A Chinese New Year parade in Victoria BC where many Chinese immigrants to Canada first disembarked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Robert Amos 6
Introduction When I was a little girl I lived with my parents my grandparents and my four older sisters I grew up in Vancouver British Columbia which is home to a large Chinese Canadian community and one of the oldest Chinatowns in North America My grandfather came to Canada in 1913 at the age of 17 and eventually became a barber For many years he owned the only barbershop in Chinatown He lived in an apartment around the corner from the shop ate his meals at the Hong Kong Café on Pender Street and stopped at the newsstand every morning to buy papers in English and Chinese At that time he was one of a handful of Chinese men who could read both languages and often helped others with reading and writing letters or filling out government forms My grandfather in the 1960s after my grand mother father and mother joined him in Canada This photograph was taken in our first family home in East Vancouver Jen Sookfong Lee
Dragons are of ten printed on calendars and lucky money envelopes Stone dragons are used to decorate buildings par ticularly in pairs at entrances And brides will of ten wear a cheongsam a Chinese-style silk dress embroidered with twisting dragons My family including my grandparents in 1978 Jen Sookfong Lee For my sisters and me who were born in Canada Chinatown felt like home We knew every restaurant bakery and grocery store On the days we didn’t have school our grandfather would take us to his favorite diner and buy us apple tarts while he had a cup of coffee and a doughnut Our mother haggled with the shop owners she saw twice a week looking for the leanest piece of roasted pork belly or the best price on pomelos a giant citrus fruit the size of a volleyball When we were sick we drank the soup the traditional Chinese doctor prepared from dried roots berries and herbs If we drank the sometimes very bitter soup without complaining the doctor would reward us with a roll of Haw Flakes a type of Chinese candy that was round flat and slightly chewy At the end of every winter in late January or early February our father took us to watch the Chinese New Year jen sookfong lee
My family when I was a little girl in 1983 Jen Sookfong Lee parade which snaked through Chinatown on New Year’s Day My mother usually stayed home to prepare the New Year’s Day meal an eight-course dinner that took her days to plan In the damp cold we watched the dancers drum mers and martial arts performers march and spin while firecrackers filled the air with noise and smoke Our cousins Tony and Sonny were often part of the team of teenage boys who formed the body of the dancing dragon which was made of silk and held up with long wooden poles Local poli ticians and other dignitaries marching in the parade passed out candy to all the children and we called out Gung hay fat choy the traditional New Year greeting that wishes prosperity or wealth for the year ahead Our faces pink with cold we piled back into the car and drove home ready to start eating the sweet and savory 9
