Chiu, May
May Chiu was born in Hong Kong in 1965 and immigrated to Canada when she was 6 years old. Her family settled in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, where they ran a restaurant. In her youth, May coped with violence in her home life in addition to the usual challenges of settlement and integration. During university, she started working a front-line job at Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal, a job she returned to on her breaks from school before ultimately becoming Executive Director. In this role, she helped many Chinese women access social services, including those who immigrated before 1967. Throughout her career, May has used her position as an attorney and community activist to champion issues of concern to Chinese Canadians, such as head-tax redress. During the 2006 federal election, she gained national attention for running in the LaSalle-émard riding as a Bloc Québécois candidate against the Liberal incumbent, Prime Minister Paul Martin.
‘I used to have images of finding dead bodies in our living room when I returned from school.’
May Chiu describes her parents’ unhappy arranged marriage in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. This clip provides a sense of how difficult it was for Chinese women facing violence in Canada, cut off from familiar surroundings.
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