Portrait of Lee Chu, from “Dans Le Monde De Policiers.” La Presse, 1 September 1908, p. 2.

Written by Anna Navarro.

Lee Chu appears on the Register of Chinese Immigrants to Canada as having landed in Vancouver via the Empress of Japan in 1895 [1]. On the Register, Lee Chu is listed as a 33-year old merchant. Chu was refunded his head tax payment on 3 February 1896, having made a claim that his arrival in 1895 was a return to Canada after visiting China [2]. A man by the name of Lee Chu appears in Ontario newspapers in the early 1890s, with one 1893 article reporting on his having returned to China [3]. Although no explicit connection holds between the subjects named Lee Chu, the timeline affords the possibility that they refer to the same man. 

Newspaper archives detail Lee Chu’s peculiar relation to the courts during his time in Montréal. As early as 1895, Chu was reported to have been an interpreter [4], and between 1905 and 1909, Montréal City Directories list Chu as “interpreter of the Court House” [5]. In the same period, arrests, charges, and fines befell Chu for various activities, including selling liquor and cigars without a license, bribing witnesses [6], conducting a gambling house [7], and perjury [8]. In 1908, he was sworn in as a special detective of the Montréal Police Commission, the reported intent of his new position being to bring the Chinese community under closer observation [9]. Less than a year later, the Pharmaceutical Association of the Province of Québec brought twenty-three cases against Lee Chu for selling cocaine without a druggist’s license, each of which he was required to pay a fine for [10]. The total owed amounting to $1025, Chu fled to Halifax, but was arrested there and brought back to Montréal [11]. Reports suggest that Lee Chu fled to Halifax once again [12] before leaving Canada. A 1910 article reports that legal advocate Mr. J. A. St. Julien received a postcard from Lee Chu, St. Julien’s former client, wherein Chu discloses that he is safely landed in Glasgow and is in good health [13].

Aside from interpreting, Lee Chu appears to have held several other occupations. The City Directories list Chu as “Chinese and Japanese fancy goods, 213 Bleury” in 1896–97 and as “mgr Wing on Wah & Co., 514 Lagauchetiere” in 1904–05 [14]. In 1902, Chu acted as a labour contractor for an Ontario sugar beet company, attempting to recruit Chinese labourers at low wages [15].

Lee Chu seems to have held a socially significant position in Montréal’s early Chinese community, referred to in one article as “le chef de la colonie chinoise à Montréal” [the chief of the Chinese colony of Montréal] [16]. He appears as a participant in reports of community celebrations, including as the performer of a “Chinese melody, with accompaniment” at a Sunday School gathering in 1895 [17] and of a “Chinese solo” at a New Year celebration in 1896 [18]. In 1899, the Chinese Merchants of Montréal, “headed by Mr. Lee Chu,” hosted a banquet in honour of Kang Yu Wei, then head of the Chinese Reform Party [19].

According to La Presse, Lee Chu married in East Canton in 1894 [20]. His wife, listed on the Register as Mrs Lee Sue, arrived in Vancouver via the Empress of Japan in January of 1902 [21]. After an extended illness, Mrs. Lee Chu died on 4 October 1904. According to La Presse, Mrs. Lee Chu’s funeral was attended by no less than 400 people [22]. She was buried in the Chinese cemetery at Mont-Royal, where a temporary headstone bearing a Chinese inscription was placed on her grave. The name on the headstone was reported to have been Mark Shee Lee. Mrs. Lee Chu was survived by her husband and a twenty-two month old son [23].

Illustration of the funeral of Mrs. Lee Chu, from “Mort D’une Chinoise.” La Presse, 10 October 1904, p. 1.

Portrait of Mrs. Lee Chu, from “Mort D’une Chinoise.” La Presse, 10 October 1904, p. 1.

British newspaper archives suggest that Lee Chu’s legal troubles persisted beyond his departure from Canada; in 1911, The Northern Daily Telegraph reported that “A Chinese interpreter, Lee Chu, [was] charged with having incited a compatriot to murder two other Chinamen” [24]. The evidence being insufficient to convict, Lee Chu was acquitted.

Sources

[1] [21] Register of Chinese Immigrants to Canada, https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/facultyresearchandpublications/52383/items/1.0075988

[2] “Capitation Tax – Claim of Lee Chu for refund of above tax paid by him on his return to Canada after a visit to China – From Trade and Commerce Department,” https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?idnumber=1418607&app=FonAndCol

[3] The Kingston Daily News, 18 October 1893, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/777337797/?match=1&clipping_id=new  

[4] “An Opium Case.” The Gazette, 12 October 1895, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/

[5] [14] Montréal City Directories, http://more.stevemorse.org/montreal_en.html

[6] “Lee Chu In More Trouble.” The Gazette, 3 October 1898, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/ 

[7] “A Fantan Case.” The Montreal Daily Witness, 28 December 1903, p. 6. https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/4704018 

[8] “City and District.” The Gazette, 3 March 1899, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/ 

[9] “Dans Le Monde De Policiers.” La Presse, 1 September 1908, p. 2. https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/3214039 

[10] “Over a Thousand Dollars and Costs for Drug Fiend.” The Montreal Star, 17 February 1909, p. 6. https://www.newspapers.com/

[11] “Lee Chu to Arrive Here This Evening.” The Montreal Star, 24 February 1909, p. 7. https://www.newspapers.com/ 

[12] “Lee Chu Again.” The Daily Witness, 30 April 1909, p. 1. https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/4682494 

[13] “A Postcard from Lee Chu.” The Daily Witness, 23 February 1910, p. 3. https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/4688692 

[15] “La Main-D’Ouevre Chinoise.” Le Journal, 10 November 1902, p. 6. https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/4621051

[16] [20] [23]  “Mort D’une Chinoise.” La Presse, 10 October 1904, p. 1. https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/3240795

[17] “Chinese Entertainment.” Montreal Daily Star, 31 December 1895. Becoming Sui Sin Far, p. 82. 

[18] “A Chinese Entertainment.” Montreal Daily Star, 18 February 1896, p. 7. https://www.newspapers.com/ 

[19] “Praise His Purpose.” The Gazette, 16 May 1899, p. 5. https://www.newspapers.com/ 

[22] “A Sa Derniere Demeure.” La Presse, 11 November 1904, p.5. https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/3240803 

[24] “Chinaman Acquitted.” The Northern Daily Telegraph, 14 October 1911, p. 5. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000652/19111014/113/0005