Person

Chang, Yun Ho

• 鄭潤好

1887-1985

CHANG Yun Ho was born in China on May 15, 1887 in the village of Sha-tin in the Zhongshan district of Guangdong province. He was the youngest of six brothers. Yun Ho arrived in Canada in 1908 at age 21 and originally settled in Victoria. At first he struggled to find a job, but eventually a Chinese labour contractor found Yun Ho work in a sawmill.

In 1913, around the time his older brother Chang Yip Kee arrived in Canada, Yun Ho moved to Vancouver. He could no longer tolerate the smell of cedar, so he changed jobs and started peddling vegetables with a horse and wagon. By 1926, he had saved enough money to purchase 3 acres of farmland near what is today Knight Street and East 28th Avenue. His brother Yip Kee joined him to work the land.

Yun Ho was proud to be one of the first Chinese to buy land outside of the Chinatown area. Restrictive covenants prevented Chinese from buying property outside the Chinatown area until the 1930s. The property had been owned by a judge, who used a lesser-known “equal rights principle" to sell it to a Chinese person.

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, Yun Ho sold the farm to finance one of his trips to China to see his wife and children. Upon his return, he leased acreage on the Musqueam band land and on Marine Drive in Vancouver.

In terms of family life, Yun Ho journeyed to China for 6 months in 1911 at age 24 and married Young Yin Tom. He was with his new wife for only three months before returning to Canada. In 1915, Yun Ho sailed back to China and the following year his daughter Sook Han was born. She would be followed by three sons: one born in the early 1920s (but died at age 6 or 7 of smallpox); Bo Hoy (b. 1931); and Sew Mon (b. 1938).

Yun Ho never learned to write Chinese (and he could only barely read it) and his wife could not read or write Chinese. It was a challenge to communicate over such a distance and over so many years apart. So communication to each other was through those who could write and read their letters on their behalves.

The family was finally reunited in 1952 when Yun Ho’s wife and two surviving sons were permitted to immigrate to Canada. By then, Yun Ho was 65 years old.

Yun Ho passed away on March 6, 1985 in Vancouver.

Chang, Yip Kee ([1888]-1945)

Description supplied by collector/curator