Wong, Germaine
Germaine Ying Gee Wong was born in 1950, in the Toisan region of Guangdong province, China. Around 1900, her father, Wong Hong Tai, came to Canada as a seventeen-year-old. In 1949, he returned to China to look for a wife. He married Mark Suey Ngan, who gave birth to Germaine the next year. For four years, the family was separated while Wong Hong Tai returned to Canada to raise enough money to bring his wife and daughter over from China. Once reunited, the family made a living by running a laundry business in Verdun, Quebec. Germaine recalls the challenge of managing multiple religions, languages, and cultures during her childhood. She credits two figures in her early life, her parish priest and a former principal, for helping her navigate between her home life and her wider experience. Although she was often at odds with her mother during her youth, as an adult she began to appreciate her mother’s strength in the face of racial discrimination. After university, Germaine took a cataloguing job with the National Film Board. Over thirty years, she built her career there, becoming a producer, and staying until her retirement in 2007.
As this immigration identification card indicates, Germaine Wong immigrated to Canada from China on April 3, 1954, arriving with her mother in Vancouver. Germaine’s immigration is an example of the family reunifications that started with the end of the Exclusion Period in 1947. Before this time, in almost all cases, Chinese husbands living in Canada who had wives and children in China were legally prevented from reuniting their family in Canada through immigration. According to census data, the number of intact Chinese families (spouses and children) living in Canada rose from 2,842 to 11,275 in a ten year period (1951-1961). Germaine reunited with her father, Wong Hong Tai, and the family settled in Quebec. Germaine was granted Canadian citizenship on April 12, 1957.
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