Evocative Portraits by One of Canada's First Chinese-Canadian Photographers

Montréal, Thursday, August 19, 2004 — Opening on August 26, 2004 at the McCord Museum of Canadian History, First Son — Portraits by C.D. Hoy features 81 black-and-white portraits by Chinese-Canadian photographer Chow Dong Hoy. Produced by Presentation House Gallery in Vancouver, First Son offers visitors a unique look at early twentieth-century life in the British Columbia Interior.

Curated by Faith Moosang, First Son celebrates one man's indomitable will and sense of adventure. Intent on alleviating the poverty and suffering of his family back in China, Chow Dong Hoy was only a teenager when he landed in British Columbia in 1902. Following various stints as a houseboy, cook, surveyor, miner and barber, Hoy took up a camera and began taking pictures. His first photographs were of Chinese workers, taken as mementoes for them to send back to their families in China. As his fame grew, he began taking photographs of the local Carrier and Chilcotin Aboriginal peoples, as well as the Caucasian workers who had migrated to the area.

"It is our great pleasure to bring this gem of an exhibition to a Montreal audience," says Dr Victoria Dickenson, Executive Director of the McCord Museum. "It compliments our own extensive collection of portrait photography and brings a unique vision of another region of Canada." Vincent Lavoie, the McCord's Research Curator of Photography, describes the collection as "more than merely a collective portrait; C.D. Hoy effectively demonstrates the unifying power of photography."

Hoy took more than 1,500 photographs between 1909 and 1920, creating an invaluable record of the rich cultural diversity of the Cariboo region. Capturing the enduring presence of the Interior's Aboriginal peoples, as well as the dignity and pride of Chinese workers and Caucasian labourers, Hoy has left a poignant legacy of a world now lost forever.

First Son — Portraits by C.D. Hoy is curated by Faith Moosang and is organized and circulated by Presentation House Gallery in Vancouver. It will be presented in the Third Floor Gallery at the McCord Museum from August 26, 2004 to May 1, 2005.

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Source and Information:      

Nike Langevin
(514) 398-7100, ext. 251  

 

FACT SHEET ON THE EXHIBITION

Biography — C.D. Hoy

His Youth

Chow Dong Hoy was born in China's Guangdong Province in 1883, the second child and first son in a desperately poor family. Despite its meagre income, the family placed a high value on education and, at the age of eight, Hoy was sent to school. After only three years, Hoy's family found it could no longer afford his education. As the firstborn son, he would now have to work to help support his family.

Hoy's first job was in an opium den, where he worked for room and board. This was followed by a three-year apprenticeship in a cotton and silk factory 400 miles away, where he earned two dollars a year, plus room and board.

Realizing that there were no real opportunities in China, and hearing of the riches to be had in Canada, Hoy's father borrowed $300 to send his son abroad. It was hoped that Hoy would make his fortune in North America, thus alleviating his family's poverty. Accordingly, by the end of 1902, Hoy was on his way to Canada aboard the Empress of China. When he arrived in Canada, Hoy paid the $100 head tax required of all Chinese immigrants, and settled in British Columbia. Unlike most Chinese immigrants, he arrived without any job prospects, and had no relatives to pave his way. Luckily, a shopkeeper from Hoy's village in China invited the boy to stay with him in Vancouver's Chinatown. The shopkeeper not only fed and clothed Hoy, but also helped him find a job as a houseboy to two Caucasian women.

Realizing the importance of learning English, Hoy used all of the five dollars he earned each month to hire a tutor. By 1903 — feeling more confident now in his chosen homeland — Hoy had borrowed $20 from a friend and set of for the Cariboo, where he heard there was still gold to be had. Taking the train as far as Ashcroft, he then bought a pair of boots and walked the remaining 148 miles to Soda Creek with three other Chinese men — a walk of six days and six nights. At Soda Creek, he used the last of his money to pay for steamer passage to Quesnel, arriving nearly penniless.

Hoy quickly found work as a hotel dishwasher, where he earned $15 a month plus room and board. For the first time, he was able to save money and, more importantly, send funds home to his family. After a year and a half in Quesnel, he moved 400 miles farther north to Fort St. James, where he worked as a Hudson's Bay camp cook for $30 a month. Deciding to go into the trading business himself, he learned some of the Central Carrier dialect, and started his own trading company. Following this venture, he went to work as an axeman, cook and surveyor for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Sometime in 1907 he learned that his beloved father had died in 1906. It was one of Hoy's greatest regrets that his father had not lived to see his son's later success.

C.D. Hoy the Photographer

By 1909, Hoy had made it to the gold-mining town of Barkerville. Although the gold rush was over, there was still gold to be had in Barkerville. Unfortunately, the gold was frozen into the ground until May, and there was little work until the spring thaw. Although Hoy found what work he could as a mining hand, he soon began supplementing his income by repairing watches and working as a barber. Somewhere along the way, he also acquired camera equipment and learned photography, and was soon taking photographs of local Chinese workers for them to send to their families back in China. At this time, Hoy probably worked out of a shop in Barkerville's Chinatown, paying a percentage of his revenues as rent.

It is not clear what kinds of cameras Hoy used in his work. Although a Kodak Model A folding camera is the most likely candidate, a number of different formats and types of negative — including some glass plates — were found in Hoy's archives. It is also of note that any of the cameras available at the time would have been quite expensive to the average Chinese labourer, and little is known of how Hoy was able to afford the equipment he used.

Hoy's photographic record is unique. Unlike photographers who set out to romanticize Aboriginal peoples, or anthropologists who recorded ethnic "types," Hoy simply obliged anyone who wanted their picture taken. Although most of Hoy's initial customers were Chinese workers, he was soon taking pictures of local Carrier and Chilcotin peoples, as well as the Caucasians who had migrated to the area.

In late 1909 Hoy returned again to Quesnel, where he worked at the Cariboo Hotel until February 1910. By then he had saved the $2,000 he needed in order to return to China to marry Lim Foon Hai — a bride chosen for him by his mother. His wife would not be able to join him in Canada until 1917, when he was finally able to save enough money for her travel and head tax.

Returning to British Columbia alone in 1911, Hoy worked as a farmhand and cook near Quesnel. Sometime in 1912 he returned to town, holding a number of jobs until late in the year, when he bought a log building, barn and log house from a Chinese rancher who was returning to China. Hoy now became a shopkeeper, as well as the town's first professional photographer. His business also took him frequently to Barkerville, where he continued to take portraits of local Aboriginal peoples, Chinese and Caucasians — including miners, farmers, ranchers, workers and their families. Taking more than 1,500 photographs between 1911 and 1920, Hoy worked primarily out of his Quesnel dry goods store.

In 1917, he travelled to China to bring his wife to Canada at last. Hoy and his wife raised 12 children, the first nine of which were girls. Large families were common in these days, particularly among farming families that needed extra hands, and it was remarked that Hoy's daughters were all strong, independent and personable.

Hoy's family-run store became a popular gathering-place. Never forgetting the kindnesses he had enjoyed in his new country, Hoy unfailingly offered credit to anyone in need. The buildings Hoy had bought in 1912 expanded, and in 1934 the Hoy family home became the first stucco house in Quesnel. The house still stands today, and can be identified by Hoy's name in the sidewalk, outlined in white marble stones. His other businesses grew over the years as well, coming to include the Wells Light and Power Company, and the Lode Theatre in Wells. Hoy also remained one of Quesnel's primary gold dealers until his death in 1973.

Hoy had come from a desperately poor background in China, but was able to make a good life for himself and his family. Using his early earnings to learn English, he seized opportunities as they came, and was to become one of his town's most successful citizens. He was also one of a handful of early photographers who recorded ordinary people of all ethnic backgrounds in the rough-and-tumble BC Interior — leaving us with a valuable record of a world now lost forever.

Faith Moosang, Exhibition Curator

Faith Moosang is a photographic artist, a filmmaker and the author and curator of both a book and a photographic exhibition about a pioneering Chinese photographer in British Columbia named Chow Dong Hoy. Both the book and the exhibition are entitled First Son: Portraits by C.D. Hoy. Both the book and Moosang have been the recipients of numerous awards. First Son: Portraits by C.D. Hoy won the prestigious Alcuin Design Award for Best Designed Canadian Publication in 1999 and was nominated for two BC Book Awards. The book also won the BC Millennium Book Prize. Moosang garnered the Research Award from the Canadian Museums Association for her three years of research into the photographer and his images. Currently Moosang is working on an hour-long documentary about early photographic history in Western Canada.