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| Lee Yune Co. (above),
circa 1910s or 1920s, located at 127 East Pender |
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In 1910, the desperately poor residents of
a small village in China pooled their money and approached 18-year-old Ron
Bick Lee. They would pay for his passage to Gold Mountain -- Canada -- if he
would work hard and send money back home.
Bick Lee would become a pillar of
Vancouver's Chinatown, a successful merchant who was active in cultural and
political affairs. He lived until he was 102 years old, and to the end sent
money home to his old village.
Lee's saga is celebrated in a new exhibit,
Three Early Chinese Pioneer Families, which opens Saturday -- the first day of
the Chinese New Year -- at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum, 555 Columbia.
The other pioneers featured are H.Y. Louie
(whose descendants own London Drugs) and Yu Tan Chan. Taken together, their
three stories offer a compelling history of the Chinese experience in Canada.
Lee initially moved to Victoria, went back
to China to marry, and settled in Vancouver in 1916. He began life in Canada
as a houseboy, but by 1921 he owned an import-export business.
He became so respected in Chinatown, he was
the unofficial bank for people from his native Taishan.
"All the people from the village who
came to Vancouver trusted my father," recalls his son, real estate tycoon
Bob Lee.
"Any money they saved, they gave my
dad the money. He was like a banker; they trusted him more than the bank. My
dad would have a bank book, he'd mark down what you'd deposit and what you
took out."
Bick Lee did not have an easy life in
Canada.
"My mother couldn't come over for 12
years after he got married, because they wouldn't allow [Chinese] women into
Canada," said Bob Lee, who is 69.
"So my mother had to buy a false birth
certificate from another family who moved [from Canada back] to China. She
came over here with that 13 years later. That's why my dad was 45 when I was
born.
"He had seven children in nine years.
He really caught up."
Like many Canadians, Bick Lee struggled
during the 1930s depression.
When Bob Lee was young, he saw his father
for only about two hours per week, because Bick Lee was working at two jobs to
keep afloat, running a greenhouse during the day and working at the Foo Hung
restaurant at night.
"He bought a greenhouse and 50 acres
in 1933," recalls Lee. "I thought he was sort of crazy, because it
was so tough in those days. He couldn't pay the property taxes, so he had to
work day and night.
"But because he was so patient and
worked so hard, he paid the taxes, and after the war he made a lot of money on
the greenhouse land, which turned into industrial land."
Bick Lee would become a wealthy man, and
put his wealth back into the community. He donated the land for the Chinatown
YMCA, co-founded the Chinese Merchants Society and was president of the
Chinese Social Development Society. He never returned to his native village in
China, but sent money that built roads and a school.
Hok Yat Louie's story parallels that of
Bick Lee. Both were natural entrepreneurs who overcame impoverished beginnings
to launch successful businesses in Canada, even in a time of institutional
racism (the Chinese Exclusion Act stopped Chinese from coming to Canada from
1923 to 1947).
Louie was from a poor peasant family in
Dutou village in Zhongshan, China. At 23, he set out for Canada, borrowing $50
to pay the head tax instituted by the Canadian government to discourage
Chinese immigration.
After toiling at a series of manual labour
jobs in Victoria and Vancouver -- for a time, he worked at the farm of future
B.C. Premier John Oliver -- he ventured into the business world, and prospered
in the wholesale grocery business.
He had left behind a wife in China and
three children. In 1911, he took a second wife in Canada, and had another 11
children. His son Gunn from his first marriage joined him in Canada, but fell
out with his father and was disinherited.
In 1934, H.Y. Louie died while back in
China visiting his mother. His sons Tim, Tong,
Bill and Ernie took over the family business. In 1955, the Louie family took
over the IGA franchise for B.C.; in 1976, they took over London Drugs.
Gunn's sons Alex and Victor also prospered,
starting up the Le Kiu store in Chinatown and in 1957, the Marco Polo
restaurant/nightclub, a Chinatown institution for more than two decades.
The Louie family was also renowned for its
athletic prowess: Quan Louie was a soccer star and his brother Will was the
first person of Chinese descent to make the University of B.C. basketball
team.
Quan was also among the young Chinese
Canadians who volunteered to fight in the Second World War, hoping their
action might force the Canadian government to recognize Chinese as equal
citizens (at the time Chinese were denied the right to vote, and barred from
many professions). He was killed in an air raid over Germany in 1945.
Chan Yu Tan's story is different in that he
was from a Christian family, and came to Canada in 1896 as a minister at the
Vancouver Chinese Methodist Mission. He would also be a minister in Victoria,
Nanaimo and New Westminster before he died in 1948.
His son Luke Chan moved to Hollywood, where
he starred in several movies, including The Secrets of Wu Sin, The Mysterious
Mr. Wong and Singapore. His great-great-granddaughter Joni Mar was a runner-up
to Miss Canada in 1980 and a CBC news reporter for several years.
Mar said the exhibit really made her think
about how far the Chinese community has come, and the incredible sacrifices
her ancestors made so she could have a better life.
"Oh man, am I ever lucky that my
ancestors came here," she said.
"I went back to China 20 years ago,
and am I ever grateful that they took the chance and were pioneers. We have
this incredible life here in Canada.
"I really would love to take my
children back, just to see what a gift this has been. I'm going to cry. I
would never have had the opportunities."
H.Y. Louie's granddaughter Joanne Louie Mah
said the exhibit is an eye-opener, even for family members.
"For many different reasons there has
been very little recorded information on the background of early Chinese
immigrants," she said.
"There was not a lot there for
research purposes or for posterity. I think this represents a very solid piece
of documentation.
"It opens a whole area that I hope
would carry on. The Chinese have made a very significant contribution to the
development of society here in Canada. Particularly in B.C., where there has
been a long history of Chinese, but not acknowledged."
Louie Mah said one of H.Y. Louie's most
remarkable legacies is how many descendants he has.
Mar said the exhibit really made her think
about how far the Chinese community has come, and the incredible sacrifices
her ancestors made so she could have a better life.
"This one man has now left a legacy of
hundreds of us," she laughs.
"We have a Christmas event and over
100 people get together. They span a minimum of three generations, from my
father [Tim] who just turned 90 to a newborn that one of my cousins brought up
from California this year.
"It's quite a legacy." -
John Mackie Vancouver
Sun 31 Jan 2003
