Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Yee, Sing
Parallel form(s) of name
- 余慶庠
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Other form(s) of name
- Yue, Hing Chang
- Yue, Leung
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Description area
Dates of existence
[1888]-1964
History
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.
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