Item 25 - Interview of Cynthia Lai

139 MB (1 file) : mp3 ; 1 hr., 0 min., 56 sec.

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.