Lee, Albert
Albert Lee is a Halifax-based photographer and creater of the photo exhibit Growing Up Chinese in Halifax (Nova Scotia Museum, 1997). His father Shew (Chuck) Lee was the first Chinese boy to grow up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In the late 1920s, 18 year-old Chuck was sent to China to marry his 14 year-old betrothed, Sui Fa Kung. During the Exclusion Period (1923-1947), Sui Fa Kung lived in China apart from her husband, raising their two children (one of whom passed away) and looking after the family’s farm through periods of famine and political turmoil. In 1949, after The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 had been repealed, Chuck traveled by boxcar to Vancouver, British Columbia to meet his newly-arrived wife and 14 year-old daughter. Albert describes this as the happiest time of his father’s life because the family was finally together. The Lees had three more children in Halifax, including Albert. Albert recalls that their household was a hub of activity in the small, tight-knit Chinese community.
‘[Some of the bachelor men] had problems where they were lonely and some of them gambled and a few of them had drinking problems.’
In this clip, Albert Lee discusses his memories of the bachelor men who lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, during his childhood. He gives a few examples of difficulties that these men faced, and speculates on why some of them remained in Canada, rather than returning to China.
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