Gim Foon Wong Archives

On June 3, 2005, 82-year-old Gim Foon Wong set off on his Ride for Redress. Starting at Mile Zero in Victoria, he planned to arrive in Ottawa July 1 on his Honda Goldwing motorbike, accompanied by his son Jeffrey. He planned to have a few words with Prime Minister Paul Martin about the brutal Chinese head tax that cost his mother and father each $500 in the early 1900s.

Humiliation Day:

July 1, is of course, Canada Day, but it’s also known in Chinese circles as “Humiliation Day.” It was on July 1, 1923 when the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, banning Chinese immigration to Canada for the next 24 years.

Sid Chow Tan, a writer, producer and activist, looked after the PR for Gim’s ride. “I’m a Gim Wong champion,” Sid told me. “I first met Gim in 1985. He had a mouth on him and he wasn’t afraid to open it. He went against everybody.”

Backstory:

Gim was born on December 28, 1922, on the edge of Vancouver’s Chinatown. He was one of eight children, and at the age of 17, tried to enlist in the war. He kept getting turned down until recruiters eventually signed him up in 1944. Gim trained as an air gunner, became a flight engineer, and at 22, was one of the youngest Chinese Canadian commissioned officers in the RCAF.

This love of aircraft morphed into a fascination with all things mechanical and Gim operated an Auto Body shop with the slogan Wreck-o-Mended, for many years on East Hastings near Commercial Drive. He raced midget Sprint Cars at the Digney Speedway (operated in Burnaby at McPherson and Rumble Street between 1948 and 1958) and he owned 23 motorcycles (though not all at the same time).

Gim Wong's Ride for Redress — Banner created by Fanna Yee, 2005. Eve Lazarus photo, 2021

Reaching Ottawa:

But back to Ottawa. Gim arrived in the capital wearing his Second World War uniform and proudly sporting his medals. He got within shouting distance of Prime Minister Martin, but the RCMP were unimpressed and wouldn’t let him through. Gim returned to Vancouver, believing that his ride was a failure. The government refused to apologize, there was no talk of compensation, and the media moved onto other stories.

Things changed the following year. In 2006, the Liberals were kicked out of office. And, on June 22, 2006, newly elected PM Stephen Harper formally apologized to Chinese Canadians. Four months later around 400 survivors or their spouses received $20,000 each. About 82,000 Chinese paid the head tax.

Gim Foon Wong died in 2013, he was 90.

Further reading/watching:

Mickleburgh, Rod. Globe & Mail, October 1, 2013. “Gim Foon Wong’s motorcycle ride turned the tide on Chinese head-tax redress.”
Music Video: Gim Wong: Kick-ass dragon man (warning it’s very catchy, I’ve been singing it non-stop since first watching the clip a couple of days ago).
Whose Chinatown?

The Wong Wing family on Keefer Street. Yucho Chow photo, 1914. Yucho Chow Community Archive

I had the pleasure of visiting Griffin Art Projects with Tom Carter last Saturday. It’s a gallery of sorts hidden in an industrial building on Welch Street in North Vancouver. The exhibit features stories, photos, videos and paintings about Chinatowns in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, many from private collections.

The Band at the W.K. Gardens, ca.1950. Tom Carter collection

Some of Tom’s personal collection is featured and includes everything from scrapbooks from the Marco Polo, to postcards from Ming’s and Bamboo Terrace in the late ‘50s to souvenir photos from Mandarin Gardens and Forbidden City. These Chinatown nightclubs offered revues, dance bands and floor shows.

Tom Carter with some of his collection from the Marco Polo. Eve Lazarus photo.

Emily Carr’s sketch of a Chinese boy in 1908 is included as is a terrific display from the Vancouver School of Art. Yitkon Ho was in the first graduating class in 1929 along with Beatrice Lennie, Vera Weatherbie (Fred Varley’s young mistress), Fred Amess and Irene Hoffar. There are also some sketches and information about Eugene Bond, a Chinese student and one of two Asian models at the art school.

There are also some fabulous photos by Fred Herzog and Jim Wong-Chu, several of which I was seeing for the first time. And, Yucho Chow also has photos ranging from the Dominion Produce Company in the 1930s and the Ming Wo store in the early 1920s to the wonderful portraits of Chinese families that Catherine Clement drew attention to in her book: Chinatown Through a Wide Lens.

A banner tells the story of Gim Foon Wong. In 2005 when he was 82 he rode his motorcycle to Ottawa with a dozen other bikers in what became known as Gim Wong’s Ride for Redress so he could have a chat with the PM about the Chinese head tax. The banner, which Tom tells me was created by our friend Elwin Xie, was auctioned off at a Montreal dinner to raise enough money so Wong could get home. He received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

The exhibition runs until May 1. You can book online—Tom and I were the only visitors in our half hour slot which made the whole visit quite magical.

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