Wednesday 8 February 2017

Context for Kwong


It was a great experience, writing a biography of Larry Kwong, the star hockey player who was known as the "China Clipper" back in the day. (Click here for a link to my website's Biographies page and scroll down a little to read all about King Kwong.) Since then, I've been keeping up on the news about him. He's in his nineties, and there's still news about him, or connected to him.

Chad Soon, who made a film about Larry Kwong, is my major source for these news stories. He posted on Facebook this wonderful vintage photo of Kwong's father, Ng Shu Kwong. (When he ran a store in Vernon BC, Mr Ng put his given name Kwong on the sign. Many of his children later came to use Kwong as their family name.)


Chad Soon brought the photo to the attention of Larry Kwong's daughter, writing on Facebook:
Hi Kristina, Last weekend your grandfather was in the Vernon Winter Carnival parade! This poster was part of the museum's float which won Best Overall. The photo will now be displayed at City Hall. Also, your family will be included in a new museum exhibit called "Gold Mountain Dream," a joint project with the Royal BC Museum, from Oct. 16-Feb. 28.

Context is everything in biographical studies! It's terrific to see Larry Kwong's father celebrated as a "Prominent Businessman" from the history of the city of Vernon. And now I've got another reason to visit the Royal BC Museum in the fall, to see the exhibit.

2 comments:

snuggery1 said...

research can by just as exciting as the writing!

Unknown said...

Dear Mrs. Johnson,

I'm a Chinese American living in Maryland. My 10 years old son loves to play hockey. I found you wrote this wonderful book about King Kwong: Larry Kwong. My son's name is also Larry.

I recommended our country public library obtaining this book. However, I was told this book was independently published in Canada in 2015 and is not available from the Library's vendors. Howard County Library System acquires the majority of its print titles from Baker & Taylor and from Ingram.

Our county librarian also tried to locate this title on my behalf through the statewide partnership. However, this effort proved unsuccessful, as this book is not owned by any of the 24 Maryland public library system.

so I am passing this information to you. Hopefully, you may ask these vendors to include this wonderful book in their catalog and get more people to access to it.

Best regards,

Tony