Lives of the Family Read Online Free Page B

defence of Hong Kong against the Japanese and had paid a heavy price in casualties, both in battle and in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. China had fought on the side of the Allies, and Chinese men and women in Canada had voluntarily enlisted to help Canada’s war effort. The United States had repealed its own exclusion act in 1943. How much longer could Canada hold out?
    In 1947, the Canadian parliament relented. It lifted exclusion and restored the right of Chinese immigrants already resident in the country to become naturalized. The government announced that Chinese men who had acquired Canadian citizenship could apply to sponsor wives and dependent children.
    IN THE SUMMER OF 1949 , Fay-oi arrived home on vacation from her school in Canton. Her mother greeted her, looking grave: “I have a surprise for you.” She handed her a letter postmarked from Canada. Its contents shocked Fay-oi; her fatherhad sent instructions for herself, Second Mother and Youngest Brother to prepare to immigrate to Canada. However, he added, “if you’re not sure about leaving your mother now, you can always come later, as someone’s wife.”
    Fay-oi evaluated her life in China. No compelling reason presented itself for her to leave. The family had survived the war years. Min-hon had secured their future. He had dutifully followed their father’s advice: if and when the strife of war subsides, add to the family’s holdings of
mau tin
. Someone could steal a water buffalo or empty another’s larder, but cultivated land, which earned rental income, stayed put. But above all, Fay-oi was rejoicing in life as a family unit again. A year or so before the war ended, Min-hon and his wife had moved Yee-hing and Fay-oi from the village to live with them in a district market town near Canton. The couple had received an offer to establish a new school there. The job came with a large house set in a spacious garden with a lemon tree, a papaya tree and an apple tree amid the flowering shrubs. When Min-hon had proposed that mother and daughter join them, Yee-hing packed two suitcases without hesitation, locked the doors of the house on No. 2 Lane and gave the key to a relative.
    As Fay-oi saw it, her life already had the benefits of an overseas connection. Theirs was a household headed by a father whose money and attentions allowed them to live well. Every care package Harry sent indulged the women he’d left behind—a petticoat, a crinoline, seamed nylon stockings, leather gloves, once, a fur stole. A rich friend of her mother’s, who owned a seven-storey hotel a block from the waterfront in Canton, had befriended Min-hon, bringing Fay-oi intothe social circles of a cultured elite. Attendance at a private high school conferred on her the company of the children of doctors, lawyers and business people. How would life abroad be any more privileged than this?
    Yet, thought Fay-oi, if she went to Canada, apart from learning English, her adjustment to living in a white society probably wouldn’t be that difficult. Certainly, going abroad appealed to her adventurous streak. When she was perhaps eight or nine, she had decided to visit the wife of her uncle. The woman lived downriver in the next village, where Fay-oi had never been. Undaunted, she walked to the river and boarded a ferry. At the next stop, about four kilometres away, while waiting to disembark, she tugged at the sleeve of one of two ladies standing close beside her and asked politely for directions to her aunt’s house. Startled, each of the ladies asked her neighbour: “Aren’t
you
her
Mama?
”
    Yee-hing had waited two days before asking her daughter: “Have you made up your mind? Are you going to Canada?”
    During that time, tension had gripped the household. Min-hon, disappointed that he wasn’t the one going to Canada, had turned sullen. He’d never lost sight of his ambition to be a doctor of Western medicine, but he understood too that he’d never achieve the necessary