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A journey to serve : a Chinese American woman’s service in the Canadian Armed Forces during World War II

International Conference of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies (5th : 2012 : Vancouver, B.C.)

In July 1943, my 19 year old mother, May Yee (aka May Toy Shiu), attempted to enter Canada through Windsor, Ontario intending to join the Canadian Army Auxiliary Corps. Denied entry because she lacked proof of her US citizenship, she returned to Chicago, Illinois where she appeared on July, 23, 1943, before the District Director of Immigration and Naturalization who determined that she was indeed, born in Chicago, Illinois on December 28, 1923 to Chinese immigrant parents. Initially, she sought to join the US Armed Forces but was denied because of her age. However, a Canadian recruiter informed her that women could serve in the Canadian Armed Forces at 18 years of age and recruited her to serve. Thus, began a journey that would cross geographic borders, intersect with the anti-Chinese immigration policies of both the US and Canada, and where she would participate in the little told story of minority women’s service in WW II on behalf of both Canada and the United States. This paper presents her narrative of service. Embedded in this narrative is her triumph over gender bias, reflected in her personal story of birth as an ill-fated Chinese daughter and the tenacious strength of a young Chinese American woman who sought first to serve her country of birth, the United States, and subsequently, Canada during WWII. Through the narrative construction of her story, this paper examines the broader themes of Chinese women in the Americas: gender identity and power; changing patterns of kinship influenced by immigration and the policies that shaped acculturation to different social norms, and the liminality of a gendered, ethnic minority self that was challenged to balance multiple social worlds.

Text

2013-01-09

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43821

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/