Two oceans away, another kind of disaster, the potato famine, had forced huge swaths of the Irish population to board ships for the new world in the hopes of survival. The displaced arrived in such numbers that by 1871, they were a quarter of the population of English-speaking Canada. Crean's great-grandfather was among these immigrants.
On the edge of starvation and weakened by disease, the early arrivals received a cold welcome in the new land. The reason? They were Irish Catholics, and the English and Scots Protestants thought them different and untrustworthy. Indeed, Sir John A. Macdonald was an Orangeman. Yet in time, the Irish settled and melded into the community.
But the racist bias that buffeted Mr. Wong's life was far worse than that visited on the Irish. He faced the additional challenge of bridging a vast gap of language and culture. Yet in spite of the cold welcome he received in the new nation, Mr. Wong too made a life, knitting himself into a single family, at a time when, except for Chinatown, the community offered little connection. He liked cooking, developed his skill and worked to acquire English. He met Crean's grandfather and the two men trusted each other. Wong joined the household, promising to stand by the family.
As was the case for his fellow Chinese Canadians, social circumstances made it virtually impossible for Wong to marry. Along her siblings, Crean "grew up in Mr. Wong's kitchen," and took his love, care and guidance for granted. As a child, she knew little about his past, or his Chinatown forays. As an aging woman, she decided to research the history that would help her "find" Mr. Wong.
In doing so, she excavates our nation's past. The reader learns about the physical separation of the servant class, as expressed in the "upstairs downstairs" architecture of houses "comprising two interlocking parts that could be completely closed off from each other." The "backstairs" were the servants' entrance, and led to their invisible quarters.
The delusions of racial purity that were current at the time, as well as the strictures on female behaviour were enforced by powerful social sanctions. Crean's relating the story of Velma and Harry reminds us of the "racist and misogynist laws lurking in our history." When Velma fell in love with Harry Yip and they moved in together, the state quickly intervened. Velma was arrested, labelled "incorrigible," and locked up in a reformatory. The description of what went on there reads more like abuse than care. When Velma gave birth to Harry's son, he was taken away "for everyone's good." Fortunately, after a year of incarceration, she got out and married Harry, and they managed to retrieve their child.
"How is it," inquires the author, "that we don't even know [the Female Refuges Act] remained on the books in Ontario till 1964?" How have we forgotten the White Woman's Labour Laws that prevented Chinese businesses from employing "white" women? It behooves us to remember the Chinese Exclusion Act (1923 to 1947) that followed the infamous head tax era. What are we to make of the federal government's rebuff of RCAF veteran officer Gim Wong when he took the case for head-tax redress on the road in 2005, only a dozen years ago?
The history is a central part of the memoir, and the reader can enjoy warm glimpses of Wong, who made a new home for himself in an alien land. The reader gets more than the closure the author is seeking as she quests for some tangible evidence of Wong himself, long after the death of this very important childhood figure whom she took for granted. Only after visiting China is she able to find peace in her memory of Wong. Like The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King, this is a book that all Canadian high school students should read.
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