Person

Hoy, Moy

• 許玉妹

• Mrs. Lew Ging
• Wife of Lew Ging
• Mrs. Liu Ging

1900-1973

HOY Moy was born in China on February 10, 1900 in Lee Gar Jong village in the 四邑 Seiyap / Sze Yup district of 新會 Sunwui / Xinhui in 廣東 Guangdong province.

In 1920, a day before her 20th birthday, she arrived in Vancouver as the wife of LEW Ging, whom she had married in Hong Kong the year prior. She was his third wife. Lew Ging’s second wife gave birth to two daughters but no sons, and his first wife had passed away without any children.

Lew Ging operated the Sung Ying Grocery Store in Vancouver. In 1923, the family moved to Nanaimo’s Chinatown for a few years before they returned, once again, to Vancouver.

Hoy Moy became mother to six children: four boys and two daughters. However, two of the children died at a very young age.

In 1931, the surviving four children were sent to China to be raised by Lew Ging's second wife and to allow the eldest son, Yue Wing, to attend a private school. In 1934, Hoy Moy travelled to back China to see her family after her brother had been killed by the Japanese. She also wanted to visit her children again.

Hoy Moy returned to Vancouver in 1936 when tensions between Japan and China were poised to break out in war. Three of her Canadian-born children accompanied her: Yue Wing and Yue Kong (George), and daughter, Sui Lien (Violet). Her youngest son, Yue Hung (Richard), remained behind with the second wife; he would eventually return to Canada in his 20s.

In 1937, Hoy Moy unexpectedly became a widow. Her husband, Lew Ging, died in Hong Kong after travelling there for badly needed dental surgery.

Despite being a single parent, Hoy Moy lived a full and active social life in the Chinese community. She worked as a hostess at WK Gardens, a waitress at the B.C. Royal Cafe, and took in boarders, all in an effort to survive and raise her children.

Hoy Moy and her son George bought a house on Keefer Street in the early 1940s. In the early 1950s, she travelled with Sam Lee, who was contracted by Bruce Sung, to set up a cook camp. Along with May Lee and their 15-year-old orphaned nephew, James Lee, she worked as cafeteria help at the Blueberry Silver Mines in Riondel. They later went to Powell River where they also set up a cook camp for Chinese construction workers at the pulp and paper mill.

She eventually returned to her home on Keefer Street in Vancouver where she continued to take in boarders until her family home was sold to the City of Vancouver in the early 1960s. It was torn down for the MacLean Park Project which included the first apartment high rise in Chinatown. She lived in that high rise as part of the agreement to sell her house.

She died at the age of 73 in St. Paul’s Hospital from bronchial pneumonia and emphysema on July 27, 1973. She was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Lew, Yue Wing (1921-2016)

Lew, Violet Sui Lien (1923-2019)

Description supplied by collector/curator