth it, and the timing was good. - In the 1970s, she had tried to apply, but it would have cost her more than $20,000.00, in order to make up for the superannuation for the 7 years she taught in Hong Kong. At that time, they didn’t have the money. They were living in a semi-detached house. By making the application did not mean that Susan would get higher pay. Because she didn’t have a degree, there was a cap to the amount she could make anyway. - She had no regrets coming to Canada. In Hong Kong, there was no family life at all. Everyone worked 6 days a week, and Sunday was for catching up with sleep, catching up with home work, and visiting her parents. For Miki, he had to work at his father’s studio as a monetary contribution to his parents since he was not paid. Being in Canada, there is family life, and life is more child focus. But for the first 10 years, there was no life style as such, because they couldn’t afford it. Afterwards, the first child is older and it helped. - She wondered, when the [children] were small, whether it was worth her while to work at all, because more than half of her salary went to the baby sitter, and they also needed 2 cars because they taught at different schools, and in addition, the cost of owning and running the cars. She also needed clothes. Now, she realized it is definitely worth it, because she is retired with a pension. However, she didn’t realize that her pension could not be passed on to her children. She contributed 8 % of her income for all these years, and when both she and Miki were gone, there would be nothing for the children. Because they contributed to the superannuation, they could not contribute to RRSP. She didn’t realize this until after she retired. But they do have a good pension for their retirement, and they can live quite comfortably on one pension, so they use the money from the other for their new business venture in photography. - Miki retired at the age of 56, and 1 year earlier than Susan. - They came to Canada at a good time, because as time went on, it became more and more difficult to get a teaching job. There were some years that her salary was also frozen. In her last 5 years, the cut back by the provincial government had affected her retirement scale. So she felt they had retired at the wrong time. - When Susan went first went to apply to immigrate, she didn’t feel confident that they would be accepted. She felt very lucky to be here. During that time, Canadian immigration was terribly overworked because so many people wanted to come. There were teachers who weren’t accepted. And if you had health problems, then there wasn’t a chance anyway. - They are practicing Catholics. They don’t insist that their children go. - They tried to send their children to Chinese school on Saturdays, but they hated it. It was a struggle.

Audio recording of interview with Winnie Wong conducted by Vivienne Poy in Toronto, ON. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Winnie Wong (dependent of daughter) 1974, interviewed in Toronto. - Born in Shanghai in 1926, the 9th child out of 14. When she was 7, with the Japanese incursions into China, 918 incidence, the family decided to go back to Hong Kong where they came from. Her grandfather had 1 [wife] and 4 concubines. - She attended Hip Yun, a [Protestant] school. Her education was interrupted by the Japanese occupation, but resumed after the war until she graduated. Despite the fact that she came from a prosperous family, she didn’t like sitting at home. She went to work at the Shewan, Tomes & Co. as a clerk. She also worked in a bank. - She was married in 1949 and had 3 daughters. Because they had servants, she went out to work again. When the eldest daughter graduated from Maryknoll, she worked for the Canadian immigration office for a few years. She liked Canada, and applied to study in here. - All the daughters wanted to come to Canada, and because the eldest have her friends at Canadian Immigration, it was very easy for them. Winnie was happy working in the Prince’s Building, but since the daughters all wanted to immigrate, she also immigrated with them. - The eldest daughter came in 1970, and Winnie came in 1974 with the younger 2 daughters. She was widowed by that time. The younger daughters were already over 21, but they were allowed to come in as a family. It was easy for the daughters to get work because their English is good. The youngest worked at the Bank of Nova Scotia. She found that work is more demanding in Canada than in Hong Kong. She was the secretary to 1 boss in Hong Kong, compared to being secretary to 3 bosses here. After 1 year, she applied to City Hall and remained there for over 20 years. - The second daughter worked as a secretary at a factory until her 2 sons were born, and her husband wanted her to stay home to look after the children. She remains a house wife until now, even though her children are graduating from university.The eldest daughter worked for Bell telephone for over 20 years, but because of her divorce, she went back to Hong Kong. She is now also successful in Hong Kong working for the Miramar Group. - When Winnie first came to Canada, she had already worked with the same company in Hong Kong for over 10 years. She really missed her work. After she arrived, because of her lack of knowledge of English, and she was getting on in age, she stopped working. She took English courses for immigrants at George Brown College for 6 months. She had little difficulty understanding English, having come from Hong Kong, but it’s the spoken language that is difficult. - As a new immigrant, she received $200.00 per month, and $60 subsidy per week for transportation and living allowances. The courses were very strict in the training for spoken English and she really appreciates it. She has [enough] knowledge for everyday usage, but would have difficulty if she has to explain an ailment to an English speaking doctor. - At first, she really regretted coming to Canada, but in time, she came to like Canada. Particularly in the past 10 years, she felt that Chinese Canadians have gained the respect of Canadians. Now that she has reached retirement age and is getting a retirement income, life is very peaceful. Now, in Hong Kong, the seniors who have less than $300,000.00 also receive approx. $3,000.00 per month. They get more after age 70. She said, as a senior, when she’s back in Hong Kong, she can ride the Star Ferry free! Hong Kong now treats it seniors much better than when she was there, but she still likes Canada better. For one thing, the air is better. She feels very lucky to be here. - For entertainment, she plays mahjong, go out for dimsum with friends, read the Chinese newspapers, and watch Chinese TV. These were not available in earlier years. - Winnie has the concern that OHIP is considering cutting coverage of services, as well as certain prescriptions for medication. Free medical care is so important to the elderly.

Audio recording of interview with Yu Shuk Han conducted by Vivienne Poy in Scarborough, ON. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Yu Shuk Han (family class - dependent of son) 1980, interviewed in Toronto - Born in Macao, educated in Macao. She felt that the Portuguese were oppressive to the Chinese, so she refused to learn Portuguese. She spent her youth helping her parents in their restaurant business. - She got married in 1945, at the end of the 2nd World War. During the war, the conditions in Macao was a lot better than Hong Kong. She had 5 children. Her husband worked on shipping lines. Later, he worked in [restaurants]. - When her children were a bit older, she went to work for relatives. At first, she worked in a theater, which lasted for quite a while, and then she went to work with an import-export company, exporting goods from China, which was also owned by relatives. - In 1960s, there were riots in Macao, spilt over from the terrible political conditions in China (these riots preceded the ones in Hong Kong). And because she felt that it was unsafe to stay in Macao, she sent her children to school in Hong Kong. At that time, her eldest daughter was in her teens. After high school , she went into nursing and worked at Queen Mary’s Hosp. In 1968, she wanted to immigrate to Canada. - 1969, the second son graduated from high school. In the mean time, riots had also spilled over to Hong Kong from China. Mrs. Yu felt it was time to plan for the family to go abroad. She had thought of U.S., but after talking to friends and relatives, she thought Canada would be a better place to live. The second son applied to come to Canada on a student visa to study Electrical Engineering. - In 1970, Trudeau became Prime Minister. Immigration regulations were changed so that foreign students in Canada could become landed immigrants.Her son applied [immediately]. - When the third son graduated from high school, he also applied to come to Canada. He went to Ottawa. The same happened to the fourth son, and Mrs. Yu was left in Hong Kong with her youngest daughter. During that time, her husband died. Her second son applied for the rest of the family to immigrate to Canada in 1979. - Mrs. Yu came as family class immigrant with her daughter in 1980. It was very easy, and it took less than a year before she was granted landed immigrant status. She was very happy to be with all her family again, and to know that Canada is a more peaceful society than Hong Kong. - Even though she had a good job in Hong Kong and was making a good income, she didn’t have unrealistic expectations when she came here. She didn’t expect to be able to do the same kind of work as in Hong Kong, and was willing to do anything. She worked in a factory, in an import-export company, did some home knitting, and the last company she worked for was Profekta. She worked there until she retired in 1992. - After retirement, her son was afraid that she would be bored. But she now volunteers at the church, help seniors by driving them to go out, and she has made a lot of friends. She loves the life in Canada, but she commented that public safety is not what it was before. - She commented how nice people were to her when she first arrived in Canada. The bus drivers were so polite, and people always greet her by saying good morning. They didn’t even have to lock their doors at home. It’s no longer the way it was. - The whole family are Catholics. She helps at the church, at communions, etc. She would go the seniors’ homes eg. Yee Hong, to read the Bible to the residents. - Her daughter trained in Canada as a gynecological nurse, and now works for the government. She also does a lot of [community] work. The other 2 children work as designers for companies. - She has been living in a seniors’ apartment for approx. 10 years, and have many friends there.

Audio recording of interview with Mary Lee conducted by Vivienne Poy in Scarborough, ON. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Mary Lee, (dependent of son), 1968, interviewed in Toronto. - Born in 1913 in Macao. The family moved to Hong Kong when she was 2. She was educated in Chinese schools until 3rd year of middle school. - Married in 1935. She had 6 children. She has been a house wife all her life.When the Japanese invaded Hong Kong, the family went into China. Her husband was in the import-export business. After the war, the family went back to Hong Kong, and her husband went into real estate business and remained in it until he retired when they came to Canada in 1968. - Her eldest son came to Canada in 1957 to study at McGill. He subsequently went to MIT to get a masters degree. He then returned to McGill to get his PhD. - 1960, her second son went to McGill. Subsequently, the third son also came to McGill. - In 1967, because of the riots in Hong Kong, she eldest son sponsored her, her husband and their youngest son to Canada in 1968. - The daughters were both educated in Hong Kong, and worked there. The eldest’s husband is an architect in Hong Kong. They moved here in 1975. The second daughter taught at St. Mary’s in Hong Kong for 10 years, and moved here in 1968. She then studied Library Science and worked at IBM until her retirement. - Mrs. Lee did work after she arrived in Canada, at Inn On the Park hotel, doing mending, because her hand work is very good. She worked until she was in her sixties, and retired. She said she was bored at home since the children were all grown up, she might as well go to work. - In 1980, she and her husband moved into a senior apartment. Her husband died at the age of 92. He was 11 years her senior. - When she first came here, she regretted coming. The most difficult thing for her was language. She had never had any interest in learning English, even in Hong Kong, so she found it difficult in Canada, and she never bothered to take lessons. Somehow, she is able to understand what is asked of her. - She volunteered at the Gar Lan Centre for a few months. She was sent to visit old people, to see how they were, and to chat with them. She wasn’t happy with what she was asked to do, because she didn’t think it’s very helpful to the old people, unless she could clean their homes for them, which she couldn’t do. By then, she herself has already moved into the senior’s apartment. Besides, the travelling was not convenient for her. - She used to drive in Hong Kong, from the end of the war to the time she came to Canada. Her sons knew that she would have no trouble getting her license, but she would have trouble in explaining herself if she gets into an accident. So she didn’t drive. Her husband never drove, even in Hong Kong. - She’s a Catholic, but doesn’t have much to do with the church here. She thinks it’s partly because she’s not sociable, however, that’s only since her husband died. - She compared the public security then to the present. It was so much better then, when people were more honest. Lost wallets would be returned, and parcels could be left in front of the door for days and no one would take them. Now, the world has changed. - she gets a pension of $900.00. 1/3 goes to rent in the senior apartment. She appreciates the social security in Canada despite the high taxes her children are paying, because the young people get [subsidized] education and free health care, plus a lot of other benefits.

Audio recording and Transcripts [Extended notes] are restricted.

Audio recording is restricted. Anonymized Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy available upon request.The interview subject arrived in Canada on a student visa in 1974. They subsequently married a Canadian citizen and became a citizen in 1980.

Audio recording is restricted. Anonymized Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy available upon request.The interview subject arrived in Canada on a student visa in 1974. They became a Canadian citizen in 1984.

Audio recording of interview with Cynthia Lai conducted by Vivienne Poy in Toronto, ON. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Cynthia Lai, (Family Class in 1972), as dependent of sister. Interviewed in Toronto. - Born on October 19, 1954, in Hong Kong. Father was from Guangdong, and mother from the New Territories. Parents involved in small business. - Educated in government school for primary school, and for secondary education, in the Hotung Technical School for Girls. After Form 5 school cert exams, Cynthia’s sister, who was already a landed immigrant in Canada, applied for her to come to continue her education in 1972. Cynthia remembers that at the end of that year, the Canadian government gave general amnesty to illegal immigrants. - Cynthia’s sister told her that if she worked for a year, she would be eligible to get student grant and student loans for university, so she studied at Jarvis Collegiate in the evening to finish grade 13, while working during the day as a bank teller at the Bank of Montreal. In the Hotung Technical School for Girls, most of the subjects were in the arts as well as domestic science, but since English is Cynthia’s second language, her sister was afraid that she would not be able to compete with local Canadians, so advised her to take science subjects, which was very difficult for her. - Due to the fact that both Cynthia and her sister had to send money home to help out their family, she decided not to go to university, and instead, went to the Toronto Institute of Medical Technology so that she could get her diploma in 2 years, and would be able to work in labs. She articled in Toronto General hospital. In 1975, she worked in the St. Michael’s Hospital, in the biochemistry lab as a medical technologist until 1980. - The sisters applied for their parents to come to Canada in 1976. Her entire family immigrated to Canada with the exception of her older brother who was too old to be sponsored as family class. He immigrated to the U.S. - Cynthia got married in 1977 to Chu Kwai Fung, who worked in the Immunopathology Department at St. Mike’s. In 1980, her father was discovered to have cancer, and she became very depressed because of constant patient contact, with her father being sick. She decided to go to Berlitz to learn French, and was asked whether she would be interested in being trained to teach Chinese. This would mean that it would cost her very little to learn French. She went through the intense training. Of the 10 trainees, only 2 were left, and one was Cynthia. Many of the students were training to be air hostesses, so Cynthia also applied to the airlines, but she wondered whether she would be hired because she was married. She remembers buying a new dress at Marks and [Spencer] for the interview at Canadian Pacific (CP Air), and she got the job working the route between Toronto and Vancouver. She was very happy because that was the time of recession. She quit the job at the hospital and had the training for 2 months in order to start. But then, instead of the permanent job that was offered to her, she was told it would only be for the summer because of the recession. Since she had already quit her permanent job, and since she was a new employee, she was unemployed by the end of the summer. - She decided that she didn’t want to go back to work in the hospital, but work in travel instead. She worked for a Malaysian tour operator, Reliance Travel, bringing Malaysian tourists to Canada. By doing this, she took a large cut in salary in comparison to working in the hospital. She took inbound tours from Malaysia and the Far East. - In 1984, Margaret [Thatcher] signed the agreement to return sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, and many people in Hong Kong were nervous and wanted to immigrate. That year, Cynthia was assigned to lead a group of wealthy tourists from Hong Kong, all Directors of the Sin Kuang Restaurant, who came to Canada to see the country as prospective investors in real estate. From these 2 bus loads of tourists, Cynthia made a lot of friends. She was asked to introduce some of them to real estate agents, and she ended going to see properties with them. They then asked Cynthia why she didn’t take a real estate course so that she could sell to them as well. - Cynthia did the real estate course in 1983, which took 6 months, and she had never looked back. She went into real estate full time by 1987. By 1985, the original group that Cynthia knew had already bought their properties, and they wanted to set up a travel co. in conjunction with Sin Kuang Restaurant group, and asked Cynthia to go back to Hong Kong to help them to set up the agency. She went back to Hong Kong for 1 year, but came back when her father became very ill. A year later, due to too much competition, the travel agency was closed. - Cynthia returned to Canada at the beginning of 1987 and her father passed away the same year. - From 1987 on, Cynthia worked in real estate full time. The first company she worked for was H.K.Sit Realestate Co., but when she returned from Hong Kong, she worked for [Sadie] Moranis. In 1988, she moved to Christine Realty, and in 1989, there was restructuring in the company, and in 1990, Cynthia was asked to be the principal broker, making her responsible for the operation of the company, as well as dealing with the government of Ontario. She also became a partner. - Being very involved with the Toronto Real Estate Board, in 1994, Royal Lepage recruited Cynthia to be the branch manager in Toronto. The existing ethnic Chinese manager, a man, was transferred to Vancouver. So, out of 110 branch managers in Royal Lepage, Cynthia was the only one from an ethnic minority. She referred to herself as a double minority, a woman and an ethnic minority. She was willing to give up as principal broker in a single company because she now had a chance to see how a large real estate company worked. She sold her shares and went to Royal Lepage. - Cynthia found it very difficult to work in a mainstream company as a minority woman, particularly because she had to give up selling and only work as a manager. But she did find that she gained good experience. She was the manager at the Victoria Park and Lawrence branch, and in the first 3 months, she hired 24 agents, 23 of them Chinese. The renumeration at the Royal Lepage was not as good as other agencies, but she was able to attract these agents anyway. - Cynthia was subsequently transferred to the branch at Agincourt because there were more Chinese residents in the area. She called it Asiancourt. - Cynthia believes that for an ethnic minority, she really had to fight for everything she wanted, and she had to work twice as hard. She had always over come difficulties with perseverance and determination. Her position as a branch manager was politically difficult because Chinese agents believed that Cynthia would help the non-Chinese agents more to advance herself, and yet, the non-Chinese agents thought that she would help the Chinese agents more. She had to be very careful and fair, and she kept a record of all sales assignments. She again said that it’s because she’s a double minority. - In 1999, Royal Lepage down-sized, and branches were merged. Her branch was merged with another branch, with an Anglo Saxon man as manager. Since the company wanted to keep Cynthia on, she was given the title of Asian Market Manager, with a pay cut, but which also meant that she could again sell properties. A year later, the branch she was with merged with the original branch where she was manager at Victoria Park and Lawrence, and her position was gone. - Royal Lepage, being a large company, had a relocation contract with the Department of National Defense, and there was a position called relocation consultant. Cynthia applied and got the job which was supposed to be for 2 years. She found that discrimination in the department of Defense very bad towards an Asian woman. Another team was made to take over, and her team was let go. She was told to pursue it with the Human Rights Commission, but she chose to get on with her life. - Cynthia was hired as selling manager at Remax-Goldenway (Chinese owned), and remained till the time of the interview. Since she left Royal Lepage, she joined the board of the Toronto Real Estate Board as one of the 6 director. She looked after government relations in the Board. In July, 2002, she will be running as the President elect of the Toronto Real Estate Board. - At the time of the interview, 2002, Cynthia’s husband has already retired, with a package for early retirement. They have 2 sons, one is 15 and the other is 7.

Audio recording of interview with Rosita Tam conducted by Vivienne Poy in Markham, ON. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Rosita Tam (entrepreneur - principal applicant) 1986, interviewed in Toronto by phone, spoke entirely in Cantonese, Summer 2002, (Daisy). - Born in Hong Kong on May 14, 1953. When she was a month old, her mother, a concubine, moved her own family to Macao. Rosita has two older brothers by her own mother. - Rosita’s father started working in garments on a very small scale right after the War. By the time she was born, he had a growing business in garment manufacturing in Hong Kong, and he would like to expand to Macao. His wife’s family stayed in Hong Kong, and the family by the concubine was moved to Macao to give him a base. - The two families lived together in the same house in Hong Kong, but with an expanding family, Rosita believes that it was better that they moved to separate quarters. - In Macao, Rosita’s mother, who was very capable, helped her father to get established. After Rosita, her mother had another daughter and a son, so there were 5 children from her own mother, 6 children from the wife, with a total of 11 children. - Rosita went to school in Macao until high school graduation. - Rosita’s father’s business prospered. Their factories wove yard goods (cloths), dyed them, designed and made them into garments - Lun Hap Garment Factory. They exported their products to Europe and the U.S. They made private labels for large companies. Rosita grew up in that environment helping in the factories and in the business. - After high school graduation, her father wanted her to stay home to help with the business. He was of the old school, believing that girls don’t need that much formal education. However, she expressed the wish to go abroad to study and applied to go to a university in Taiwan. At the time, her father was doing business with China, and because of the political situation between China and Taiwan, he preferred her to go somewhere else. In 1974, Rosita went to Centenary College in New Jersey to study accounting. In the same year, her younger sister went to Canada to study. After 2 years, she was going to transfer to North Eastern in Boston. She went back to Hong Kong for the summer, and her father was not well. He needed extra help in the company because their business was expanding very quickly. He persuaded Rosita to stay at home to help out. ( 1967) She worked between Hong Kong and Macao, travelling back and forth a few times a week. - Rosita got married in 1978. Her first son was born in 1979. Her husband was a social worker. Rosita continued to work until 1982 when her daughter was born. She wanted to stay home with the children for a few years. - By the mid 1980s, there was talk of change of sovereignty of Hong Kong back to China, and Rosita was worried about her children having to grow up under Communism. At that time, she considered immigrating to Canada, not only because she had always had a good impression of Canada, it was also an easier country to immigrate to. By that time, her younger sister had already moved to the U.S. with her husband, so she had no family in Canada. - In 1985, she applied to Canadian immigration as an entrepreneur in the garment business to immigrate to Montreal. The application went in at the beginning of the year, and she was called for interviews within 6 months, one in Hong Kong and one in Montreal. She had to present a proposal of her business plan. Because of her youth (she was only in her 30s), the immigration officer in Hong Kong went to see their operations and their factories to confirm her capability. - As an entrepreneur, her requirement was employment of between 2 to 10 people because she was setting up in the wholesale business of garments produced from their factories in Hong Kong and Macao. The intention was that she would open a factory in Montreal if business went well. Her business had to be established within 2 years. She was advised by her immigration lawyer that it would be easier for her to immigrate to Quebec because of the garment business, so it would be easier to get landed status. Somehow, the language problem was not in the consideration. - The family immigrated to Canada in mid 1986. Rosita was under the impression that she could use English in Quebec, and she could learn French gradually. When she got there, she found out that the Quebecers wouldn’t speak to her in English. Even in the schools, not only her children had difficulties, (6 & 3 year olds), as a parent, she also had difficulties communicating with the teachers. Despite the difficulties, she established her sales office and employed a French Canadian sales manager. - Both garments and fabrics were shipped from Hong Kong for wholesale. Sales were in much smaller [volumes] compared to what she was used to in Hong Kong, and it was difficult to collect payments, even with extended credits of 6 to 9 months. She found that the sales manager was ineffective. Business didn’t do well. Besides, she really wanted her children to be educated in English. After they moved to Montreal, since her husband was a social worker in Hong Kong, he wasn’t able to find work, so he stayed at home to look after the children, and he was not happy. - By the end of 1987, she decided to move the family to Toronto. The intention was to continue with the garment business. She looked into the possibilities of an office and in opening a factory, but came across the problems of unions. The facts of strikes scared her because she said in Hong Kong, she didn’t have that kind of experience. Also, at that time, many factories went bankrupt because of lack of business. She also found Canadians, at that time, were not fashionable like Hong Kong or Europe, so that would not have been the right kind of business to be in. Canadians companies also don’t order by the ten of thousands of dozens, like what she was used to in their Hong Kong business. In her experience, she had not seen an order of one thousand dozen, which would only be equivalent to making their samples. - Rosita stayed home with the children. Her husband tried finding work in social work in Toronto, but found that it is very different from Hong Kong since many of the projects were on contract basis with the government. He went to George Brown and studied heating and air-conditioning. He worked in [maintenance]. One night, he was called in the middle of the winter to the roof of a shopping mall, and because it was very windy, his ladder fell. There would not have been any way for him to get down if a kind person had not walked by and put the ladder back for him. Since that experience, he didn’t want to do that kind of work anymore. He then went to George Brown again, and took a course in Chinese cooking. - By 1988, Chinatown was very busy and crowded and business was booming. Since Rosita’s husband was interested in Chinese food, her friend told her that there was one business in the food court in the Dragon Centre, at Dundas and Spadina, was for sale. She and her husband went to look and saw that it wasn’t too big, they decided that he could probably manage since neither of them had any experience with the food business. He ran that business for 4 years. - By 1991, Scarborough began to boom, and Chinatown was gradually taken over by the Chinese immigrants from China, as well as the Vietnamese. The Chinese from Hong Kong were going less and less down to Chinatown since they could get everything up town. Rosita suggested to her husband to sell the business and move up town, particularly when they lived in Unionville. - At that time, they looked for a restaurant to run, and found a location on Woodbine. In order to do that, it was absolutely necessary for Rosita to get back to work, particularly when she was the business person who knew how to deal with people. By then, the children were getting older, and a part time person was hired to help at home. - Both husband and wife worked together running the restaurant. She still spent a lot of time with the children everyday, in between the busy hours at the restaurant. By 1994, Rosita found out that her husband had a mistress outside. That was when the woman, a masseur, phoned her at the restaurant. Her husband denied it. This went on for 2 years. - In 1997, Rosita was [diagnosed] with breast cancer. She had surgery and radiation. She refused to have chemo-therapy because she was afraid she would be so weakened that she would not be able to work. At the same time, her son was just graduating entering university and her daughter was in high school, and they really needed her. They were good students and she wanted to be there for them. Their father had no interest in them since he had his girl friend. - Rosita was determined to survive. She looked after her own health, exercise and took Chinese herbal medicine. By then, it was 1998. She took three months off to recover, and she realized that she needed to be psychologically well to build up her resistance. She made the decision to separate from her husband. Her husband didn’t want to move out, with the excuse that he wanted to be with their children. She found out that, in a legal separation, as long as the couple sleep in separate bedrooms and stop sexual relations, they could remain in the same house and be considered separated. - Rosita had hoped that they could one day get back together if only he would get rid of the girl friend. But, it didn’t happen. In 1999, Rosita went back to Hong Kong for a visit in order to think clearly what her next step should be. On her return, she asked her husband for a divorce. At first he refused, but she applied to the court. In 2000, the divorce was granted. She altered the name of the restaurant slightly, not so much that it is unrecognizable, but it does give her a sense of renewal in her life. - Her husband went back to Hong Kong and she continued to run the restaurant by herself. He never married the woman, and in fact, she seemed to have lost contact with him, so she constantly called Rosita to make demand for money. She maintained that she was the wife and should have equal share in the restaurant at the divorce, and threatened Rosita with underworld characters, she even threatened the waiters for going to work. Rosita contacted the police and the woman had been warned. She had stopped bothering Rosita, but still send people to try to get money from the restaurant.

Audio recording and Transcripts [Extended notes] are restricted.

Audio recording of interview with Suit-Ching Koo Lui conducted by Vivienne Poy in Scarborough, ON. Interview conducted in Cantonese.From Transcripts [Extended notes] compiled by Vivienne Poy:Suit-ching Koo Lui, (co-applicant) 1970, interviewed by phone in Toronto, summer 2002, in Cantonese. (Susan) - Born in 1929 in Tangshan in Hubei province from a family of farmers. There were 4 or 5 siblings but she couldn’t remember because most of them died in the big earthquake in the 1970s. When she was 6 years old, Suit was adopted by her father’s older sister because she didn’t have any children. Her aunt actually wanted to adopt one of her brothers, but the grandparents decided that it should be Suit. - After adoption, Suit went with her adopted parents to Qingdao in 1935, and lost contact with her biological family. Her own surname was Hong and Koo was the married of her adopted mother. When Suit was over 10 years old, a son was adopted. - During the Sino-Japanese War, the family went to Tianjin where Suit went to high school and later trained in nursing, where she worked for about a year in the same hospital where she did her training. She graduated the same year when the Communists liberated Tianjin. That year, her adopted parents went back to Qingdao and Suit remained in Tianjin . Tianjin was the first city to be liberated, and it happened in 3 days. On her graduation, there was fighting in the streets, and she remembered the many injured soldiers and civilians brought into the hospital where she worked. For 2 days and 3 nights, they had to work and had nothing to eat. Suit said she was not used to the Communist ways, especially with the constant political meetings. The Communist troops needed the nurses to go with them to liberate the southern cities, such as Wuhan, Hankou and Guangzhou. She would have been picked because they preferred those nurses who didn’t have families in Tianjin. Suit’s adopted father died that year of a heart attack because he saw in the papers the fighting in the city and that Tianjin was liberated, he was sure his adopted daughter was dead. Suit went to see her mother who was still in Qingdao. She returned to Tianjin and was constantly dragged into meetings for self criticism. If she had stayed, she would have had to go south with the Communist army, so she left with a friend for Guangzhou, where she stayed for about 2 months and then went out to Hong Kong (1950). She never saw her adopted mother again. - In 1950, it was easy to go to Hong Kong. No papers were necessary. Those who wanted to enter Hong Kong only needed to answer questions verbally, particularly for people from [Guangzhou]. It was a little more problem for Chinese from northern China. Suit crossed the border with a Cantonese woman whose son went to high school with her in Tianjin, and who later became her mother-in-law. This family (Liu) had already moved to Hong Kong before Liberation, and Mrs. Liu went to Guangzhou to bring Suit to Hong Kong. She told the officials at the Hong Kong border that Suit was her daughter (there was a bit of resemblance) who grew up in north China since she was little, and that’s why she couldn’t speak Cantonese. This woman’s family worked at the border crossing at Lo Wu (Luo Hu), and knew many officials who knew the family had a few daughters, but didn’t know exactly how many. It was easy for Suit to cross the border. - In 1953, she got married to Mrs. Liu’s son who worked as a clerk in an office. Her first daughter was born in 1954. - Suit’s nursing license was not [recognized] in Hong Kong, so she worked as a private nurse. After a short while, she found a job working in the office of an Ear, Nose & Throat doctor. Later, she worked in Kwong Chung Hospital. Without her Hong Kong license, she could work in a hospital, but the pay scale was lower while she did the same work as the other nurses, even in the operating room, so she was not happy. - In 1964, she arranged with the Kwong Wah Hospital to work for free for 6 months in their nursing school which was attached to the hospital, in exchange for a letter which would allow her to take the exam for a Hong Kong license. She got her license that year, and Kwong Chung asked her to back there to work, and she refused. She was upset that they didn’t pay her at the same pay scale as others before. She worked as a private nurse, and in the same year, she became pregnant with her younger daughter who was born in 1965. Suit worked 12 hour shifts and she had lived in help at home for the children. - 1967-8, her in-laws had already immigrated to Canada, and would like her and her family to immigrate as well. Suit was worried about her English language skill and the problem she would have in finding work, so was not too keen to make a move. Her main reason to immigrate was for the educational opportunities of her children, besides the fact that the grandparents wanted the grandchildren to be near them. - when her eldest daughter reached the 4th year of secondary school, Suit was worried that she would not be able to afford to send her to university because it was costly in Hong Kong. So in 1969, when this daughter was a year from graduation from high school, the decision was made to immigrate. - They applied to Canadian immigration as co-applicants because it was necessary to add her husband’s to Suit’s points as a nurse in order to have enough. They arrived in Toronto in August, 1970. - Suit stressed the main reason for the move was for the education of her daughters. Aside from the cost of education in Hong Kong, the standard was also very high. The problem was that her eldest daughter was not the best student, and Suit was afraid she might not pass the Hong Kong matriculation exams, which would mean that she would not get into university. Besides, Suit said private school fees were very high in Hong Kong, and it almost impossible to get into government school. When her younger daughter was in Kindergarten, it was costing her hundreds of dollars per month. Education is free in Canada, and University fees are a lot cheaper in Canada than in Hong Kong. Later, when her daughters went through university in Canada, the fees were very low. - Suit was really afraid that if they stayed in Hong Kong, she would not be able to afford to give her daughters the best education possible. So, even if she had to struggle financially in Canada, it would be worth while. - They arrived in Canada in August, 1970, For the first 2 months, Suit didn’t work, and then she applied to George Brown to study English (ESL). She was living with her in-laws at that time, so she [was] able to attend school without worrying about having a babysitter. The course was subsidized by the government, and she received appro. $40 a month. It was for 6 months, five days a week, 6 to 8 hours each day. Any day the student doesn’t attend class, money would be deducted for that day. When Suit finished, she was given a certificate. After she finished, she still didn’t feel confident enough in English to look for work where English had to be used. - Around the time Suit finished the course, she moved out of the in-laws’s home. For reasons that was not explained, she separated from her husband because he stayed with his parents. That was 1970, the younger daughter was only 5. Suit didn’t want to leave her to go to work, so she took in sewing to do at home. A year or so later, a friend in the U.S. asked Suit if she would consider looking after their baby, because the mother was going to work, and they didn’t have anyone they could trust to babysit. They would pay Suit the equivalent amount for doing her sewing. So this baby boy (2 months old) was brought to Suit and lived with her for over a year. A year or so later, Suit said to the parents that it is not good for their son not be know them and that they should take their son back. Besides, she didn’t feel it was good for her family to have another child in the home, particularly because she had family problems with her husband. - Being a rather shy person, Suit didn’t have enough confidence, and she said she didn’t know people who could introduce her to work as a private nurse. She said her English was not good enough for her to take the RN courses and exams, so she tried to apply to take the exams for nursing aid. Part of the form required her nursing school to complete, so she sent it back to her school in Tianjin, and she never heard back from them. She produced her certificate from Hong Kong, but was told that was not sufficient because that was not where she was trained. So, she wasn’t even given a chance to take the nursing aid exam. - Suit knew she had to work, so a friend suggested she take a course ( 3-6 months) in key punch, because she herself worked in it. The training centre was near Bay and Bloor. That kind of work, which was very noisy, on top of her family problems, made her extremely nervous. When she was taking the course, she had to take medication to calm her nerves. So, when she finished, she decided she couldn’t do key punch. - Between 1975 to 1982, Suit worked at the Mon Sheong Foundation which ran an old folks home for the elderly Chinese, and nursing care in Cantonese was needed. By 1982, the workers at Mon Sheong were forming a union, and Suit was no longer given the same schedule - night work plus she had the weekends off. She worked from Sunday to Thursday (nights only), and off for Friday and Saturday nights. She was told that she would have to rotate with the others and work different shifts. She thought the others didn’t want her to do only night work because it paid 25c more per hour, and they were also jealous that she had every weekend off. She didn’t want to work away from home during the day yet because her younger daughter was still young, so she quit her job. - For a short while, she didn’t work. She then got a part time job at the Sheppard Lodge, which was a seniors’ home. She worked the 3p.m. to 9p.m. shift. Her hours were gradually increased to the equivalent of a 6-day week. Her duty was that of a nursing aid. She didn’t need a certificate of qualification because the Lodge hired a lot of health-care workers, many of whom trained for a short time in community colleges. Suit was in great demand because of her nursing training. - During that time, my fashion design office was looking for home knitters and people who did crochet. Suit said she was happiest when she did sewing and knitting. She came to take knitting to do at home, and when she was free while on duty at Sheppard Lodge. That was when Suit and I first met. - A year or so later, Suit found that the physical work at the Sheppard Lodge was affecting the nerves at her lower back because of degeneration, and it was causing great discomfort. Around the same time, I was looking for an extra person to work full time in my design office, and because Suit did such beautiful hand work and had always faced her work with intelligence and responsibility, she was offered the position (1984-5). She gave up the position at the Sheppard Lodge and stayed with my company until she retired at 65 (1994). She still comes back to help whenever I need to have work done for me personally. - Suit is a Christian but doesn’t go to church on a regular basis. - Does Suit regret immigrating to Canada? In respect to her family situation, she said, there is regret. But, in respect to her daughters, there is no regret at all, it was the right thing to do for them. They were her purpose for immigration, and her own career in nursing is not that important. She is very happy that her daughters are university graduates, the older works in a research lab and the younger is a dentist. She knew she didn’t make a mistake in immigrating. Family problems might have happened even if the family had stayed in Hong Kong, but she doubted that her daughters would have had the opportunities for education that they did.

Item is of extended (English) notes on interviews.