Item 11 - Interview of Yvonne Chiu

87 MB (1 file) : mp3 ; 0 hr., 38 min., 1 sec.

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.