Re: Nelson Mandela died (5/12/2013)

On 8/12/2024 4:08 a.m., Aidan Kehoe wrote:

   Ar an seachtú lá de mí na Nollaig, scríobh Ross Clark:
   > [...] This reminded me of the story of Yat Hang Mew. When I was growing up
  > in Vancouver, we knew him as Angus Leung, proprietor of Varsity Produce, the
  > local greengrocer. He came to Canada from south China in the 1920s, aged 15.
  > Laws respecting Chinese immigration were getting more restrictive, so he had
  > to pretend to be the son of a family friend who was already resident, and
  > assumed his surname (Leung). He was sent to an English language class. "I
  > wanted to learn English...so I took the first seat in the first row, right
  > up front....[The teacher said] 'I'm going to put a list of English names on
  > the board, and I want each of you to pick one, then you'll have a name
  > English people can remember.'...I thought 'I'm in the first seat in the
  > first row, so I'll take the first name. Which was "Angus"."
 There is no shortage of Angus Leungs in Google results today, many of them Hong
Kongers, unshockingly. And mostly fairly accomplished. I can’t seem to find yours.

I wouldn't have expected him to show up. Apart from my dim recollection of him and his shop from childhood, everything I know comes from a piece about him written by Silver Donald Cameron, who grew up in the same neighbourhood. Angus sold the business in 1968, dabbled in real estate for a few years, but as of 1975 was well and truly retired, enjoying his family and still attending the same church I used to go to. Never more than a local celebrity, and perhaps didn't even survive into the Internet Age.