Longtime resident and local volunteer Chuck Chin, the eldest of four children, was born in 1950 in a small village of 100 people just outside of Guangzhou or Canton, the capital of Guangdong Province. The city of Guangzhou is approximately 100 miles inland from Hong Kong and is the third biggest city in China after Beijing and Shanghai with a population of more than 12 million. Here is Chuck's story in a nutshell.
Chuck's grandfather, Chin Sha Wu, left China in 1912 and was a part of the Chinese head tax that was levied on Chinese immigrants who came to Canada between 1885 and 1923. There were very few exceptions and in this case Chuck's grandfather had to pay a head tax that amounted to $500 in order to come to Canada. This was a financial hardship considering the average Chinese labourer earned just $300 a year.
The majority of the Chinese population coming to Canada at that point in time were men whose wives and children remained in China.
These men lived in what became known as a bachelor society and their meager savings were sent regularly to support their families in China. His grandfather returned to China in 1923 and then came back to Canada again in 1949.
Chuck's father Tan How Chin was born in 1930 and later he too immigrated to Canada. Chuck, his younger sister and his mother lived with relatives in Kowloon while his father and his grandfather worked and saved money in order to bring them to Canada. His grandfather worked as a labourer on a farm in Ladner while his father worked as a clerk in a grocery store in Chinatown in Vancouver.
His parents still live in Vancouver.
All their hard work paid off in 1959 when they were able to bring their family to Canada.
Chuck said, "We flew via Pan Am from Hong Kong to Vancouver. I remember us getting off the plane and there were two gentlemen waiting for us at the airport. My mother introduced me and my sister to our grandfather and to our father. I can remember being so surprised because I didn't know that I had a father and a grandfather.
"We lived in a house with six other families on Pender Street; there were six gentlemen living in a room upstairs. Everyone worked long hours for little pay and still they managed to save the money needed to bring over their families.
"The men left for work on a Monday, they worked long hours, ate lunch and dinner at work and then came back and went to their room to sleep. They did this for six days and then went home to see their family on Sunday.
"We lived a hard life and we only saw our father on Sundays but we came to appreciate everything we had even though it wasn't much.
"We were considered new Canadians when we arrived and my sister and I (along with many other young adults) were basically thrown into what they called a 'new Canadian' classroom at Lord Strathcona wlementary achool about two blocks from Chinatown.
"I could not speak a word of English when I started Grade 2.
"We lived just two blocks from a school and one day a routine visit with the school nurse changed everything. She reminded us that there were boundary restrictions for schools. Since we lived on the east side of the street we now had to change schools, walk eight blocks and cross three train tracks to attend our new school at Lord Admiral Seymour elementary.
"When what we called English school was done for the day we had to go to Chinese school five days a week from 6 to 8 p.m. to retain the Cantonese language. In the Cantonese language we have no alphabet so we just had to memorize everything.
"I graduated from Chinese school and I still speak Chinese but I read it even better."
After Grade 7, Chuck attended Britannia secondary school in Vancouver, graduated, updated his marks, enrolled at BCIT and successfully took the Pulp and Paper Technology Program.
He moved to Prince George in 1974 and started his pulp mill technical engineering career at the Canfor Intercontinental Pulp Mill. He eventually moved up through management, holding production and engineering supervisory positions. The last ten years of his career were in the steam plant as the Intercon Steam Plant area supervisor.
After a successful working career of 32 years he retired with his planned goal of freedom at 55. He has been enjoying his retirement for the past 13 years.
Chuck married Sue Chuck in 1979. No, this is not a typo; Sue Chuck indeed married Chuck Chin.
Sue Chuck, one of three children, was born in Shanghai in 1952; her family immigrated to Canada and arrived in Vancouver by boat in 1957.
Chuck and Sue knew each other since elementary school and then went to the same high school. In fact, Sue's family shopped at the Chin family store for years. By luck they both ended up in Prince George.
Sue came to Prince George in the fall of 1974 as a teacher. She taught at King George V elementary and when the children started to arrive she became a stay at home mom. When they were old enough to start school, Sue went back to work as a teacher-on-call and retired six years ago.
They have two children - Leanne who is a pharmacy manager at Save-on-Foods and Alexander who is a UNBC graduate and works in the IT Department at the College of New Caledonia. They also have one beautiful granddaughter.
Chuck and Sue are now both retired. Chuck reflected back and said, "Sue and I agreed that we were only going to live in Prince George for about five years and 44 years later we are still here.
"Sue and her school teacher girlfriends have stayed in touch all these many years. They celebrate birthdays and any other event that gives them an excuse to get together. You don't see much of that kind of dedication any more these days."
Sue is the treasurer for the ladies' badminton club that meets every Tuesday and Thursday at the Connaught Youth Centre from September to May. The club welcomes new members to join them in keeping fit, having fun and to make new friends.
Chuck and Sue do many trail walks to keep fit and they are local hockey fans.
Chuck is a volunteer photographer for the Cougars and the Spruce Kings hockey clubs and posts many game summary photos on Facebook for the friends and families of the players to enjoy. He said, "It is always fulfilling when I receive all those lovely thank you notes after I post a photo. I have received so many from families that live far away saying they hear more about their boys on Facebook than they do from their hockey player.
"The years have gone by fast, and we've been so lucky to have met so many great people here over the decades. We didn't know anyone when we first came to Prince George to pursue our careers and now have made many life long friends.
"Prince George is such a great community and we are blessed to live in this city that we call home."
