Lee, Janet
Janet Lee was born in 1949 to Mamie and David Chu Lee. Mamie Lee (née Howe) was Canadian-born herself, having grown up as the daughter of a railroad worker in Rainy River, Ontario. As one of the few Canadian-born Chinese girls of her era, Janet says Mamie always had ‘one foot in Canadian culture and one foot in Chinese culture.’ She and David migrated to Halifax in the late 1930s or early 1940s, where they settled. The family became part of the small, close-knit Chinese community in Halifax, Nova Scotia, taking part in organizations such as the Lee Society. Mamie Lee did not fit the stereotypical portrait of a Chinese woman born in the early 1900’s. Very intelligent, articulate, and with a mind of her own - she showed great determination in dealing, not only with the ever changing social norms expected of woman, but that of Chinese Canadian women. Although Mamie did not have the opportunity to study past grade ten as a teenager, she fulfilled her dream of going to university when she studied sociology at St. Mary’s University, Halifax, after her children were grown.
‘There was always some ruler and some princess and some fighting… then there would be singing and then there would be all of it. But nobody could understand it [and] yet it was really important to us to go.’
In this audio clip, Janet Lee recalls her childhood memories of Cantonese Kung Fu and opera films, which were screened on Sunday afternoons in a theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She and her Canadian-born friends could not understand the dialogue, but knew it was important to attend the films because they were a connection to Chinese culture.
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