Vancouver Sun: Proposal for documentary about first Chinese MP wins $10,000 cultural award.
Kevin Griffin reports in Monday May 15th Arts and Life section:
second annual Channel M Diversity in Cultures Award went to Wesley
Lowe. He recieved $10,000 for his proposal to create a
documentary called I Am The Canadian Delegate about Douglas Jung,
who became the firest Canadian of Chinese descent elected as a member
of Parliament when the voters chose him to represent Vancouver Centre
in 1957.
Douglas
Jung was born in Victoria, British Columbia on Feb 24 1924 and passed
away on January 4, 2002. I think I first met him once during a
Chinese Head Tax redress meeting at Strathcona School back in the
1980's. I met him a few times after that when I became more
involved in Chinese Canadian issues too.
Jung
lived an extraordinary life with many firsts. During WW2, he
served with Pacific Command Security Intelligence. He was
the first university graduate of Chinese descent throught the Veterans
program, recieving a law degree in 1954.
He
always told a story about going to the United Nations in New York City,
as the chair of the Canadian Legal delegation, selected by Conservative
Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. When Jung went to sit down at
the Canadian table, he was prevented by UN officials, and told that it
was for the Canadian delegate, and that the Chinese delegate's seat was
“over there.” Jung's reply was simply, “I am the Canadian
Delegate.”
Jung
is best remembered for his parliamentary work to grant amnesty to the
many Chinese immigrants who came to Canada as “paper sons and
daughters.” Due to the racist head tax and exclusion act that was
levied against only immigrants of Chinese ancestry to Canada, some
people in efforts to reunite their families “bought” the Canadian birth
certificates or landing papers of other Chinese.
Jung went on to recieve both the Order of Canada, and the Order of BC in 1997, as well as many other community service awards. He was named Life President for the Veterans Unit 280, which serves the Chinese Canadian veterans such as my Grand-Uncle Daniel Lee, and Wesley :Louie's father.