C.K. Chop Suey Parlour: The Chinese Restaurant

Vancouver Mayor George Miller Dept: On Aug. 16, 1938, The carried a story headlined "Chinese to defy cafe license cancellation." The story details how a city inspector had cancelled the licence and threatened to prosecute the owner of the C.K. Chop Suey Parlour at 123B East Pender. The offence? The Chinese restaurant was employing white women as waitresses, according to Vancouver Sun. The story says Vancouver mayor George Miller had drawn a "colour line" over white women in Chinese restaurants the previous September. Representatives of seven Chinese cafes had agreed to conform to Miller's directive, but Ting wasn't one of them, and continued to employ white women and today's Vancouver is quite liberal, culturally speaking. But it wasn't always that way. The owner of the restaurant was Charlie Ting, president of the Chinese Benevolent Association. "Mr. Ting was thunderstruck," said CBA secretary Foon Sien. "White waitresses have always been employed in this cafe." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.