Person

Quan, Ben Dick

1923-1989

Ben Dick QUAN, the second Canadian-born child of Quan Gow and Der Shee, was born at the family home in Mount Pleasant. He arrived into the world in 1923 as the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act was coming into effect. With his sister Mary and brother Dick, he attended boarding school in Guangdong, China in the late 1930s.

In 1942, he ranked first in the province in the junior matriculation examinations and won a full scholarship to the University of British Columbia. Graduating with first class honours in mechanical engineering in 1947, he was discouraged from finding work in the automotive industry, which was closed to Canadians of Asian descent. He was, however, hired by the National Research Council in Ottawa to work on projects including the engine testing programme for the Avro Arrow Fighter. Unlike private industry, the government was willing to hire Chinese Canadians as engineers.

While in Ottawa, Ben met and married Isabel Yee in 1956. Tragically, that same year, while travelling back from Vancouver after visiting Ben’s family, Isabel died in an automobile accident. In 1957, Ben accompanied his father on an extended trip to Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong; in Taipei, he met and married Cathrine Wu. He worked in Ottawa at the National Research Council until 1961, after which he and his wife moved back to Vancouver in 1962.

In 1964, when he discovered that his 1962 income tax return had been stamped "Oriental" by the Canadian government, Ben raised his voice in protest, sending letters to Prime Minister Lester Pearson, the Leader of the Opposition John Diefenbaker, members of the Cabinet, and local MPs, noting that the use of the word to single out Canadians of East Asian ancestry was disturbing and inappropriate, particularly since he was born and educated in Canada. After the Deputy Minister of National Revenue responded with some unconvincing excuses about the need to ensure the proper identification of taxpayers, the department bowed to public criticism, including commentary by Vancouver Sun columnist Jack Wasserman, and ended the use of the term "Oriental" as a designation.

Ben worked as a consulting engineer in the pulp and paper industry, for periods in both Seattle and Vancouver. In his spare time, he enjoyed working with his hands to design and make contemporary mid-century furniture. He died in Vancouver in 1989. Ben and Cathrine had two children, Winston and Virginia. Virginia passed away from leukaemia in 1978. Winston went into finance and then academia, and now lives in Scotland with his partner and three children.

Quan, Wing Gow (1891–1969)

Quan, Mary (1921-1991)

Description supplied by collector/curator