Item 2 - Interview of Irene Leong

126 MB (1 file) : mp3 ; 0 hr., 55 min., 22 sec.

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.