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 In 1949, after The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 had been repealed, Chuck traveled by boxcar to Vancouver, British Columbia to meet his newly-arrived wife and 14 year-old daughter.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.
‘Our sister was kind of like our baby-sitter and our mother was sort of like the chief cook and bottle washer.’
In this clip, Albert Lee discusses the tasks that his elder sister and his parents performed in the family. He recalls that his father insisted on driving Albert and his brothers to school, and speculates that it was because his father feared they would be bullied otherwise.
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