29. This Hero Grew Up Amidst Intense Discrimination
Vancouver, where Bill Chong was born and raised, was seething with anti-Chinese discrimination in those days. Our hero grew up in a country where he could not vote, and where he could not even use a public swimming pool alongside white Canadians. Opportunities for advancement and upward mobility were few and far in between for Chinese-Americans, and equality was a pipedream. Against that backdrop, he eked a living from menial and low-paying jobs. That did not keep Chong from becoming a patriotic Canadian.
Chong was a house servant and cook in Vancouver when WWII began. When Canada joined the war, Chinese Canadians were divided about whether they should volunteer to fight. As some saw it, why volunteer to fight for a country that treated them as second-class citizens? Others argued that volunteering to fight would shift public perceptions about Chinese-Canadians and their right to full citizenship. As one veteran put it: “We weren’t demanding something extra, we just wanted to be equal“. Chong was in the latter camp, and he tried to do his bit out of patriotism and love of Canada.