Material Type

Recording

Date Range

1994

Physical Condition

Excellent

History Biographical

The interview was done in conjunction with the Galt museum's video production

new hopes and new homes. Albert leong appears in the video.

Acquisition Source

Sir Alexander Galt Museum

Scope and Content

1 cassette tape. Approximately 25 minutes.interviewee: albert leong.interviewer: lori jarokosky, museum program leader.date: 12 december 1994. - Albert's father came to Canada at the turn of the century. He arrived in Vancouver and got a job working in a drugstore. He later opened his own store. - About 1926 his father bought a store in Lethbridge and moved all his medicine and their containers from Vancouver. Many of the containers were purchased second hand in Vancouver and are well over 100 years old. The store in Lethbridge had the medicines and groceries in the front part of the main floor. In the back room there was gambling, the rooms upstairs were rented out, and family lived downstairs. The family also owned the restaurant next door which they rented out. All the buildings along the block had the same layout - business/gambling on main floor, living quarters on the lower and upper floors. - Talks about the lottery his father ran in his store. - Talks about the fights that broke out, usually between the whites and Chinese, over gambling. - Talks about the Chinese market gardeners who would stop at the store for tea. There was always a pot of tea on. - Talks about the head tax on Chinese immigrants. When Albert's mother came in 1921 she had to pay a $500.00 head tax. - Albert's father had 4 wives. When he moved to Lethbridge 3 of the wives returned to China, and Albert's mother was the came to Lethbridge. Albert's father had 23 children -13 by Albert's mother, 7 between the other 3 wives, an adopted daughter, and 2 adopted sons. Chinese tradition is that a man can have as many wives as he can afford. Most of the Chinese businessmen in Lethbridge had a least 2 wives. - Albert's mother was 14 when she married Albert's father who was in his 40s. Albert's stepbrothers are older than his mother. - his oldest brother died a few years ago at age 92. His father was born in 1878 and died in 1967. - Albert took over the store (Bow On Tong) when his father died. - Talks about the Chinatown being a tight knit community, where everyone knew each other. - Talks about the Chinese Cemetery in Lethbridge and the practice of digging up the remains of the dead 7 years after the death to ship back to China. Albert was born in 1941, and recalls the practice being discontinued sometime after WWII. - In the late 1930s a Chinese boy was murdered in Lethbridge. He talks about his body being dug up. - The old Chinese cemetery is full, a there is a new section in Mountain View. - Albert and most of his sibblings were born at home. - Talks about people dying in their homes. - Relates some Chinatown ghost stories. The ghost stories reveal descriptions of Chinatown and Chinese customs.

Access Restrictions

Public Access

Accession No.

19971070001

Collection

Archive

Less detail