This site is devoted to the genealogy of Chinese families from an area of Guangdong, China (中國廣東)commonly known as Siyi (四邑) or four counties. The counties are Xinhui (新會), Taishan (台山), Kaiping (開平), and Enping (恩平). The families in this area have much in common besides geographic location. The great majority trace their origin to China’s central plain. Each faamily may have different reasons for leaving the Central Plains and migrated southward. The most common would be fleeing the turmoil caused by an invading nomad tribe, internal uprising or natural disaster. This southward journey happened in multiple stages and over hundreds of years. Each major unrest or disaster drove them further south until they finally settled in their current locations. In many cases this final settlement took place five to six hundred years ago.

Due to crowded living condition and lack of agrarian land the migration, however, continued. At first a small number headed to the South Pacific. Since the 1850′s an increasing large number had crossed the Pacific and Indian Oceans in search of work. This is not a true migration in that they seldom settled in their new locations due to cultural and political reasons. This, however, began to change in the latter half of the 20th century as the Western nations amended their immigration policies primarily because of the overseas Chinese’s contributions to the war effort during World War II. This coupled with events in China made many decided to have their families joined them and settled in the foreign land.

A place of great significant during this southward migration is Zhujixiang, Nanxiong (南雄珠璣巷). A vast majority of the families in the Pearl River Delta area trace their roots to there. One can say it is Pearl River Delta genealogy’s equivalent to the Americans’ Mayflower and Plymouth Rock.

The surnames we are actively researching are: Chan, Chow, Der, Kwan, Lee, Mak, Wong, and Zhao (陳周謝關李麥黃趙). So far we only have time to compile some of the information on the Chow (周), Der (謝), Lee (李), and Zhao (趙).

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We have very little, if not no, information on his life prior to 166BC (漢文帝十四年). Thanks to the great historian Sema Qian (司馬遷) we have a good account of his life and the fate of his family from that point on.

Sema Qian began by saying Lee Guang was from Xingji, Longxie (隴西成紀). The family had a long and distinguished military history. One of the ancestors was Lee Xin (李信), the Qin general (秦將) best known for capturing Prince Dan (太子丹). The family was known for its excellent archery and horsemanship.

In 166BC (漢文帝十四年) the nomadic Xiongnus (匈奴) invaded China. Lee Guang and his adopted brother, Lee Tsoi (李蔡), took part in the defence effort by joining the army. Because of their exceptional skills in archery and horsemanship, they quickly attained the rank of Zhonglang (中郎) with an annual remuneration of 800 bushels and served as the emperor’s guards. The emperor, Han Wendi (漢文帝), lamented that Lee Guang wasn’t living at the time of Liu Pang (劉邦) because with his abilities he would’ve easily become a feudal lord of an area with ten thousand households (萬戶侯).

By 156BC (景帝初) Lee Guang was responsible for the defence of Longxie. In all Battles he showed exceptional courage and bravery. An example was the campaign against the Wu and Chu (吳、楚) under the command of Zhou Ahfu (周亞夫). He attacked the Wu forces and captured the enemy’s banner. However, his bravery had many feared he would eventually be killed during a scrimmage.

When the Xiongnus invaded Shangjun (上郡) the emperor sent one of his servants with the title Chonggui Ren (中貴人) to serve under Lee Guang. One day the Chonggui Ren with a small group of calvary encountered three Xiongnus and attacked. The Xiongnus fought back, wounded the Chonggui Ren and slaughtered the rest. Chonggui Ren escaped and reported to Lee Guang who concluded the three must be condor hunters, the best of archers.

Lee Guang decided to track them down with a force of one hundred calvary. By now the three had lost their and were on foot. After his troops surrounding them Lee Guang challenged them to an archery duo. He killed two and captured the other whom confirmed they were indeed condor hunters.

Just as they were about to return with their captive, they were approached by a Xiongnu force of several thousand. Upon seeing Lee Guang’s small force they thought they had encountered the Han (漢) army’s decoy or bait for an ambush. With great precaution, they lined up on top of a hill. Upon seeing this display of force struck fear in Lee Guang’s calvary who wanted nothing more than a panic retreat.

But Lee Guang said, “We are far from our base if we retreat the enemy with its superior number would crush us. But if we stay they’ll think we are here to bait them and wouldn’t dare to attack.”

He order his troops forward till they were within the enemy’s range of fire. Then he ordered them to dismount and unsaddle their horses. These action further confirmed the Xiongnus’ suspicion of a trick and refrained from attacking. Later, Lee Guang saw a Xiongnu general on a white horse drifted apart from the rest of his troops. There upon Lee Guang and ten odd soldiers mounted, charges and killed the white horse general with their arrows. At nightfall the Xiongnus now fully convinced of a Hans ambush which would take place under the cover darkness decided to withdraw.

The Xiongnus admired Lee Guang so much that there was a standing order in battle he was to be captured only. Thus later during the reign of Emperor Wu, Lee Guang went on an expedition against the Xiongnus. Being badly outnumbered, he was wounded and captured. His captors placed him in a hammock between two horses. Lee Guang faked unconscious to lower his captors’ guards and to bid his time. After travelling a distance, an opportunity presented itself when a rider on a fast horse came by. Guang leaped onto the horse, pushed the rider off and took his bow. He headed back and rejoined the Han forces. Along the way he killed a number of his pursuers with the stolen bow and arrows. According to the Han Dynasty law Guang was held accountable for the heavy lost and his brief POW status. Capital punishment was the prescribed sentence. Because of his past heroic deeds, Guang was stripped of his ranks and booted out of the royal court instead.

Several years later the Xiongnus started to make forays into China again. The Chinese court finally realized Lee Guang’s value to the defense against these forays and pardoned him. The Xiongnus’s respect for Guang was so great they called him Han’s Flying General (漢之飛將軍) and avoided the area he was stationed.

Legend has it that one evening Lee Guang was out patrolling. From the corner of his eyes he saw movements in the tall grass and a tiger-like form. Guang drew his bow and fired an arrow. All was quiet. In the morning, Guang and his troops returned to investigate. In the tall grass was a large rock pierced by Guang’s arrow.

In 121BC Guang took part in one of Emperor Wu’s campaigns against the Xiongnus. Guang and his four thousand cavalry were assigned to the flank. After foraying into enemy territory they encountered the enemy, a force of forty thousand. In face of such overwhelming odd many of Guang’s troop showed fear. In an effort to settle his troops down Guang ordered one of his sons and a small group to charge the enemy. The troops settled down after seeing this small group not only charged through the enemy line but was able to do a reversal and rejoined them.

In preparation for the pending attack, Guang ordered his troops into a circular formation. In the ensuing attack Guang lost more than half of his troops. They had just about fired all their arrows. Guang’s next order was to cease firing. He used his extra strong long bow to pick off several of the enemy’s generals which stemmed the on slaughter for the day.

The next day the battle started again. However, at this critical moment Han reinforcement arrived. The Xiongnus retreated. Again Guang’s bravery and merits were cancelled by the heavy casualties.

Two years later, 119BC, Emperor Wu embarked on another campaign against the Xiongnus. Guang asked to be included but was refused due to advanced age. Guang persisted and Emperor Wu finally relented. However, the supreme commander, General Wei Qing (衛青), believing Guang was old and his luck bad assigned him to the right flank and attacked from the eastern route (東道) which was much more round about.

Guang’s request for reassignment to the advance striking force was rejected. Reluctantly, Guang set out on the east route. As luck would have it, Guang and his troops lost their way and failed to join up with the rest of the Han army. Guang took full responsibility for the mishap. Rather than allowing himself to be humiliated again by the unfair Han regulation and petty bureaucrats, he drew his sword and committed suicide.

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The next time I met Margaret’s parents was a week before the wedding. Again, time was tight. This time it was my turn to be on the run. As it so happened, both of our families were living in other parts of the country and all were arriving at different times which resulted in the seemingly endless trips to the airport plus all the odds and ends that required time. Later in the week, her out-of-town nephews arrived and took up some of her time. We’ve had to wait another two years before we became acquainted.

She was born in An Min Lai, Kaiping County, Guangdong, China, (中國廣東開平縣安民里) April 1, 1911. She was the second daughter but fourth child of Wing Shui Xie whose hao was Yu Zuo (謝永述號堯作) and Guan Shui (關瑞) who had a total of three sons and five daughters.

We don’t have much information on her formative years except she, unlike the majority of rural children of the time, received some formal education but wasn’t able to continue as her elders followed the tradition of giving the girls minimal or no education. We learned in later years that after her marriage she tried valiantly to self-educate. But she met great resistance from her in-laws. Despite the opposition, at the end, she learnt enough and was able to correspond with her husband who worked in Canada.

In 1928 she was married to Cho Lai Chow (周麗操) who five years ago went to Canada, stayed and worked with his two uncles. This marriage was arranged through the efforts of her eldest sister, Kung Di (謝拱娣) whose husband’s village is close to the Chow’s. The following year she gave birth to a baby boy. Sadly, the baby didn’t survived. She seldom talked about this child but we know he was always on her mind because she expressed a desire to follow the Chinese tradition of him adopting a male child of her other sons (過繼) to carry on this line.

On November 8, 1929, her husband boarded the Empress of Russia and returned to Canada. Because of world events it would be over twenty years before they would see each other again.

At the conclusion of World War II, an application was made to the Canadian Parliament to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923. Taking advantage of this change in Canada’s immigration policy, her husband applied and became a Canadian citizen in 1949. Immediately he applied for his wife of twenty years to join him in Canada. From Hong Kong she boarded a CP Air flight, Empress of the Air, and landed at Vancouver on February 10, 1950 where her husband was waiting. Together they took the train to Elrose, Saskatchewan where Cho Lai Chow owned and operated the Liberty Cafe. Over the next six years they had three children, their only daughter, Margaret (周惠連), two sons, Harry (周錦達) and Kam (周錦東).

During the same period of time, they arranged to bring three nephews from China over to Canada. They are:

* Ming Chow (周錦信)
* Kam Fay Chow (周錦煇)
* Jim Der (謝丁財)

All three were in their late teens, no more than a year apart in age. All stayed and worked at the cafe until they were old enough to go out on their own. She had the satisfaction of seeing them become successful in life and eventually started families of their own. But she was hurt by the actions of a couple of them. She never really talked about it. I would think the sharpest and deepest hurt came in the early 60’s. At the time the Canadian government was investigating the Chinese immigration irregularities of “Paper Sons” which involved the selling and buying of immigration documents. And that was the one and only route available for the three nephews to come to Canada. One of them, however, turned against his aunt and uncle. As a result, the RCMP made an unexpected visit.

Margaret remembers that her family was traumatized. To this day, Margaret’s recollection of this event comes with mixed emotions. She doesn’t remember the time span but she knew her parents were very upset and worried, particularly her mother who was trying to hide her tears most of the time and feared being sent back to China. Margaret’s parents did not want to talk about these matters with her and her younger brothers. Since Margaret and her brothers were born in Canada, she says that she didn’t fully understand the seriousness of the situation until much later. She remembered a flurry of phone calls to and from some relatives and some people within the local Chinese community in Moose Jaw. She remembered that, even though she was only a child at the time, she felt helpless and confused. To this day, she has not talked about this time period with her brothers, not knowing whether they remembered or want to be reminded of those past days. Because Margaret did not comprehend the situation at that time, the RCMP’s unannounced visit to their home was a total shock and surprise. The visit came during a late afternoon or evening. Her father ushered her and her brothers out of the living room to one of bedrooms with instructions to do their homework, while telling the RCMP that the children knew nothing. Through the closed bedroom door, Margaret remembered hearing the two male officers interviewing and questioning her father, going through certain documents and photographs of family relations. The visit lasted several hours. The officers left, taking some of her father’s papers and photographs with them. From this time forward, Margaret remembered her father hiring a lawyer to sort everything out. Margaret believes that there were ongoing investigations into other Chinese families also in this similar situation. From what she could recall and from all indications, no charges would be laid against all the families once they gave the correct and factual information regarding their immigration documentation. Margaret doesn’t know whether there were fines or not. The RCMP eventually returned the documents and photographs taken from Margaret’s parents, even though her mother insisted to her father that one important photograph was not returned. When going through my father-in-law’s possessions and papers, I noticed on the back of many documents – in unfamiliar handwriting –were numbers denoting them as part of a series, the date “October 17, 1962″ and an initial which bear testimony to the happenings of that day.

However, my mother-in-law and father-in-law didn’t let this nephew’s actions against them and the resulting consequences spoiled their belief in people. Far from being discouraged, they took advantage of Canada’s more liberal immigration policies of the 70’s and sponsored her youngest brother Ping An Xie’s (謝平安) son, Tho Lim Der (謝 素林),and his wife and their two young daughters to Canada. Tho Lim Der immigrated first, who in 1980 arrived at Moose Jaw. A year later his family joined him there. In 1986 they moved to Vancouver where they now reside.

After Margaret’s family moved to Moose Jaw in 1960, my mother-in-law started another garden where she grew Chinese vegetables. Every year she would send us a box of her harvest by inter-provincial bus (Greyhound Bus Lines). The first time I saw her melons, jie gua (節瓜), my eyes were the size of golf balls. The jie guas were the size of winter melons (冬瓜) or about 10 times larger than normal. So we used them as winter melons. Great soup!

One of her desires was to move from Moose Jaw to Vancouver. During her last trip to Vancouver, we even took her to look at “open houses.” Unfortunately, her health started to deteriorate soon after her return to Moose Jaw. Knowing her wishes, the family decided it is fitting that her final resting place should be in the Vancouver area.

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Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

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Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

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He was born in the steppe of Central Asia to a Chinese family whose ancestors migrated there from China to escape the turmoil there when Lee Yun (李淵) and his sons were busy establishing the Tang Dynasty (唐朝). In 705 the family returned to China and settled in Szechuen (四川).

In 725, twenty-five year old Li Bai left Szechuen in search of opportunities to secure a high position in the royal court and be part of the governing elite. The most common route was to take the royal exam (科舉). However, all participants in the royal exam must give information on their previous three generations. The fact that Li Bai never did participated in the examination combined with his place of birth had many later day scholars speculating he might be the descendent of one of Lee Yun’s sons who lost the famous bloody struggle for the dragon throne (玄武門之變). Information on his ancestors might revealed this linkage and subjected him and his family to prosecution if not outright execution.

Li Bai chose another route. He spent years travelling in China, befriended many renown scholars and generally made a name for himself. In 743 he was appointed to be a member of Yu-lin (翰林供奉). However, Yu-lin was far from the seat of power. It was nothing more than the emperor’s personal poets society. Needless to say he was disappointed. Couple this with his tendency to offend those in power, his days in Ch’ang-an (長安) were numbered. He finally left in 746 and resumed his travel.

During the An-Si Rebellion (安史之亂), he saw what he considered as an opportunity to realize his goal of ascending the seat of power. Thus in 755 he joined the force led by the emperor’s 16th son, Prince Lin (永王璘). However, one of Lin’s brother Hun (李亨) had already ascended the throne. In the ensuing battles, Lin was defeated, captured and executed. Because of the association Li Bai was to be executed as well but for the great efforts of Kwok Tze-yi (郭子儀) who is credited with restoring the Tang Dynasty by leading the battle against the An-SI rebels. Instead he was exiled to Yelon (夜郎), present day Guizhou (貴州桐梓縣). While enroute, the old emperor (唐明皇) died and he was pardoned.

In 762 Li Bai died. Some said he died of illness due to his excess drinking over the year. While another said he was drown when in a drunken state he tried to scoop the moon out of the river.

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We don’t have a lot of information on him but from data on hand and knowledge of Chinese customs we can make certain deductions. Firstly, it is safe to say that Xie Wingshui was born in 1883 or there about. His second daughter and fourth child, Der She Chow, was born in 1911. Males at that time were generally married between the age of 16 and 20. If we take the medium age and assume he was married at 18. There seems to be a pattern of a child every other year. Then in 1911 he would have been 28 which means he was born in 1883.

From here we can establish the approximate year of his arrival in Canada. If they were to go overseas and work another common practice for them to leave at the age of 14 or slightly older. This means Xie Wingshui arrived in Canada around 1897 and paid the prevailing $50 head tax.

From what we know, he stayed in the BC Lower Mainland area and worked in the vegetable farms. Since this was seasonal work thus he would returned to China during the off-seasons to save on the living expenses. He may not had made the trip every year but at least every other year.

During WWI he again returned to China. He stayed as long as permitted by his Canadian traveling paper. Made his way to Hong Kong to catch the steamship for the journey to Canada. However, the better ships were requested by the government for the war effort. After seeing the rust bucket masqueraded as passenger ship and recalled the soothsayer’s warning, he decided to postpone his return journey to Canada. Earlier a fortune teller had warned he would die away from home. In seeing the ship’s condition, he decided not to tempt fate.

Safety was a compelling reason for him to wait but there are cultural reasons also. To the Chinese, especially those of the older generations, the concept of “fallen leaves return to the root (落葉歸根)” is of utmost important. This is based upon the true home-grown Chinese religion, ancestor worship. In ancient time not worship one’s ancestors was cause enough for the a leader’s removal. Chinese history is littered with references of appointing a male heir to ensure the offerings were made at the appropriate times. It became the unspoken obligations to make offerings to one’s ancestors om all important occasions and to visit the grave sites at least twice a year, Spring and Autumn, for offerings and maintenance. Because of poor transportation and the associated high cost people die while traveling most likely wouldn’t be buried in the family or clan’s ancestral burial ground and have their graves tended to.

Unfortunately, during the War most ships were requisitioned by the government and commercial ships were few and far in between. Consequently Xie Wingshui missed the return deadline on his travelling Canadian paper. He started to sell seedings at Taishan City (台城) which is in another county but not far from his village. All was well until 1939 when the Japanese invasion finally reached the area. One of the Japanese tactics was to bomb local cities and towns. He was caught in one of these daytime raids and killed. Thus in a way he met fate on the road he took to avoid it.

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As there is no record of Lee Soon entering the country and as there is also no record of the ship he lists on his naturalisation application as having travelled on, it is assumed he was one of the many Chinese immigrants tricked into paying the Victorian Immigration tax before leaving Hong Kong only to be dumped off the South Australian coast near Robe and Left to their own devices. During a large fire in Hong Kong most of the departure records were destroyed and therefore there is no official record of him leaving China.

The first record of Lee Soon in Australia is to be found in the Ballarat Star Newspaper, dated early December 1867, in which his intention to apply to the justices sitting at the court of petty sessions, to be held on January 2nd 1866, for a certificate authorising the issuing of a publicans licence to open a house situated at the Chinese township of a Golden Point. This was to be known as the Golden Point Hotel. In 1870 he applied for and was granted naturalisation, of which a copy of the correspondence and certificate are available.

On the 4th October 1871, Lee Soon married Elizabeth Houston at Ballarat. Elizabeth was the Daughter of a pastry cook named John Houston, who was also Chinese but who had changed his name upon being baptised, and Mary Houston,( nee. Naylon) of Irish Descent.

Elizabeth was born in Corio Street Geelong on the 24th December 1856 showing she was not quite 15 years of age when she married Lee Soon, disputing the age of seventeen which is shown on the marrage register. It appears this was an arranged marriage, which was customary amongst the Chinese at the time. This was later born out by their daughter who told her Children that her mother had been sold into marriage.

On the 2nd of August 1872 Lee Soon appeared before the courts on a chage a perjury for which he was found not guilty. At that time Lee Soon and Elizabeth were living in a house in Young Street, China Town.

Their first Child was born on the 8th December 1873 and named Levina Muade. Their Second child was born on 2nd June 1875 and was named Sydney James. In 1887 Lee Soon was listed as operating a gaming house, gambling being a favourite pastime of many Chinese at that time.

In 1878 Lee Soon became the publican at the John O’Groates Hotel and it was during this year their third child, James Houston was born. After the birth of James, Elizabeth was very weak and confined to bed. Each day , Catherine White, a family friend whose husband George is shown as a witness to the marriage of Lee Soon and Elizabeth, travelled the two-mile distance to nurse Elizabeth and James. As she could not continue to do so, it was agreed she would take James home to her house where she could tend to him whilst Elizabeth recovered.

James was described as a feeble child and Catherine tried to feed him a mixture of milk and maizena in order for him to gain some form of nourishment. On the 5th October 1878, James at the age of one month, died at the home of Catherine and George White. An inquest into the cause of death found he had died as a result of the administration of improper food through the ignorance of his nurse, Catherine White. (a copy of the inquest findings are available.)

It is assumed the family remained at the same location until 1881 when Lee Soon was listed as the manager of a wine shop some ten doors down the street. The premises comprised a shop and dwelling in which the family resided until the death of Lee Soon in 1883 as a result of heart disease. Lee Soon was buried in the Chinese section of the New Ballarat Cemetery where his grave can still be found today.

Lee Soon was described as being a well-groomed man, dressed in suits and wearing his hair in a ponytail, which was the custom of his native land. It is believed Lee Soon was a gambling man as it would seem there were periods during his life in Ballarat when he was quite wealthy, buying his wife jewellry etc. and running his own businesses, then later working for others.

Lee Soon and Elizabeth also adopted two children, a boy found on the steps of the Barkly Hotel and therefore named Barkley and a girl named Ethyl. Nothing is known of Barkley but it is known that Ethyl remained in contact with the family in later years.

After the death of Lee Soon, Elizabeth remarried a Chinese market gardener named Ah Lee and moved to Dimboola where they worked allotment 11. Elizabeth died in May 1904 at the age of forty-one and was listed as being buried in the Dimboola cemetery although inspection of cemetery records shows no record of this.. At this time, Ethyl was listed as the only dependant as the other children had all left home.

Ah Lee remained in contact with his stepdaughter Levina, occaisionally travelling to Melbourne to visit her and her family. On these occaisions, Levina would meet Ah Lee in Melbourne and they would travel to her home by horse and buggy. Whilst they were travelling through populated areas, Ah Lee would hide under a blanket for he was obviously Chinese in appearance and fraternisation with the Chinese was frowned upon by society of the time.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2000
Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER — With their numbers dwindling each year, Chinese Canadians who had to pay a head tax to enter the country a lifetime ago are suing the federal government to try to get redress for the discriminatory practice.

The claim, which would total more than $1-billion, comes after years of trying to put political pressure on Ottawa for compensation and an apology for the country’s mistreatment of Chinese immigrants.

“The head-tax payers cannot wait any longer,” Yuen Hing Tse, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council, said at a news conference in Vancouver yesterday. She added that many are in their nineties.

For years, Canada treated Chinese immigrants differently than it treated those from other countries. They were not permitted to vote, they could not bring in wives from their homeland, and most of these long-ago immigrants were forced to pay the government a head tax to arrive in Canada.

Yesterday, the council announced that three Chinese Canadians, who will represent all families who had to pay a head tax or put up with a blatantly racist exclusion act passed by the government, have filed a statement of claim in Ontario Court to force Ottawa to make amends.

The statement of claim, which contains allegations that have yet to be proven in court, states that the government collected approximately $23-million at the time from Chinese head-tax payers. Today, that is equivalent to more than $1-billion plus interest.

To stem immigration from China, the federal government imposed a $50 head tax in 1885, shortly after Chinese labourers were no longer required to toil on the Canadian Pacific Railway. This tax for entering the country was raised to $100 in 1890 and $500 in 1904. Immigrants from other countries paid nothing.

Then came the Chinese Immigration Act, an even harsher law, passed in July, 1923, at the urging of the British Columbia government. The act barred Chinese from entering Canada, preventing wives in China from joining their husbands.

The representative plaintiffs are:

Shack Jang Mak, 93, now in a nursing home near Toronto. “He and his wife were separated for 22 years because of the exclusion act, and he paid the head tax,” council president May Cheng said.

Quen Ying Lee, 89, widow of Sudbury restaurateur Guang Foo Lee, who paid the $500 tax as a young man but was unable to bring her and their children to Canada until he was in his fifties.

Their son Yew Lee, 50, of Chelsea, Que.

Mr. Lee, named to represent the descendants of those affected by the measures, said his parents lived on separate continents for 20 years and were completely out of communication while war and famine ravaged China between 1937 and the late 1940s. “I guess she put her faith in him coming back, she was faithful to the marriage, and my father had faith in Canada as a place for a new life,” he said.

The council registered 2,600 claimants in 1984 and Ms. Tse said more surviving head-tax payers, spouses and descendants will join the lawsuit.

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