Item 7 - Interview of May Wong

80.7 MB (1 file) : mp3 ; 0 hr., 35 min., 16 sec.

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.