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It was not until 1955, after the Exclusion Act was repealed, that a family member finally joined him in Canada; his son arrived that year on his own.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.

WONG Wing Kee was the son of WONG Dak, a Vancouver merchant, and his wife On Shee. He was born in January 1917.

Verna WONG was born on February 26, 1924, in Victoria, B.C. Her father was a farmer who was originally from China. Her mother was of mixed Chinese and First Nations ancestry and took care of the family.

Verna worked as a salad and sandwich maker for various Victoria restaurants, including Poodle Dog, Marina Restaurant, Coffee House, Apple Tree, Harbour House, and more. In particular, she was known for her delicious clubhouse sandwiches.

She married JOE Pack Chung (known as Jon JOE) in Victoria on December 5, 1946. They had four children together: Vanessa, Calvin, Sabrina, and Charlayne. The couple spent their entire lives in Victoria.

According to her daughter, Charlayne, “Verna loved gardening, mahjong and slot machines. She had a great smile and laugh. She had many friends due to her loving personality.”

She passed away on February 21, 2011.

WONG Tsun Fuk arrived in Vancouver, B.C. in 1921.

WONG Toy was born in China in 1879 in X’iao ao village, Hengjiang, in the [台山 Toisan / Taishan] district in [廣東 Guangdong] province. He traveled to Canada as a young man and settled in Vancouver's Chinatown. In China, he was a son of a scholar. In Canada, he tried his hand at many businesses: restaurant, pawn shop, landlord, eventually buying an entire building at 168 East Pender Street in Vancouver, later known as the Bank of Montreal building.

In 1934, Wong Toy heard of a business opportunity in Alert Bay off the northern tip of Vancouver Island. He purchased a piece of property 50' X 25' on Fir Street. Over the next year, he and his sons built a three-storey building with a general store on the ground level and two levels for family living quarters. The store went through many iterations depending on what the local market needed. In the end, one son, Wong Bing Foon, took over the family business and operated it for a 50-year run as Wong Toy & Sons Ltd. until his retirement in 1985. The building still stands today and is the Orca Inn in Alert Bay, BC.

Toy’s first wife was Jay Sze (b. 1885, d. Jan 2, 1952). They had four daughters and one son, Bing Foon, who volunteered and joined the Canadian Army in WWII.

Toy’s second wife was Chou Heung (b. 1901), marrying Toy when she was only 15 years old. She would give birth to four sons and three daughters. Two of those sons, Frank and Bing, volunteered to join the Canadian Army in WWII.

After the war ended, Toy’s second wife, Chou Heung, moved back to Vancouver with her family and ran the pawn shop. Meanwhile, Toy’s first wife, Jay Sze, stayed with her family in Alert Bay.

Chou Heung died in November 1951 and eldest son ran a restaurant called the Pender Café. Meanwhile, the middle son opened an accounting office, Bing Wong and Associates, in the family building on Pender Street.

Toy died in Vancouver on January 24, 1953. He was 73 years old.

Tommy Wong was born WONG Bing Tong in Victoria, B.C. in 1918. His father was a merchant named WONG Toy who had both his first and second wives living with him in Canada.

Although Tommy was the right age to serve in WWII, he was disqualified due to a foot problem. (His younger brothers Frank and Bing Chew both enlisted.)

As an adult, Tommy eventually found himself in Vancouver’s Chinatown where he owned and operated Pender Cafe for many years. After the cafe was sold, Tommy continued to work in Chinatown at Pacific Produce until his retirement.

In November 1948, Tommy was matched and married to Daisy Chong of Victoria (also known as SUE Yong Kue). The couple lived in Vancouver on East 5th Avenue for a time, then moved to Burnaby. There they raised their two children – Barbara (Barbara Chan after marriage) and Gary – and lived out their lives together.

Tommy’s wife worked outside the home (at Buckshon Pharmacy in Vancouver) at a time when it was not as common for married women to have careers.

Tommy loved being in the Chinese community. His daughter, Barbara, recalls in great detail the shopping trips she would have with her father. She remembers them for both good and bad reasons.

“I remember always going grocery shopping in Chinatown with my father. It was a special day for me as I would go to the cafe and get special treats: pop and sometimes a butter tart or apple tart which were Pender Cafe specialties. Then it was off to visit “uncles” at the other Chinese grocery stores on Pender Street. I always got more treats like little bags of ginger or preserved plums.

We would go to the dreaded chicken store which had a terrible smell that I disliked intensely. In those days, you picked your fresh chicken which was slaughtered and put into a big drum which defeathered the chicken. Quite the operation which, according to me, took forever as I had to stay in that stinky place as we had to bring home the "fresh" chicken. To this day, my husband Chuck and I laugh about this as he had the same experience with his father.”

Tommy passed away in 1989.

WONG Sing Po was born around 1903 in Yongnian village 永年村 in the Toisan county of Guangdong province, China. He graduated from Guangzhou Middle School 省立廣州中學 and served as principal of Ciu Ging Elementary School 潮境昌明小學 and Toisan Juzheng Middle School 台城居正中學 before being sponsored to Canada by the Wong Kung Har Tong 黃江夏堂 (an early branch of today’s Wongs’ Benevolent Association). Sing Po arrived in Vancouver in 1931 which would be home for the next decade while he served as principal of Mon Keang School 文彊學校.

The Wongs' founded Mon Keang School in 1925. It was one of a number of schools established by the local Chinese community to ensure their Canadian-born children would have a Chinese language and culture education. Schools sponsored teachers from China and Hong Kong. Affluent parents would send their children to China for additional schooling.

Sing Po was Chair of the Vancouver Chinese United Education Society 雲城華僑教育會 (colloquially known as the Chinese School Board) which brought together the various Chinese schools operating in Vancouver’s Chinatown under a uniform program of education and instruction. Under his leadership, students were taught the most modern teachings in history, science, geography and math.

Overseas Chinese nationalism surged following the Japanese occupation of China in 1931. Under Sing Po, Mon Keang School hosted regular fundraising efforts in the form of student plays, concerts and parades. He also helped establish and lead community groups created to mobilize Chinese Canadian fundraising and other support of the war effort in China and Canada’s involvement in WWII. These included the Kung Jai Association 駐雲高華埠加拿大華僑勸募救國公債總分會, Chinese Association for Promotion of Aviation 中國航空建設協會總會, Chinese War Refugee Relief Committee 救濟中國傷兵難民會, and Chinese War Relief Fund 駐溫哥華加拿大華僑義捐救國總會.

Sing Po emigrated to San Francisco in 1941 where he became principal of its local Chinese School 三凡市建國中學, editor of the Young China Morning Post 美國大埠少年中國晨報, and worked in the movie production industry of Chinese North America 中加美電影戲劇有限公司.

His return visit to Vancouver in 1955 was met by a month of hosted dinners celebrating his achievements within the Chinese community in Vancouver and throughout North America.

Sing Po died in San Francisco in 1965.

WONG Shing (Wong Young Yip) arrived in Victoria, B.C. in 1902 at 29 years old.

WONG Sew worked as a labourer on the railroad and then eventually in the restaurant business as a cook in the Calgary area and later Edmonton and Leduc, Alberta. He was born July 29, 1896 in Chew King, Sun Ning, China, and arrived in Canada on February 9, 1913.

Sew made a trip back to China that lasted over a year (June 1922 to December 1923) in order to have an arranged marriage with Mah Shee.

By 1924, he was working as a cook and living at 92 East Pender Street in Vancouver.

Sew would make the long trek to China again to be with his wife. He stayed this second time from November 1936 to 1938. The couple would have two sons.

In 1941, Mah Shee died and a young 19-year-old woman, Mah Wee Tong, took on the role of looking after Sew’s children in China.

In 1948, Sew returned to China yet again, but this time to marry Mah Wee Tong. By then, she was age 27 and Sew was 52 years old.

They would not be reunited in Canada until 1959. The couple would have two children together: a son born in China in 1948, and daughter born in Canada in 1960.

Sew officially became a Canadian citizen on January 14, 1958.

He passed away May 26, 1982 in Edmonton, Alberta.

WONG Seid Yew was born in China around 1894. He arrived in Victoria, B.C. in 1912.

Robert Shun Wong was born in 1917 in Nanaimo, British Columbia, to WONG Fun Chee (father) and MAR Hong (mother). His sister, Jean, would become the first Chinese Canadian woman to receive the Order of Canada (as Jean Lumb in 1976).

From an early age, Wong showed a passion for flying; he would skip lunches at school to save money for flying lessons. At 17, he finished building his own CF-BAA and flew the single-seat, single-wing aircraft.

Wong completed high school at Vancouver Technical School in 1937 before the family moved to Toronto the following year. He pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in Maintenance Engineering at Parks Air College in St. Louis, Illinois. After graduating in 1940, he worked as a flight engineer for three years.

Holding licenses as a Maintenance Engineer, Private Pilot, and Airline Transport Pilot, Wong set off on establishing his own flying schools. He co-founded Wong's Flying School in 1945 and Central Airways Ltd. in 1946. Wong served as President and Manager of Central Airways from 1946 until his retirement in 1982 when the company was sold. By then, Central Airways had become the largest flying school in Canada, training over 8,000 pilots.

Wong was a member of OX5 Aviation Pioneers of America, Canadian Aviation Historical Society, Air Transport Association of Canada, and Rotary Club of Toronto. He was an active member of Forest Grove United Church, and fundraised for North York General Hospital and YMCA.

Wong married Eva Ping Fir LUM in 1944. The couple had two daughters: Roberta (Lau) and Evelyn. Robert Shun Wong passed away in Toronto in 1988. Eva Wong passed away in 2003.

Paul Wong was the first in his family to be born on Canadian soil. His mother arrived in Canada on September 27, 1912 heavily pregnant with him. Paul was born in Victoria two weeks later, on October 11, 1912.

Growing up, he moved around with his family—B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan—where his father (Wong Wing Yun) worked and owned small town cafes and grocery stores. His father had arrived in Canada in the 1880s to work on the railroad.

The Great Depression of the 1930s left the family hungry and desperate at times. A family story recalls that food was so scarce that Paul’s mother (Poon Lin Tsing) caught a skunk and fed it to the family for supper.

As an adult, Paul earned a living as a restaurateur and was in partnerships with two restaurants during his lifetime: New Look Café (High River, Alberta) and Seven Seas Restaurant (Edmonton, Alberta).

He married Margaret Christina Kergan and together they had one child: Margaret Rose Wong (later known as Margaret Verenka after marriage).

In 1947, Canadian citizens of Chinese descent were finally granted the right to vote. Paul never missed his chance to cast his ballot in every election until he died in 2004.

Born Myrtle O'Hoy on April 15, 1921 in Bendigo, Australia, Myrtle's family owned a store and was prominent in the local Bendigo Chinese Association.

During WWII, while on the beach whipping up cream (a rationed item at the time), Myrtle was spotted by a Canadian soldier named Henry Albert “Hank” Wong. He was part of a group of Chinese Canadians recruited by the British for clandestine operations in Southeast Asia (Force 136, also known as Operation Oblivion).

The two fell in love and married but found themselves in a difficult situation. Hank could not join Myrtle in Australia due to its restrictions on Chinese immigration. And Myrtle could not come to Canada easily as the Chinese Exclusion Act was still in effect. Hank returned to Canada, and the couple began to pursue ways for Myrtle to follow. She finally made it to Canada in November of 1946, admitted as a "war bride" under Hank's service in the Canadian Armed Forces.

She sailed to San Francisco and then travelled north and entered Canada through White Rock, B.C. Myrtle then made her way to London, Ontario to join Hank. The young couple lived and worked on a farm for a time. Later they bought a house on Weston St. in London, where Hank got a job at General Steel Wares. He became quite active in the union. Together they would have three children: Sandi, Rick, and Tina.

According to her obituary, Myrtle was “an avid gardener, devotee of big band music, Chinese brush painting artist and President and General Manager of the Chinese Calligraphy and Brush Painting Association from 1986 to 2002.” She was noted for "her tenacity, elegant style, quiet leadership and sophisticated design sense.”

Myrtle passed away on January 20, 2013.

Born in China on November 2, 1891, Wong Mow was a shirt tailor who arrived in Canada in 1911. He ran a tailoring shop on Main Street in Vancouver's Chinatown. He brought his wife, Lee Shee, to Canada just before the Exclusion Act went into effect. Together, they had four children: one of those children was community historian Larry Yung Wong. Wong Mow's wife died of tuberculosis in 1940 and he struggled to raise his family as a widower.

Wong Mow died in 1966 at age 74. On his death certificate, it was claimed that he fell and hit his head. But the accident happened due to a family altercation.

May WONG was born WONG Sui Mee on June 1, 1924, in Vancouver, B.C., to WONG Kim Sing, a prominent merchant in Vancouver’s Chinatown, and his third wife, Lee Shee.

WONG Kim Sing arrived in Canada in 1903, and likely married Lee Shee in Vancouver in 1923. The couple had 11 children together, all born in Vancouver.

May grew up in Vancouver with her brothers Ken, George, Raymond, and Edmund; sisters Moy, Dorothy, Penny, and Burma; and Kang and Joe, her half-brothers.

May was married in 1946 in Vancouver, and eventually settled with her husband in the Seattle, Washington area. They had two sons: Ron and Randy.

As the symbolic matriarch of the family, May continued to live independently until age 97. She is known for being a hard worker with undiminished energy, strength and curiosity. In retirement, she has kept herself busy with gardening, sewing, knitting, and crocheting, among her many activities and passions.

May lives with her son Ron and daughter-in-law Cheryl in Olympia, Washington.

Mary Sewgoon WONG was born in China in the [新會 Sunwui / Xinhui] district of [廣東 Guangdong] province. She arrived in Canada under the name of WONG Yut Hoo, a Chinese girl who was born in Canada but who died as a child. Yut Hoo's father sold her identity to Mary’s father, Dong Lai WONG (黃卓丸), who was working in Prince Rupert at the time to build the Grand Trunk railroad. Dong Lai used the identity to bring his wife and two oldest daughters over from China in 1915, which allowed him to avoid paying Mary’s head tax.

In Prince Rupert, Mary’s father initially ran a laundry business at 3rd Avenue and Marketplace. Subsequently, he owned and operated a convenience store for many years at 909 3rd Avenue and was also a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party of Canada. After reuniting with his wife and children, Dong Lai and his wife, WONG Lee Sze, had 11 more children, all born in Canada.

Mary grew up at the family home at 57 Beach Place in Prince Rupert, with her parents and her 12 brothers and sisters. She and her siblings all attended the Borden Street School. She was very artistically talented, even as a young girl, and by the age of 15, she was an award-winning oil painter.

In March 1927, the family went on a trip back to China, partially to find Mary a husband. The family travelled first to Victoria to board a ship to Hong Kong. While in Victoria, Mary met Jim Wing YUEN who, with his two brothers, ran Wing Sang Lung Co., a Chinese curios shop on Government Street. Locals knew the shop as the go-to place for Halloween paraphernalia, since it boasted the largest selection of fireworks in Victoria.

Sadly, while in China, Mary’s younger sister Irene fell ill and died. Mary’s father decided that Jim Wing was the most eligible bachelor, and arranged for him and Mary to wed upon the family’s return to Canada.

On June 9, 1928, Mary and Jim Wing were married in Victoria. Together, they had eight children: Jeanne, Douglas, Fred, Gordon, Robert, Beatrice, Gilbert, and Gracie.

The couple lived in Victoria before moving to Vancouver in 1944. The Canadian government’s internment and dispossession of Japanese Canadians and their property left a void in Vancouver, and many Chinese families left Victoria for Vancouver at that time. There, they opened the Toronto Confectionery & Grocery at 761 West Hastings Street. Later, they also purchased and ran the London Hotel at 208 East Georgia Street. In 1966, they bought a building near the hotel to renovate. Once renovated, they reopened it as a nightclub and restaurant: the Shanghai Junk. The Shanghai Junk hosted many colourful acts, including Cheech & Chong, who made their debut there.

Mary passed away on April 28, 1998, a year after Jim Wing. She was survived by her children, 25 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, five sisters, two brothers, and countless friends and relatives.

WONG Lung Ng (known in Canada as Casey WONG) was born in China in 1907. His father was a merchant in a tiny village in the district of 台山 Toisan / Taishan in 廣東 Guangdong province who participated in the weekly local market.

Casey was 13 years old when he travelled on his own to Canada in 1920. An older brother was already in the country.

For a time, Casey worked in a hand laundry business in Victoria. Years later, Casey described to his son Tom his experience as a laundry boy: sorting, washing, and handling the strange and filthy “white man's clothing.” He recalled that many times white people referred to him as a “dirty Chinaman.”

Casey ending up leaving the coast and made his way to Golden, a small town nestled in the Rocky Mountains near the B.C.-Alberta border.

In the 1940s, he took over his brother's restaurant and grocery store when his brother moved to Calgary, converting the operation to a general store and closing the restaurant function.

The store was named Casey's Groceries and was the largest general store in Golden. During the Great Depression, Casey frequently extended credit to families. During WWII, Casey handed out a large bag of goodies to the soldiers from Golden heading to join the war effort. Casey continued to send cigarettes and hard-to-find comforts in care packages shipped from Golden to the soldiers stationed overseas.

Although the grocery store was successful and Casey was well-liked in the community, he struggled to get any local white residents to work for him on a full-time basis. Mrs. Doris Jacobsen was one of the few white women who had the courage to work for the store and she remained his employee for some two decades. Her husband, the local school bus driver, was renowned for taking no guff from racists on his bus or in his life.

In the 1960s, the grocery store was sold to the IGA chain and is still in operation.

Casey made three trips back to China. The first trip resulted in marriage in 1927 to Ong Gui Shue. On each visit, he packed and carried bones with him to return the remains of Chinese who had passed in Canada for their final burial in China. His final trip to China was in 1947, and he also carried bones back.

He had five children: three were born in China and two were born in Canada. In late 1949, Casey’s wife finally was able to join him in Canada. She arrived very pregnant and accompanied by the two older boys: Jack and Joe. Within a month of arriving, Ong Gui gave birth to another son, Tom. And two years later, the couple had their last child, a daughter they called Mamie. An older daughter, named Joan, who was married in China, came to Canada on her own and was subsequently reunited with her husband in San Francisco.

Casey passed away in 1998.

Lily WONG was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1922.

She attended Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and graduated in 1947 with a degree in bacteriology and biology. Lily became a registered laboratory technologist, and worked in bacteriology laboratories in public health departments and hospitals, as well as in administration in private laboratories. Her career spanned a period of over 29 years.

In 1954, Lily married Hugh Lum Yee, a civil engineer who was also Canadian-born Chinese. Lily and Hugh had three children together.

Lily is well-known in her family for being a proud mother, grandmother, and dedicated hostess. Lily’s niece, Janet MacLachlan, recalled, “Lily is the consummate hostess, adopting the Japanese adage of feeding the eyes first then the stomach. Lily’s table is always perfectly set and beautiful, and the arrangement of the delicious food is picture perfect. Lily is very proud of her family. Her children are married to Caucasians and the multicultural families usually get together on high holidays for dinner where a mix of Chinese and/or Western dishes can be found on the table. Although the language is English, Chinese traditions and customs are observed and all are adept at using chopsticks, even the grandchildren. The families are happy for which she is thankful.”

Hugh passed away in 2020. In 2022, family and friends celebrated Lily's 99th year of continued good health.

Lena WONG was born WONG Lan Sin in 1920 to a merchant family: WONG Quong John and Wong Hum Shee. She was right in the middle of the pack: the fourth of seven children. Lena attended Strathcona and Britannia schools. The family home was on Francis Street near Victoria Drive.

Lena worked for Chinese-owned clothing manufacturer, C. Kent & Co. While working there she was offered a job in a tailor shop across Hastings Street, so she left her job at C. Kent. One day after work, Mr. Kent was waiting at Lena’s home, to beg Lena not to leave as she was his best worker. It is not known why Lena did not change her mind.

In the early 1940s, Lena’s father asked if he bought a small restaurant, would she help run it. She had never said no to her father, so she agreed. It was called Don’s Fountain Lunch on West Broadway. She ran the café until after WWII.

During the time she operated the café, three of her brothers had enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces: Ted, Larry, and Poon. They were members of Force 136. Lena would often send them care packages full of things they liked and needed. So, when Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day happened in 1945, it was no surprise that Lena and her aunt (visiting from Montreal) got so excited, they closed the restaurant and went down to Chinatown as fast as they could, to join in the festivities.

Shortly after the war, in 1947, she met and married Donald Kay (Locke) of Olympia, Washington and moved to the United States. By 1953 she was living in Seattle and had two children: son Sunny (b. 1949) and daughter Donna (b. 1953).

Lena was a talented seamstress and needlecrafter. For a few years, she helped support the family by working in an elegant dress shop on 5th Avenue in Seattle.

Don, meanwhile, was a partner in a family grocery store. When he had the opportunity to become the sole owner, Lena left the dress shop and joined Don at the store. They worked side-by-side until 1967, when Don passed away from Hodgkin’s disease at the age of 47. With the help of her in-laws, Lena ran the store for two more years and then sold it.

She also sold her house and moved with her daughter to an apartment. She eventually found work at the United Way of King County, and at Nordstrom.

Lena's daughter moved to the Metro Vancouver area in 1975. When Lena followed in 1990, she found herself back in her home country and close to her own family again. Never one to be idle, at 73-years-old, she was hired as a lobby hostess in a newly built McDonald's restaurant. She was popular with staff and patrons. She finally retired at age 86.

Lena passed away on April 30, 2021 at the grand age of 101.

Leah Lai Quan WONG (known as Leah Gong after marriage) was born in Vancouver on May 5, 1922. Her father, Wong Toy, was an entrepreneur. He moved his two wives (one was officially registered as his daughter) and 12 children to Alert Bay on Vancouver Island and opened a general store.

As the children grew up, they started moving back to Vancouver, including Leah. She, along with her siblings, worked with the eldest brother running The Pender Cafe in Vancouver’s Chinatown.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Leah's opportunities for work were limited to Chinatown and its Chinese stores. Her English was exceptionally good. On the telephone you could not tell she was Chinese and many people were surprised when they met her in person. Leah eventually worked as a cashier at various corner stores throughout Greater Vancouver.

On May 8, 1948, Leah married Harry Gong from Clinton, B.C. He had been a spitfire pilot who served in WWII. It is believed that Harry was the only Chinese Canadian who flew the famous spitfire fighter plane during the war.

Leah’s brothers, Frank Wong and Bing Chew Wong, also served in WWII, while her other brother, Bing Fong Wong, served on the home front.

Leah and Harry lived in Vancouver and had three children: Sandra (Abatis), Jeff and Douglas.

In their later years, the couple moved to Victoria to be closer to their children and grandchildren who were now living in the provincial capital.

Leah was known for her loyalty and generosity. She was very popular, loved and respected and had many lifelong friends.

She passed away on August 3, 1999.

Larry George Wong was born on September 20, 1923 in Radville, Saskatchewan.

His father, King Wong, worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway company cleaning engines in the roundhouse in Radville, and saved enough money to buy and operate a rooming house in Moose Jaw.

When Larry was 10, his father decided to take the family back to China. In July 1933, the family boarded the Empress of Canada steamship. They were housed in a nice cabin and there was just enough room for Larry, his two brothers Martin (12) and Peter (3 months), and their parents. It voyage took some 20 days.

While in China, Larry and Martin attended private school. Their time in China was punctuated by two sad events. Larry’s mother passed away. And, in 1937, the Japanese started bombing the provincial capital which was close to where Larry’s family was living. King decided it was time to return to Canada.

The boys were sent back to Canada; while they were in transit their father passed away. Larry was sent to Abbey, Saskatchewan, to live with a cousin who owned a restaurant. Larry’s brothers were sent to other families in Saskatchewan. The brothers would not see each other again until 42 years later when they met for a family wedding in Toronto.

By 1942, Larry was working in a paper mill at Ocean Falls, B.C. The mill made plywood for the P-38, twin-engine bombers. Later, he moved to Vancouver and worked in a sawmill. He also took a course in diesel engineering and became employed as a second engineer working on a towboat that hauled logs up the coast to the sawmills. He later took on less strenuous work driving a truck for a grocery store.

In 1944, Larry was drafted into the Canadian Army and became a general serviceman. Larry was upset about being conscripted, as he felt the Canadian government discriminated against Chinese Canadians. However, once in the army, his misgivings were forgotten. He did basic training in Halifax, then served in the Edmonton Fusiliers. Later, he was assigned to the Princess Patricia’s regiment. Larry was the only Chinese person in both regiments.

By 1948, Larry was discharged and returned to Vancouver. He and his friend George King purchased a photofinishing business. However, many of its customers took their business elsewhere because the new owners were Chinese.

Larry moved to Toronto in 1952 to get away from the discrimination in B.C. and to be with his girlfriend, Marion Laura Mah. They married in 1953 and Larry took a job as a waiter at Lichee Gardens. He eventually became night manager and also a shareholder in the restaurant. After 30 years of working seven days a week at Lichee Gardens, he was finally given one day off a week. He never complained about the amount of time he spent working and was grateful for having earned the weekly day off.

On October 21, 1955, Larry and Laura welcomed their only child: Teresa.

Teresa would later recall how her father was an avid tennis player. “He played tennis right up until the day he passed away. He entered quite a few tennis tournaments over the years and always did well.” In one tournament, his opponent was former Governor General of Canada, Roland Michener.

“My Dad passed away in his sleep at home on May 26, 2006. It was a very sad day for us and very much a surprise. Although he had a heart condition, he was always active. I am grateful and fortunate to have had him as my parent.”

Larry Wong was born in Vancouver’s Chinatown on August 14, 1938, one of the last babies to be delivered by a midwife in Chinatown. Wong is the sixth and youngest child of Wong Mow and Mark Oy Quon [Lee Shee]. Wong’s mother died when he was 18 months old and his father died when he was 28. Wong had five older siblings, Yung Git, Ching Won, Yung Wah, Mee Won, and Won Jin Lee (Jennie). Ching Won and Mee Won died before Wong was born. Yung Git died of tuberculosis when Wong was only four years old. Wong was closest to Jennie despite their seven-year age gap. Wong’s father was a tailor and the family lived in a small space in the back of his father’s shop on Main Street between Hastings and Pender.

Wong attended Strathcona School and Vancouver Technical High School. His first job was in a bowling alley, working as a pin boy. Later, Wong earned cash in a used car lot, washing cars inside and out. After graduation from high school, Wong did not have enough money to go directly to university. He worked for an English language news magazine called Chinatown News for two years. He started out selling advertising, and was later promoted to head of layout and design. Eventually Wong saved enough to enroll at the University of British Columbia where he studied psychology and creative writing; however, he dropped out after only two years. Wong decided that although he wanted to become a writer, university wasn’t the best way to approach it. Unsure of what he wanted to do, he accepted a job at Canada Post. He started as a clerk, filling out order forms, moved up to sorting mail, and later worked the front counter. When Wong was 34 years old, he was hired to work as an auditor for Canada Post in Toronto. After twelve years, Wong left Canada Post and began working with Employment and Immigration Canada. He was transferred back to Vancouver in the 1980s, retiring in 1994 after thirty years of service. After retirement, Wong threw himself into volunteering with various history groups. He helped establish both the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia and the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, interviewing elderly Chinese residents and war veterans to record their stories. Wong appeared in several documentaries and wrote articles for newspapers and magazines. He arranged for exhibitions of artifacts and photographs to help showcase the story of Chinese Canadians. In retirement, Wong became a member of the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop and wrote a one-act play, Siu Yeh (Midnight Snack), which was produced at the Firehall Art Centre in 1995. In 2001, he gave a workshop at Historic Joy Kogawa House on writing family stories, with former writer-in-residence Susan Crean. Wong was also the writer, researcher and co-host, along with Nancy Li, for Rogers’ Cable Chinatown Today and served on the boards of Tamahnous Theatre, the Federation of B.C. Writers, the Westcoast Book Prize Society and the Vancouver Public Library, One Book, One Vancouver.

In 2011, Wong published his book Dim Sum Stories: A Chinatown Childhood in which he writes about growing up in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the 1940s and 1950s. Dim Sum Stories started off as a the one-act play called Sui Ye (Midnight Snack) before fellow Vancouver writer Jim Wong-Chu encouraged him to turn it into a book of short stories.

Larry Wong passed away on September 2, 2023 in Vancouver.

WONG Kwon Tet was born in China around 1892. He arrived in Victoria, B.C. in 1912.

WONG Kim Sing was a merchant associated with Vancouver's Chinatown. His variety of businesses included selling vegetables wholesale and operating a copper still to brew alcoholic medicines.

Kang WONG was born on June 2, 1921. Family accounts say he was born in China, but his identification in Canada lists his birthplace as Vancouver, B.C.

Kang’s father was WONG Kim Sing, a prominent merchant in Vancouver’s Chinatown. WONG Kim Sing had three consecutive wives; Kang’s mother was WONG Kim Sing’s second wife, who the family believes died in China, possibly while on a return trip home.

Kang grew up in Vancouver with his brother, Joe; half-brothers Ken, George, Raymond, and Edmund; and his half-sisters May, Moy, Dorothy, Penny, and Burma.

During WWII, Kang joined the Canadian army and served in Myanmar. After the war, he trained to become a tailor, and opened a tailoring business in Vancouver on Victoria Avenue. He ran his tailoring business for many years.

Kang passed away on October 31, 2003, in Vancouver.

Joe WONG was born WONG Sui Fook. By family accounts, he was born in China on December 24, 1918. However, his identification in Canada recognizes his birthplace as Vancouver, B.C. and his date of birth recorded as January 13, 1930, a typographical error from 1920.

Joe’s father was WONG Kim Sing, a prominent merchant in Vancouver’s Chinatown. WONG Kim Sing had three wives. Joe’s mother was WONG Kim Sing’s second wife, whom the family believes died in China, possibly while on a trip back home.

Joe grew up in Vancouver with his brother, Kang; half-brothers Ken, George, Raymond, and Edmund; and his half-sisters May, Moy, Dorothy, Penny, and Burma.

When he was young, Joe moved to the United States. He met his future wife, Trixie, in Calgary at some point; they eventually settled in New York City.

According to his half-brother, Raymond Wong, “Joe was a very hospitable person who was interested in people. We always enjoyed the times we were able to visit each other.”

Joe passed away in New York City on March 26, 2002.

WONG Quai Lun (known in Canada as Jim Wong) arrived in Canada in 1912, finding work in Victoria and the Creston region of B.C.

In the 1940s, he moved to Alberta and settled in the village of Longview. There Jim ran a restaurant, a rooming house and a convenience store.

He was known for being a very reliable businessman. In the early days, all the dry goods stocked in the store were ordered and purchased from travelling salesmen who would make their rounds once or twice a month. Over time, these salesmen got to know the various store owners. Upon Jim’s retirement, one salesman remarked that collecting for the bill was never a problem – Jim always paid on time and with cash. The invoice was simply a note with the name “Jim” at the top.

In 1955, he returned to China to marry Kim (Leung) and bring her back to Canada. They had three children all born in Canada: May Lei; Debbie and Calvin, although their daughter May Lei died of leukemia at age three.

Jim was described as a very quiet man; he kept mostly to himself and enjoyed life's simple pleasures like cutting flowers from his lilac bush, raising chickens and enjoying a glass of whiskey.

Jim passed away on February 13, 1983.

WONG Young Ming (James) was born on August 7, 1920. He was one of a family of 10 children whose father ran a grocery store in Vancouver. At a time when many young men dropped out of school early to earn a wage, Wong stayed in school and graduated from Grade 12.

He was smaller than average and rather slight, but what he lacked in physical prowess Wong made up for with his intelligence. He loved to read and was considered bright and articulate. Prior to joining the war effort, Wong worked his way up to be a bookkeeper for the U.S. Army Engineers in Prince Rupert, B.C.

The Canadian Army recruiter who first interviewed Wong was quite impressed by the lad as evidenced by the comments made in Wong’s service file: “…He possesses leadership ability and was foreman of a Chinese crew in civilian life. His manner is co-operative, alert and self confident. Ought to adjust well and become a valuable soldier. Suitable for enriched training during basic.”

Wong was sent off for basic training in the fall of 1944. In February 1945, he was withdrawn from basic training and assigned “special duties” — this was code for recruitment to Force 136. He became one of almost 150 Chinese Canadians who were slated to be trained for secretive, dangerous missions in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

Force 136 came under British Intelligence, Special Operations Executive. Not part of the “regular armed forces” these men would be assigned operations behind Japanese lines in Southeast Asia. Force 136 men were trained in guerrilla warfare and jungle survival techniques. Each man was to specialize in a particular skill (demolition, wireless, interpretation) that would make him useful in a small, mobile, self-sufficient team. The plan was to parachute these small teams into Japanese occupied territory. There they would survive on their own skills; find and train local resistance fighters; and then assist with sabotage and espionage of the enemy.

Wong was sent to India for his commando training. We do not know if Wong was sent on any assignments before the war in the Pacific ended, as he seldom shared his memories with his family.

Wong returned to Vancouver and eventually married and had three children.

His most successful business venture after the war was a restaurant he started in Kerrisdale, a tiny neighbourhood on the West side of Vancouver. The Miramar Chinese Restaurant was one of the first, high-end Chinese restaurants in that part of the city. It is still there today, in its original form, although it has now been renamed The Golden Ocean.

Wong passed away peacefully on July 7, 2016 in Coquitlam. He was just shy of his 96th birthday.

James Ming Wong was born WONG Fook Ming on September 17, 1918 in Victoria, B.C. When he was 12, his family moved to Vancouver where his father owned a store that sold everything from groceries to products imported from Hong Kong.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, James formed a musical group called The Chinese Hill Billies Band. The motley ensemble of young men played on whatever instruments they could find … or make. James played the guitar and was the band leader. The group played for fun, to entertain, and to raise money for Chinatown causes or relief efforts in China.

During WWII, James was one of 150 young Canadian-born Chinese men who joined Force 136, an elite group of soldiers who were being trained for commando-style warfare behind Japanese lines. He was sent to Australia for further training.

After the war, James returned to B.C. and found work in logging and fish canneries.

He married Tsui San (Suzanne) Quan in 1953. Together, they had three children: Stephanie, Rebecca and Jeffrey.

After he married and started a family, James opened a drying cleaning and tailoring shop in Vancouver. It would be the first of many of James' business ventures.

In 1962, he moved his family to Edmonton and went into the poultry business. Over the course of his long life, James also tried his hand at: restaurant management; fiberglass prop making; plastic shrink-mould signage; fortune-cookie manufacturing; general fabrication; cabinet making; real estate; and business and auto insurance.

James passed away on May 20, 2015, in Edmonton. He was 96 years old.

Irene Sosey Wong was born in Prince Rupert, BC, in a family that ran a grocery store. When she died at a young age, her identity was sold to another family. In the late 1930s or early 1940s, Irene's identity was assumed by a woman to enter Canada from China.

WONG Hong was born in China on August 12, 1886, the son of WONG Sai Ki and NG Wo.

Hong arrived in Canada in May 1902 as a 16-year-old labourer, and paid the $100 head tax. He disembarked in Victoria, BC and made the city his home, earning a living as a barber.

In 1912, when he was 25, he married Joy Chan in Victoria (also known as Miss CHIN Chow Hong). They had met when both of them spent time being cared for and living at the Oriental Home and School in Victoria, which was run by the Methodist Church.

When they married, Joy was 21 and had been born in China: the daughter of Chan Tung Yung and Muk Si Mai.

Hong and Joy would have six children.

Hong’s granddaughter, Yvonne Young (nee Wong), recalls an amusing story from her childhood. “My mother passed away in 1954, when I was 10 years old. Myself, younger sister and brother were sent to live with our grandparents. I remember my grandfather showing me how to make cigarettes on a cigarette rolling machine. We returned to Vancouver when our father remarried.”

Hong passed away December 13, 1967. His birthdate was listed on his death certificate as being August 14, 1882.

WONG Hing arrived in Canada in 1883 prior to the passing of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1885.

By 1924, he was living at the Freemason House in Nelson, B.C. as a 64-year-old labourer. He had lived in the town for 36 years and was well known.

Wong Hing returned to China in October 1930 with no plans to come back to Canada.

Henry Albert (Hank) Wong was born November 3, 1919, in London, Ontario.

His father, Tom Wong, ran the two locations of Wong’s Café in London, Ontario with his brother Lem Wong. Despite being called a café, it offered high-end dining, custom tableware and live music. The story is that Chinese preferred to use the word “café” versus “restaurant” as it used fewer letters in neon and therefore it was cheaper to make a sign for the business.

Hank’s mother (Chin Yee Fong) died of the Spanish flu when he was only a few months old. Struggling to take care of three young children, his father placed Hank into an orphanage to be raised. Eventually, Hank would move back with his family once he was old enough to work at the café.

There were few Chinese living in London, so Hank never experienced the overt racism that was common in British Columbia. However, when WWII broke out and Hank, who was a Sea Scout, went to enlist in the Navy, he was turned away because he wasn’t Caucasian. He was, however, able to enlist in the Canadian Army where he became a weapons and demolitions instructor.

A few years later, he was recruited for a very special assignment. British Special Operations handpicked 13 Chinese Canadians to be trained for clandestine, guerrilla-style fighting in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia. This original group of trainees is known as Operation Oblivion.

Hank learned how to survive in the jungle, do silent killing, demolition, swimming quietly with a heavy backpack and wireless operations. He did some of his training at Commando Bay in the Okanagan Valley of B.C. Once that was completed, Hank was sent to Australia for additional training.

While in Australia, Hank fell in love with a local girl, Myrtle O’Hoy. They married once the Japanese surrendered, but it took another year before they could be together in Canada. The Chinese Exclusion Act was still in effect; Myrtle was admitted in 1946 as a "war bride" under Hank's service in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Meanwhile, Hank had sailed back to Canada. And despite being a soldier, he and other members of Operation Oblivion had to earn their passage back on a local cargo ship by offering to do deckhand work. After the war, Hank became involved in the union movement and had a long association with the United Steelworkers.

He and Myrtle would have three children: Sandi Wong; Rick Wong; and Tina Wong (later Tina Hoffer).

Hank died in 2019 less than a month before his 100th birthday. Fortunately, Hank had been extensively interviewed about his wartime experiences, and those memories were featured in a 2013 documentary called "Operation Oblivion."

Helena Wong was born in Banff Alberta on August 23, 1917. As a young girl, she was sent back to China for schooling and did not return to Canada until 1935. Helena would later marry Peter Chow, the son of well-known photographer, Yucho Chow. Together they would have 8 children: Anna; Madeline (Wong); Veronica (Kagetsu); Vivian; Ben; Connie (Ho); Susan (Ho); and Jerome. Helena Wong Chow died August 24, 1999.

Wong Gut was born in China in 1889. He was one of 10 children (5 brothers and 4 sisters) and the youngest boy. There is little known about Gut in his younger years other than he was married, but his wife never came to Canada. They had 6 children: 4 sons and 2 daughters.

Gut arrived in Canada in 1910 when he was 21 years old. He travelled home to China a number of times, re-entering Canada in 1918, 1922 and 1929.

For a time Gut lived in Alberta. Two of Gut's brothers joined him in Canada. Together, they worked as cooks at a restaurant in Ashcroft, B.C.

After the repeal of the Exclusion Act, Gut brought over to Canada his youngest son (Art Foo Wong) in 1949. Art would be the only one of Gut's children that came to Canada.

Art was sent to Ashcroft to join his father. However, Gut had such a bad temper that he sent Art back to Vancouver. In 1952, Art married and started his own family.

Between 1952 and 1972, Gut lived near Vancouver's Chinatown, on Main Street in the Canada Room, a single-room-occupancy hotel a block away from the old Carnegie building. Like many Chinese men of his generation, he never learned to speak English and spent all his time in Chinatown.

His grandson, Philip Wong recalls “My older brother and I still remember climbing the flight of stairs at the SRO to visit our grandfather in his room when we went to Chinatown to attend Chinese school. I remember my grandfather hand rolling his own cigarettes.”

Just before he passed away, Gut gave $2,500 to his daughter-in-law to pay for his funeral. The rest of his money was sent back to China. Gut died on August 31, 1972 at age 82.

WONG Guey Dang claimed October 11, 1902 as his birthdate, the day he arrived in Canada. He was a Water Tiger. His Liang birth parents were peasant farmers whose solution to feed the family was to sell their youngest.

Wong Gay Sieng, a successful “Gold Mountain Man” living in Canada, was visiting his wife, Lee Tew May, when he brought home the six-year-old boy they named Guey Dang. Dang replaced their dead infant son. When the boy was 18, Gay Sieng paid for his son’s passage on the Empress of Japan, and the $500 head tax demanded by the Canadian government. He looked forward to showing his son the new world, but he was diagnosed with cancer and returned to China, leaving the boy in Vancouver.

It took eight years before Dang could save enough money to fulfil his father’s wish for him to marry in China. Jobs for Chinese were low-paying and intermittent, labouring or cooking at work camps, or in Chinatown’s restaurants.

Dang chose his wife, Jiang Tew Thloo, from a matchmaker’s photographs, saying, “She is more than beautiful… I can see her goodness. She is the one for me.” Thloo would not see his face until after their wedding in 1929.

When he returned, alone, to Vancouver in 1930, jobs were scarce. A relative with a laundry in Montreal sent Dang a train ticket and provided him a home and a job. Dang later worked in Chinatown. He also cooked for a White family, and they might have called him James.

Dang returned to China to visit his wife and mother just four years later. He built a house and celebrated their daughter’s, Lai Quen, first-month ceremony in 1935. On his next trip in 1947, they had a son, Yuet Wei. Dang arranged for his daughter’s schooling; Lai would become an internist and raise her own family in China. The last time she would spend time with him was during a two-week guided tour in China, in 1973.

In 1954, he and two friends opened their restaurant, China Garden Café, on Stanley Street, in Montreal. Dang would retire in 1978, at age 76.

It took him a number of years after the Chinese Exclusion Act was rescinded before his wife and son could join him; arriving on Christmas day, 1954. She was over 40 and he was in his mid-50s, so both were surprised when a daughter, May Quen, was born.

On his first job at a work camp, Dang, the “Chink,” was beaten and lost two days of wages before he could get up again. But he learned to defend himself with a knuckle duster and a leather sap, earning a grudging respect among the White workers. He felt the sting of discrimination in the city too. Clerks refused to serve him as he strolled through the menswear section in Ogilvy’s, an upscale Montreal department store. A few years later, he went back to buy a cashmere sweater, just to show them he could.

His daughter May remembers “I snuggled into his bed as he prepared to sleep after working the night shift. He regaled me with Chinese fairy tales, and I felt cocooned in his love and familiar smell - a mixture of hair pomade, Old Spice aftershave, and peanut oil.

On my wedding day, Daddy walked me steadily down the aisle, despite the fact that he had not walked more than a few steps in years, due to complications of diabetes. The last time I visited, he didn’t recognize me. My parents’ story is recounted in “A Cowherd in Paradise (2012).”

WONG Gim Tong arrived in Vancouver, B.C. in 1921.

WONG Get (also known as WONG Yut and WONG Get Howe) arrived in Canada in 1902 at the age of 17.

Later in life, he adopted HOWE as his surname, and so was known as Wong Get HOWE or W.G. Howe.

He lived in Vancouver for a time working as a barber and a portrait painter.

In 1918, he married Sue Ping (thereafter known as Jennie Howe) who was living with her family in the Vancouver area. He was nine years older than Jennie; he was 25 and she was 16. At first, she was upset with her family for arranging a marriage to an "old man".

Regardless of her initial feelings toward her husband, the couple moved to Oyen, Alberta in 1921 where their first child, David, was born. By 1923, the family was living in Blaine Lake, Saskatchewan where their second child, Pearl, was born. By the end of that year, they were living in Marcelin, Saskatchewan and running the Star Café along with another man, L.K. Mah.

Wong Get died in 1941, leaving behind his wife and their two children.

George Westley (Wes) WONG was born on September 8, 1922 in Brandon, Manitoba, to father Sam WONG and mother WONG Quongying (also known as WONG Lim See) as the first of the Wong family’s five children. His father had landed in Canada in 1910, and opened the Carlton Cafe in Brandon around 1919, while his mother had arrived from [台山 Toisan/Taishan previously known as 新寧 Sunning / Xinning] the year before.

Wes was a keen student: when he was eight years old, he started Grade 1 at Easter and completed Grades 1, 2, and 3 in the next 15 months to make up for his late start. A former teacher in China employed in his father’s restaurant also tutored Wes in Chinese for two years. He graduated from Brandon College in 1944 with a Bachelor of Science and pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia.

He joined the Physics department as a faculty member at Brandon College in 1946, where he taught for the next 37 years. He later served as the head of the Physics department, the Dean of Science, and as the university's Vice President after the college attained university status in 1967. Wes dedicated much of his academic career to expanding the university: in 1960, he co-authored the Blueprint for Action, which set the stage for the opening of the first new buildings on campus since 1922. Wes was also instrumental in establishing the Bachelor of General Studies program, the astronomy observatory, and restoring liberal education as a component of all Arts and Science programs.

Wes met Helen Foo in 1941, a mixed-race Chinese Canadian born to Charlie (also known as KOA Hong) and Frances Foo. Throughout his college days, Wes courted Helen, and they were married in Winnipeg in 1945 before settling in Brandon. The couple was married for 58 years and had four children: Westley Douglas (b. 1948), Brian Kenneth (b. 1951), Nancy Ellen (b. 1954), and Alan Michael (b. 1961).

His family remembered him as a dedicated father and grandfather who enjoyed fishing and duck hunting with his children and friends. Wes’s son, Brian, recalled, “there wasn’t much that our Dad couldn’t build or fix … from toys and a dollhouse for his kids to vanities, the cottage and rowboat at Killarney.” According to daughter Nancy, “our Dad made the best sandwiches for road trips. He loved making them. But he always would forget to take them and we’d find them in the fridge later and have to enjoy them ourselves! He’d complain every time!” Wes and Helen were also avid square and round dancers and were members of the Circle 8 Club for over 30 years.

Upon retirement in 1983, Wes was granted Professor Emeritus status but returned in 1987 to chair a fundraising campaign that raised over $5 million for program development. In 2000, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree along with the title of Dean Emeritus in 2003.

Wes passed away on January 31, 2004.