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Land Purchase Certificate
, 1951
paper
This land purchase certificate shows that Lillian Sam (Lowe) and her mother Wong See purchased a property at 1970 East 7th Avenue in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was a huge deal to own land for a Chinese Canadian woman at Lillian’s time. Born in 1919, when Chinese immigrants had to pay a head tax that impoverished them to enter Canada, Lillian became a co-owner of a house with her mother in 1951. This certificate is a testament to her independence and resilience, besides her fashion, to navigate life as an isolated person in Canadian society.