Watch “Tailor Made – the last Chinese tailor shop in Vancouver Chinatown”
'Tailor Made' is being broadcast again in BC on Knowledge Network on the following dates:
- May 26/2009 10:00PM
- May 27/2009 2:00AM
- May 27/2009 7:00PM
“Tailor Made”is a wonderful documentary about the last tailor shop in Vancouver Chinatown. It opened in 1913. It made most of the zoot suits in Vancouver during the 1940's. Sean Connery's picture is there with the tailors Bill and Jack Wong. It's a Chinatown success story, that mirrors the history of Vancouver Chinatown, as the original tailor had to pay a head tax to come to Vancouver, as his two sons fought for Canada during WW2 when Chinese weren't allowed to vote, as his sons were unabled to get hired as UBC graduated engineers due to still prevailing racist sentiments, and how the youngest son became one of Vancouver's leading philanthropists and cultural leaders.
Bill Wong the tailor loves to attended the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner. His son Steven
paddles on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. This is a
wonderful documentary that received a standing ovation at the Whistler
Film Festival.
Bill
and Jack's younger brother Milton Wong is one of Vancouver's important
figures, and former chancellor of SFU, and known as the “grandfather of
dragon boat racing” in Vancouver. Both Milton and Steven were
interviewed for a German public television documentary addressing
multiculturalism in Vancouver. The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat
team was featured too!
Check out: http://wstreaming.zdf.de/z
My
own family has known the Wongs for many year, my aunts and uncles went
to school with many of the Wong family members. My uncle Laddie works
as a tailor at Modernize Tailors.
In 2004, both the “Wong Way”
dragon boat team and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team
participated in a workshop to carve dragon boat heads at the Round
House Community Centre.
Check the Modernize Tailors Website:
http://www.modernizetailors.blogspot.com/

Modernize Tailors opened in 1913, and in the 1950s Bill and Jack Wong
took over from their father. Over the years, they've created suits for
all occasions and for customers from all walks of life-from lumberjacks
and new immigrants to movie stars like Sean Connery and politicians
like Sam Sullivan, then Mayor of Vancouver.
Now, a newer
generation is looking to make their mark and take over the Modernize
Tailors legacy. But will the 85-year-old Wong Brothers ever stop
working?
Tailor Made was directed by Len Lee and Marsha
Newbery, and produced by Marsha Newbery of Realize Entertainment Inc.
It was commissioned by CBC Newsworld.
Knowledge Network: Tailor Made http://tvschedule.knowledgenetwork.ca/knsch/KNSeriesPage.jsp?seriesID=101539&seriesTitle=tailormade
'Tailor Made' is being broadcast again in BC on Knowledge Network on the following dates:
- May 26/2009 10:00PM
- May 27/2009 2:00AM
- May 27/2009 7:00PM