[achiam]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/5391542.bin?size=620x400
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/5391544.bin?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 (http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Chinese+Students+Soccer+Team+1933+Mainland+recogni zed/5391541/story.html#ixzz1XxV7hfwl)

[MG1]

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.

[SumAznGuy]

Con Jones Park (http://villageofvancouver.blogspot.com/2009/11/con-jones-park-and-vancouvers-soccer.html)

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

[Manic!]

Need to make movie.

[StylinRed]

and considered Chinatown to be an immoral, crime-infested ghetto.



not much has changed i guess? ;)

[BaBiE_Bee]

^^ 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. ;)

[RacePace]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/5391544.bin?size=620x400


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

[winson604]

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

[dachinesedude]

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

[Yellowstain]

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

[Cillu]

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

[Vansterdam]

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

[Domani]

would they be considered first or second gen chinese canadian?



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

[EmperorIS]

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

[Manic!]

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

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

[Razor Ramon HG]

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

First generation.

[white_guilt]

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

[shenmecar]

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

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

[twitchyzero]

First generation.

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

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

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

[SkinnyPupp]

^^ 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. ;)
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.

[spideyv2]

^^ 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. ;)

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:

[MG1]

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.

[Brianrietta]

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.

[SkinnyPupp]

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.

[MG1]

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.....................

[MG1]

Not saying called first, second, or last generation is a bad thing.

In Asian cultures, the current generation owes the previous generation(s) everything. Lots of respect for elders and such. Not so much in western cultures. So it makes sense that Caucasians look at stuff differently. Go to Mountainview Cemetary. Not much flowers in most places. Look for a large patch of nothing but flowers. Go look at the names on the graves. Yup, they're Asian.

No biggie........... I don't think the west will ever understand the east. Even us watered down Asians, LOLOLOLOLOLOL.


BTW, I'm not putting down any culture or group of people. Just pointing out we are all different.

[white_guilt]

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

what a busy man. then again if the chinese back then were barred from working and there was little recreation, I don't see why he wouldn't be. And that's just 16 SONS. how about the daughters?? his wife's vagina must have been like a slip-n-slide!

[Senna4ever]

what a busy man. then again if the chinese back then were barred from working and there was little recreation, I don't see why he wouldn't be. And that's just 16 SONS. how about the daughters?? his wife's vagina must have been like a slip-n-slide!

Since this was still in the early 20th century, he may have had concubines with whom he had children.

On a side note, the book, 'The Concubine's Children' by Denise Chong is a great book to read. It's about her grandfather who was a Chinese immigrant to Vancouver and details his trials and tribulations of life here. I highly recommend it.

[BaBiE_Bee]

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:

To each their own then I guess... :)

[MG1]

DTES is going through a transition. Tough in some places. Hipsters vs Homeless vs Junkies vs..........

Real Estate price is pretty high and the area is quite pleasant sans the bad shit.

I was talking to a dude who lives in the Woodwards complex. Family with two young kids. He's really happy about raising a family there. Area around Chinatown is changing, but will it succeed and what does successful mean? A balance could be met if they can find places where the less fortunate (homeless, mentally ill, seniors, etc.) are placed, with dignity, in affordable housing.

Crackheads? They're the ones who will pose the biggest challenge. They are the ones nobody really cares about. Not an easy problem to deal with. I know a lot of RS members would rather just shoot the fokkers, but they are human after all. They're somebody's brother, sister, cousin, uncle, etc.

[InvisibleSoul]

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...
Don't those two sentences contradict each other?

Generally, the immigrants would end up having Canadian citizenship, would they not?

My parents came from China, and I have always considered myself second generation Canadian.

[SumAznGuy]

I just noticed. Where is Blkcivic89? Haven't seen him post in this thread or on RS for a while.

[Spectre_Cdn]

I just noticed. Where is Blkcivic89? Haven't seen him post in this thread or on RS for a while.

He has posted in this thread :fullofwin: You'll recognize his posts by the style.

He should have made a thread to announce his name change a few months back since so many members are only noticing his absence now :lol

[SumAznGuy]

He has posted in this thread :fullofwin: You'll recognize his posts by the style.

He should have made a thread to announce his name change a few months back since so many members are only noticing his absence now :lol

MG1?

That makes sense now. :okay:

[skyxx]

Shiet, So MG1 is 89BLKCIVIC. I thought he was gone, good grief he's still here!

[niu99]

new immigrants from mainland china should feel ashamed

[MG1]

new immigrants from mainland china should feel ashamed

To be fair, the world has changed somewhat since then, but I know what you mean. The hardships those first immigrants went through.


Mrs. Smith (ESL Teacher): Now, Yong Lee, the first Chinese to come to Canada long ago had many hardships.

Yong Lee: Ah, Mrs Smith......... I undastand. They sail to Canada in metal boats.

Mrs. Smith: :facepalm:

[drunkrussian]

"The white majority viewed them as an economic threat" -

rofl how little has changed. mainlanders buying out west van now hahah. white ppl arent the only ones threatened now, even other chinese ppl (hk) are!
Posted via RS Mobile (http://www.revscene.net/forums/announcement.php?a=228)

[drunkrussian]

Shiet, So MG1 is 89BLKCIVIC. I thought he was gone, good grief he's still here!


hahahahaha this makes so much more sense now...
Posted via RS Mobile (http://www.revscene.net/forums/announcement.php?a=228)

[Senna4ever]

Shiet, So MG1 is 89BLKCIVIC. I thought he was gone, good grief he's still here!

Aw, shiiieet, he's still around??? Here I was thinking, "good riddance!" :fullofwin:

[MG1]

Aw, shiiieet, he's still around??? Here I was thinking, "good riddance!" :fullofwin:

:okay:

[achiam]

new immigrants from mainland china should feel ashamed

Why?

[racerman88]

good story

[Ryan Lore]

The same William Lore (My great uncle, who is still ALIVE!) on the soccer team also made news in WW2...




The colony was 'liberated' by a Chinese Canadian who couldn't even vote at home



Tuesday, November 11, 2003
by Jonathan Manthorpe


In a glade in Hong Kong's botanical gardens, just above the seething Central business district, there is a statue of Sergeant-Major John Osborn of the Winnipeg Grenadiers who won, posthumously, the Victoria Cross during the defence of the territory on Dec. 19, 1941.

Well, in all honesty it is not a statue of Osborn. It is a statue of a soldier in the battle gear of the First World War and is an example of memorials that were manufactured in some numbers to be placed at cenotaphs in towns and villages around Britain after 1918.

Somehow this particular statue ended up in the garden of a wealthy Chinese merchant in Hong Kong.

And somehow it came to hand when the Canadian community and Hong Kong friends wanted to honour Osborn and the freshly trained boy recruits from Winnipeg and Quebec City's Royal Rifles who fought the Japanese invasion in 1941 until they had to be ordered to surrender.

The graves of 283 of Canada's 550 Hong Kong dead are at Sai Wan cemetery, a little way to the east of Osborn's memorial and just below Jardine's Lookout and the hills they defended longer than anyone thought possible or could reasonably expect.

It was on one of those hills, Mount Butler, that Osborn met his place in history on the afternoon of Dec. 19, 1941.

Osborn and his company of Grenadiers were covering the withdrawal towards Repulse Bay when they were surrounded by Japanese who were so close they could lob grenades into the slight depression where the Canadians were pinned down.

Osborn managed to throw back a string of grenades. But then one landed just out of reach. He shouted a warning to his comrades and threw himself on the grenade, which exploded and killed him instantly.

Each year on Nov. 11, the story of Canada's part in the defence of Hong Kong is remembered at Sai Wan. The service follows the familiar, reassuring script and ends with a lone piper playing that most haunting of laments The Flowers of the Forest on the hill above the graves.

Since 1941, the bonds between Canada and Hong Kong have grown and spread in ways those boys from the Prairies and the farms of the Eastern Townships -- anglophones, francophones and First Nations -- could never have imagined.

There is another bond from that time too, much less well known but which in many ways speaks to modern Canada and its Hong Kong cousins.

On the morning of Aug. 30, 1945, a British fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt steamed into Hong Kong harbour in the wake of Japan's surrender.

Harcourt's staff lieutenant was Lt. William K.L. Lore, a young Canadian officer from Victoria, B.C.

Lore's father had got to Canada in 1885 through Hong Kong from Canton in China.

Lore's story is colourful, though probably not that unusual among families who came to Canada the hard way.

He grew up in Victoria's Chinatown during the Depression. In desperation, he filled in one of the advertisements that used to appear on the backs of books of matches for training to build and maintain radios.

It turned out to be a brilliant career move. Within a few years Lore had been hired by Transport Canada as a communications engineer and soon after war broke out in 1939 he volunteered for the navy.

"I applied in 1940, '41 and '42," he said in an interview in 1994 shortly before he died. "But they refused. I think they saw on my application 'Chinese' and threw it in the wastebasket."

Lore finally got into the navy in 1943 through the help of friends. Because of his radio skills, he was immediately assigned to intelligence operations intercepting enemy communications.

It was as an intelligence officer that he was assigned to Harcourt's staff. The admiral knew of Lore's Hong Kong background and, of course, of the part played by Canadians in the defence of the territory four years before.

Lieutenant Lore thus became the first Allied officer ashore in Hong Kong on the evening of Aug. 30, 1945.

The irony is that Hong Kong was "liberated" by a Chinese Canadian who didn't even have the right to vote at home. Chinese Canadians were given the right to vote in federal elections in 1947 and in B.C. elections in 1949, largely because of their volunteer service in the war.

The following morning, Harcourt told Lore he was concerned about British, Canadian and Hong Kong prisoners of war being held in a camp at Sham Shui Po, somewhere on the Kowloon side that was still occupied by tens of thousands of armed Japanese.

"Harcourt pointed to a sub-lieutenant and a chief petty officer and said 'Lore, you go and find it and there's your army'."

Because of the tense mood of the Japanese, Lore decided against sailing over in a naval cutter. Instead, he and his two-man army took the Star Ferry, those green-and-white painted blunt-nosed bobbing boats that remain a symbol of Hong Kong.

So Kowloon and the New Territories were liberated by three men armed only with revolvers and using public transport.

In Kowloon, Lore marched his men to the famed Peninsular Hotel where they cornered the Japanese police chief and persuaded him to lend his car and a driver who knew where the camp was. At the camp at Sham Shui Po, now a light industrial area, the Japanese guards laughed at Lore and his army. Then they pointed their rifles at the liberators.

Lore ordered the sub-lieutenant and petty officer to point their pistols out of the car windows at the guards. He told the driver to charge the gate.

The Japanese backed down.

"I went into the first building I came to and it was very dark. There were about 40 men in there, Canadians, sitting at tables and so forth.

"Because I was coming in from the light I don't think they could see much; just an Asian in uniform.

"I said, 'Hi, you guys, don't you want to see a Canadian?' Then they ran forward and saw my cap badge.

"They were really just skeletons. You could see their bones through their skin. Then they were crying and weren't ashamed of crying. And finally I cried too because they were telling me what they had suffered."

Lore remained in the Canadian navy as an intelligence officer until 1957. He then settled in Hong Kong and worked as an insurance salesman.

Soon after, he began training as a lawyer and in 1962 hung out his shingle just up the hill from where he stepped ashore in 1945.



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