Jean Lumb, Restauranteur

“As a child in Nanaimo, going to a segregated school, there were many times when I had a terrible feeling of guilt or shame that I was born Chinese. “Why are we being treated this way? Why can’t I do what other people do?” ...I didn’t want to be outside looking in.” Recalled female restauranteur Chinese Canadian activist Jean Lumb, who was born on July 30, 1919 in Nanaimo British Columbia. As a child, she did not understand why Chinese people were not accepted. She left school at twelve to help support her family and moved to Toronto at eighteen to open a grocery store. When she married her husband, she lost her Canadian citizenship because he was born in China and a women’s citizenship was defined by her husband’s. After the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act (known as the Chinese Exclusion Act) all Chinese immigration was halted and all Chinese living in Canada had to register for identification. She went on to become a passionate activist for the Chinese community. She successfully pushed the government to end its discriminatory immigration policies that separated Chinese families. In addition, she helped introduce Canadians to Chinese culture from food to dance and built bridges with the wider community by sitting on the Ontario Advisory council on multiculturalism and citizenship, was the first Canadian Chinese woman to sit on the board of the women’s college hospital. She worked hard to preserve Toronto’s Chinatown and was dedicated to civic and community work, becoming the first Chinese Canadian woman to be inducted as a member of the order of Canada.