Opinion: The Golden Dragon and Saskatoon’s early Chinese Community

Patrons of the Vietnamese restaurant at 311 Avenue A may be surprised to learn that previously it was a Chinese restaurant as far back as 1920.

Most of us will never learn of the hardships faced by early Chinese immigrants, unable to bring their wives and family to Canada due to increasingly restrictive immigration laws. Many will never learn the history of the Keng Wah Aviation School, which trained pilots in 1919 to fight for Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

And let’s not forget the legendary Two Gun Cohen, the young fellow from East London whose close relationship with the Chinese community, here and elsewhere, led eventually to his serving as a bodyguard to Sun Yat-sen.

In the 1950s, following the repeal in 1947 of the Chinese Immigration Act, family members began arriving to work alongside their fathers in the Chinese cafés, groceries and trading companies that had sprung up in Saskatoon and throughout Saskatchewan. They came from Guandong Province in Southern China, mostly from the cities of Taishan (Toisan) and Guangzhou (Canton).

Many eventually settled in Saskatoon. Saskatonians may remember David Leung of the famous “Joe’s Lunch” at 118 20th Street, who was 17 when he arrived to join his father and work in the Paris Cafe on Second Avenue.

In 1953, Walter Der, co-owner of the Golden Dragon, arrived to join his family at the P.O Cafe in Watrous.

Remarkably, Art Mark of the Orient Trading Company was only 12 years old when he left China in 1949 to travel alone via Hong Kong to join his father in Tisdale two years later.