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Dim Sum Stories
In 2001, there were an estimated 425,000 Chinese in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, so it's no wonder the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia (CCHSBC) has joined forces with UBC's Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies (INSTRCC) to launch Gold Mountain Stories, a new series to represent Chinese experiences in North America.
"When my father first arrived in this country,"; recalls Larry Wong, a founding director and then president of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, "he was greeted by young boys that shouted, 'Chinky-chinky Chinaman!' It was a welcome he'd never forget.";
But there arose a second generation of Chinese in B.C. with a much less divided sense of Canada, and a greater breadth of experiences. Larry Wong knows Vancouver's Chinatown from the 1940s to the 1960s as well as his school close friend Wayson Choy, author of The Jade Peony.
Born in 1938, Wong attended Strathcona School, Vancouver Tech High School and UBC, leading to a career with the federal government, and success as a self-described Yellow Banana, one colour inside, another out.
After rediscovering his Chinese identity in middle age, then retiring in 1994, Wong became active organizations such as Tamahnous Theatre, Federation of BC Writers and the Chinese Canadian Military Museum. His school tours of Chinatown have led to his blog called Ask Larry, at www.cchsbc.ca.
Now Wong's Dim Sum Stories: A Chinatown Childhood ($25) recalls his Chinatown roots and the family dynamics of his upbringing. Wong explains at the outset that dim sum means "a little bit of heart.";
"It is relatively easy to write history from the outside,"; says historian Jean Barman, "picking and choosing from among past times what appeals to us and then crafting events into a story we hope others will enjoy.
"To do the same from the inside, authentically and with feeling, is far more difficult, and this Larry Wong has achieved with Dim Sum Stories. We don't just visit Chinatown vicariously, we share with him the smalls, the sights, the sounds, the everyday life of his childhood. We experience the inner working of a Chinatown we only otherwise glimpse.
"Larry's childhood occurred in the 1950s, but it might as well have been much earlier. Chinese men had long left home in search of employment enabling them to support their families even as they made their way in a new land. In 1931, when Larry's oldest siblings were young, Vancouver's Chinatown contained 8,000 men in comparison to just over 200 women.
"Only a few men has been as enterprising as Larry's hardworking tailor father to get enough money together to bring over a second wife, even as he continued to support his first family in China. Larry's mother Lee Shee died when Larry, the youngest of six, was little more than an infant, and so his childhood reverted to the older ways of life that sustained the community.
"His acquaintances and minders were mostly the aging single men, to whom the young child must have given a glimmer of how different lives might have been in other circumstances.";
"When my father first arrived in this country,"; recalls Larry Wong, a founding director and then president of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, "he was greeted by young boys that shouted, 'Chinky-chinky Chinaman!' It was a welcome he'd never forget.";
But there arose a second generation of Chinese in B.C. with a much less divided sense of Canada, and a greater breadth of experiences. Larry Wong knows Vancouver's Chinatown from the 1940s to the 1960s as well as his school close friend Wayson Choy, author of The Jade Peony.
Born in 1938, Wong attended Strathcona School, Vancouver Tech High School and UBC, leading to a career with the federal government, and success as a self-described Yellow Banana, one colour inside, another out.
After rediscovering his Chinese identity in middle age, then retiring in 1994, Wong became active organizations such as Tamahnous Theatre, Federation of BC Writers and the Chinese Canadian Military Museum. His school tours of Chinatown have led to his blog called Ask Larry, at www.cchsbc.ca.
Now Wong's Dim Sum Stories: A Chinatown Childhood ($25) recalls his Chinatown roots and the family dynamics of his upbringing. Wong explains at the outset that dim sum means "a little bit of heart.";
"It is relatively easy to write history from the outside,"; says historian Jean Barman, "picking and choosing from among past times what appeals to us and then crafting events into a story we hope others will enjoy.
"To do the same from the inside, authentically and with feeling, is far more difficult, and this Larry Wong has achieved with Dim Sum Stories. We don't just visit Chinatown vicariously, we share with him the smalls, the sights, the sounds, the everyday life of his childhood. We experience the inner working of a Chinatown we only otherwise glimpse.
"Larry's childhood occurred in the 1950s, but it might as well have been much earlier. Chinese men had long left home in search of employment enabling them to support their families even as they made their way in a new land. In 1931, when Larry's oldest siblings were young, Vancouver's Chinatown contained 8,000 men in comparison to just over 200 women.
"Only a few men has been as enterprising as Larry's hardworking tailor father to get enough money together to bring over a second wife, even as he continued to support his first family in China. Larry's mother Lee Shee died when Larry, the youngest of six, was little more than an infant, and so his childhood reverted to the older ways of life that sustained the community.
"His acquaintances and minders were mostly the aging single men, to whom the young child must have given a glimmer of how different lives might have been in other circumstances.";
Submitted on March 20, 2012 in By David.
