Interview with Gee Don Tom, Chinese immigration to Edmonton in the 1950s

When did you come to Canada?


1949.


Why did you come to Canada?


My husband applied for me to come over.


Why did your husband come to Edmonton?


Somebody sponsored my husband, Stanley Gee (Gee Yu Sum), over, but I don’t remember the person’s name.


Where did you come from?


I came from [? a small city] in Toi Shan directly to Edmonton.


Do you have a special memory of Edmonton back in the 1950s?


My husband had a coffee and grocery shop inside a building on 97th street [old Pearl City restaurant building]. Now it’s a family drug store. I was the cashier for the shop. I was quite happy. There weren’t many Chinese people in Edmonton at that time, compared to now. There were only 2 or 3 Chinese families here at the time, very few. A lot of people would come to buy lunch and buy coffee and eat there.


Do you have any regrets about moving to Canada?


All of my children live here. When I came to Canada, the communist party took over in China and I didn’t want to go back. I had no more relatives back home. I never went back to China.


Did you have any special memories about the store?


The store was opened in 1948. We sold the grocery shop in 1964. We closed it because my husband was getting old and couldn’t manage it – he retired. I talked in Chinese and didn’t speak in English in the shop at the time. I was able to operate the cashier machine. I know numbers in English. We lived above the coffee/grocery shop. We owned the entire building. My husband bought the building in 1948.


Did you have a lot of friends here?


I had no friends. My husband had more friends, but I didn’t. But I have 2 sons, 1 daughter, 11 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. I have 1 son and 1 nephew in Edmonton. Before moving into the seniors lodge, I lived with my son. Then my son bought his own home and moved out and I moved into the seniors’ home. The other son is in the USA.


Now, I’ll just back track a little. When were you married?


I got married at the age of 20 (1925). When I came to Canada, I was 40. I was born in 1906. My husband was born in 1898 (Ching Dynasty 24).


Did you have any worries about coming to Canada?


When my husband applied for me to come over, we were worried about the communist movement in China. But I didn’t like the cold weather, the snow and I couldn’t speak English. I still don’t like the cold and don’t know English. My sons were born in China and my daughter was born in Canada. My husband actually came to Canada at the age of 23 and went back to China to get married when he was 27. My husband traveled back and forth between Canada and China. On each trip, I conceived a son. Before 1949, the immigration regulations in Canada didn’t allow “family reunion” immigration, and so I stayed in China. But the rules changed and my husband applied for us to come over. I was the first woman to come over to Canada under those new rules.