Jack
Yee enjoys the game, but people are
his passion
The familiar face in
Calgary’s Chinese community can often be
found socializing in an upper room of the
historic red brick Canton Block. Here, Yee
regularly meets friends for a game of
Mahjong, the multi-player tile game that
originated in China. Now 81 and a veteran of
the game, Yee fondly remembers learning to
play.
“My first memory of playing
Mahjong? That would be growing up as a young
kid in Hong Kong while waiting to come to
Canada. I used to play with adults when I
was (staying) in the hotel . . . waiting for
the application to come to Canada.
“I gambled with the old
guys,” he says with a laugh. “Just for fun,
because I didn’t have any money.”
Those early years were often
tough, growing up in a small village (he
remembers there being only seven houses)
with his mother and sister in China’s
Guangdong province during the Second
Sino-Japanese War. Food was scarce and
communication with his father, who had moved
to Canada shortly after his birth, was
infrequent. They were finally reunited in
small-town Morse, Sask., in 1949, where the
family ran a restaurant before their
eventual relocation to Calgary.
He had a successful career in
accounting, raised four sons with his wife
(who “fulfills my shortcomings”), and now
enjoys retirement as the head of Calgary’s
Yee Association and past president of the
United Calgary Chinese Association.
And he fills his days with
the thing he loves most — people.
“I don’t like to be alone. I
like to associate and have interaction with
friends . . . sometimes eating, playing and
doing things together.
“I have done the things that
I want to do. So, I’m pretty happy.”
Leah
Hennel, Calgary Herald
Staff videographer at Calgary
Herald/Postmedia
Kerianne Sproule
Published on: December 7, 2015 | Last
Updated: December 7, 2015 6:15 AM MST
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