James Oliver Caswell (1937–2016) was a historian of Chinese art. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1970 and was hired at UBC in 1971. Dr. Caswell was Head of the Fine Arts Department (now the Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory) from 1981 to 1997 and 2001/2002. He was highly regarded as a teacher and administrator.

Walter Koerner incorporated the Cedar Lodge Society in 1969 and donated money, land, and other assets to enable it to carry out its mandate of operating a brain injury treatment facility known as the Skeleem Village Recovery Centre. The facility, located in the community of Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island, closed in 1986 due to changes in provincial government policy. In the late 1980s, Koerner gifted the property to the University of British Columbia, who assumed responsibility for the operation of Skeleem Village. The University held majority membership in the Society and the majority of the Board of Directors. Skeleem Village re-opened in 1992 as a post-acute brain injury rehabilitation programme and had a close working relationship with the UBC Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. However, in 2003 the facility was closed for financial reasons.

The Centre for Transportation Studies prepared reports on B.C. Rail relating to the Royal Commission on B.C. Railway of 1977.

A University of British Columbia graduate, Alan David Chambers received resource management experience with government and industry in Ontario and B.C. In 1972 he participated in an analysis of natural resource policy in Canada for the Science Council of Canada. In that year, he joined UBC's Faculty of Forestry and later became Director of the Resource Science Centre. He was involved as a consultant in three research projects: Study Coordinator of the Purcell Range Study (1973), under the authority of the Environment and Land Use Committee; participant in Nazko-Kluskus First Nations Study (1974); and Special Assistant to the Minister of Forests (1977/78) for an investigation into continuing clashes between logging interests and the Nazko-Kluskus First Nations.

Chan Shee was born in China in 1893 in [中山 Zhongshan] county. Upon marriage to CHOW/JOW Hong Yee, she became known as Chow Chan Shee and Mrs. Jow Hong Yee.

In late 1919, she journeyed to Canada to join her husband who already resided there. By 1923, the family had made a home in the small but vibrant Chinatown of Lethbridge, Alberta. She and her husband had two sons who were born in Canada: Fred (b. 1923) and Peter (b. 1925).

Eventually, the Chow family settled in Vancouver, BC and resided in a house on the north side of the 400 block East Pender Street, between Dunlevy and Jackson Avenues, in the Strathcona-Chinatown neighbourhood. She was a housewife and a loving mother.

Sadly, in 1934 at the young age of 41, Chan Shee would pass away in Vancouver. Her granddaughter, Brenda Hoy, shares: “My paternal grandmother passed away at home. My father, Peter [Hong Yee] Chow, relayed that the song “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”, was playing on the radio at that time. Hence, whenever he heard that song, it would remind him of his mother.” She is interred in Mountain View Cemetery in the old Chinese section.

CHAN Shee arrived in Canada on August 7, 1909 as the wife of SAM Wing Poy.

With her husband, she helped run the famous butcher and meat shop called Loy Sing Guen meat store on Fisgard Street in Victoria's Chinatown. The business first started operations in 1889.

By day it was a meat shop. At night, the SAM family transformed it into a restaurant and served wonton, chow mein and congee, considered the house speciality.

Chan Shee would raise eight children with her husband. Sadly, she passed away in 1934 at a relatively young age.

CHAN Chick Foo (known in Canada as Ernest or Ernie) was born in China on June 25, 1908, the last child and baby brother to 12 sisters.

His father was a Christian minister who often used storefronts as a church. Christianity was a new and foreign religion in China, so the storefronts were frequently ransacked. Ernie recalled many days when his family would have to put the furniture back in order after these attacks.

Ernie attended an American boarding school in China where he caught the attention of Canadian missionaries. They offered to sponsor him to study in Canada. He arrived in Vancouver on September 29th, 1928. He was 19 years old and one of the few dozen Chinese admitted to Canada over the exclusion period.

Ernie went first to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where his sister and brother-in-law lived. There he worked in a fruit store for five years to save enough money to go to university. It was said he never enjoyed turkey at Thanksgiving or Christmas because he ate a constant diet of it while working in Moose Jaw. It was a cheap source of protein and one turkey could last a long time.

In 1933, Ernie entered the University of Saskatchewan’s Faculty of Engineering. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1938, but due to discrimination and the Great Depression, he never found a job in his field. He found work as a substitute teacher at the technical high school in Saskatoon.

In 1939, Ernie returned to teach at the engineering faculty. Under the War Emergency Training Program, he was able to return to the high school where he taught drafting, engineering, and sign painting. He was also commissioned as a flying officer in the cadet program. During the war, he taught navigation. Thus, in 1939, he began a long and storied career in teaching for the Saskatoon Board of Education. He was the first Chinese teacher in Canada.

For many years, Ernie could be found at the building of the Star Phoenix newspaper painting the latest news headlines. He arrived at 7:15 to paint the morning news, then again at noon to paint the day's news. His beautiful calligraphy was in demand in the city.

During the war, Ernie married Rose Yut Guen Lim on July 7, 1943. At first, the couple had difficulty finding an apartment as no one wanted to rent to Chinese. Eventually, they bought a house in Saskatoon and raised two children: Roger and Elizabeth.

Ernie became a Canadian citizen in 1950. He continued to teach drafting and surveying until 1974. He was a teacher at Saskatoon Technical Collegiate and head of the technology department at Walter Murray Collegiate. For several years, he was the chairman of the province’s curriculum committee on technical education. At one point, 15 of the 16 drafting teachers in the province were his former students. He taught surveying and mapping at night school. In 1973, Ernie was recognized by both the Canadian and American Industrial Arts Associations as Outstanding Teacher of the Year.

Ernie enjoyed people and it shows in the many groups he joined over the years. He was a member of Third Avenue United Church; was a leader in the Chinese Benevolent Association and the United Church Chinese Mission Committee. He also held leadership roles in the Highland Dancing and Piping Association, Rotary Club, and Saskatoon Folk Arts Festival. In retirement, he taught Chinese cooking classes with his wife.

He received many awards, the most prestigious being the Order of Canada which was bestowed upon him in 1984.

Ernie died December 1990.

CHAN Chow Heung, known in Canada as Joy Chan and later as Joy Wong upon marriage, was born in China in 1890 and arrived in Canada in 1902 at age 11. She was listed as a “merchant’s daughter” and consequently, did not pay the head tax.

The story of Joy’s parents and any siblings has been lost to time. But what is known is that she and her family were Chinese Christians, a group that was often persecuted in China.

Joy apparently arrived in Canada with an aunt and a cousin. The cousin died and the aunt returned to China. It appears that Joy ended up living and being cared for at the Oriental Home and School in Victoria, which was sponsored by the Methodist Church and functioned like as orphanage.

In 1912, she married WONG Chee Hong, who was a barber. He also had spent time living and being cared for by the Oriental Home and School. Joy's parents on her wedding certificate were listed as Chan Tung Yung (father) and Muk Si Mai (mother).

Hong and Joy would raise six children together.

The couple lived at 954 Mason Street in Victoria – a house that still stands in 2022. There were seven churches in the vicinity and Joy remained very active with her church throughout most of her life.

Joy passed away April 1, 1979.

Dan S.J. CHAN was born CHIN Sir Jan in Vancouver. His father, CHIN Wong (1884-1969) was a merchant, although the exact nature of his business has been lost to time. His mother was LEUNG Gook Bo (1893-1968).

In the early 1920s, the Chin family resided at 541 Homer Street in Vancouver which was slightly outside the main Chinatown area. Unusual for the time, a doctor (Dr. W.D. Brydone-Jack) attended Dan’s birth.

During WWII, Dan enlisted and did his training at Gordon Head, in Victoria. Part of his training involved attending the S-20 Japanese Language School.

Dan was assigned the service number K7956 and was posted to South East Asia Command (SEAC) in 1945. He worked with the translator and interpreter corps and part of his job involved interrogating captured and surrendered Japanese soldiers to determine if they had committed war crimes. He also reviewed and translated documents.

Dan had the opportunity to travel extensively and during his service was stationed in England, Malaya, China and Hong Kong. While in Asia, he was attached to the Royal Canadian Intelligence Corps and assisted with the work of war crimes trials. He was discharged from active duty in July of 1947.

Before the war, he married Beatrice Mar. After returning home, they had two sons: Randy and Ryan.

To support his family, Dan ran several small businesses including a trucking company. He also worked in mining and, in later years, in sales and marketing.

He died of cancer in 1979.

CHAN Dong-you arrived at age 17 in Vancouver on January 10, 1890 aboard the S.S. Parthia. She came from a poor family in [番禺 Punyu / Panyu] county (Luk Bo See village). As such, she spoke Cantonese.

Her husband-to-be’s brother had arranged her marriage to 39-year-old HO Chong 何祥, a merchant tailor from [恩平Yinping / Enping] county, who had reached British Columbia working his way up the west coast of the United States. By 1890, Ho Chong was in Kamloops, manufacturing garments for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Dong-you gave birth to their first children in the region.

Over the harsh winters, one child would die after being put too close to the stove, while another was smothered by heavy blankets. When the family travelled by wagon to New Westminster, another child died and was buried by the road; Dong-you vowed to go back and recover the body. Later, another child died of convulsions.

Her five children who survived to adulthood were Samuel, Lillian, Nellie, Winnifred and Ruth, all born in Vancouver. Lillian was the eldest of the daughters. She recalled her mother often going to visit women friends in Victoria on the ferry, and in New Westminster on the interurban tram.

Dong-you and the children worked in the family business, a firm called Hing Kee, at 31 Dupont Street. Part of its work involved making denim goods for Spencer’s department store. Hing Kee employed ten male seamsters, but all handwork (hemming, feather-stitching, and button-holing) was done by Dong-you and the children. They also made Chinese butterfly and pig-snout buttons.

In 1908, Ho Chong died while on a trip to China. Dong-you decided against taking the family there for fear that Ho Chong’s brothers would sell her daughters. Instead, she tried to run the merchant tailor firm. Her daughter Lillian went to ask another Chinatown firm for piecework, but got a snarl: “Why give you anything? You poor beggars will take our garments and go sell them!”

The firm failed, and Dong-you removed her children from school to work and support the family. The school principal came and threatened her, but to no avail. She was forced to send two daughters (Lillian and Ruth) to the Chinese Girls’ Rescue Home (later renamed the Oriental Home and School) in Victoria as her boarding house allowed only two children.

Lillian recalled her mother always carefully counted the number of diners before setting places at the dinner table. An extra setting, she feared, would invite evil to join them. Dong-you cited many proverbs in daily life, including:

Each grain of rice is precious; to put it on the table takes much work.
Going out, there’s no June. 出門無六月. [Always plan for bad weather.]
When visiting family stores, never sit near the money box.
If you walk in a group, always take the middle position in the line.

Of Dong-you’s offspring: Winnifred studied to be a mid-wife and married Raymond Ing, a restauranteur in Chicago. She later took her two teenaged children to China for schooling but fled the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. Ruth, a nurse, went to China to work but died there. At university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Samuel became an electrical engineer. He also worked in China but later settled in Toronto. Nellie went to the Sprott Shaw secretarial school.

Chan Dong-you died in 1946 in Vancouver at age 73.

Doris Chan was born August 22, 1921 in Victoria, BC. Her parents were both industrious entrepreneurs. Her father, John Chan, who had arrived in Victoria in 1902, ran his own lumber and wood dealership. He purchased land, harvested the wood and would throw the deed in a drawer.

Doris' mother, Mae, owned Pandora Dressmakers located at 739 Pandora Street. The Chans were the first Chinese Canadian family to buy and live outside of Victoria Chinatown. In 1916, they purchased a house at 2003 Quadra Street.

At age 13, Doris started working part-time at her mother’s dress-making shop where she helped hem dresses for $0.25 per hem.

When she turned 19, Doris went to San Francisco to attend the Institute of Fashion Design. She returned to Victoria two years later and started working full-time at her mother’s dressmaking shop alongside her other older sisters. Doris specialized in wedding dresses and evening gowns. And even after her mother moved to the U.S. in 1942, Doris and her sisters continued with the dressmaking business. Their customers were the wives of politicians and the Victoria elite.

Doris started saving at age 13 and began investing at 22. She bought a car, had $5,000 in the bank by age 25, and purchased her first house in 1948 at 27.

It was around this time that Doris met Ronald Lee, an attractive and happy-go-lucky young man from Vancouver who had served in WWII with Force 136. He was working in Victoria after the war.

The two married in 1950 and would have six children together: Greg, Blake, Rhonda, Patty, Valerie and Lori. However, for Doris, the marriage to Ronald would be difficult and painful.

As recalled by Doris’ daughter Patty Lee “…in 1957, without her knowledge, our father bought a grocery store called Columbia Market in Vancouver, located at Broadway and Columbia. They moved to the store in July 1958. My mom left her beautiful home in Victoria, her business and her family and friends. The attached home at the back of the store was a dump and the store barely made enough to feed their six kids. My Dad got a second job and then a third job. And then he would travel to Victoria on the weekends to visit his girlfriend. That left my mom to run the store 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, from 8 am to 8 pm, and care for six kids.”

Patty describes one particularly difficult incident for Doris while working alone in the store. “Around 1962 my mother was working in Columbia Market store. My brother, Greg, was playing in the store and was maybe 10 years old. A man came in with a knife to rob my mom. She asked why he was doing this. He said it was because his family was starving and he needed food. My mom went to our home at the back of the store and proceeded to make sandwiches. She then came out and filled grocery bags with food, along with the sandwiches, and told him to take the food and go. A few years later, the man came back and thanked my mom and paid for the groceries.”

Doris passed away on September 9, 1999 at age 78.

At Doris’ celebration of life, her son Greg, remarked “Our Mom was the center of our world, she was both our mother and our father. For those who have never met our mom…you would know her if you knew any of us. Because we are who we are because of our mother.”

George Bun Wah CHAN was born in Canada on April 4, 1904. He grew up in a large family, as the second son of 12 children born to CHAN Sui Lun, and Lore Shee. His father had a second wife, with whom he had three children—George’s step-siblings.

George’s father was born in the district of [順德區 Soon Duck] in 廣東 Guangdong province, and arrived in Victoria, BC, in 1890. Shortly after, he married Lore Shee, George’s mother and another native of 廣東 Guangdong, and brought her to Victoria. The family settled in Victoria’s Chinatown between Fisgard and Cormorant Streets.

During the day, George and his siblings attended English-language school in Victoria. After school, they attended the Chinese Public School on Fisgard Street from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The school had been established through money raised by local Chinese merchants and was located on the third floor of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association building.

As a young man, George worked as a tailor, and was responsible for purchasing food staples for the family, including rice, yook beng ("minced meat patties"), and tofu.

On August 26, 1923, he married Jane Chan. The couple had nine children together: Isabelle (b. 1926), Clara (b. 1927), Wallace (b. 1929), Bertha (b. 1931), June (b. 1932), Georgina (b. 1934), Donald (b. 1936), Gerald (b. 1937), and Florence (b. 1939). Their first daughter, Isabelle, was born in Victoria. In 1927, George and his growing family moved to Vancouver, where they settled in East Vancouver and had eight more children.

George continued to work as a tailor in Vancouver. With his brother, Charles, George became a part owner of the Kent & Co. Tailor Shop.

During the Great Depression, tailoring work was scarce. Consequently, in the late 1930s, George and his extended family discussed moving back to China. George, his mother, and Charles’ wife wanted to return, while Charles was against it. George returned to China in 1939, and planned for his children and wife to follow six months later. George signed over his shares in Kent & Co. to Charles, giving his brother complete control in his absence.

Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of WWII, George’s family was unable to follow him, and George was forced to remain in China until 1947. While he was away, his wife Jane Chan ran a Seafood Market on Fraser Street in Vancouver from 1940 to 1943, with the help of her oldest daughters, son, and friends.

George Chan passed away in 1966 in Vancouver.

CHAN Shue Hong was born CHAN Kwong Hay on December 17, 1915 in Victoria, BC. His father changed his name a couple months after his birth; he would also become known by his English name Leslie.

He married Dora Yan Tai Law and together they had two children: Lenora Elaine Chan (married name Der) and Paul Gayn-Lan Chan.

Leslie was described as a creative person, passionate about food, and an inventor at heart. He would work on projects like frozen fries, noodles and pies. He even won a chicken pot pie contest.

In his retirement, Leslie became a talented Chinese watercolour artist. He constantly put his family first and was remembered as a father that was full of charm, life, kindness and laughter.

Leslie passed away July 14, 2001.

CHAN Lou experienced an extra-long journey when he decided to leave his village in 台山 Toisan / Taishan to travel halfway around the world to find work in Newfoundland. He was his family's only son, with seven sisters. Like many in China at the time, the family was poor and struggled to survive.

In addition, he had his own family to support. He was married to GEE Toi Young, with whom he had two children: Terry Yuon Chan and Julie Pui Kam Lee.

He arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1921 at the age of 22, paying the $300 head tax. Family accounts say he borrowed the money from his brother-in-law and repaid every cent. He would be known as Tom in this new country.

But when Tom tried to find a job, but no one would hire him. He became acquainted with some gamblers in restaurants, serving them and running errands to earn some tips. However, he never gambled himself.

He also worked at a laundry business. Initially, he offered his services for free in order to prove he was dependable and hard-working. He was hired eventually, earning three to five dollars per week. To help drum up business, Tom went from hotel to hotel, soliciting for clothes that needed laundering. He would haul the clothes back to the laundry in a bag.

Tom was disciplined. He regularly sent money back to his family in China and still found ways to save, including enough to open his own convenience store. Running the store took incredibly long hours: Tom barely slept as he wanted to stay up as late as possible so his store would be open to customers.

He was also resourceful. The family recalls that “When [kids] did not have enough money to buy an entire package [of candy], he would disassemble the packets so they could purchase the pieces they could afford. He also learned to make pies and sold them at the store.”

His great grandson shared, “My mother tells me about his famous pies -- apple, raisin, lemon and coconut -- and any kind of flavoured fruit pie, he could make. The crust was homemade with lard and plenty of kneading.”

Later, Tom opened the Dragon Restaurant, which is where he made his fortune. His son, Terry, carried on the business.

Around 1937, Tom returned to China to purchase land and have a house built for his family. However, this suddenly changed his family’s status to that of landowners, making them targets for persecution by the Communist party. Horrifying slogans were shouted at them and their home was searched.

In 1964, Tom’s wife, Toi Young GEE, joined him in Canada after decades of separation.

Tom passed away June 13, 1994.

CHAN Yee was born on the ninth day of the eleventh moon in 1900 on the Chinese calendar. (Equivalent to December 30, 1900 on the Gregorian calendar.) He arrived in Canada in 1918 at age 17, just as WWI was ending.

He settled in Victoria. Initially, he earned his living as a fruit and vegetable merchant. He had a truck full of fruits and vegetables, and had fixed routes over different days where he would go to various neighbourhoods around Saanich and sell fruits and vegetables to specific households. He had steady customers within these neighbourhoods. He would go to wholesalers every morning to stock up with produce prior to going on his routes. When grocery stores became more prevalent and his business of peddling fruit and vegetables became obsolete, he purchased and operated a small corner grocery store.

Even though he had little, he was very generous with whatever he had. During his time as a fruit and vegetable merchant, he would often encounter marginalized people along his route. He would allow them to take what they needed from his truck without question or exchange. During the time he ran the grocery store, there would be times where he would allow marginalized customers to buy on credit, and not collect on the bills.

Chan Yee travelled back and forth to China often enough to get married there and father 5 children. He managed to bring them all to Canada in 1953. His children in order of birth included: John Chan (Fai Yit); Ruth Lee (Sit Moi); May Wong (Sai Que); Rose Young (See Moi); and Jack Louie (Wah Hing).  

Over his lifetime, Chan Yee had to work extremely hard to overcome obstacles and raise a family. His success in doing so during those difficult times was a major accomplishment.  
  
Chan Yee passed away on April 30, 1969 at the age of 68.

CHANG Chan Wah arrived in Victoria, B.C. in 1912 as a labourer.

Dr. Dorothy Chang was born in Winfield, Illinois in 1970. She began her music studies on piano at age six and began composition at age fourteen. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music from the University of Michigan and her doctorate in Music from Indiana State University. She has previously served on the music faculty at Indiana State and, since 2003, has been a Professor of Music and Composition at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.

Her work often reflects the eclectic mix of musical influences from her youth, including popular music, folk music, and elements of traditional Chinese music. Additionally, much of her music is inspired by place, time, memory, and personal histories. Her total catalog includes over seventy works for solo, chamber, and large ensembles as well as collaborations involving theatre, dance, and video. Her interest in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration has led to projects including a radio play adaptation of Gertrude Stein’s White Wines for four vocalists and speaking percussionist, several mixed chamber ensemble works for Chinese and Western instruments, and a collaboration with choreographer Yukichi Hattori and four other composers in the large-scale True North Symphonic Ballet premiered in 2017 by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Most recently, she composed a new double concerto for erhu (Chinese fiddle) and piano, which premiered in 2018 by the Piano-Erhu Project and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Born January 5, 1893, CHANG Fook's identity and his Chinese Immigration certificate in Canada would be acquired by LEE Yip Sing 李業勝.

CHANG Gan was born in 1912 in Vancouver’s Chinatown at 111 East Pender Street. He was the son of CHANG Toy, a prominent Chinese pioneer businessman who was also known as Sam Kee. His father had arrived in Canada in 1874.

Gan was well educated at a time when few Chinese attended university. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia in 1934; followed by a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree in 1938, also from UBC.

When WWII erupted, Gan enlisted and was accepted into the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942. He became a pilot officer and was trained as a bomb aimer. Before leaving for his post in Britain, he married Helen Lore of Victoria in 1943. By 1945, Gan was promoted to Flying Officer.

Two of his other brothers also served in the RCAF during the war.

When Gan returned from Europe, he worked for a time as an electrician at the Burrard Dry Dock. But being smart and ambitious, he decided to return to university and study dentistry. He graduated in 1949 from the University of Alberta and opened his own dental practice in the South Granville area of Vancouver.

Gan was active and was a member of the early Vancouver Chinese Tennis Club, and later the Vancouver Chinese Golf Club and the Arbutus Club.

He and his wife, Helen, had two children, both boys: Dwight and Blythe.

Gan’s C.I.45 was issued in 1939, about 15 years later than most other C.I.45s had been issued.

Gan passed away in Vancouver in 2005.

CHANG Yip Kee was 25 years old when he arrived in Canada in 1913, about a year before the outbreak of WWI. His younger brother, Chang Yun Ho, had arrived a few years earlier in 1908.

It is believed that Yip Kee worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway when he first came to Canada. Then, around 1926, he joined his brother Yun Ho who had bought a farm in Vancouver near Knight Street and East 28th Avenue.

Yip Kee worked on the farm until his death on August 18, 1945, right at the end of WWII. Yip Kee’s body was sent home to China after the war ended.

Yip Kee had four daughters and one adopted son, all of whom remained in China.

CHANG Yun Ho was born in China on May 15, 1887 in the village of Sha-tin in the Zhongshan district of Guangdong province. He was the youngest of six brothers. Yun Ho arrived in Canada in 1908 at age 21 and originally settled in Victoria. At first he struggled to find a job, but eventually a Chinese labour contractor found Yun Ho work in a sawmill.

In 1913, around the time his older brother Chang Yip Kee arrived in Canada, Yun Ho moved to Vancouver. He could no longer tolerate the smell of cedar, so he changed jobs and started peddling vegetables with a horse and wagon. By 1926, he had saved enough money to purchase 3 acres of farmland near what is today Knight Street and East 28th Avenue. His brother Yip Kee joined him to work the land.

Yun Ho was proud to be one of the first Chinese to buy land outside of the Chinatown area. Restrictive covenants prevented Chinese from buying property outside the Chinatown area until the 1930s. The property had been owned by a judge, who used a lesser-known “equal rights principle" to sell it to a Chinese person.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, Yun Ho sold the farm to finance one of his trips to China to see his wife and children. Upon his return, he leased acreage on the Musqueam band land and on Marine Drive in Vancouver.

In terms of family life, Yun Ho journeyed to China for 6 months in 1911 at age 24 and married Young Yin Tom. He was with his new wife for only three months before returning to Canada. In 1915, Yun Ho sailed back to China and the following year his daughter Sook Han was born. She would be followed by three sons: one born in the early 1920s (but died at age 6 or 7 of smallpox); Bo Hoy (b. 1931); and Sew Mon (b. 1938).

Yun Ho never learned to write Chinese (and he could only barely read it) and his wife could not read or write Chinese. It was a challenge to communicate over such a distance and over so many years apart. So communication to each other was through those who could write and read their letters on their behalves.

The family was finally reunited in 1952 when Yun Ho’s wife and two surviving sons were permitted to immigrate to Canada. By then, Yun Ho was 65 years old.

Yun Ho passed away on March 6, 1985 in Vancouver.