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RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1984-02-23 SUMMARY: Born 1921. Early family genealogy -- Vancouver. Early childhood and work -- helping mother in home, and early wage labour on farms and in factory. Brief discussion of Exclusion Act. Family laundry business; explanation of work in laundry, including male/female responsibilities. General discussion of women's work in B.C., including mother's work as seamstress. Children and child bearing. Chinese women and marriage. Husband's occupation. Occupation after marriage in family business. Church activities. Childhood friends and activities. Shopping. Kitchen and utensils -- changes in technology.

RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1984-03-13 SUMMARY: Born 1921. Family history, from China to Canada. Work in home as a child. Mother's work in home. Growing up in Victoria's Chinatown on Fisgard and Cormorant Streets. Shopping for food daily in Chinatown. Kindergarten at Oriental [?] Home. Education at Chinese school and public school. Chinese women working in stores as clerks; their chores and responsibilities. Farm work in Saanich. Tea room women in restaurants. Nancy as an adult. Foot binding -- mother. Kitchen technology. Nancy's experience as a domestic. The discrimination she experiences as a Chinese woman.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-24 SUMMARY: [No content summary is available for this tape.]

The collection consists of oral history interviews with Chinese women about their experiences working in British Columbia from the 1920s to the 1950s. The interviews, with nine first-, second- or third-generation Chinese-Canadian women, were recorded in Vancouver, Victoria and New Westminster during the first half of 1984. The project focused on "women's work" (whether paid or unpaid), including work in the home and in family businesses. The interviews discuss the kind of work these women did; what they experienced; how they perceived their roles in the family and the Chinese community; and the legislative policies which affected their work and their lives. The interviewees are to remain anonymous, and should be referred to only by the assigned pseudonyms. In addition, two of the interviews are closed to public access.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-03-12 SUMMARY: [No content summary is available for this tape.]

RECORDED: New Westminster (B.C.), 1984-02-24 SUMMARY: Born 1920. Early genealogy. Childhood experience -- not much participation in home duties. Little discussion of Exclusion Act. No wage work as child. Mother's work in vegetable gardens, factory work. Pay. Teenage years -- worked in grocery store as clerk. Marriage. Children and childbirth expectations. Discussion of Chinese women she knew. Church activities. Work in family restaurant after marriage. Shopping and utensils. Cooking.

RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1984-03-13 SUMMARY: Born 1924. Family history from 1800s, from China to Canada. Growing up in Vancouver's Chinatown and working in family store on Pender Street. Father died -- mother owned and ran store. Discussion about store. Food preparation. Women working on farms, picking beans. Ying's experience working in a factory. Chinese women's work in general. Discussion of tea room women and domestics. Chinese women working as store clerks. Women not going out of doors -- remaining inside. Ying's life as an adult and a married woman. Cooking. Ends with short discussion of foot binding.

RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1984-04-01 SUMMARY: Born 1909. Early family history; parents' arranged marriage. Father's business in Ladysmith, early 1900s; poverty. Mother's work in home, from morning until evening; arduous labour. Household chores. All the children participated in home work. 12 Chinese women in Ladysmith while she was growing up. Women had gardens, sold produce. Move to Nanaimo. Mother's labour -- sewed for tailors, ran store and laundry. Waiking Lee worked for her family -- did everything for the store. Marriage: she eloped, family upheaval -- very unacceptable thing to do. Marriage. Went into a wholesale business. Hotel business. Thoughts on her life as "a life of hardship".

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1984-02-29 SUMMARY: [No content summaries are available for these tapes.]

RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1984-02-28 SUMMARY: Born 1913. Genealogy of family and early childhood in Vancouver. Growing up near Chinatown. Family participation in tailor business. Work in home and school. Poverty of family life. Marriage and life after. Work in in-laws' home and family responsibilities. Children and child care. Church activities. Shopping in Chinatown. Cooking, cleaning and washing clothes experience. Technological change in the kitchen.