1933 Vancouver Chinese Students' Soccer team win finally recognized
 

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/5...n?size=620x400
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/5...n?size=620x400

In 1933, during the heart of the Depression, Vancouver’s beleaguered Chinese community had little to celebrate.

Chinese immigration was banned. Chinese-Canadians couldn’t vote or join the professions. The white majority viewed them as an economic threat — and considered Chinatown to be an immoral, crime-infested ghetto.

But for two days in late May that year, Chinatown erupted in jubilation.

On May 29, the underdog Chinese Students Soccer Team defeated the University of B.C Varsity Team to win the B.C. Mainland Cup, in the championship game of the provincial first-division soccer league.

A victory party broke out on Pender Street with bands playing and firecrackers exploding. The victorious players held the one-metre-tall trophy aloft while riding in an open car. Two fire trucks raced to the scene when a fire alarm accidentally went off.

The following day was declared a holiday in Chinatown as the community closed shops and businesses and celebrated the soccer win with free tea and dim sum.

The landmark sporting event for Vancouver’s Chinese-Canadian community is being remembered today with the induction of the 1933 Chinese Students Soccer Team into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.

“In the ’20s and ’30s Chinatown was a pretty depressed place given the kind of racism directed at Chinese-Canadians in everyday life and at work,” said historian Paul Yee, author of Saltwater City, a history of Vancouver’s Chinese community.

“So to have a soccer team be able to win on the playing field was a great distraction, a way of triumphing over foes who were oppressing them.”

The Chinese Students team was the only Chinese-Canadian soccer team in the country at the time.

The team began in 1920 with the formation of the Chinese Students Athletics Club. After beating its high school rivals, the squad planned to enter the city’s junior league but the team’s sponsor mistakenly applied to the senior league.

Its star player was the high-scoring forward Quene Yip, a 1998 B.C. Sports Hall of Fame inductee and the 16th son of Chinatown patriarch Yip Sang. The team also relied on the deft passing of Yip’s brother, Art Yip, and the stellar goalkeeping of Shupon (Spoon) Wong.

“The team brought a lot of pride to Chinatown,” said Larry Wong, of the Chinese-Canadian Historical Society.

“Our players were lighter and smaller than other players and because of that were very quick on their feet — and that’s how they managed to win the championship game.”

After beating North Shore United 1-0 in the semifinal of the senior division in 1933, they advanced to the B.C. Mainland Cup game, at a soggy Con Jones Park in east Vancouver.

The teams were tied 3-3 going into the final minutes but then Jack Soon scored the winning goal, bringing the team’s ecstatic supporters onto the boggy field.

“They were treated as conquering heroes in Chinatown,” said Wong. “Everyone took the next day off work.”

Robert Yip, son of Quene Yip, said the team’s induction into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame will help maintain the memory of the legendary victory for younger generations of Chinese-Canadians.

“The game was part of Chinatown lore, sort of a legend that resonated through the ’30s and ’40s and ’50s,” said Robert Yip.

“But as the players got older, memories started to fade, and into this new century, it had become almost a forgotten story.”

dward@vancouversun.com



Read more: Chinese Students Soccer Team

Awesome story. It's similar to the Asahi Baseball Team story.

OP, can you post this in the Vancouver History thread, as well? Thanks.......

If you cannot find it, I can dig it up and place it there, with your permission, of course.

Con Jones Park

Did a quick google search on this park and there is a youtube video.

Need to make movie.

not much has changed i guess? ;)

^^ Seriously, you think Chinatown is an immoral, crime-infested ghetto?

Have you been to Chinatown lately PAST East Hastings... ? It extends to Georgia, Pender, Keefer, even down towards Tinseltown...

You can go there to eat a plethora of Chinese food (Boss, Mei's, steam buns, sticky rice, wonton noodles, etc), shop (pretty much anything you need, the freshest groceries, junk food, fresh bbq meat)

I went to the night market a bit ago and it's pretty decent compared to a couple of years ago... if you wanted to go get some good food but not want to drive all the way out to Richmond.

Going to Chinatown is one of my fondest memories growing up, going there with my grandparents to have coffee, eat a bun, go with my grandma to buy groceries - she'd give me her spare change and I'd buy some chinese junk food with it (gum, cookies); perks of being the 1st grandchild. ;)

The guy on the far left is huge, must be an early CBC lol

For some reason when I first saw the picture I thought of Shaolin Soccer lol

would they be considered first or second gen chinese canadian?

i'd be pretty awesome if one of them is your great grandpa or something

What was once a great sports club---> turned into the Chong Ching/Lotus gang. Long live CYA!!!

Wow that's really cool. Now I'm interested in researching more about the history of Vancouver lol.

they should build a giant barrier between cracktown and chinatown lol

its preety fucked up how the streets/city is within a few blocks of each other

if they were born here, and their parents born overseas, then they would be 2nd gen,

chase the gwai lo with the ball ... be a man

Some people would say first gen because the parents were not born here.

First generation.

Awesome story, wonder what life was like back then. The 1/32nd Chinese blood I have in me makes me proud. *sniff

Yip Sang was a smart man. Keep making babies, at least one of them will make it big and make him a proud father.

always wondered about this
that means i aint even a first gen :(

I don't know what it was like when you were growing up, or even what it is like later than 5 years ago, when I last went there. But when I went there, there was no 'border' at E. Hastings where the nastiness stopped. It was everywhere... Bums wandering around, discarded needles on parking meters. It was truly a disgusting place.

If it has changed for the better since then, that is great. But it was always a poor neighbourhood, and even if you liked it there, you shouldn't be ashamed to admit that.

I dunno about that...
it's still pretty grimey over there, with a lot of people 'working' and 'using'
i find it sad how there are also a lot of families go there to have fun, with all that homelessness over there. I remember going there as a lil OG to buy pokemon cards :fuckyea:

First generation of immigrants to this country. Second generation would be the children of the first generation and so on.

People may argue about this, but in Asian cultures, I'm pretty sure the above is true.

Also, a person comes to this country and works their ass off to make a living and start a family here. If you don't call them first generation, then you are basically not recognizing them and their efforts at all. Generation zero? I don't think so. I think they deserve more recognition than that.

I would think that generation in these terms implies Canadian citizenship. The original group coming over would have been Chinese immigrants, the first group of children born into a Canadian passport with Chinese heritage would be considered First Generation... It seems to me that you seem to think that this has a negative stigma associated with it MG1, but if you ask me the first group of immigrants would be simply considered Chinese immigrants. That's where "immigrants" ends though. There are no "Second Generation Immigrants", because after the initial immigration, nobody new has immigrated. Each progressive generation doesn't go back to Asia and then re-immigrate back to Canada... I would consider myself to be second generation Canadian as each of my Grandparents immigrated from Europe - making my parents first generation Canadian, and myself second. Now, utter falacy to think that just because they aren't first generation Canadians that they aren't being recognized though. Immigrants, migrant workers, and naturalized citizens have obviously made great contributions to Canada, but they do so under those titles. Nothing wrong with that.

It's a matter of semantics, but personally I would consider the immigrants to be the first generation. Not because there is a negative stigma to not being called first, but because there is no "zeroth" generation. They are the first ones to live in that country out of all their following descendants, hence first generation.

Even the dictionary recognizes both meanings.........

BTW, people debate over this a lot.

For Japanese-Canadians (Canadians of Japanese ancestery), issei means first generation. Ichi = one or first. Someone born in Japan who has made Canada their new home = issei.

Nissei is term used to describe second generation. ni = two.
Sansei is term used to describe third generation. san = three.
Yonsei is term used to describe fourth generation. shi = four.

Wow, my Asian Studies courses at UBC comes in handy again! I thought reading Chinese novels and history books would never come in handy.

As for Canadians of European ancestery, who knows? I think this is an Asian thing and perhaps not a Caucasian thing. Since we are talking about a Chinese soccer team.....................