QUAN Hin (also recorded as QUAN Hui) arrived in Vancouver in the winter (January) of 1910 at age 18. He was from Hoy Ping and worked as a labourer.

QUAN Joo (QUAN Yuen) was born in China in 1889. He arrived in Canada in 1911 and became known as Joseph Quan.

He met and married Betsey LAW (1906-1999) and the couple settled in New Westminster, BC and ran a tailor shop. Together, they had four daughters and two sons.

When Joseph passed away in 1943, Betsey took over the tailor shop and eventually moved to Burnaby.

One of their daughters, Denise, studied ballet and moved to New York City. She performed in the Broadway production of the Flower Drum song in the dream sequence.

For Mary Quan, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, education was a major force that propelled her forward into a life she likely could not have imagined as a child.

She was born in Vancouver in 1921, the eldest Canadian-born child of Quan Wing Gow and Der Shee, whose parents were farmers in [開平 Hoiping / Kaiping], Guangdong province. The Quan family lived at 147 West 7th Avenue in Mount Pleasant, a working-class Vancouver neighbourhood. The family spoke a village dialect of Cantonese at home; Mary spoke no English when she started elementary school.

In 1935, her father took her and two younger brothers to China and enrolled them in boarding school in Canton (now Guangzhou) so that they would become proficient in Chinese language and culture. After the Japanese military began bombing Canton in fall 1937, Mary’s school was evacuated twice. The three children returned to Canada in March 1938 and had to re-adjust to attending school in English. Mary completed high school at King Edward High in Vancouver, ranking first in her class every year. Although at the time daughters of Chinese families in Vancouver commonly entered arranged marriages, Mary’s teachers encouraged her to set her sights on winning a scholarship to UBC.

In 1941, Mary ranked first in the Lower Mainland and third in the province in the junior matriculation examinations, winning a full tuition scholarship to UBC. She was the first in her family to attend university. Her four years at UBC opened the doors to a wider world. After her first and second years, she won a University Scholarship based on her class rank in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She majored in Honours English to pursue her love of literature and studied with renowned professor G.G. Sedgewick. She was president of the Chinese Students Club and secretary-treasurer of the Letters Club. Upon graduating from UBC in 1945 with first-class honours, she won the University Graduate Scholarship, which supported her in earning a master's degree in comparative literature at Columbia University in New York City. As a child of Chinese immigrants who faced discrimination in the broader society, Mary quoted Thomas Mann: “I stand between two worlds. I am at home in neither.”

In 1947 in New York City, she met Frank B. Lee, who had excelled academically in his engineering studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He had also won numerous scholarships and awards, and was elected president of the Engineering Society in his senior year. Mary and Frank were married in Vancouver in 1947. Over the years, they lived in Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, Quebec, the State of Washington, and southern California. They traveled to China, Southeast Asia, Nepal, Mexico, Spain and Morocco, the Caribbean, and Alaska. She and Frank had three children. In a loving and supportive home, Mary encouraged her children to find their capabilities and pursue their chosen studies and careers. David became a computer engineer. Carol and Ron became lawyers.

Mary died in 1991.

QUAN Sang Now (known in Canada as Charlie QUAN) was born in 1907 in [開平 Hoiping / Kaiping], China.

In 1923, Charlie left his family and journeyed to Canada alone. The Exclusion Act came into effect shortly after; those already in transit were allowed entry. He was sponsored by an “uncle” (likely a distant relative) who was already in Canada, claiming to be 12 years old. His actual age of 15 or 16 made him over the age limit for entry.

Charlie settled in Leader, Saskatchewan. Sometime in the 1940s, he moved to Vancouver where he lived the rest of his life.

He worked primarily as a restaurant cook and grocer. Charlie had to work and save over many years to repay the $500 head tax his “uncle” advanced.

In 1929, Charlie married LEE Own Yee (1910-1984) in China, who became QUAN LEE Own Yee. The Exclusion Act would separate the couple for over twenty years. They were married 55 years until her death in 1984.

The couple had four children. Two were born in China: QUAN Wah Fay, aka Philip QUAN (1930-2004); and QUAN Gem Len, aka Len QUAN (1936-2006).

Following the repeal of the Exclusion Act, Philip emigrated to Canada in 1949, followed shortly thereafter by Charlie’s wife and daughter. Charlie would have two more children born in Canada: Wesley QUAN (b.1954) and Gary QUAN (b.1955).

Philip’s son, Terry QUAN (b.1961), recalls his grandfather was actively involved in two Chinese clan organizations: Quan Lung Sai Tong and Lung Kong Kung Shaw. "He played mahjong regularly at the former for decades, and these Associations provided him with a vast social network that he navigated effortlessly.”

“As a kid in the ‘60s and '70s, I accompanied my grandfather on his Sunday morning shopping trips to Chinatown. People would recognize him and say hello everywhere we went. It seemed everyone knew him and everyone liked him. He was a fixture in Chinatown. After he retired, he took the bus to Chinatown every day from his home at 6th and Commercial Drive until he was well over 100 years old.”

“I was surprised when my grandfather, in his eighties, became a leader in the Chinese head tax redress movement through his involvement with the Head Tax Families Society of Canada and the Chinese Canadian National Council. I knew my grandfather as a quiet and modest man, slow to anger, content to stay in the background. But after joining the redress movement, his profile grew exponentially with his activism. He appeared frequently in print and television over the next 15 years, passionately advocating for social justice and redress. He met with two Prime Ministers (Paul Martin and Stephen Harper), and ultimately succeeded at age 99 in getting an official apology from the Canadian government for all head tax payers and their descendants. On October 20, 2006 in Vancouver, Heritage Minister Beverley Oda honoured my grandfather by presenting him with Canada’s first head tax redress payment.”

“My grandfather is often mentioned in textbooks and films about Chinese Canadian history,” says Terry. “He is an historical figure now. He had a difficult life, but he persevered and continues to inspire me and those who knew him. We are all tremendously proud of him.”

Charlie Quan died peacefully in Vancouver on February 23, 2012 at the age of 105. On January 23, 2013, Charlie was awarded, posthumously, the Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Medal for his significant contributions to Canada.

QUAN Wing Foon was born in China in 1902 in [開平 Hoiping / Kaiping], 廣東 Guangdong, arrived in Canada in 1920, became a partner with two cousins in a produce store in downtown Vancouver, and died in 1933 in a truck accident, leaving behind a widow in his home village.

He was the second son of QUAN Hung Kwok, who had emigrated to Canada in 1913, and his wife Tom Ken. Foon and two other young men with the surname Quan came together to Canada on the Empress of Asia steamship, arriving in Vancouver in 1920. Listed as students, they were admitted as merchant’s sons exempt from paying the head tax. In March 1923, he and two cousins became partners in Parkview Produce, a new fruit and vegetable store on Robson near Hornby.

In December 1926, Foon returned to China to get married. His wife was from the Seto family, a well-established local clan. During this visit, he built a two-storey house near the entrance to Fong Yeung Lai village. He returned to Vancouver in March 1928 while his wife remained in the village. Foon’s father went home to China in November 1930; the family lived in the house Foon had built.

Foon was never able to return to the village. On the morning of Sunday, October 29, 1933, he died in a truck accident in Ladner, B.C., near Richmond. He and two other Quan relatives were bringing back vegetables from a farm when the truck swerved to miss another vehicle, slid off the road into a ditch, and tipped over. Foon was crushed under the truck. His death certificate listed him as a fruit and vegetable merchant. He was buried in Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery in the old section near the Chinese altar. His grave marker is inscribed entirely in Chinese.

Foon’s widow lived in the village for the rest of her life. After Foon’s death, she adopted a son, Sen (Soo Seng Kwan), who was born in 1930. When he was young, Sen moved to the Philippines to live with a married aunt. In 1964, Sen emigrated to Canada. He operated restaurants in Alberta and British Columbia. He and his wife had two children, who live in Canada. In retirement, Sen lived in Toronto and Vancouver. After he died at age 86 in November 2017, he was cremated and his ashes sent back to Fong Yeung Lai village.

Born in a village in [開平 Hoiping / Kaiping], Guangdong, QUAN Wing Gow became a successful businessman in Vancouver and leader in the community through hard work, business acumen, and personality. Joining his father who had arrived in 1898, he came to Canada in 1903 at age 12, weeks before the head tax increased from $100 to $500. He attended school for one year, qualifying him for a refund of the head tax. He helped his father sell fish from a pushcart, then worked as a houseboy and a cook. Around 1908, he returned to China to marry Der Shee (d. 1963). After his father returned to China in 1913, he became a partner in an import-export store in Chinatown.

In 1920, he brought his wife and son Allen to Canada, buying a house at 147 West 7th Avenue in Mount Pleasant that was the family home for 50 years. They had five more children. The family spoke a village dialect of Cantonese at home; the older children spoke no English when they began school.

In 1923, Quan Gow established Parkview Produce on Robson Street near Hornby, specializing in high-quality produce. He arose at 4 a.m. to buy the best fruits and vegetables from wholesalers. His outgoing personality made him popular with customers, who called him “Harry.” Parkview sold to walk-in customers and restaurants and made home deliveries. Relatives and fellow villagers worked at the store, including the Quan children on weekends.

Quan Gow was active on the boards of directors and committees of the Kuomintang, the Lung Kong Kung Shaw, and the Hoiping and Quan associations. He was president of the Chinese Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Association. He was generous in helping relatives and friends settle and establish themselves in Canada and in assisting with community causes. His name appeared regularly in the Chinatown news. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1951. In the late 1950s, Quan Gow retired from Parkview. In later years, he made successful real estate investments and was a partner in the Ding Ho restaurant chain and other ventures.

Of Quan Gow's children, Allen served in the Canadian Army in Asia during WWII and was later active in veterans’ organizations. Mary, Ben and Dick attended boarding school in Canton in 1936 and 1937. After the Japanese military attacked Canton, they returned to Canada and graduated from King Edward High. In the provincial examinations, they ranked among the top students and won full scholarships to UBC. Mary majored in English language and literature and won the University Graduate Scholarship, attending Columbia University for a master's degree in comparative literature. Ben and Dick majored in engineering and began their careers at the National Research Council. Dick obtained a master’s degree at Caltech. Jean was a stewardess for Canadian Pacific Airlines. Joe majored in commerce at UBC, founded a camera shop and photofinishing laboratory, managed family enterprises, and was a notary public. Quan Gow’s descendants live in Vancouver, Toronto, the United States, Scotland and Australia.