Hong Leonard, Lillian
Lillian Hong Leonard was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charles Hong and Lim Megan Hong. Charles Hong was 12 years old when he immigrated to Canada with his father in 1923. He returned to China to marry Lim, and the couple gave birth to two daughters. Because of The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 and subsequent immigration restrictions, Lim and her daughters remained in China until around 1954, when they immigrated to Canada. Lillian was born in 1957, two years after the family established their first laundry business on Clyde Street and Birmingham Street in Halifax. Lim worked alongside her husband in addition to cooking all the meals and looking after their three daughters. When Charles and Lim closed the doors of Hong’s Laundry in 1978 (then located on Dresden Row), it was one of the last businesses of its kind in Canada. The remaining equipment became part of the Canadian Museum of Civilization collection, and was featured in the exhibition, Enduring Hardship: The Chinese Laundry in Canada (2000).
‘[S]he made food or dumplings and pastries and all these delicacies that I wish I had recipes for now. They were so wonderful, but she never had a recipe. She just did them off her head.’
In this clip, Lillian Hong Leonard discusses her mother Lim Hong’s skill as a cook, and her ingenuity in getting a hold of traditional Chinese ingredients in Halifax, Nova Scotia, even if it meant making her own ingredients.
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