Person

Chin, Dip

• Gin, Dip
• Yen, Shar Jap

1888-1976

CHIN Dip was born in China in 1888, an auspicious year in Chinese culture with the number eight sounding similar to the word “fortune” or “wealth.” So, believing he was destined for riches, he wanted to join his uncle in Canada on the Cariboo gold trail. Dip arrived in May 1902. He was 16 and his name was incorrectly recorded as YEN Shar Jap.

Dip never did make a fortune. Instead, he ended up working in his uncle’s food depot serving gold miners in the area around Quesnel Forks, B.C.

Like many Chinese migrants, his loyalty was to the motherland and he aspired to return to a better China. He joined the Chee Kung Tong in Kamloops and raised funds to bring down the Qing Dynasty.

Kwoi Gin recalls that his great grandfather “never spoke much about his life on the Cariboo Trail, except that he handcrafted a knife from metal scraps found along the railroad tracks. He used that knife for protection against those that came into his uncle’s food depot to cause trouble. This blade also was used to cut off his queue after Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s successful 1911 uprising ending centuries of Qing rule. I was gifted this knife on my 15th birthday, nine months before he passed away.”

Around 1911, Dip wanted to return to China to find a wife, but his identity certificate had been destroyed in a kitchen fire in Quesnel Forks. His journey was delayed while he was interrogated by immigration officials and forced to prove his identity. After waiting a year, he finally was issued a replacement certificate for travel to China. There he married a Chinese-German bi-racial woman who was the daughter of missionaries. His wife remained in China and gave birth to a son.

In 1924, Dip travelled from Canada back to China to find his young son a bride. After the wedding, his son reportedly squandered much of the family’s savings and died at age 16, shortly before his young wife gave birth to a baby boy. Dip never returned to bury his son. He travelled to China again around 1932 to meet his grandson (later known as Suey Kee GIN). Shortly after he returned for Canada, the Japanese invaded China and Dip’s wife was killed when the Army invaded the village. It was a dark time for the family with war and the Great Depression making it difficult for Dip to support his surviving family in China.

After WWII, Dip found his best job. He was hired into the household of Joseph Albert Sullivan, a Canadian Olympic ice hockey player, physician, surgeon, and senator. Dip was treated like family and he remained with the Sullivans for over a decade until his retirement in 1956.

Dip’s grandson eventually made it to Canada in 1951, arriving as a “paper son” under the identity of WONG Dai Hing. It should have been a warm reunion. However, Dip, perhaps feeling he had somehow failed his late son, was overly tough on his grandson.

Dip’s dream was to retire in China, but political upheaval meant he was stuck in Hong Kong living near his daughter-in-law, his grandson’s wife, and his great-grandson. He spent his final years back in Canada where he passed away at age 88, another auspicious year, mirroring his birth in 1888.

Description supplied by collector/curator