L., C.C.
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 ‘C.C. L.’ discusses the transition from life in Hong Kong to life in Canada. The interviewee was born in 1918 and grew up in Hong Kong. In 1929, she attended a boarding school. After high school, she attended university in Shanghai during the Second World War. She married in Shanghai and returned to Hong Kong, where she worked as a middle school teacher for seven years.
After returning to Hong Kong. C.C. L. furthered her education and obtained her master’s degree. She quit her job as a middle school teacher and taught at a teacher’s college until her retirement in 1973. She remained active after her retirement and worked as a school principal.
C.C. L. made the decision to come to Canada after the death of her husband. In 1983, she came to Canada to live with her son. At the time of the interview, she enjoyed an active life in Canada spending time with her family, translating books, watching plays at Stratford, playing computer games, swimming, as well as cooking and gardening. She kept up with her intellectual interests and planned to publish her writings.
She recognizes that knowing English has greatly contributed to her ability to adjust to life in Canada. In fact, she feels as though there was not much for her to ‘adjust’ to. Although she encourages social and cultural integration, she also expresses hope that Chinese Canadians maintain their heritage.
2 sur 2 
