Person

Wong, Bark Ging

• 黃柏振

1908-1988

WONG Bark Ging was the oldest son in his family and because of this, was selected to be sent to Canada. He arrived in 1921, at the age of 13, exempt from paying the head tax as sponsored by a merchant family.

By 1924, he had made his way to Alberta and found work as a cook, quite possibly working in mining camps.

Over the course of his life, Ging worked as both a labourer and a cook, but his main occupation was that of a market gardener.

In 1930, he returned to China to marry Young See, a marriage that had been arranged for him. With the Chinese Exclusion Act in effect, he had to leave his wife behind in China when he returned to work in Canada.

After the repeal of the Act, and in anticipation of sponsoring his wife to Canada, Ging applied for and received his Certificate of Canadian Citizenship on January 17, 1949.

The couple would finally reunite in Canada in 1949. However, they were forced to leave behind their adopted son. This boy was in fact Ging’s nephew whom they had adopted earlier in the 1940s. It would take Ging another two years before he could get his adopted son into Canada.

Eventually, Ging and his wife would settle in Edmonton, Alberta and would have four children.

Ging died in Edmonton on November 27, 1988.

Description supplied by collector/curator