Hin Kee Fung was born between the wars, on March 27, 1926, in the island village of Magang, a part of Shunde City, Guangdong Province, in China's Pearl River Delta. About 80 kilometres upstream from Hong Kong, Shunde is in the silk-producing region of China, and the Fungs were silkworm farmers.
Although sericulture, as silk farming is known, does not require either a great deal of land or a great deal of equipment, it does require a great deal of work. The tiny creatures eat only fresh mulberry leaves, and must be fed frequently around the clock as they grow in a matter of weeks to 10,000 times their original size before spinning their famous cocoons. Then workers must tease free the end of the single, continuous, mile-long strand that forms each delicate cocoon, drawing out the thread that eventually becomes lustrous, costly silk.
As a youngster, Fung assisted with this family business; he also enjoyed snacking on the deep-fried former occupants of the cocoons.
War intervened in the form of the Japanese invasion of China when he was 11 years old. By the summer of 1938 there were rumours the Japanese would attack Guangdong province, and people feared a massacre like that of the previous December in Nanjing. So Fung's parents packed up the children and fled. It took several days of walking to reach the coast. From there they sneaked into Hong Kong by boat, hoping, like many other refugees, for safety in the British colony.
The Japanese did indeed occupy Guangdong's capital of Guangzhou that fall. Three years later, just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, they launched an assault on Hong Kong. On what came to be known as "Black Christmas" of 1941, Hong Kong capitulated.
Under the occupation, food was rationed increasingly strictly, and the teenage Fung often went hungry. Some people starved. Civilians were massacred; others were deported. Among the latter were Fung, his mother, and his sister, forced back to the mainland while his father and brothers remained in Hong Kong. The trio walked for 10 days from Hong Kong to Dongguan, then took a boat to Guangzhou. From there they travelled back to their village, where they rode out the war in relative safety.
The British reclaimed Hong Kong in September of 1945. People flooded back to the colony, and Fung, now 21, returned with his mother to rejoin the family. He had begun learning the garment trade in Guangzhou, and now, like his father, established himself as a tailor.
He met Mi Yung Seto, whose family was also in the garment industry, and they married in 1954. Fung established a small factory on the main floor of his home, and the couple lived upstairs with their children.
Once again, however, history intervened. Following the OPEC embargo of the early 1970s, prices soared and the profit margin of his tailoring contracts shrivelled. Moreover, there was talk of the British returning Hong Kong to China, and he feared the instability that was likely to result. His wife had an older brother who had been operating a restaurant in Canada for some time – long enough to remember streetcars in Saskatoon. This man sponsored one of Fung's sons to come to Saskatoon, and the rest of the family followed in 1980.
Fung, now in his mid-50s, quickly found work – "People need tailors here," said his son, Jimmy. He worked for 15 years, until he retired, at Ultra-Fit Tailors, a small shop near the downtown core.
Although most Canadians welcomed the family, they had a difficult adjustment. For people who had never seen snow, Saskatoon's harsh winters came as a shock. Compared with densely populated Hong Kong, the wide-open prairies bewildered. And of course there was the matter of learning a new language and culture.
Mrs. Fung, in particular, yearned to go home. But they adapted. Although he never became fluent in English, Fung learned the vocabulary of colour and size that he needed for his work. The family came to appreciate the quality of life their new home offered; and while they made many visits back to China, it became clear that Canada was home. Following retirement, they enjoyed cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean.
In 2006, a nasty fall left the 80-year-old Fung paralyzed below the shoulders. He missed cooking, and drinking beer, but discovered driving for the first time in his life, when he got an electric wheelchair. Five years later he contracted a lung infection, and died on Sept. 6, leaving his wife and three children in Saskatoon, and friends and relatives on both sides of the Pacific.
Special to The Globe and Mail