YIP Doo Tong (George Yip) was born in Cranbrook, B.C. on November 25, 1921. His father, YIP Chong Ban (aka YIP Chung Ben), ran a produce and grocery store on Durick Avenue in Cranbrook.

George completed Grade 8 and then was sent to China where he lived from 1933-1938. Upon returning to Canada in 1938, George spent three months working in a fish cannery in Prince Rupert. By 1939 he had moved to Vancouver and for five years worked as a clerk at the Shaughnessy Market, a produce store at 2915 Granville Street. He earned about $25 a week in that job.

Like many young Chinese men in Canada, George was willing to fight for Canada during WWII despite the discrimination faced by his community. He joined the Army on November 15, 1944 and did his basic training in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. George then volunteered to become a member of Force 136: a clandestine group of fighters trained and led by the British Special Operations Executive. These soldiers of Force 136 were trained in jungle survival and guerrilla warfare, and were sent on missions to undertake sabotage and espionage in Japanese-occupied territories.

George spent some time in London, England, and was then shipped to India for the final leg of training and to await his first assignment. He was stationed in Meerut, India and was being trained as a wireless radio operator. Fortunately, the war ended before George was assigned to any dangerous missions.

George was discharged on April 26, 1946 and later was awarded the Burma Star.

Within a couple of years, he married Tso Shee (aka Yip Chow Shee who was born December 28, 1922 in Canton, China). Together, they had two children: Ray and Ken.

Taking advantage of the Veterans Land Grant program, George acquired a 5-acre parcel of land on Byrne Road in Burnaby. There he operated a produce farm until his death in September 1971.

YIP Wing See (aka Cecil Yip) – “Cec” to his many friends – was the 32nd grandchild of Yip Sang 葉生. He was the eldest son of Yip Kew Sheck 葉求鑠 (1900-1963) and Chew Wai Ming 趙慧明 (1902-1972). He was born at 51 East Pender Street and was five when Yip Sang passed away.

Cecil was a good student. Like many other Chinatown kids, he went to Chinese school after regular school, for nine long years. He was a Cub, a Boy Scout, an Army Cadet, and a track and field all-star, graduating from King George High School in 1940. At the Wing Sang compound, he was surrounded by boys who were always ready for an impromptu game. Soccer was a family passion: including Quene Yip (1905-94), at least twenty-one Yips played for the Chinese Athletics over the years, including Cecil in 1946. He dreamed of using his athletic and scholastic skills for college and a career.

He was born the year before the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act and his life was shaped by it. Canadian born, he was registered as an immigrant on June 11, 1924. He was 27 when he voted for the first time. Not one to take inequities quietly, he enjoyed testing the boundaries of where he was allowed to be and when. He loved telling stories of “breaking curfew”: enjoying Vancouver’s nightlife outside the bounds of Chinatown.

Cecil was a member of the Army Navy Air Force Legion Unit 280 (Chinatown), having served both in WWII and in 1941 with the Merchant Marines. The army judged his education and skills insufficient for promotion, yet he wore the uniform with honour and pride. He marched in every Remembrance Day parade, medals shining and shoes mirror bright. He loved sharing war stories with his friends.

A hard worker, Cecil took the blue-collar jobs he was able to get in canneries, mills, grocery stores and restaurants. He worked all over the province, from Bones Bay to Vancouver. He had exquisite taste: family associations invited him to select menus for multi-course banquets, balancing the colours, flavours, and textures.

From an early age, Cecil loved fishing – even a job at the cannery couldn’t dim his enthusiasm for fish. His happiest days were on the water, the cooler filled with beer and fried chicken. The BC Salmon Derby was an annual highlight, with Cecil twice taking home trophies.

Cecil died in 1989 and is buried at Ocean View Burial Park, Burnaby.

YEE Yen Non (also known as Harry Ningnoon YEE) was born in China on March 1, 1908. His father (YEE Yoke Zhong 余煜中) and his older brother Frank were already living in Canada when Harry arrived in May 1923, shortly before the Chinese Exclusion Act went into effect.

Harry was only 12 years old and the immigration official noted that the boy was 4’ 9” and had a scar over his left eye. After clearing immigration, Harry boarded a train to Calgary where he joined his brother and father who operated a Chinese laundry called Paramount Tailors. Harry attended James Short School (formerly Central Public School) but likely also helped out in the laundry business.

In July 1928, Harry travelled with his father back to China. There his family arranged for him to marry CHU Sze on October 2, 1928.

On March 13, 1930, Chu Sze gave birth to a baby girl whom they named YU Seng Hai 余雙囍. Although her name contained the Chinese character for “double happiness,” she tragically died at a young age. But by then, Harry was back in Alberta working. Harry saved enough money to return to China a second time, in October 1936. On this trip he fathered a son, YU Sek Kei 余鍚棋 (YEE Thick Kee in Taishanese) who was born on June 13, 1937. This child contracted polio at a young age.

Sometime after the birth of YU Sek Kei, Harry left for Guangzhou and started a business that resulted in him serving jail time. Fortunately, his brother-in-law had an influential position with the Kuomintang government and arranged for Harry's release. Interestingly, once back in Canada, Harry changed his Chinese name from 余迎愋 to 余煦和. No one knows why, but it may have been an attempt to give himself a new start given the problems he encountered in China.

Harry worked as a travelling salesman in Alberta and, at one time, established a business in St. Paul, Alberta called New Modern Tailors which was also a laundry. He lived in Alberta until April 1942, moving to Vancouver where he purchased a small business on Hastings Street called Windsor Tailors and started a new chapter of his life. He worked long hours at the shop and developed a broad and loyal customer base. He operated the store until 1980.

In 1947, Harry took a second wife, marrying Winnifred Lee (LEE Yuet Siew) in Canada. He and Winnie raised four children.

Harry was very active in the Chinese community with the Yee clan association (Yee Fung Toy Society) and many others. He held executive positions locally and at the national level.

In 1989, Harry finally returned to his ancestral village of Poon Tong (泮塘) in Toisan. It had been 51 years since he left China.

His son Gerry described the trip: “I was with him on that journey that was emotionally overwhelming for him and me. Seeing his first wife and many relatives, young and old, was pure joy. He was singing songs of his youth and savoured every moment of the familiarity of the language, scenery and atmosphere.”

YEE Wing Hong arrived in Canada in 1920 at eight years old. He made the journey with his grandmother, his father (Hee), and an uncle and two cousins. They had all been brought to Canada by Hong's grandfather and family patriarch, YEE Ching, who had been in Canada since 1913. Yee Ching hailed from DiHoi in the 台山 Toisan / Taishan district of 廣東 Guangdong province. He owned and operated a store and restaurant in Millet, Alberta at which the extended family members worked while they settled in and the children attended school.

Ching passed away in 1927 and his body was shipped back to China for burial.

In 1930, Hong and his father paid a long visit to China. Hong said he was mainly brushing up on his Chinese. However, while there, he married Wei Yei Chan. They had a son, Kai Tan Yee, in 1933.

Hong returned to Canada in 1934 without his wife and son but continued to support them by sending money back regularly. By 1947, Hong had married Dorothy Wagner; they went on to have five children.

Back in Millet, Hong and his father worked in the family’s Millet café for several years before selling it. They then built a new restaurant which, over the years, went through two fires, reconstruction and additions, with the last one being built and opened on December 22nd, 1947. The restaurant operated in different locations and under different names such as The Wellington, The Rainbow Grill, and The Skylark.

Finally, in September 1977, Hong retired and sold the restaurant to his nephew, Kai Fun Yee (Barney Quon Yee’s son). The Yee restaurants had been operating in Millet for over 80 continuous years and formed a vital part of Millet’s historical past. Sadly, a fire in September 1996 destroyed the building and it was never rebuilt. Thus ended the era of the Yee restaurants in Millet. Hong passed away shortly after, in November 1996.

Hong was a respected and beloved member of the community who knew everyone. The Rainbow Grill was the first stop in the morning for many townsfolk who needed a coffee and a long chat before work. In the evenings, the young people of Millet spent hours eating fries and gravy and drinking milkshakes.

Hong was always volunteering to help during community events. He helped start up the Lions Club in Millet and he was the first recipient of the Lifetime membership for the Millet Lions Club. He also received the Judge Brian Stephenson Award, which is one of the greatest honours that can be bestowed upon a Lions member in Canada.

Hong’s children have many fond memories of their father. They remember that:
– He worked long days in the restaurant. In the early years, it was open 16 hours a day, 363 days a year. We never took a vacation with our dad as he could not afford to close down for any length of time.
– Hong woke early, every morning, to peel potatoes to make fresh mashed potatoes for the lunch hour and French fries for the evening crowd.
– He would take his kids with him to Edmonton to get supplies and then head over to his cousin’s restaurant, The Purple Lantern, for a meal.
– Hong always made his children's birthdays a special day, preparing traditional Chinese food complete with bird’s nest soup.
– Hong hosted the occasional poker game with his buddies in a back booth of his restaurant. The games would start at closing time and go through to the next morning.

YEE Wai Ben (changed later in life from YEE Wai Bun) was born July 15, 1897 in China. He arrived in Canada as a 24-year-old merchant with exemption from paying the head tax.

Wai Ben was a laundry proprietor in Toronto who operated Oakwood Hand Laundry. He was described as quiet, empathetic, dutiful, self-respecting, hospitable, and generous; he enjoyed a good laugh. At day’s end, his quiet time included reading the Shing Wah Daily News.

He married CHEUNG Sui Hei and had three children: Lily Yee, William Yee, Jean Lai Yee.

Wai Ben prided himself on maintaining his property—making it a central gathering place for the neighbourhood children. He took pains to care for the extensive lawn on his corner lot so that his children and their friends could enjoy an accessible and safe place to play.

In winter, he piled snow against the backyard’s fence so the kids could build snow forts. On occasion he flooded the backyard to create a central ice rink. Since his family was the only Chinese family in a predominantly European neighbourhood, Wai Ben created a safe space for kids—one that also facilitated multiculturalism and integration.

Like many Chinese who had entered Canada as merchants with exemption from paying the head tax, Wai Ben lost this status with the new regulations of the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act. He was subject to the $500 fine on the spot—an enormous amount of money at the time. Despite that setback, he stayed in Canada. By 1953, when he applied for Canadian Citizenship, he was using the slightly anglicized name of Yee Wai Ben.

He passed away on December 15, 1974 in Toronto.

YEE Sing first arrived in 1908 at around the age of 20, with four other men from the same village of the Yee/Yue clan.

Most of his working life was spent in the restaurant business. In the 1930s and 40s, Yee Sing owned and operated the Dominion Café in Banff, Alberta. Besides being a popular eatery, the café was also known for bringing in fireworks to celebrate Victoria Day.

As columnist Bruce Beattie recalled in a 1985 article in the Banff Crag & Canyon newspaper:

“About May 22 every year Mr. [Yee] would let the secret out. He would unpack the crates and place packages of firecrackers close to the old National cash register at the front of the café. Then, smiling from ear to ear, he’d go out on the sidewalk just as the kids were getting out of school and set off a few impressive bangs. Within minutes his café would be swarming with customers.”

There were times in Yee Sing’s life when money was very tight: at one point he used an ironing board as a makeshift bed and was forced to cook watermelon rinds for food.

But Yee Sing saved enough to travel to and from China a few times. His first wife died in China, so he married another woman in China who was 22 years his junior. He would have three children, all born in China: two adopted sons and a daughter who was born in 1948 when Yee Sing was already 60 years old.

In his fifties, Yee Sing fell off a roof while doing repairs, sustaining serious injuries and no longer able to work. He decided to return to China and live out his retirement years there. He gifted the Dominion Café to his adopted son, Fred Wing.

However, not long after Yee Sing’s arrival in China, the Communist party took control of the country.

In 1951, Yee Sing thought it best to return to Canada although this time he would arrange to bring over his wife and young daughter. However, his daughter, Grace, had been registered as a boy and correcting that became complicated and delayed her travel to Canada. It was only with the assistance of lawyer Douglas Jung that the young child eventually made it over to Canada a couple of years later (1953).

He also helped bring over to Canada another son, Wing Foo, who was adopted by his second wife.

Yee Sing died August 12, 1964 at the age of 76.

YEE Wing Quon (known also in Canada as Barney Yee) was born in China in September 1913.

At age 5, his grandfather, Ching Yee brought Quon to Canada and settled in the town of Millet, Alberta. Quon's father, Moon-Sim Yee owned and operated Ching’s Café until it burned down. After the fire, the Yee family moved across the street and opened the Wellington Café.

Running restaurants ran in the Yee family through successive generations. As an adult, Quon moved to Edmonton to manage his brother’s restaurant called the Purple Lantern, followed by a brief stint managing the Pagoda Nightclub in Devon, located just outside of Edmonton. But most of his working life was spent running the Purple Lantern.

Quon was 25 years old when his father decided to send him back to China to find a wife. Because he had come to Canada so young, he knew little about his own Chinese culture. He didn’t know how to speak, read or write Chinese. He had no idea how to wear traditional Chinese clothing, especially the way to wear traditional pants. Lastly, Quon didn’t know how to eat raw sugar cane like the locals in [台山 Toisan / Taishan]. Because of these things, he was teased incessantly by friends and family in his village.

Over time, he learned the Chinese ways and married Yuet-Mee Tam from a nearby village. They had two children: Kai-Fun and Mel-Kwoon.

Due to WWII, Quon left the village to serve in the British Military Mission shortly after their first son was born. He would not see his family for another six years, until after the war when they reunited in Hong Kong in 1946.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was still in effect in Canada, so Quon was not able to bring his family overseas until 1961.

Quon passed away in November of 1976.

At age 13, YEE Nin Fun travelled on the Canadian Pacific Steamship Empress of Asia, leaving Hong Kong on May 26, 1921. The steamship arrived in Vancouver on June 13, 1921 at 7:00am. However, Nin Fun was detained in the immigration shed and not admitted until July 29, 1921.

Nin Fun was following in the footsteps of his grandfather who was one of the first Chinese in Canada dating back to the late 1850s. But his journey from China to Canada was dreadful. The young boy was entrusted and escorted by another Chinese man on the ship. The man stole everything except the clothes on Nin Fun’s back; he abandoned him when the ship stopped over in Japan.

After being admitted to Canada, Nin Fun travelled to Gleichen, Alberta and worked in the restaurant business before eventually settling in Calgary. It was during his time in Gleichen that Nin Fun came into contact with the local Indigenous community.

His granddaughter, Janet Yee, recalls an interesting exchange that happened years later. As a pre-teen, Janet would go with her grandfather to downtown Calgary. They would take the bus, as Nin Fun never learned to drive. One day they were sitting at the 8th Avenue Mall (Stephen Ave) having an ice cream. An Indigenous man sat down and asked 'how's my kind of people?'. Nin Fun replied to him in a language Janet had never heard before. The two men conversed for what seemed like hours. Finally, they parted ways as friends. When Janet later asked her grandfather what the two men were saying to one another, Nin Fun replied, "I speak Indian".

He then recounted a story about getting sick and no white doctor would touch him. It was the Indigenous people who would help nurse Nin Fun back to health. Likely, that had happened during Nin Fun’s time in Gleichen.

Janet recalled that if Nin Fun ever heard any of us grandchildren say something bad about Indigenous people, they received a rebuke and told "don't you ever say that again!"

He had only one child who survived into adulthood: Wee Foy Yee (Ben) who was born in China and arrived in Canada in the mid 1940s at age 10. Nin Fun's wife (Suey Har) was finally able to join him and their now adult son, Ben, in 1958.

Nin Fun passed away March 11, 1989.

YEE Jun-Ho was born in China on March 8, 1906. She arrived in Vancouver aboard the S.S. Senator on August 16, 1918. She travelled with prominent Vancouver businessman, Yip Sang’s second wife, Wong Shee; Wong’s recently married son Yip Kew-Gin and his new wife; another Yip adult; and four children.

Jun-Ho may have been related to Wong Shee or Kew-Gin’s new bride. It’s theorized that Jun-Ho’s family fell on hard times and could no longer support her, so the Yips agreed to bring her to Canada. An identity certificate was purchased for her use; Jun-Ho travelled under the surname Wong, posing as a 9-year-old student from Mar Kow in Hang San. It is assumed that the Yip family, who were wealthy merchants, purchased the papers for her. Jun-Ho’s son, Ken Foo recalls, “I was with Mom when Mrs. Kew-Gin Yip introduced Mom to the actual certificate owner, a waitress at the BC Royal Cafe. They had a very friendly, good-natured visit before the waitress had to get back to work.” Ken also notes, “Mom always said she was a Yee from Dong Gwan. She was fluent in Sumyap, which I guess she learned when young, and not after she came to Canada. Mom was very fluent in both Sumyap and Seiyap and knew spoken English.”

In Vancouver, Jun-Ho lived in the Wing Sang building at 51 Pender Street and served as a governess to the Yip Kew-Gin children as well as other children in the Yip clan. She was popular with the Yip family, who treated her as a family member. Decades later, members of the Yip family would recall Jun-Ho with fondness. She remained very close friends with Kew-Gin and his wife for her entire life.

On September 27, 1927, Jun-Ho married MARR On-Foo (who had entered Canada as MAH Foo-Tong). The Yip family had planned to host a reception for Jun-Ho’s wedding, but the patriarch Yip Sang died that year and the celebration had to be cancelled. The couple had a quiet ceremony and moved to Bashaw, Alberta where On-Foo operated the Sincere Café.

In 1940, Jun-Ho, On-Foo, and their children moved to Edmonton, where they opened a grocery store. They worked long hours 7 days a week to support their growing family and send their children to good schools. She believed education was the path to success and expected all her children to attend university.

Jun-Ho’s son Ken Foo recalls,“Mom was loving, kind and gentle, with never a harsh word, always encouraging, and rarely critical. She was a tremendous cook who overfed us children, out of love.” Her grandchildren remember the vegetable garden she tended at her home in Edmonton and her delicious food and baking that were always a part of her visits to Vancouver.

Jun-Ho passed away on February 14, 1979, leaving behind six children: Edmund, Edwin, Kenden, Jeanmae, Edward (Eddy), and Edson, as well as 22 grandchildren. She is buried in the Edmonton Cemetery beside her husband Marr On-Foo.

YEE Joe Mun (known in Canada as George Yee) arrived in Victoria, B.C. in 1923. Hailing from a poor peasant family, George was chosen by his village elders to go to Gold Mountain, find work, and help support his family back in China.

George had no formal education. He knew how to read and write Chinese but never went to school to learn English. In his early years in Canada, he was a labourer and found work in market gardens in Victoria and Vancouver. It took him 13 years to pay off the debt incurred from the $500 head tax.

Around 1937, George moved to Black Diamond, Alberta. With meagre savings, George bought three acres of land, started growing crops, and established the town’s first and only market garden business. Every day, for some 35 years, George drove his truck from town to town selling his produce. Eventually, his children would help run the farm.

During the 1930s, there was little to no communication with his family in China due to the Sino-Japanese War. In 1941, George would start his own family here in Canada. He married Yuen (Lorna) Lim, a Canadian-born Chinese woman from Cumberland, B.C. The couple tied the knot in Vancouver on November 15, 1941. They moved back to Black Diamond and would have eight children together. Lorna was born in Canada and had status as a British subject which she lost when she married George. At the time, when a woman married, she assumed the nationality of her husband who, in this case, was considered a Chinese national by the Canadian government.

George became a Canadian citizen in 1958. In 1960, after decades of silence, he received a letter from sister #6. She was planning to be in Vancouver for a short stay, and George travelled there to meet her. He never discussed this journey, nor what he learned about the fate of his family, with anyone.

Near the end of his life, in 1977, George went to Hong Kong to visit family. From there, he tried to enter China but did not have the visa requirements to do so. Adding to this disappointment was his contracting of gout. This last opportunity for George to finally see his family members in China after almost a half-century of separation slipped away. He died shortly after, on January 27, 1978.

Like so many early migrants who experienced separation and discrimination, George never spoke about his past to his children. Only after George died did his children realize he paid the Chinese head tax and that spurred them to learn more about his history.

Years later, his wife Lorna, as the surviving spouse of a head tax payer, became one of the few Chinese Canadians who was compensated when the federal government, in 2006, offered its official apology for the racist policy. More than 80,000 Chinese paid the tax. However, only a small fraction of people (i.e., less than 1,000) received compensation. Most head tax payers and their spouses had already passed away and compensation was not extended to their children.

Little is known about YEE Goke Chung. Yee is a common family name from the [台山 Toisan / Taishan] district of China's 廣東 Guangdong province.

He came to Canada as a student.

Gerry Yee remembers Chung as a much older man that regularly (daily) came to his father's store on East Hastings Street, Vancouver. "He was the typical Chinese bachelor although he may have had a family in China."

His certificate, which ended up with the Yee family, indicates he never went back to China.

YEE Chung Yin was also known as Harry Chung in Canada.

By 1924, he was living in Vancouver at 192 East Pender Street and working as a labourer. Around 1940, he was employed as a shingle mill worker.

At some point, Harry left the west coast and moved to Edmonton, Alberta where he became a farmer. Later in life, he wrote articles for a Chinese newspaper, likely The Chinese Times.

He had a first wife and son in China, but something tragic happened to them. Harry never spoke of this with May, his Canadian-born daughter from wife #2. The only hint that something terrible happened to Harry's family in China was his refusal to allow anything into the house that was made in Japan.

Harry passed away in 1974.

YEE Mei Ngu was born in China in 1884 in the village of Lin Joon in the district of [新寧 Sunning / Xinning (later 台山 Toisan / Taishan)]. In 1901, she married 17-year old WONG Dang Kee. They had a daughter, Kim, who was born in 1903.

WONG Dang Kee journeyed to Canada in 1903, and settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, finding work at a hand laundry business. Eighteen years later, Yee Mei Ngu arrived in Canada to join him, entering the country as YEE Shee and the wife of Wong Dang Kee. Their daughter, Kim, now married with her own family, remained in China. The couple would never see their daughter again.

Yee Shee arrived in Vancouver, on October 31, 1921 and paid the $500 head tax. She was reunited with her husband in Winnipeg where she helped him run his laundry business for eight years. The couple had five more children together in Canada.

In 1930, the family moved to Springhill, Nova Scotia, and became restauranteurs. Yee Shee primarily worked as a homemaker and a mother, taking care of the children and the home while her husband ran the restaurant. The family moved once more in 1940 to New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, where they settled permanently.

Yee Shee's daughter, Lily Yee, remembered her as a dedicated mother and grandmother: “Yee Shee was a cheerful person who enjoyed socializing with her friends who spoke a common Chinese dialect at church and various social events. Despite her limited knowledge of the English language, she was a courageous traveler and visited friends and family in the United States and Canada. Yee Mei Ngu with her warm smile will forever be remembered as a loving and caring mother.”

Yee Mei Ngu passed away in Toronto, Ontario, in 1973.