An ongoing traveling exhibition across Canada, 2024-2025
An ongoing traveling exhibition across Canada, 2024-2025
Douglas Jung
1924 – 2002
Preparing to Lay Ourselves Down for Nothing
JUNG WAS A SOLDIER, POLITICIAN, LAWYER, SUPREME COURT JUDGE AND THE FIRST CHINESE CANADIAN TO BE AN ELECTED MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT.
Douglas Jung, jumping over many political hurdles, became the first Chinese Canadian to become an elected member of Parliament in 1957, a decade after the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed.
Jung was born and raised in Victoria. Although born in Canada, like many other Chinese Canadians, he was required to register for an identity card and was denied the right to vote. As he was barred from the voting list, he was barred from practicing medicine or law, like many others.
In 1944, Jung enlisted in the Canadian army. He was one of the few Chinese Canadians who volunteered in the Second World War to train to fight in Japanese-occupied Asia. Jung and other Chinese Canadians who fought in the war helped the mainstream society to dismantle some of their biased views.
These efforts of these veterans and their supporters led the BC government to withdraw voting restrictions imposed on Chinese Canadians in 1947.
In 1956, Douglas Jung broke another barrier by running for a seat in a BC provincial election. Though he lost, this was not the end of his journey.
In the federal election of 1957, Jung won a victory in the Vancouver-Centre riding, becoming the first Chinese Canadian to become a Member of Parliament. He served in Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservative government.
We were prepared to lay ourselves down for nothing. There was no guarantee that the Canadian government was going to give us the full rights of Canadian citizenship. We were taking a gamble.