Chao Chow Association of Quebec, Canada

Most of the members of the Chao Chow Association of Quebec (Canada) are originally from three Indochina countries --- Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Escaping from wars, we were lucky to be taken in by Canada and to settle down in Montreal. When coming to Canada, we were penniless and knew neither English nor French.

What a straitened circumstance these destitute and language barriers put us into! However, we Teochew people who experienced many hardships in our lives and even the threat of death, managed to survive and worked hard for a better future since then. Nowadays, after 20 years of struggling, our thrift and hardworking are recompensed by firmly rooting in various industries with more and more success. For the young Teochew generation, they grow up under the nurture of Chinese and occidental cultures. And most of them can speak several languages.They enter the mainstream society as professor, lawyer, dentist, ophthalmologist, doctor, pharmacist, accountant, manager, engineer, plane pilot, space technology engineer, and so on. Some of them work in transnational corporations. From our old generation to the young generation, our enduring hardworking is rewarded with today' s happy life. Once thinking about our happiness,we cannot help thanking the government of Canada for their kindness and supports.

With the joint efforts of all our townsmen, the Association is developing rapidly. Because of the significant increase of the members, the former site of the Association could no longer meet the needs of such a dramatic development.

For this reason, the Association held the special plenary session of the council members and the supervision members, and elected Quach Seng Tieng to become the head of the preparations committee of the new site of the Association. With the support of all townsmen, we accumulated several hundred thousand dollars within 2 months.

What moved us the most was that many elderly people donated their pensions, social welfare funds and even the money made by cultivating vegetables in their backyards, to contribute to the construction of the new site of our Association. In addition to the loans from banks, some townsmen provided interest-free loans. In less than one year, the Association raised sufficient funds to launch the construction of the new mansion. After 4 months of intense work, a beautiful building stood at the east of the China Town in Montreal. The new mansion was solemnly opened on May 21st , 2000. At the same time, the Chao Chow Townsmen Association was renamed the Chao Chow Association of Quebec (Canada). The new mansion offers a site fully belong to us. From the beginning of the preparations of the new building to the completion of its construction, each deeply moving story demonstrates our tradition of helping each other and fraternity. We Teochew people will create a much better future, because we always unite together and work hard.

We take to heart all possible ways to promote and support our Teochew culture, language, education and network for local and international community. Our youngers' contribution and involvement are our pride and future.

In the past decade, the association attracted more and more members. By now, it has more than 3000 members. Except from three Indochina countries, some members also come from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Southeastern Asia. The association opens a Chinese School, invites acupuncturists to serve the Chinese community, and sets up a Buddha hall for prayers.

As well, we often organize tourist activities and dinner parties, and help townsmen to arrange their marriages and funerals. We continually participated in the International Convention of Chao Chow Organizations since its 5th convention in Macau.

No matter when and where natural disaster happens, we donate to help victims. Particularly, at the moments of the big flood in China in 1991, the earthquake in Taiwan in 1998, and the flood in the east of Canada in 1998, we actively donated money to help the victims. In addition, we contributed, with our donations, to the "Hope Project" of China, to help the poor farmers to build schools for their kids. Our magnanimousness is highly praised by the public and the governments.