25. JOSEPH & MARY CHONG: BEANSPROUT BUSINESS

Sam Lee, my father immigrated to Canada in 1918.

In China, the country was divided. Soldiers of warlords looted and extorted ordinary Chinese. Poor crops, floods, and droughts added to the overall misery. Immigration was an attractive option.

My father first came to Niagara Falls around 1922/1923. Why he chose Niagara Falls is unknown. He may have had acquaintances there, or someone he knew was going too, or perhaps Niagara Falls seemed like a place of opportunity. Jack, my brother, believed our father was drawn by the hospitality industry.



Shifting to more contemporary times when reasons can still be recalled and related, the Chongs tell how they came to Niagara Falls and its Chinatown.


 JOSEPH CHONG came to Niagara Falls primarily for business reasons. He says,

I came to Niagara Falls in 1973, opened a bean sprout company. Later in 1977, [I] opened a paper products [company] in St. Catherines until 1982. Then combined the two companies into one. Closed the business in 2003 for retirement.

In 1980, CHONG HO, Joseph Chong’s grandmother (b.1890), immigrated from Kaiping, China to Niagara Falls. She lived the remainder of her life in Niagara Falls (d.1984) and is buried in Fairview Cemetery.

Although Joseph Chong originally came to Niagara Falls for business reasons, his grandmother’s grave is a tie that binds him to the Ching Ming Festival and Niagara Falls.


Joseph Chong and wife Mary Chong lived at 4572 Erie Avenue.

Previously, the Quon’s had operated a bean sprout business at the same address (Post 17: Faces from Childhood). It’s them whom I associate with bean sprout growing and not the Chong’s. That connection is most likely due to my childhood interactions with Quon Jean Mu. I do not recall meeting Mary Chong until this past June at Ching Ming Festival.


My mother did not make foods containing bean sprouts. I don’t know why for sure but it might have been due to food preferences. Likely, my brother and I had refused to eat them so she didn’t use them. Mother catered her cooking to our food preferences.

As a child, I thought of Quon Jean Mu growing bean sprouts in her bathtub – a small garden grown between baths. I did not appreciate the scale of the business nor what was involved.

To this day, I only know about bean sprout growing from reading about it. Possible informants who have worked at 572 and later – when addresses had 4000 added to them – 4572 Erie Ave. haven’t wanted to talk about the work.

The New York Times (June 1970) provides an account of Chinatown bean sprouts that might be similar to how they were grown on Erie Ave.

The beans were washed, soaked, drained, set in perforated containers, watered every six hours for six days, and finally rinsed and ready to eat. Fifteen pounds of mung beans yielded 100 pounds of bean sprouts.

Another New York Times account (April 1982) describes the use of long aluminum bins with mechanized watering to produce 40,000 – 50,000 pounds of sprouts a day in basements around the New York region.


Of course, the operation on Erie Ave. was by no means this large; but large enough to provide a livelihood.



Joseph Chong declares, “Life has been good.”

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