Lee, Lillian
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, Lillian Lee discusses her role as the English secretary of the Essex County Chinese Canadian Association and how the organization is working to establish a Chinese presence in Essex, Ontario and promote cultural understanding and exchange.
Lillian, born in South Africa and educated in England, discusses her upbringing in what she calls an international community of Chinese people. Her grandparents originated from the southern province of Guangdong, China, before immigrating to South Africa. She met her Mauritius-born husband while studying in England, and together they have three children. Since immigrating to Canada in 1968, Lillian has worked as a teacher for Essex High School.
Lillian was inspired to work with the Chinese Canadian Association out of a desire to combat prejudice against the Chinese community. She explains that she wants her community to be seen as a vibrant group with rich culture and history that can offer a lot to Canadian society.
Lillian is also very involved in other projects including the Council of Chinese Canadians in Ontario, workshops related to political awareness and Chinese community engagement, and campaigns concerning refugees, particularly those from Indo-China. In this interview, she discusses the aims of these projects and the important role they play in bettering the lives of Chinese Canadians.
Lillian concludes this interview by saying that, although she is pleased to see that much has changed for both women and Chinese Canadians since her arrival in Canada, there still remains much work for her to do.
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