13. HONG CHUNG & KING GEORGE CAFE

Very little information is readily available about the Chung family. 

A traceable thread of their story comes via the King George Café; however, the café itself has unclear beginnings.

A Chinese Restaurant was located at 27 Erie Avenue as early as 1912. From 1918 to 1924, the restaurant was listed as the King George Café but by 1926 a restaurant by that same name had moved to 541 Erie Avenue.

From 1927 to 1944, though, a King George Café, located at 220 Bridge Street, was owned and operated by HONG CHUNG.

Was this a move of location and owner/operator or just transfer of name?

I don’t know. The city directories associate no names with either Erie Avenue locations.

The 1921 Canada Census lists only one individual who could possibly be the Hong Chung who came to Niagara Falls.

This Hong Chung was listed as a single male, aged 30 living in Ottawa, ON. He immigrated to Canada in 1918. His occupation was listed as proprietor of a laundry.

Did a laundry operator move to Niagara Falls and become a restaurateur?

Although not impossible, it seems unlikely that with cultural barriers of the times, Hong Chung would have changed his line of work. The explanation suggested by Carolyn Gill in Post #12 seems more plausible: Hong Chung came to Niagara Falls via the USA rail system that he had worked for.

The 1921 Canada Census shows no record for POON SHING FONG, Hong Chung’s wife.

The Chinese Exclusion Act, banning the entry of Chinese to Canada, was in force from 1923 until 1947.

When did Poon Shing Fong immigrate to Canada? Did she pay a Head Tax? Did Hong Chung pay a Head Tax?

1924 is the approximated birth year of the Chungs’ eldest who was born in Niagara Falls. Accordingly, at the cusp of enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act, they were already in or entering Canada.

Hong Chung and Poon Shing Fong had three children: James, Edward, and Mary.

JAMES (JIMMIE) HONG CHUNG, the oldest, was the first Chinese baby born in the Greater Niagara General Hospital. His year of birth is estimated to be 1924.

In Niagara Falls, Jimmie attended Glenview School and Niagara Falls Collegiate Institute. Despite an eighteen month long illness, he graduated at age 18 and won two scholarships enabling him to study mathematics and physics at the University of Toronto. While at university, he was further awarded the B’nai B’rith scholarship for mathematics and physics.

In 1950, Jimmie completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. Although he was offered a substantial fellowship to do advance studies in statistics at Princeton University, he declined the offer. His father’s ill health required his support so Jimmy accepted a position with the University Computation Centre as a staff mathematician instead.

(At this point, Hong Chung and his wife are presumed to be no longer residing in Niagara Falls. In 1945, 220 Bridge Street was vacant and for years afterwards the address disappeared. Jimmie had graduated from high school in 1942.)

Jimmie and wife Violet Chook Yee (Joe) Chung had two sons: Dr. Brian Chung of Vancouver and Dr. Stephen Chung of Phoenix, Arizona.

EDWARD (ED) SEN CHUNG was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario in 1925. Ed received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto and a Master of Science degree in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Most of his career had been as a chemical engineer for Shell Canada.

Ed died on May 2, 2017. His wife, Margaret Lynn (Sim) Chung predeceased him in 2013. They had three daughters: Catherine, Pamela, and Janice.

Little information about MARY CHUNG has been found.

In the 1944 city directory – the last Niagara Falls listing for the Chungs – Hong Chung and Poon Shing Fong were listed as proprietors of the King George Café at 220 Bridge Street. James and Edward were listed as students, residing there. However, there was no mention of Mary.

Mary may have moved or her name may have merely been omitted.

In 1950, Mary married and resided in Hamilton, ON with her husband. In 1951, they travelled to England where they remained for three months while Mary’s husband attended a course in medicine.

Mary married before Ed and predeceased him as well; but when and where are unknown.

Although I know little about the Chungs, what I have found out amazes me.

In the absence of details about their lived experience, or even other accounts of Chinese families working in Niagara Falls restaurants in this time period, my imagination fills the gaps with my own family experiences.

My father often worked 18-20 hour days, 7 days a week. The restaurant stayed open late into the early morning hours in case he might sell another cup of coffee. During this quiet, he’d wash the floors and wipe down the kitchen.

My mother juggled working alongside my father during the day with our need for a parent after school. I imagine it was similar for the Chungs.

My mother commuted by bus between a restaurant and home whereas the Chungs’ workplace and home were one. The Chungs had three children compared to my family’s two. 

These were obvious differences between our families.

It is not significant whether one family had more hardship than the other. What is important is that we persevered.

Towards what end?

I believe that Hong Chung and Poon Shing Fong and my parents had the same end in mind: their children would have better lives than they and this could be achieved through diligence and education. After all, those are very Confucian ideals.

I don’t know what my parents said to encourage my brother. Doing things with his hands were his strength. He could take things apart, put them together again, and use all kinds of tools. He had superior spatial abilities: studied photography and became a graphic artist.

In my case, my parents told me repeatedly that I would go to the University of Toronto. They never said what for. I am not sure my parents understood what university was, or would result in, but nonetheless that was the goal they set out for me from an early age.

Can parents – especially parents living in a culture different from the one they grew up in and who have limited formal education – know what their children should do? 

Perhaps.

Parents dream.

I think the achievements of Jimmie, Ed and Mary Chung must have exceeded the hopes their parents had for them.