Person

Chan Shee (wife of Jow Hong Yee)

• Mrs. Jow Hong Yee
• Chow Chan Shee

1893-1934

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

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

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

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

Jow, Hong Yee

Description supplied by collector/curator