- Person
- [1906]-1994
WONG Won Soo was born WONG Dat Tong in China in Cheong Chow village on March 3, 1906. He was 15 years old when he arrived in Canada in the winter, December 1921.
Won Soo settled in Port Alberni where he was hired as a labourer at the MacMillan Bloedel sawmill. He would work there until he retired, 41 years later.
He was disciplined. Even during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Won Soo managed to save enough to make multiple trips back to China.
It was not until 1955, after the Exclusion Act was repealed, that a family member finally joined him in Canada; his son arrived that year on his own.
Together, the two men would wait another six years before his daughter-in-law and grandson would be allowed into Canada. And it would be one more year after that (1962), before Won Soo’s wife would finally join him after a lifetime of marriage being apart. She had stayed behind in Hong Kong to take care of an aging mother-in-law, as was her duty.
Won Soo was loved by all; he got along with people of other ethnicities at a time when racism was common.
He led a quiet life, reading Chinese kung fu novels, watching television, and making crafts such as kites assembled from simple materials like paper held together with rice glue. He also made frog skin drums and homemade ink pads.
He spent time in the local Chinese Canadian coffee shops chatting with friends and staff, often returning home with bags of candies for his three grandchildren. One day, Won Soo surprised his grandkids with three new goldfish in their aquarium.
He loved fishing for perch and rock cod from wharves and log booms, using a homemade fishing rod that was actually a simple spool of fishing line wound around a narrow piece of wood.
After retirement, Won Soo and his wife moved to Vancouver’s Chinatown, where he enjoyed the noodle houses, Chinese bakeries, barbecue meat shops, and movies at the Chinese theatres. He loved to play mahjong. If not at home, one could find him at the mahjong den. While those gambling establishments were raided a few times by the police, Won Soo was never arrested.
His grandson, Allan Wong, recalls “My best memory of our grandfather was when I made a lemon meringue pie. After eating a slice, he said, in broken English, “A buck seventy-five”. He explained that a fancy restaurant would charge that.”
“The only time I ever saw him cook, he whipped up a batch of Wok Dai Naht, a kind of Chinese pancake. It’s normally savoury but, not having all the ingredients, he sprinkled sugar over it and it became a dessert instead.”
Wong Won Soo passed away in Vancouver on January 7, 1994.