44. Role of Dress

This photo of my parents was taken at James Photography in Niagara Falls. As a child, I only remember the studio being on Valley Way; that bit of street that stretches from Queen to Victoria Avenue but before my time, back in 1948, the date of the photo, the studio was located in the James house, fronting on Victoria Avenue with a yard stretching back onto Eastwood Crescent.

When I was growing up, the photo occupied a prominent spot – always on display. Keith, my husband refers to the photo as my parents’ wedding picture. Online at the Niagara Falls Public Library Images Database, you can look at the prolific James Photography collection. By way of comparison, the photo of my parents does not connote a wedding.

There is no flowing gown or even the inclusion of flowers as in the less elaborate wedding pictures – labelled as such. Anyway, my husband refers to it as a wedding photo; my parents would have wanted a picture to send back to relatives in China showing that my mother – the bride – had arrived in Canada and taken up her place at my father’s side.

When my parents were married, they were physically separated: Father in Canada, Mother in China.

According to Keith’s research, the custom that was likely followed at the time employed a rooster as a proxy for my father.

However, my story about the photo is similar to Keith’s but less specific. I’ve always thought that the photo was taken when my mother arrived in Niagara Falls but it was a marker of her immigration to the west rather than attribution to marriage.

In the photo, my parents look very western in their dress. In fact, the label from my mother’s outfit reads, “British Product All Wool Tailored to Elanden Standard”.

In 1980, my mother still had the jacket and passed it on to me to wear. When people complimented me on it, I told them it was vintage – my mother’s coming to Canada jacket.

In this James Studio photo, my mother’s hair and clothing are different from the photos of her and relatives in China at the time. Accordingly, I concluded that the photo was intended to capture her adoption of western ways especially because a Chinese woman in living in Niagara Falls was a rarity at the time.

Now that I’ve studied the photo more closely, I can see the ring that Mother is wearing. It’s the one she passed onto me when I was in grade 8. 

It’s 22k gold and has a shield engraved with blades of grass – perhaps rice plants. Before that time, I remember she had me – her translator – accompany her to one of the jewellery stores on Queen Street where she purchased a not expensive, simple wedding band. She said that’s what was worn in this country and it seemed important for her to do so as well.

I was in grade one at Maple Street School when I donned my first Chinese-style outfit. It was Hallowe’en and my mother had a cheongsam she provided as a costume. Mr. Barclay, the school principal, took me by the hand as we led my class on parade throughout the school. I know I was quite pleased to given such an important place. I doubt if I thought about wearing a Chinese-style dress and being Chinese. However, that sense of naïve innocence did not last throughout my childhood. I would want to mask my identity and blend in as much as possible.

Being Chinese, or rather Chinese-descent as I am unsure as to what being Chinese outside of my microcosm means, I’ve reversed my mother’s strategy to distinguish myself.

Book Launch - 

Potlatch Blanket for a China Man

Victoria, BC

June 2019