Portrait of Wong Shee , 1922
Photograph

Wong Shee immigrated to Canada in 1922 when she was thirty years old. She was a widow in a small Chinese village, while her to-be-husband was a successful merchant in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Wong was brought over as a bride, but she had no idea that her husband was twenty-eight years older than her. Wong continued to wear Chinese clothes for the rest of her life. Though she adopted Canadian fashion shortly after she immigrated, there was always a Chinese piece underneath her Western outfits. Wong’s mix and matching of Chinese and Canadian fashion was an aesthetic choice and a statement to stay connected with her Chinese heritage. To deliver Chinese cultural knowledge, Wong made each of her Canadian-born grandchildren a pair of Chinese-style slippers every year. It is a way for Wong to inspire cultural pride and curiosity in the third-generation Chinese Canadians.

Exhibited by:

Violet Wolfe

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