Person

Wong, Gut

• Wong, Nem

1889-1972

Wong Gut was born in China in 1889. He was one of 10 children (5 brothers and 4 sisters) and the youngest boy. There is little known about Gut in his younger years other than he was married, but his wife never came to Canada. They had 6 children: 4 sons and 2 daughters.

Gut arrived in Canada in 1910 when he was 21 years old. He travelled home to China a number of times, re-entering Canada in 1918, 1922 and 1929.

For a time Gut lived in Alberta. Two of Gut's brothers joined him in Canada. Together, they worked as cooks at a restaurant in Ashcroft, B.C.

After the repeal of the Exclusion Act, Gut brought over to Canada his youngest son (Art Foo Wong) in 1949. Art would be the only one of Gut's children that came to Canada.

Art was sent to Ashcroft to join his father. However, Gut had such a bad temper that he sent Art back to Vancouver. In 1952, Art married and started his own family.

Between 1952 and 1972, Gut lived near Vancouver's Chinatown, on Main Street in the Canada Room, a single-room-occupancy hotel a block away from the old Carnegie building. Like many Chinese men of his generation, he never learned to speak English and spent all his time in Chinatown.

His grandson, Philip Wong recalls “My older brother and I still remember climbing the flight of stairs at the SRO to visit our grandfather in his room when we went to Chinatown to attend Chinese school. I remember my grandfather hand rolling his own cigarettes.”

Just before he passed away, Gut gave $2,500 to his daughter-in-law to pay for his funeral. The rest of his money was sent back to China. Gut died on August 31, 1972 at age 82.

Description supplied by collector/curator