I was referred to the Chinese Canadian Military Museum in my quest for more information about the Canadian Soldiers who fought in Borneo towards the end of the Second World war. In particular Captain Fong, my grandpa aka Ah Kung's hero.
Larry replied in his capacity as the curator of the museum, and through him, I was so elated that Captain Fong was most likely to be an alias of a real person Captain Roger Cheng. To my Ah Kung's descendants, it was like a breath of fresh air. Our Ah Kung did not dream Captain Fong up.
A flurry of emails, and I felt he was an old friend. I sent Larry a copy of my book, and he sent his.
When I received it, I googled Larry, and below was my reply to him.
Hi Larry,
You kept a very low profile, and after I googled you, I felt like this Chinese/mandarin saying, "Yu Yen bu shi Tai Shan" Translated as Got eyes and don't recognise Tarzan. I am most honoured.
Today, we have news about SS Ventnor, the ship that was taking home 449 Chinese, I came to your The editors of this website, including Larry Wong, posted some information about Chinese reburial customs on the Ask Larry page of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BCwebsite." Wow!!!!
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/02/larry-wongs-dim-sum-stories.html
Larry Wong's Dim Sum Stories
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 |
First aired on North by Northwest (27/01/12)
Dim Sum, the Chinese-style of cuisine featuring many delectable dishes of dumplings and bite-sized morsels, can be literally translated to mean "touch the heart."
It's clear that Larry Wong's memoir Dim Sum Stories: A Chinatown Childhood aims to have the same effect. It's an affectionate look back at growing up in Vancouver's Chinatown during the 1940s and '50s, and paints the portrait of a man very close to Wong's own heart: his father.
"I guess it's redemption on my part," he told CBC's North by Northwest recently. "I grew up with three siblings and they all left home by the time I was in my early teens so my father treated me as an only child. But because I was in my teens, we often had fights, arguments, differences, and I said things that I really now do regret quite a bit. I guess, being an adult, I sort of look back and it's like 'Oh God, I shouldn't have treated him like that. So in a sense it's sort of like redemption on my part."His father, and his journey from a Chinese village to settling in Canada, is a major part of Dim Sum Stories. The senior Wong's story is much like those of other Chinese who immigrated to British Columbia during and following the gold rush. After setting up a shirt-tailoring store, he was able to save and borrow enough to bring his wife and children over.
As to be expected with a book titled Dim Sum Stories, food is a frequent topic of discussion, and some of Wong's most treasured moments with his father happened with chopsticks in hand.
"When he closed up shop, he would make supper and after supper he would leave me alone to go down to Hastings Street to help his friend George," Wong said. "If he felt lucky he would go into one of the gambling clubs on Pender Street, and if he happened to hit it rich, he would go to a Chinese restaurant, which in those days were open until two in the morning. It was called the New Chung King and he would order chow mein. He would take it home and because he wanted to celebrate his winnings he would wake me up. So I would eat the chow mein and he would tell me about how he won at the gambling table and how happy he was...and then he made me go to bed!"
Dim Sum Stories: A Chinatown Childhood
by Larry Wong
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