Kwan, Cheung Lai
Over 130 interviews with Chinese Canadian women were conducted for the book Jin Guo: Voices of Chinese Canadian Women. Produced in 1992 by the Women’s Book Committee of the Chinese Canadian National Council, Jin Guo was intended to fill the gap in historical accounts of Chinese Canadian women’s history. Researchers traveled across Canada to interview Chinese Canadian women of various ages and backgrounds. The book’s authors, Amy Go, Winnie Ng, Dora Nipp, Julia Tao, Terry Woo and May Yee, organized the book around themes and patterns that emerged across multiple interviews – feelings of isolation and culture shock upon arrival in Canada, memories of parent-child relationships, the importance of education, the working lives of women, discrimination, cultural identity, marriage and dating, family life, perspectives on aging and retirement, and examples community activism. The interviews conducted for this project are stored at the Multicultural History Society of Ontario’s archives. This collections database includes a large cross-section of interviews conducted for Jin Guo – in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
In this interview, Cheung Lai discusses her transition from life in China to life in Canada. Cheung Lai was born in 1951 to a large family. She grew up in China, enjoying an active social life. She attended school, but decided against going to university. Instead, she began working at a factory that produced automobile parts to earn money.
She and her husband settled in Montreal, Quebec in 1981. She found employment as a seamstress after the recommendation of her relatives. Although it provided her with an income, the physical conditions were terrible. Not only were the hours long, but some factories disallowed their employees from taking bathroom breaks or from drinking water. One employer gave her trouble when she asked for maternity leave, seven months into her pregnancy. It wasn’t until she threatened him with a lawsuit that he allowed her time off. In addition, she had developed a series of medical conditions due to her work environment.
Life in Canada was difficult and did not live up to her expectations. The stresses of balancing work, family life, and domestic chores left her no time for leisure. While Canada provided opportunities for a higher income, it lacked the stability she had in China. She had difficulty adjusting; missing her network of family and friends as well as her life in China in general.
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