A 1926 photograph from the Library’s Chung Collection triggered a personal journey for Bryan Chong and his family. Unbeknownst to Chong, his uncle—Wong Siu Boon—was a goalie for a soccer team that went on to defeat the UBC varsity team in 1933. It struck Chong that he knew very little about his uncle and his family roots despite being a third generation Chinese-Canadian. His curiosity led him to explore his genealogy with his son and trace his family roots to Victoria.
In Victoria, Chong connected with university professor Dr. David Chuenyan Lai and discovered that his grandfather, Chong Hing Young, was a prominent and well-respected figure in Chinatown, having served as the English Secretary for the Chinese Freemasons and then as President of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.
Traveling with his wife and son, Chong was able to find his grandfather’s gravestone at Harling Point Cemetery, Victoria’s first and only Chinese cemetery and now a national historic site. The journey was so moving for Chong’s son Jeffery that it inspired him to create a documentary on the Chinese gravestones and their permanence in the pantheon of early BC history.
“We are our history,” Chong reflected when asked about the impact of the Chung Collection on his extraordinary journey of family discovery. “Tracing back my roots allowed me to get to know my grandfather and the previous generation and reinforces who I am today. Connecting with these artifacts has made my personal story come alive. For that, I am grateful that the Chung Collection has led me down this path.”
About the Collection
The Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection contains more than 25,000 rare and unique items documenting the early Chinese-Canadian immigrant experience. To explore the collection online, please visit chung.library.ubc.ca.
This story originally appeared in the 2013 Friends newsletter.