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 In 1949, after The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 had been repealed, Chuck traveled by boxcar to Vancouver, British Columbia to meet his newly-arrived wife and 14 year-old daughter.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.
‘All these Chinese restaurants, even though they were Chinese owned, didn't carry Chinese fare’
In this clip, Albert Lee describes the busy schedules of Chinese Canadian restaurateurs in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1952, Halifax had forty-four Chinese-owned restaurants in the downtown core. The owners and operators of these restaurants worked long hours, often seven days a week. Albert comments that many of these restaurants exclusively served what he describes as ‘Western fare’, with the exception of a few restaurants such as the Imperial Café.
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