My family originates from Kaiping county (Hoy Ping in Cantonese) on the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China.

It was from this region that many early emigrants from China left their homeland to help build the new nation that is Canada. Throughout the late 1800's, members of my clan came to Canada to work on the railroad, and to this day, their remains are scattered across the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

At a young age, my paternal grandfather left his home forever to come to a strange land, then known as Gam Shan, [Gold Mountain]. Having paid the $500 head tax then unjustly imposed on all Chinese, he worked throughout western Canada and befriended a number of First Nations (aboriginal) peoples. Eventually becoming an accepted member of their communities.

Grandpa Wong was one of at least 12 members of our family who paid the Head tax.

Yes, the Head tax... the historic Headtax.

For more info on recent redress efforts with the Canadian Head Tax redress and apology, please visit my section on the HEADTAX (link here)
... and learn about some of our intelligence challenged Chinese-Canadian politicians, and have a look at the chronology of events leading up to the official Apology.

Additional information on the Head tax on this external Link from the Chinese Canadian National Congress: http://www.ccnc.ca/redress/history.html

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