Lee, Grace
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, Grace Lee describes her life in Victoria, British Columbia, and China, as an unmarried, independent woman.
Grace Lee was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1902, and moved to China in 1911. She returned to Canada in 1928, during the Exclusion Period, to work as a teacher. She describes her difficulty adjusting to life in Canada after spending time in China, as her teaching style and clothing were unusual in Canada. She returned to China after a few years to see her elderly father and prove to him that she could be financially secure on her own, returning to Canada again shortly after to continue working as a teacher.
Grace worked for the Presbyterian Church, teaching English to new immigrants and longtime residents of Canada. She recalls her work fondly, and believes she made a difference. Her joy with her work caused her to abandon any plans of returning to China, and she happily made her life in Canada.
Grace recalls her childhood, and explains that her mother – like other women of her generation – almost never appeared in public. Grace’s mother made one annual trip to Spencer’s department store to buy toys for Grace and her siblings and do other shopping, and otherwise stayed in the home. She describes her childhood in Victoria, living among the wealthier Chinese families. The family, including her father’s three wives and his seventeen children, returned to China when her father retired.
Grace explains that women were expected to marry and raise families, and not be educated or work. She quarreled with her father over her desire to get baptized as Christian, and left home to attend missionary school. She describes this as a very challenging part of her life. She and her father reconciled before his death, and he told her that she was his favourite child.
Grace’s mother eventually visited her in Canada, and converted to Christianity, which made Grace very proud. Grace saved all her money to pay for her mother’s travel between China and Canada. After Grace retired, she continued to live a very active life, getting involved in clubs and organizations, and learning new skills like swimming.
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