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Scraps and Dragons
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/museumdescription14273
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Date
- Oct. 2020
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Village Museum fonds
- Description Level
- Item
- Physical Description
- 3 video recordings (mp4) (11 min., 19 sec.) : digital, col., sd., stereo, subtitles
- Scope and Content
- Item consists of part one in a two part video series "A Taste of History" created by Debbie Liang and Joty Gill, University of British Columbia alumni and graduates from the Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies program (ACAM). Part one is titled "Scraps and Dragons". The film provides backgroun…
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Village Museum fonds
- Series
- UBC Partnership series
- Description Level
- Item
- Physical Description
- 3 video recordings (mp4) (11 min., 19 sec.) : digital, col., sd., stereo, subtitles
- Material Details
- Script: Debbie Liang; Joty Gill Narration: Debbie Liang Editor: Debbie Liang Subtitles: English; Simplified Chinese; Traditional Chinese Video Appearances: Kathy Lee; Eleanor Lee Interviews filmed by: Eleanor Lee Interview questions: Eleanor Lee; Debbie Liang Illustrations and Animations: Debbie Liang Photos, Images & B-roll: Vegetable letters from Shutterstock; Green onion and carrot footage from Debbie Liang; Chop Suey image courtesy of pulaw from Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC By 2.0); Chop Suey from Shutterstock; Menus by Amy Wilson; Gold Dragon booklet cover and menu image- courtesy of UBC RBSC Chung Collection (RBSC-ARC-1679-CCTX-309-122); Chop Suey Nation book cover, image courtesy of Douglas & MacIntyre; Dragon Inn: City of Burnaby Archives, 556-239 photo by John McCarron; Larry Lee, image courtesy of Eleanor Lee; VanTech, image courtesy of Mike from Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0); Bamboo Terrace, image courtesy of Rob from Flickr, public domain; Map image courtesy of Sentinel 2 from wikimedia Creative Commons; Salad bar inside of Dragon Inn Restaurant, Burnaby Village Museum, BV017.37.3; John Lee: City of Burnaby Archives, 535-0415, photo by Brian Langdeau; Photograph - Bar Inside the Dragon Inn Restaurant - Burnaby Village Museum, BV017.37.2; Chopping Mushrooms, footage courtesy of Pressmaster from pexels.com; Chopping Parsley, footage courtesy of Pressmaster from pexels.com; Kwan Luck from Debbie Liang; Crystall Mall as taken from the north side of Kingsway in Burnaby, image courtesy of w:en: Colin Keigher from wikimedia, Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license; Lok's Produce at Crystal mall (Burnaby) in the Underground Chinese Produce Market image courtesy of William Chen from wikimedia, Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International license; Crystal Mall foodcourt, image courtesy of Jay Friedman, Gastrolust; Restaurant and Dragon Innn art by Debbie Liang Music and Sound Effects: "Alison", "Acoustic Mediation 2" from audionautix; "Slow Motion", "Creative Minds" & "Cute" from bensound.com; "Kitchen sounds" & "Pop" from Debbie Liang; "Ding sound effect" from freesoundlibrary Video adapted from 2019 BVM intern project by Debbie Liang and Marcela Gomez Special thanks to: UBC: Joanna Yang, Jenny Lu, Denise Fong, Henry Yu; BVM: Kate Petrusa, Amy Wilson Changes to music may have been made for the purposes of this video
- Scope and Content
- Item consists of part one in a two part video series "A Taste of History" created by Debbie Liang and Joty Gill, University of British Columbia alumni and graduates from the Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies program (ACAM). Part one is titled "Scraps and Dragons". The film provides background information on the origins of the Chinese-Canadian culinary dish "chop suey" and tells the story of Chinese Canadian Chop Suey restaurants, highlighting the history of the "Dragon Inn" chop suey restaurant owned by Larry Lee. The film is supported with voice over in english, subtitles, animation, historical and family photographs and interviews with family members, Kathy Lee and Eleanor Lee. One version of the film is supported with subtitles in English while two other versions of the film are supported with subtitles in Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
- History
- In 2020, due to the restrictions of COVID-19, University of British Columbia student interns with the Burnaby Village Museum Chinese Canadian History in Burnaby project were asked to create virtual experiences to reimagine Burnaby Village Museum's historical Chinese Canadian programming in remote online spaces. Debbie Liang and Joty Gill (UBC alumni and graduates of Dr. Henry Yu's 2019 summer ACAM 390A Global Seminar to Aisa) returned to work with Burnaby Village Museum to create two short films showcasing the history of Chinese Canadian Chop Suey restaurants and piggeries in Burnaby. Larry Lee was born in Kaiping, Guangdong, China and immigrated to Canada in 1949 at the age of sixteen to reunite with his father, Lee Soon. Larry Lee's father had been in Canada for years before his son immigrated to join him. Larry attended Vancouver Technical Secondary School and learned English and carpentry. After he graduated, he was hired by Mr. Wong. Larry and Mr. Wong operated an IGA grocery store at Lonsdale in North Vancouver. Following this, Larry worked as a cashier for his father at "Bamboo Terrace" Chinese restaurant in Vancouver's Chinatown. In 1958, he married his wife Kathy and one year later, in 1959 he started a new business of his own. Larry opened the "Dragon Inn" chop suey restaurant at 2516 Kingsway (at Slocan) in Vancouver. Once the restaurant was doing well, Larry opened the "Park Inn" at Kingsway and 25th Avenue. The "Park Inn" was the first Chinese food restaurant with a smorgasboard in Vancouver. With the success of these restaurants and subsequent restaurants Larry Lee opened three other "Dragon Inn" chop suey restaurants located at; 4510 Kingsway and Willingdon in Burnaby (1964); 250 Columbia Street in New Westminster (1971) and Hastings and Willingdon (1990s). In the 1990s Larry retained ownership of the Dragon Inn at 4510 Kingsway and Willingdon and sold the other restaurants. In 1996, Larry sold the property of the Dragon Inn and surrounding lots located at Kingsway and Willingdon to make way for the construction of Crystal Mall. Larry and Kathy Lee had eight children who all worked in the family run restaurants until they were sold.
- Creator
- Liang, Debbie
- Debbie Liang
- Names
- Lee, Larry
- Lee, Kathy
- Lee, Eleanor
- Liang, Debbie
- Gill, Joty
- Burnaby Village Museum
- University of British Columbia
- Responsibility
- University of British Columbia
- UBC Initiative for Student Teaching and Research in Chinese Canadian Studies
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Geographic Access
- Vancouver
- New Westminster
- Street Address
- 4510 Kingsway
- Accession Code
- BV020.28.6
- Access Restriction
- No restrictions
- Reproduction Restriction
- No known restrictions
- Date
- Oct. 2020
- Media Type
- Moving Images
- Historic Neighbourhood
- Central Park (Historic Neighbourhood)
- Planning Study Area
- Marlborough Area
- Notes
- Transcribed title
Images
Video
Scraps and Dragons, Oct. 2020
Scraps and Dragons, Oct. 2020
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/media/hpo/_Data/_BVM_Moving_Images/2020_0028_0006_001.mp4![Christmas at Dragon Inn, [196-] thumbnail](/media/hpo/_Data/_BVM_Images/2022/2022_0019_0007_001.jpg?width=280)
Christmas at Dragon Inn
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/museumdescription19078
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Date
- [196-]
- Collection/Fonds
- Larry Lee family fonds
- Description Level
- Item
- Physical Description
- 1 photograph : col. ; 9 x 9 cm
- Scope and Content
- Photograph of members of the Lee family gathered together during Christmas at the Dragon Inn. People are identified from left to right: Pat Lee, Kathy Lee, Larry Lee, Jack Leung, Marilyn Leung. The group is gathered around a table, there is a rack of coats behind them.
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Collection/Fonds
- Larry Lee family fonds
- Description Level
- Item
- Physical Description
- 1 photograph : col. ; 9 x 9 cm
- Scope and Content
- Photograph of members of the Lee family gathered together during Christmas at the Dragon Inn. People are identified from left to right: Pat Lee, Kathy Lee, Larry Lee, Jack Leung, Marilyn Leung. The group is gathered around a table, there is a rack of coats behind them.
- Accession Code
- BV022.19.7
- Access Restriction
- No restrictions
- Reproduction Restriction
- No known restrictions
- Date
- [196-]
- Media Type
- Photograph
- Scan Resolution
- 600
- Notes
- Title based on contents of photograph
Images
![Christmas at Dragon Inn, [196-] thumbnail](/media/hpo/_Data/_BVM_Images/2022/2022_0019_0007_001.jpg)
Larry Lee family fonds
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/museumdescription19071
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Collection/Fonds
- Larry Lee family fonds
- Description Level
- Fonds
- Physical Description
- 14 photographs + 3 p. of texutal records
- Scope and Content
- Fonds consists of photographs of the Dragon Inn restaurant in Burnaby, Lee family photographs and certificates awarded to Larry Lee.
- Repository
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Collection/Fonds
- Larry Lee family fonds
- Description Level
- Fonds
- Physical Description
- 14 photographs + 3 p. of texutal records
- Scope and Content
- Fonds consists of photographs of the Dragon Inn restaurant in Burnaby, Lee family photographs and certificates awarded to Larry Lee.
- History
- Larry Lee was born in Dawan village, Kaiping, Guangdong, China in 1932. As a child, he attended school at the Dawan village primary school, and later the Kaiqiao middle school. During the Second World War, the Japanese army took over parts of Guangdong. Due the circumstances at the time, Larry quit school and returned to the village. He arrived in Vancouver, Canada in 1949 at the age of 16 by plane, which stopped in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Guam, Hawaii, and Seattle before reaching its final destination in Vancouver. With no English language skills upon arrival, he attended Sir William Dawson School in Vancouver and was placed in grade five surrounded by mostly white children. His father Lee Soon was already in Canada many years before Larry arrived, and paid the Chinese head tax to come to Canada. Lee Soon operated the Puss and Boots coffee shop located on Robson Street and Richards Street and was one of the restaurant’s cooks. As a teenager, Larry's first job in Canada was working at the Puss and Boots as a restaurant helper. Later on, he took a full time job working at the Bamboo Terrace restaurant in Chinatown, and was eventually promoted to become a buyer for the restaurant. He met his wife Git Nung Lee "Kathy" who came from Xinhui county, Guangdong, in the 1950s while she was working for the produce wholesaler Tom Yee, which was located on Keefer Street between Gore and Main Street in Chinatown. Kathy's grandfather originally operated a fireworks factory in Vancouver. After an accident which involved an explosion at the factory, her father closed down the company and opened the Fong Lee BBQ Meatshop in Chinatown. Kathy and Larry married in 1958. Larry and Kathy lived in Burnaby where they raised their eight children. In the late 1950s, Larry and Kathy opened the first Dragon Inn restaurant on Slocan Road and Kingsway area along with seven other partners who mostly originated from Larry's hometown in Kaiping. The business partners eventually parted ways, and a second Dragon Inn restaurant opened in the Willingdon and Kingsway area. The third restaurant, named the Park Inn, opened up at Welwyn Street and Kingsway. A fourth restaurant, also named the Dragon Inn, was established on Willingdon and Hastings Street. Finally, a fifth Dragon Inn restaurant was opened in New Westminster on Columbia Street. Larry retained ownership of the Willingdon and Kingsway location, and sold the remaining businesses. Over the years, he purchased property around the block of his restaurant, and sold the land to developers who constructed the Crystal Mall. Larry and Kathy operated the Grand Buffet restaurant on Kingsway in the late 1990s for five years before they sold the business and retired. The Dragon Inn was known for its exterior neon sign which was removed in 1997. Larry Lee was a member of the International Association of Lions Club and a duly elected member of the Lions Club of Vancouver Champlain Heights. Larry Lee died in 2019 and his wife Kathy died in 2022.
- Responsibility
- Lee, Larry
- Accession Code
- BV017.37
- BV022.19
- Media Type
- Photograph
- Textual Record
- Notes
- Title based on contents of fonds