RE: Contest #233; A Special silver money from my Chinese collection
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There's so much migration history that is lost over the years and as the elderlies gradually leave us one by one, the chances of getting the full picture is getting smaller. I hope you manage to find out more before it's too late
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A wonderful trove of history may be lost for good.
And I can only blame myself for not paying attention sooner, at the same time I am proud of my ancestors for their achievements no matter how small.
I just hope to preserve as much as we can find @livinguktaiwan.
!LADY
When we were young, we don't normally appreciate our roots and heritage. I remember when I was a kid probably around 10 or 11, my grandma showed me her Chinese "wedding certificate". It was written on a piece of red paper. How I wished I kept hold of it, but when you're a kid, you don't care about that sort of things
I have an old original Head Tax Certificate of an ancestor dated 1911. The story here was that Canada had put up an Entry Barrier charging $500 for every Chinese immigrant landing in Canada. $500 would buy a home back then. Jin Wong didn't have enough and put all he had into a game of chance and by sheer luck won enough to pay the unfair Tax.
Yes, this is one of those crazy but memorable stories.
My being here and now was determined by a game of chance long ago. It wasn't a friendly game of Mahjong either.
!LADY