Figure 1: A photograph of Ho Sang Kee, 1905. (Image from the collection of the late Avis H. Lee).

Ho Sang Kee (AKA Sang Kee, Haw Sang Kee, Sam Kee, San Kee, Charlie Hore Sang) was born in 1859 in Guangdong Province, China. Around 1878, he made the journey across the Pacific and began making and saving money in Canada. Ho Sang Kee initially lived in Toronto and attended a Chinese Sunday School in the city. He would also begin his employment with the Canadian Pacific Railway sometime after its incorporation in 1881, as he would later take a contract from the company to board Chinese passengers travelling across the country, and it is possible that he was the same “Sang Kee” who served as the CPR’s first Chinese interpreter. However, it was in 1890s Montreal where Ho Sang Kee would become a pivotal early Chinese figure in Canada as a successful businessman, naturalized British citizen, and point-of-contact for Chinese men travelling across the continent during a period of anti-Chinese legislation in both Canada and the United States.

Upon moving to Montreal, Ho Sang Kee established the Quong Hing Tea Co. wholesale retailer, grocery, and boarding house on rue de la Gauchetière in the heart of Montreal’s Chinatown, and he quickly became one of the central figures in Montreal’s Chinese community. At its inception in 1891, Quong Hing Tea Co. was the only non-laundry Chinese-owned business in the city. Continue reading →