by: Ernie Wong - December 2006
This is a story about my dad, Wong J. Earnest, his journey to
America, and his grocery store in Holly Grove. The story was
told to me by my first cousin, Peter Joe, who is now in his
eighties and lives in Novato, CA. At the age of twelve, Peter
accompanied my dad to Holly Grove to go to school and help him
get his grocery business started.
The story starts in a small village near Canton, China; where
his father was a physician. Life was easy for young Earnest
because there were servants to do the menial chores around the
house. However, there were also gangs roaming the villages trying
to kidnap the children of families who could afford to pay a ransom
for their return. His father did what most of the well to do
parents were doing; he had some relatives teach Earnest how to
gamble and drink when he was fourteen. His father knew it wasn’t
right, but it kept his son inside the house most of the time and he
felt it was better than letting him run around away from the house
and risk being kidnapped.
Then the Chinese economy turned bad and even the high earning
physicians?incomes were affected. It was 1930 and Earnest was almost
nineteen when his father called him into his office to have a serious
talk about the plans for his future. He told him that in the last few
years the family had suffered severe financial difficulties. He also
told Earnest about his older sister, who along with her husband ran a
grocery store in Mississippi in a country called America. He said
that they had obtained papers which would allow Earnest to move to
Mississippi and learn the grocery business from his sister. He told
him stories he had heard from friends about America. Unlike China, it
was a rich country where the streets were paved with gold and where
money grew on trees. Finally, with a tear in his eye, he told Earnest
that if fortune was good to him, perhaps he could periodically send
some money back to China to help the family.
Earnest had a rude awakening when he arrived in Mississippi. The
weather was hot, the working hours were long and there was much to
learn about running a store. The fact that he knew only a little
English made it even more difficult. Still, his biggest disappointment
was that after traveling half way around the world, he had yet to see a
street paved with gold or any trees with money growing on them.
From the very beginning, Earnest decided that he would always have a
great attitude and he would do whatever it took to learn English and all
of the skills necessary to own and operate a grocery store. He must
have been very good, very lucky, or a little of both. Whatever is was,
after only two years of apprenticeship, his sister and brother in law
thought he was ready and loaned him the money to purchase a small grocery
in Holly Grove, AR.
Earnest was proud of how much he had accomplished in two years, but it
wouldn’t matter, if he didn’t get some customers soon. He opened his
store four days ago and had yet to see his first customer walk through the
door. He thought, “I need to make something happen!?
Holly Grove has a railroad track running through the middle of town.
Businesses are located in one block strips on each side of the railroad
tracks. Across the tracks was a busy place where lots of people, mostly
men, congregated and stayed late into the evening.
Earnest thought, “If you need customers, you’ve got to go where they
are!? After he closed the store, he crossed the railroad tracks to this
place that had the men in it. He entered the smoke filled building and
looked around; he hoped the people would be friendly. In the front area
were three tables with different colored balls and the men had sticks in
their hands which they were using to hit the balls. He would learn later
that these were pool tables. In the back of the room were three smaller
tables and four men sat at each table and played with small white tiles
with black dots on them. The men told him that these were dominoes;
Earnest was no stranger to games of chance and had won more than his share
playing mahjong and Pei-Gow in China. The games were similar, so in no
time at all, he understood the game of dominoes.
Finally, one of the players left to go home. Earnest asked if he could
take his place, and they said that he could, but he would have to ante up
5 cents per game - winner take all. The other players knew he was a
beginner and were anxious to start taking his money. Dominoes is a much
simpler game than the ones he played in China so 5 cents a game didn’t
cause him any stress. Much to the other players?dismay, Earnest won most
of their money.
He then asked them if they would teach him how to shoot pool. They told
him, “Sure, each player puts up 10 cents a game and like dominoes, winner
take all.? They taught Dad how to play ? ball? and they managed to win
back all the money they lost playing dominoes. Winning back their money
put Earnest’s new acquaintances in a good mood and they wanted to know more
about this stranger. In spite of his broken English, Earnest managed to let
everyone at the pool hall know that he was the new owner of the grocery
store across the tracks and he would appreciate it if they would come check
out his merchandise and do some business with him.
The next day his new friends came to his store, bought a few things, and
many became regular customers. It was the beginning of a great relationship
for them, Earnest, and the town of Holly Grove. The business provided a
great service to the customers and became profitable enough to support
Earnest’s family and allow him to send money to help his family in China.
Earnest became a great family man and one of the town’s leading citizens,
but he never pretended to be anything that he wasn’t. He was active in the
Rotary Club and as a leader in Boy Scout Troop #50, but he never gave up his
two fingers of bourbon with supper or going to Hot Springs during racing
season with his buddies to bet on the horses. He was extremely popular
with the fund raisers in town because no school official, church worker, or
needy family ever came to Earnest asking for help and left empty handed.
Each time I think about this story, I grow more proud of my dad and his
achievements. I know if our roles were reversed and I were sent to China at
nineteen, I doubt I would have survived.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Chinese Women's Culture in New Zealand
YWCA Lecture
Liz Ngan, 13 October 1992
I am here today to talk about Chinese women's culture in Aotearoa. To me this means: what our lives have been like in this country, what we have retained from our cultural past and what we do to deal with the present.
I haven't always found it easy being part of a visible minority. If, for example, I was first or second generation Scots would so many people ask me if I was born here, or would kids call me names in the street? If you belong to a majority culture, you don't have to question who you are or why you are here. If you are outside that majority, others will ask those questions for you.
By telling you about some women in my family you may see how the opportunities and expectations of Chinese women have changed over time. You will also see how different women deal with the challenges of being Chinese in this country.
The Chinese in this country come not only from China but also from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Fiji, Canary Islands and so on. Chinese people as a race are dispersed throughout the world. Both sides of my family come from the South China province of Guangzhou. On Dad's side it was his parents who emigrated here. My Grandfather came out late last century (19th), as a teacher of English and Chinese. My Grandmother, A-Ma arrived here in the 1920s. A-Ma was a second wife. My Grandfather married her because he wanted more sons. Back then in China man could have as many wives as he could support. His first wife had had three sons, but two of them had died in adulthood. When he married A-Ma, she was about the same age as his eldest son. I don't know what A-Ma's level of education was like. I don't ever remember seeing her reading or writing. But then again, most of the books around our house were in English and she didn't speak much English.
Not long after Dad was born here my Grandfather and A-Ma took the family back to China. They considered that their prospects were better in China. Although my Grandfather was a naturalised British citizen, he was not entitled to a pension, for example.
A-Ma didn't return to New Zealand for ten years, until the Sino-Japanese war concentrated on Guangzhou. Dad and his brother had been sent back to Wellington earlier. A-Ma and her daughter travelled through China by night to escape via Hong Kong. They left Hong Kong just as the Japanese declared war on Britain, A-Ma worked hard here to support her family. She worked in fruit shops, she did odd jobs like helping in laundries. She worked hard to survive. Eventually she borrowed enough money to start a fruit shop in Mirimar. A-Ma wasn't only working for her family who had escaped the war. Two sons had been left behind in China. One was her natural son, the other was the son of the third wife. It was always her ambition to reunite the family.
Sadly, this never happened while she was alive. My memories of A-Ma are of an old woman sitting in the sun at our house knitting jerseys and cardigans for her grandchildren back in Guangzhou. That and her taking a long draw on a Matinee cigarette while waiting for the tea to cook. I wish now that I could have spoken with her in Cantonese. If the language barrier wasn't there I would know a lot more about her and I could've heard her stories first hand.
In contrast to A-Ma, I have heard a lot of stories from my Nan. Mum's mother Dolly Wong was born in Wellington in 1911 over a fruit shop in Cuba Street. Nan's father emigrated here first and when he became established in business he sent back to the village for a wife. Nan had nine surviving brothers and sisters. She is the youngest of the three daughters, but not the youngest in the family. Nan was educated at Clyde Quay School and stayed until she did her proficiency. She was12 when her father said, "Enough education, you will work in the shop from now on." The shop was Te Aro Seed Company in Courtney Place. Although her father was strict, Nan found ways around the rules that were imposed.
She loved ballet and always wanted to dance, but her father didn't think it was proper behaviour. For a whole year she went off to ballet classes without her father's knowledge. Her eldest brother, George, paid for her lessons. At the end of the year the teacher said that there would be a recital and Nan would've loved to be in it. But she realised that her father would find out that she'd been going to the lessons, so she had to give it all up. Another thing that was forbidden was for the kids to eat fish and chips in the living quarters above the shop. Nan's older sisters, Lily and Daisy, would send her out with some money to the chip shop. When she got back, they'd lower a basket out of the bedroom window and haul the goodies up.
When Nan was 16 she went to China to complete her education. She went back with her parents and some of her brothers, and they lived in Guangzhou City. "Completing her education" meant learning to read and write Chinese and to know what her homeland was like. Most of her brothers and sisters spent time in Guangzhou for the same reasons.
Nan was lonely there. She missed her home and friends. One of the things she missed most were the cream doughnuts. After three years of studying Nan asked her father if she could take a job at the library where one of her cousins worked. He said, "No, because you'll be getting married." Nan's wedding to My Goong was arranged. She didn't want to get married but there was no choice. Luckily, she had met Goong before the wedding so he wasn't a complete stranger.
Also Goong had been working in New Zealand since he was a boy. He spoke and wrote English fluently and he knew what life was like here. Nan's sisters, Daisy and Lily, chose their own husbands, meeting them through church groups. One was a Baptist, the other was an Anglican. Both of them married in New Zealand and my great-grandfather wanted at least one of his daughters to have a traditional wedding in China. So probably that decision was made for Nan long before she knew.
Nan and Goong returned to New Zealand in the 1930s. In 1938 they took over the General Store at Utiku, near Taihape. Through running the General Store and having the cream and mail runs, Nan and Goong were very involved in the local community. They had five children in all and were the only Chinese family in Utiku. Later Nan and Goong moved to Lower Hutt where they still live. Although my great-grandfather had prevented Nan from working in the library in Guangzhou, she certainly worked hard for the rest of her life.
Mum, Jean Ngan, is Nan's eldest daughter. She has two brothers and two sisters. She remembers the years in Utiku as really happy, even although it was the end of the Depression and then World War II. As country kids she thought that her parents sheltered them from the hardships. Mum, like her brothers and sisters, spoke Cantonese up until the time she started school. From then on English was spoken at home, Cantonese became the language used by Nan and Goong if they wanted to speak in private. When visiting her grandparents as a teenager, she regretted that she couldn't speak more Cantonese.
Mum stayed at school till the fourth form (Yr 10). She did elocution lessons, learnt the piano and the organ and with her sister Marina played lots of sports. (Mum and her sisters' English names are Jeanette, Marina and Helene. Their Chinese names are Zhen-Ling, (Pure Lotus), Mei-Ling (Beautiful Lotus) and Hei-Ling (Happy Lotus).) The reason Mum left school when she was 15 was to help in the General Store, as Nan was expecting Helene. Mum says that no-one asked her to leave school. She just felt, as the eldest daughter, that she should. Her one condition was that when she turned 18 she would go and do her nursing training. There was one other time when Mum put her own plans on hold to help out the family. After she finished her nuring training and staffing at Hutt Hospital in 1956, she took a year out to help Nan and Goong in their fruit shop in Nae Nae. She says she hated it but again she felt she should do it. In 1959 Mum married Dad. She said there was an expectation that she would marry a Chinese man. The places where Chinese met each other were at dances and weddings. Mum met Dad when he his brother and a cousin went round to play Mah Jong with Goong. Mum gave up nursing when my brother was born in 1960. I came along in 1964 and Mum didn't return to nursing until I was in third form (Yr 9).
Mum is still nursing, and though it's often stressful, she really enjoys it, especially meeting and helping so many people. In the practice where she is head nurse, she finds the Asian patients are more open to her because she is Chinese. Again, she wishes she could speak Cantonese as it would make her dealings with the patients easier.
As for myself, I was born in Lower Hutt and grew up in Stokes Valley. My educational opportunities were greater than Mum's or Nan's. I don't ever remember deciding to go to university. It was just considered the natural follow-on from college. There weren't many Chinese kids at any of the schools I went to. The only Chinese people I knew were my relatives.
The only place I would see a lot of Chinese people would be at weddings, 80th birthday parties, the first month parties given to children, and other family celebrations. Growing up I found it hard to accept that I was Chinese. I actively disliked being different from other kids. And I actively hated the racism and petty name-calling. When I was 14 I decided, well, there's no way I can be anything else, I might as well be proud of my heritage. Since then I have listened more carefully to the family stories.
When I got to university, I studied Mandarin Chinese language and culture as part of my Arts degree. I learnt to read and write and speak. I appreciated how hard Nan must have studied in Guangzhou, at a similar age to me. The type of job possibilities for me were limited only by my imagination. There was no family business for me to work in, no particular profession that my parents wanted me to follow. Perhaps because there were no guidelines, that's the reason it took me so long to find something I enjoyed and was challenged by! After three years of library work and learning to weave, I moved into computing.
One of the things I enjoy about my life now, as opposed to when I was growing up, is that I have lots of Chinese women friends. They are supportive and loving. I often feel I can speak more freely with them than with other friends, because we share a bond of being different.
In particular when someone has been verbally or violently racist towards me like the day a man took a swing at me with piece of roofing iron and said he wished he'd killed "us" all in the war, the support is there. There's no question that you provoked him or that the world needs less people like that.
From the stories I've told you, I hope you have gained some idea of what it can be like to be a Chinese women in this country. While holding onto the culture they were brought up with, my Grandmothers made a life for themselves and their families. My mother as second generation New Zealand born Chinese, had more choice in her personal and professional life. But she still bore in mind family obligations and expectations.
For me the choices were even greater, including the choice of accepting or denying my Chinese identity. I am glad I accepted it. I am glad also of the opportunity to tell you of the struggles and achievements of the women in my family. And to share with you the richness that comes from being a Chinese woman in Aotearoa.
Liz Ngan of Wellington has kindly given her permission to use her 1992 YWCA lecture notes in this unit.
http://ssol.tki.org.nz/
Liz Ngan, 13 October 1992
I am here today to talk about Chinese women's culture in Aotearoa. To me this means: what our lives have been like in this country, what we have retained from our cultural past and what we do to deal with the present.
I haven't always found it easy being part of a visible minority. If, for example, I was first or second generation Scots would so many people ask me if I was born here, or would kids call me names in the street? If you belong to a majority culture, you don't have to question who you are or why you are here. If you are outside that majority, others will ask those questions for you.
By telling you about some women in my family you may see how the opportunities and expectations of Chinese women have changed over time. You will also see how different women deal with the challenges of being Chinese in this country.
The Chinese in this country come not only from China but also from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Fiji, Canary Islands and so on. Chinese people as a race are dispersed throughout the world. Both sides of my family come from the South China province of Guangzhou. On Dad's side it was his parents who emigrated here. My Grandfather came out late last century (19th), as a teacher of English and Chinese. My Grandmother, A-Ma arrived here in the 1920s. A-Ma was a second wife. My Grandfather married her because he wanted more sons. Back then in China man could have as many wives as he could support. His first wife had had three sons, but two of them had died in adulthood. When he married A-Ma, she was about the same age as his eldest son. I don't know what A-Ma's level of education was like. I don't ever remember seeing her reading or writing. But then again, most of the books around our house were in English and she didn't speak much English.
Not long after Dad was born here my Grandfather and A-Ma took the family back to China. They considered that their prospects were better in China. Although my Grandfather was a naturalised British citizen, he was not entitled to a pension, for example.
A-Ma didn't return to New Zealand for ten years, until the Sino-Japanese war concentrated on Guangzhou. Dad and his brother had been sent back to Wellington earlier. A-Ma and her daughter travelled through China by night to escape via Hong Kong. They left Hong Kong just as the Japanese declared war on Britain, A-Ma worked hard here to support her family. She worked in fruit shops, she did odd jobs like helping in laundries. She worked hard to survive. Eventually she borrowed enough money to start a fruit shop in Mirimar. A-Ma wasn't only working for her family who had escaped the war. Two sons had been left behind in China. One was her natural son, the other was the son of the third wife. It was always her ambition to reunite the family.
Sadly, this never happened while she was alive. My memories of A-Ma are of an old woman sitting in the sun at our house knitting jerseys and cardigans for her grandchildren back in Guangzhou. That and her taking a long draw on a Matinee cigarette while waiting for the tea to cook. I wish now that I could have spoken with her in Cantonese. If the language barrier wasn't there I would know a lot more about her and I could've heard her stories first hand.
In contrast to A-Ma, I have heard a lot of stories from my Nan. Mum's mother Dolly Wong was born in Wellington in 1911 over a fruit shop in Cuba Street. Nan's father emigrated here first and when he became established in business he sent back to the village for a wife. Nan had nine surviving brothers and sisters. She is the youngest of the three daughters, but not the youngest in the family. Nan was educated at Clyde Quay School and stayed until she did her proficiency. She was12 when her father said, "Enough education, you will work in the shop from now on." The shop was Te Aro Seed Company in Courtney Place. Although her father was strict, Nan found ways around the rules that were imposed.
She loved ballet and always wanted to dance, but her father didn't think it was proper behaviour. For a whole year she went off to ballet classes without her father's knowledge. Her eldest brother, George, paid for her lessons. At the end of the year the teacher said that there would be a recital and Nan would've loved to be in it. But she realised that her father would find out that she'd been going to the lessons, so she had to give it all up. Another thing that was forbidden was for the kids to eat fish and chips in the living quarters above the shop. Nan's older sisters, Lily and Daisy, would send her out with some money to the chip shop. When she got back, they'd lower a basket out of the bedroom window and haul the goodies up.
When Nan was 16 she went to China to complete her education. She went back with her parents and some of her brothers, and they lived in Guangzhou City. "Completing her education" meant learning to read and write Chinese and to know what her homeland was like. Most of her brothers and sisters spent time in Guangzhou for the same reasons.
Nan was lonely there. She missed her home and friends. One of the things she missed most were the cream doughnuts. After three years of studying Nan asked her father if she could take a job at the library where one of her cousins worked. He said, "No, because you'll be getting married." Nan's wedding to My Goong was arranged. She didn't want to get married but there was no choice. Luckily, she had met Goong before the wedding so he wasn't a complete stranger.
Also Goong had been working in New Zealand since he was a boy. He spoke and wrote English fluently and he knew what life was like here. Nan's sisters, Daisy and Lily, chose their own husbands, meeting them through church groups. One was a Baptist, the other was an Anglican. Both of them married in New Zealand and my great-grandfather wanted at least one of his daughters to have a traditional wedding in China. So probably that decision was made for Nan long before she knew.
Nan and Goong returned to New Zealand in the 1930s. In 1938 they took over the General Store at Utiku, near Taihape. Through running the General Store and having the cream and mail runs, Nan and Goong were very involved in the local community. They had five children in all and were the only Chinese family in Utiku. Later Nan and Goong moved to Lower Hutt where they still live. Although my great-grandfather had prevented Nan from working in the library in Guangzhou, she certainly worked hard for the rest of her life.
Mum, Jean Ngan, is Nan's eldest daughter. She has two brothers and two sisters. She remembers the years in Utiku as really happy, even although it was the end of the Depression and then World War II. As country kids she thought that her parents sheltered them from the hardships. Mum, like her brothers and sisters, spoke Cantonese up until the time she started school. From then on English was spoken at home, Cantonese became the language used by Nan and Goong if they wanted to speak in private. When visiting her grandparents as a teenager, she regretted that she couldn't speak more Cantonese.
Mum stayed at school till the fourth form (Yr 10). She did elocution lessons, learnt the piano and the organ and with her sister Marina played lots of sports. (Mum and her sisters' English names are Jeanette, Marina and Helene. Their Chinese names are Zhen-Ling, (Pure Lotus), Mei-Ling (Beautiful Lotus) and Hei-Ling (Happy Lotus).) The reason Mum left school when she was 15 was to help in the General Store, as Nan was expecting Helene. Mum says that no-one asked her to leave school. She just felt, as the eldest daughter, that she should. Her one condition was that when she turned 18 she would go and do her nursing training. There was one other time when Mum put her own plans on hold to help out the family. After she finished her nuring training and staffing at Hutt Hospital in 1956, she took a year out to help Nan and Goong in their fruit shop in Nae Nae. She says she hated it but again she felt she should do it. In 1959 Mum married Dad. She said there was an expectation that she would marry a Chinese man. The places where Chinese met each other were at dances and weddings. Mum met Dad when he his brother and a cousin went round to play Mah Jong with Goong. Mum gave up nursing when my brother was born in 1960. I came along in 1964 and Mum didn't return to nursing until I was in third form (Yr 9).
Mum is still nursing, and though it's often stressful, she really enjoys it, especially meeting and helping so many people. In the practice where she is head nurse, she finds the Asian patients are more open to her because she is Chinese. Again, she wishes she could speak Cantonese as it would make her dealings with the patients easier.
As for myself, I was born in Lower Hutt and grew up in Stokes Valley. My educational opportunities were greater than Mum's or Nan's. I don't ever remember deciding to go to university. It was just considered the natural follow-on from college. There weren't many Chinese kids at any of the schools I went to. The only Chinese people I knew were my relatives.
The only place I would see a lot of Chinese people would be at weddings, 80th birthday parties, the first month parties given to children, and other family celebrations. Growing up I found it hard to accept that I was Chinese. I actively disliked being different from other kids. And I actively hated the racism and petty name-calling. When I was 14 I decided, well, there's no way I can be anything else, I might as well be proud of my heritage. Since then I have listened more carefully to the family stories.
When I got to university, I studied Mandarin Chinese language and culture as part of my Arts degree. I learnt to read and write and speak. I appreciated how hard Nan must have studied in Guangzhou, at a similar age to me. The type of job possibilities for me were limited only by my imagination. There was no family business for me to work in, no particular profession that my parents wanted me to follow. Perhaps because there were no guidelines, that's the reason it took me so long to find something I enjoyed and was challenged by! After three years of library work and learning to weave, I moved into computing.
One of the things I enjoy about my life now, as opposed to when I was growing up, is that I have lots of Chinese women friends. They are supportive and loving. I often feel I can speak more freely with them than with other friends, because we share a bond of being different.
In particular when someone has been verbally or violently racist towards me like the day a man took a swing at me with piece of roofing iron and said he wished he'd killed "us" all in the war, the support is there. There's no question that you provoked him or that the world needs less people like that.
From the stories I've told you, I hope you have gained some idea of what it can be like to be a Chinese women in this country. While holding onto the culture they were brought up with, my Grandmothers made a life for themselves and their families. My mother as second generation New Zealand born Chinese, had more choice in her personal and professional life. But she still bore in mind family obligations and expectations.
For me the choices were even greater, including the choice of accepting or denying my Chinese identity. I am glad I accepted it. I am glad also of the opportunity to tell you of the struggles and achievements of the women in my family. And to share with you the richness that comes from being a Chinese woman in Aotearoa.
Liz Ngan of Wellington has kindly given her permission to use her 1992 YWCA lecture notes in this unit.
http://ssol.tki.org.nz/
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Chinese Family History & Stories
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Chinese-Family-History-Stories/194368383915729
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Leong Cheong and Wong Leong Hamilton
http://tinyurl.com/4dauh59
The Leong family tree, beginning with Cheong and Wong Leong, and including spouses, currently numbers close to 100 individuals, the youngest born just this year. The Leong family tree, beginning with Cheong and Wong Leong, and including spouses, currently numbers close to 100 individuals, the youngest born just this year. This brief introduction to the Leong family history begins with Henry and Low Foon Leong, who are the first ancestors who came to New Zealand.
The Leong family tree, beginning with Cheong and Wong Leong, and including spouses, currently numbers close to 100 individuals, the youngest born just this year. The Leong family tree, beginning with Cheong and Wong Leong, and including spouses, currently numbers close to 100 individuals, the youngest born just this year. This brief introduction to the Leong family history begins with Henry and Low Foon Leong, who are the first ancestors who came to New Zealand.
Mr JAMES CHUNG GON
CHINESE PATRIARCH DIES IN HIS 98th YEAR. Mr JAMES CHUNG GON, patriarch of the Chinese community in Tasmania, died at his home in Launceston on Saturday in his 98th vear.
Mr. Chung Gon, wiho was born in Kwantung Province, South .China, set out for
Australia as an 18-year-old boy with 20 dollars in his pocket. An old Chinese told ham that he would need only 1/, so he sent the 20 dollars home again.
Hire of a cab in Melbourne absorbed ail the capital he brought into the country.
After a short time on the Bendigo goldfields, he came to Tasmania where he has lived ever since, except for occasional trips to China. He first worked in a tin mine near Branxholm, and then in a market garden near the Lefroy goldfields.
He later laid down big market gardens in Launceston.
He went back to China to be married and shortly after his return bought 200 acres of land at Turners Marsh and established the first commercial orchard in Northern Tasmania.
Most of his 11 children were born there.
He sold the property and opened a fruit and vegetable shop in Launceston. He was associated in a number of civic activities.
He was 97 on July 23, 1951. Until about three years ago Mr Chung Gon worked in his vegetable garden.
The 10 surviving members of his family are Rose (Mrs. Chuey, Sydney), Violet (Mrs. Loon, Sydney), Lillian (Mrs. Chau, New Zealand), Esther (Mrs. Wong, Sydney), Ann (Mrs. Soon, West Australia), Miss Dolly Chung Gon and Messrs. Joseph, Albert, Samuel, and Edward Chung Gon.
The funeral will leave the Memorial Baptist Church, Launceston, after a service at 3.30 pm. today, for Carr Villa. The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. Monday 25 February 1952
DEATHS
CHUNG GON.-On February 23 1952, at his residence, 104 Elizabeth St., Launceston, James, loved husband of the late Mary Chung Gon, and loved father oí Rose (Mrs. Chuey, Sydney) Violet (Mrs. Loon, Sydney), Lillian (Mrs. Chau, New Zealand), Esther (Mrs. Wong, Sydney), Ann (Mrs. Foon, West Australia), Dolly, Joseph, Albert, Samuel and Edward, in his 98th year. The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. Monday 25 February 1952 >
Mr. Chung Gon, wiho was born in Kwantung Province, South .China, set out for
Australia as an 18-year-old boy with 20 dollars in his pocket. An old Chinese told ham that he would need only 1/, so he sent the 20 dollars home again.
Hire of a cab in Melbourne absorbed ail the capital he brought into the country.
After a short time on the Bendigo goldfields, he came to Tasmania where he has lived ever since, except for occasional trips to China. He first worked in a tin mine near Branxholm, and then in a market garden near the Lefroy goldfields.
He later laid down big market gardens in Launceston.
He went back to China to be married and shortly after his return bought 200 acres of land at Turners Marsh and established the first commercial orchard in Northern Tasmania.
Most of his 11 children were born there.
He sold the property and opened a fruit and vegetable shop in Launceston. He was associated in a number of civic activities.
He was 97 on July 23, 1951. Until about three years ago Mr Chung Gon worked in his vegetable garden.
The 10 surviving members of his family are Rose (Mrs. Chuey, Sydney), Violet (Mrs. Loon, Sydney), Lillian (Mrs. Chau, New Zealand), Esther (Mrs. Wong, Sydney), Ann (Mrs. Soon, West Australia), Miss Dolly Chung Gon and Messrs. Joseph, Albert, Samuel, and Edward Chung Gon.
The funeral will leave the Memorial Baptist Church, Launceston, after a service at 3.30 pm. today, for Carr Villa. The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. Monday 25 February 1952
DEATHS
CHUNG GON.-On February 23 1952, at his residence, 104 Elizabeth St., Launceston, James, loved husband of the late Mary Chung Gon, and loved father oí Rose (Mrs. Chuey, Sydney) Violet (Mrs. Loon, Sydney), Lillian (Mrs. Chau, New Zealand), Esther (Mrs. Wong, Sydney), Ann (Mrs. Foon, West Australia), Dolly, Joseph, Albert, Samuel and Edward, in his 98th year. The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. Monday 25 February 1952 >
Chinese Students Return To Australia And N.Z.
Chinese Students Return To Australia And N.Z.
ALTHOUGH Japan is 'a militaristic nation some of the Japanese are very good,' said Mr. Gordon Lowe, a New Zealand-born Chinese student who with four companions, is returning from China in the Changte, whicn passed through Brisbane yesterday. They felt, he added, that there should be no argument between the two countries. It resembled brothers fight ins:. The five in the picture, reading from left to right, are Messrs. Sidney Lei and Jimmy Lum born in Sydney and Gordon Lowe, Stan Wing, and Yuke Wong She, born in New Zealand. They have been pursuing their studies for six years in Hong Kong. Mr. Lowe is a nephew of the late Mr. David Chen See, managing director of the Sincere Company, at Kowloon, Mr. See was recently stabbed to death. Mr. Lowe's activities in Hong Kong were mainly educational. He was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, and 10 years ago was well known in football circles, playing as a half-back for Hamilton Technical School
The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld.Tuesday 4 January 1938
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/39744835?searchTerm=wong%20new%20zealand&searchLimits=
ALTHOUGH Japan is 'a militaristic nation some of the Japanese are very good,' said Mr. Gordon Lowe, a New Zealand-born Chinese student who with four companions, is returning from China in the Changte, whicn passed through Brisbane yesterday. They felt, he added, that there should be no argument between the two countries. It resembled brothers fight ins:. The five in the picture, reading from left to right, are Messrs. Sidney Lei and Jimmy Lum born in Sydney and Gordon Lowe, Stan Wing, and Yuke Wong She, born in New Zealand. They have been pursuing their studies for six years in Hong Kong. Mr. Lowe is a nephew of the late Mr. David Chen See, managing director of the Sincere Company, at Kowloon, Mr. See was recently stabbed to death. Mr. Lowe's activities in Hong Kong were mainly educational. He was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, and 10 years ago was well known in football circles, playing as a half-back for Hamilton Technical School
The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld.Tuesday 4 January 1938
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/39744835?searchTerm=wong%20new%20zealand&searchLimits=
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Will There Be Chinese Clans in Canada 10 Years From Now? By Angela
Last night I attended Cheng Wing Yeong Tong Benevolent Association (basically a gathering of people with the same surname as me) banquet, the same one I have attended every year since I was born. But in the next ten years, what is the likelihood that there will even be one of these banquets for me to attend?
My grandfather is a dedicated member of the Cheng Chinese clan. (By the way, there are a whole bunch of different English surnames: Cheng, Chang, Zheng, Jang and Jung; but we all share the same last name in Chinese.) He goes to the Cheng "clubhouse" everyday on Pender Street in Chinatown to play mahjong. And it seems to me, the role of Chinese benevolent associations are only limited to being a spot where grandparents gather to play mahjong.
I understand the need for the formation and existence of associations back when my great-grandparents and grandparents immigrated to Canada, and the desire to create solidarity with other Chinese clan members. Yet I don't exactly see foresee a future for the benevolent associations today...
This year marks the 82nd Anniversary of Cheng Wing Yeong Tong Benevolent Association. Who will ensure that there will be a 92nd Anniversary? Or a 102nd Anniversary? I learned today that the Chengs were one of the first Chinese clans to arrive in Vancouver in the 1900s, and the Chengs is the largest Chinese clan in Canada. But history and numbers aren't enough to continue the legacy. Maybe it will be just that -- a legacy.
Or will our heritage be able to survive in other forms? http://www.schemamag.ca/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1635
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