Person

Yue, Bing Wai

1892-1977

YUE Bing Wai was born September 26, 1892 in the village of Hueng Ha, [番禺 Punyu / Panyu] county, approximately 100 miles north of Guangzhou, in the 廣東 Guangdong province. His parents were farmers and Bing was the second of three boys.

After two years of schooling, Bing learned basic reading and writing, then left school to work on his parent’s farm.

At 19 years of age, Bing left for Canada. He was given $500 for the head tax; $50 for passage; and a bit extra for living expenses. The trip took the life savings of his entire family and four other families. Bing arrived in Victoria on July 20, 1912, and spent two days in quarantine.

Bing first travelled to Nanaimo for work: a job at a Chinese laundry that provided room and board and a salary of 5 cents per day for a 14-hour work day. Later, he worked as a ditch digger, then a labourer at a sawmill. The pay was 10 cents per hour for a 10-hour workday.

In November 1919, Bing moved to Vancouver and bought his first property in Point Grey: 20 acres on which he built a shack and started farming.

In 1922, at age 30, Bing made his first trip back to China. He repaid one of the families that supported his trip to Canada by marrying their first daughter. Bing stayed for one year but was unable to bring his wife to Canada due to the passing of the Exclusion Act.

Bing visited China again in 1935. When Japan invaded China, he returned to Canada and partnered with some friends and relatives to open a Chinese restaurant which he helped run for the next five years.

In 1946, Bing returned to his village. On this trip, he learned the Japanese had destroyed most of his village. His parents, wife, and child were dead. He decided to fulfill his obligation to the three other families by building three houses and marrying a daughter from each. Over the course of his life, Bing would marry five times.

By the time the Exclusion Act was repealed in 1947, Bing had saved enough money to bring Soo Jow Ho (wife #5) and his son, Tai Bin (from wife #4) to Canada. They joined him in 1952.

Bing and Soo Jow Ho had three children in Canada: Chuck Sun, May Lan, and Chuck Lem. In 1961, Bing saved enough money to buy a farm in South Burnaby. He also had another child, Chuck Hing, although his oldest son, Tai Bin, passed away in 1967.

In 1972, just before his 80th birthday, Bing sold the farm and retired to a house in East Vancouver. Bing enjoyed retirement for four and a half years. In early January 1977, less than 300 feet from home, Bing was struck and killed by a young driver while crossing the intersection.

His children fondly recall “When we were growing up on the farm in South Burnaby, our Dad would often let us kids sell vegetables to people who came directly to the farm to buy them. Often the four of us kids would scramble to be the first one to greet the “buyers” as we would get to keep the money from what we sold. We learned how to greet customers, handle cash, and be responsible. Often Dad would laugh with the customers as we held the “money” in our hands. Of course, back in those days, you could buy a bunch of green onions for 10 cents which now costs about $1.99.”

Description supplied by collector/curator