Loo Gee Wing: The Forgotten Tycoon Who Helped Shape Chinese Canadian History

This blog post is part of RBSC’s new series spotlighting items in the Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection and the Wallace B. and Madeline H. Chung Collection.

Part 1: Do you know this man?

Compared to famous early Chinese Canadians like Yip Sang 葉春田, Chang Toy 陳才, and Won Alexander Cumyow 溫金有, very few known the name of Loo Gee Wing 盧梓榮  (or 盧仰喬 Loo Yet Kue.), despite him being one of the richest and most prominent leaders of those early times. His portrait, in fact, hangs in Vancouver’s Chinese Benevolent Association alongside such well-known and respected company, as a “founding father” of Chinese Vancouver, and indeed Chinese Canadian history.

Loo was born around 1861-1863 to a yet unknown woman and Loo Chock Fan 盧卓凡, one of two partners in the massive Kwong Lee Company 廣利號. This firm was the largest corporate landowner in the colonial period after the Hudson Bay Company, and Chock Fan was one of the first four Chinese merchants in British Columbia. Just a few years before his birth, in the summer of 1858, his father’s Hop Kee Company 合記號 brought the first boat of Chinese gold miners to Fort Victoria from San Francisco, starting the first large wave of Chinese migration to British Columbia.[i] His mother, or one of his father’s wives, may have been the first Chinese women to enter what would eventually become Canada. [ii]

 

You can view the historic 1858 deed issued to Loo Chock Fan, perhaps the oldest record of a property owned by a Chinese person in all of Canada, in the Chung Lind Gallery.

 

Loo’s childhood is unclear; we don’t know if he grew up in China or spent his early years in North America. However, there is evidence that he was in San Francisco managing the massive Hop Kee Co headquartered at 617 Dupont St, in his father’s absence in Victoria until at least 1885.[iii] At that time, Hop Kee was one of the largest Chinese companies in North America.[iv] In 1887 he bought out the smaller, but still titanic, Kwong Lee firm from bankruptcy due to family and business disputes. He then relocated to Victoria to manage the large operations, traveling frequently between both key Chinese ports of North America. Kwong Lee Co supplied dry goods and labour for operations up the Fraser Canyon to Yale, Quesnel, and then beyond to Barkerville, netting a fortune in the early years of settlement and mining.[v]

 

According to Head Tax payment data, most Loo 盧 surnamed people in Canada had origins in the counties of Jang Shing 增城, Hoksan 鶴山, Namhoi 南海, and Shundak 順德 in Guangdong/Canton province.[vi] These were places that didn’t send tons of men to Canada, so they formed a very small group compared to people from the Szeyup, or Four Counties 四邑, that formed the majority.[vii] More men may have come from the smaller sending-areas during the 1850-1885 gold rush period, but are unrecorded. Victoria seems to be the hub for this clan surname, as well as eventual farming operations in the Okanagan run by Jang Shing countrymen, including famous hockey player Larry Kwong’s father.

By the 1890s Loo was firmly part of the merchant elite of Victoria, forming a business and political alliance with Lee Mongkow 李夢九 (translator, comprador, and CPR ticket agent), Chu Lai 徐全禮 (Hakka merchant supplier) and others from non-Sze Yup origins. In 1892 — alongside these merchant brokers and others from the business community — Loo offered a $300 dollar reward to find out who had forged the names of his faction members on a notice posted on a public bulletin board, hiring someone to kill prominent translator Yip Wing and another man. This shows that tensions were brewing between factions based on place of origin that would later continue to grow even larger.[viii] The community presented a united face, when “the Chinese Bismarck” Li Hung Chang visited Vancouver, with Loo attending alongside Chinese big-wigs from across the Pacific Northwest.[ix]

Part 2: Building an Empire

Loo Gee Wing naturalized as a British subject in 1895, and one of his wives Jsong Mong Lin did so in 1899. She signed her documents in English and had been in Canada for at least ten years. She formed a part of the Kwong Lee business empire in BC, signing partnership documents in her own right, including in 1897 for the formation of a dry goods and general store branch in Barkerville called Kwong Lee Wing Kee 廣利榮記.[x] The building for this store still stands in the large National Historic site. Hydraulic gold mining in the Cariboo region for the Loo family firm also operated under the Kwong Lee Wing Kee Company name. Kwong Lee had business with numerous copper and gold mines across the province throughout its existence. In addition, the Point Hydraulic Gold Mining Co. which was active in the Slough Creek claims near Barkerville, was also managed for a time by Loo’s son Leon J Loo 盧宗亮.[xi]

 

There are many items relating to Kwong Lee Company activities in many collections through UBC Rare Books and Special Collections. We display some documents and artifacts at the Chung Lind Gallery.

 

In 1897, Loo Gee Wing submitted an application to the privy council through the Minister of Trade and Commerce requesting that when he sent his children to China for education, upon their return to Canada they would not pay the head tax. He listed his children as follows: Loo Chung Sheung and Loo Chung Leung, twins both of age 11; Loo Yuo Bet, age 9; Loo Chung Key, age 6; Loo Part Wo, age 2; and Loo Gem/Gein Mon, age 1. All children recorded as Canadian-born. The Minister requested the Privy Council approve the request and “that assurances be given to Loo Gee Wing that on return of the children to Canada the amount of the Capitulation Tax [Head Tax] payable under the existing law will be remitted [re-payed] on proper application and evidence of identity.”[xii] This shows Loo already was a known quantity to the federal government, powerful enough to get this direct line to the top, and wealthy enough to pay up front for so many head tax costs.

 

Not just accumulating wealth and power in Canada, Loo Gee Wing accompanied the famous late-Qing reformer Kang Youwei 康有爲 to the east as his translator in 1899. At that time he was a director of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Victoria, and still managing Kwong Lee and Co.[xiii] The Chinese Empire Reform Association (CERA) was one of the first mass political parties in Chinese history, and deeply connected to the elite merchants of Western Canada. Loo and the Kang party were the talk of the town in Montreal that May, with many remarks on Loo’s fine silk attire, perfect English, and impeccable Victorian manners.[xiv] Loo eventually became disillusioned with the Empire Reform movement by later that Summer, when Kang failed to get support in Europe. At that point he left the organization, returning to Victoria to try to get Lee Mongkow to distance the Victoria merchants from Kang’s plans but was shunned by powerful Reform partisans. Eventually unknown enemies tried to assassinate him multiple times.[xv]

 

In the early 1900s, Loo invested in three things that brought even more money to many of BC’s Chinese merchant dynasties: Vancouver real estate, labour contracting, gambling operations, and opium.[xvi] Each of them had him involved in legal cases both inside and outside the Chinese community, including bribing police and attempted murder. In this period, Loo seems to relocate the center of his operations to Vancouver, where the Chinese community was growing on the land between the Burrard Inlet and False Creek; future Chinatown. He built a Chinese opera theatre and patronized troupes as an important contributor to the rise of early Cantonese opera in Canada.[xvii]

 

Loo remained active in fights between those with Szeyup origins and his minority community. This evidenced by a letter in our collection from 1903 about his “bullying and threats” sent to powerful Vancouver Szeyup merchant Yip Sang, asking for his support in the struggle.[xviii] Around the same time, the Loo residence on Fisgard St. caught fire in a case of arson, shortly after an attempt to blow it up had failed.[xix] Leon Loo, one of his elder sons, courageously broke through the wooden walls at great risk to his own life to save his mother, brother, and cousin from the flames.[xx]

 

Apparently not fazed, Loo backed an attempt led by non-Szeyup merchants to break the hold of the Yip clan over the corrupt Vancouver Chinese immigration machine. The Yips were CPR ticket agents, translators, and connected to Vancouver’s white elite, and had the ability to prevent entry of Chinese who were not their clients. Using accusations of fraud lobbed by rakish instigator and fixer David C. Lew 廖鴻翔, their enemies tried to unseat their control of the growing city and Chinatown.[xxi] Not incidentally, Lew was a manager for Loo Gee Wing and in his own words considered him “like a father…he raised me” and was close to Loo’s son Claude Loo Chung Key.[xxii]

 

These internal fights over control of illegal immigration and “middleman” positions like broker and translator exploded onto the national political stage in 1911, heightening anti-Chinese sentiment still simmering from the 1907 Vancouver riots.[xxiii] Loo Gee Wing testified before the commission alongside Chang Toy with the English Press reporting:

 

“This morning the two wealthiest celestials in British Columbia appeared, Loo Gee Wing and Sam Kee, their combined wealth exceeding a million dollars…The remarkable difference between Loo and Sam, the former dressed like a tailor’s model in the suit of a prosperous Englishman down to his patent leathers, while Sam still retains his Chinese costume and speaks only in his native tongue.”[xxiv]

 

Loo Gee Wing built some of his most lasting and famous buildings during this time. They include: the Sun Ah Hotel Building, famous for the Ho Ho Restaurant, in 1911, the Chinese Theatre, presently home of Dragon Boat BC offices, in 1909, the first two stories of the Wong Benevolent Association Building in 1908, and the Loo Building, present-day Abbott Mansions, in 1909. The latter construction led to many courtroom battles, with Loo trying to construct this massive edifice in spite of permit restrictions by short charging or avoiding his suppliers and builders. This eventually culminated in an appeals court case.[xxv] For these and other buildings, Loo seems to have had the mentality to dare the city and contractors to come for him, preparing a strong and well-funded legal team to fight back. This pattern of shady behavior ran in the family apparently, with Yorkshire Guarantees and Securities Co. suing Loo Gee Wing’s son Claude Loo for issuing a bounced cheque for $2574 in 1915.[xxvi] Loo would assign leases and property ownership to relatives to avoid debtors, though practices like this appear in records of other prominent Vancouver and Victoria merchant families.

Part 3: The End of an Era

This powerful family who could easily sweep away legal obstacles would not last. Loo Gee Wing’s capable son Leon J. Loo died unexpectedly in 1918, a personal loss that stripped him of one of his chosen successors.[xxvii] Loo himself then died in 1923, leaving an estate valued at $245,000 dollars (4.3 million in 2024). In a twisted reflection of what Loo himself had done in picking up the Kwong Lee Co in the aftermath of a family feud, his own vast family now fought over their inheritance. His estate had 17 named beneficiaries, but only two sons, Loo Chung Sheung 盧宗向 and Claude Loo Chung Key remained in Canada. To their horror, the vast fortune evaporated when the will was probated (submitted before the court). This was due to huge mortgages on the many buildings Loo had constructed, debtors calling from all across BC and the Pacific, outstanding tax debts, judicial payment orders, and even much of his property being seized by the federal government.[xxviii] The net valuation as a result fell to just $28,274, with one sixth set aside for his wife alone, with an additional $300 dollars for her maintenance.

 

Claude Loo, the perennial family troublemaker, then contested the will in court, alleging his father was not of sound mind and that he had forgotten to include the Barkerville gold mines and his bank account in his assets.[xxix] Claude also claimed that at the end he was disoriented, unable to clothe himself, ordered 12 meals a day, and was “indulging in vulgar and foolish talk with his servants.” As the family fought, Loo Gee Wing’s body lay embalmed in the Nunn & Thompson Funeral Parlor awaiting transport back to China. This writer does not know if Loo Gee Wing ever made it back home, but his body sat there for over four years at least.[xxx] In the meantime, Loo’s fixer, the fiery courtroom battler David Lew, was gunned down in September 1924 in what is still one of Vancouver’s longest cold cases. Claude Loo soon lost his fight for the will, and seemingly left Canada permanently in 1926 with only his father’s funeral home and estate lawyer as contacts in immigration documents.

Despite this sad end, Loo Gee Wing’s legacy does live on. He was a founding director of the Vancouver Chinese Benevolent Association and a builder whose business empire shaped our image of Vancouver Chinatown today. His businesses and family left traces in archives across the province, including the UBC Chung Collection and the Barkerville Historical Society. As an early “pioneer” he was close to the center of all Chinese Canadian historical moments from the mid-1800s till the beginning of the Exclusion era. While some of his family seemingly did return to Canada during that period, they never reclaimed the prominence they formerly had.[xxxi] By the 1920s and 30s the monopolies of the early merchant dynasties like the Yips, Loos, Lee Kee, and Chang Toy families were losing centrality. In their place rose a new generation of Chinatown businessmen, local-born brokers, and western-educated elites

 

Endnotes

[i] Zhongping, Chen. “Vancouver Island and the Chinese Diaspora in the Transpacific World, 1788-1918.” BC Studies no. 204 (2019): 45-65.

[ii] The British Colonist, March 1 1860 Accessed 20/11/2024 https://www.mhso.ca/chinesecanadianwomen/en/database.php?c=1512

[iii] Victoria, B.C. 12 Mar 1885 3c Insurance Cover to Loo Gee Wing https://allnationsstampandcoin.com/victoria-b-c-12-mar-1885-3c-insurance-cover-to-loo-gee-wing-sfr/

[iv] San Francisco Chronicle, Aug 26 1883 Pg.8

[v] Tzu-I Chung, “Kwong Lee & Company and Early Trans-Pacific Trade: From Canton, Hong Kong, to Victoria and Barkerville,” B.C. Studies, 185 (Spring 2015), 137-161.

[vi] This was based off the author’s original research and assessment of head tax databases.

[vii] Loo Gee Wing made a large donation in establishing a benevolent society for those with Zengcheng/Jang Shing origins 增邑仁安堂公. This was done in partnership perhaps with Loo Nai Tong 盧乃堂 of Chee Jone Wo Co 致中和 of 67 E Pender or Yen Nam Tong 87 E Pender St)

[viii] Victoria Daily Colonist, Tues Nov 8 1892

[ix] Vancouver Semi-Weekly World, Sept 15 1896 Pg 5

[x] Atkin, John. Coupland, Andy “Loo Gee Wing” buildingvancouver, blog, accessed 20/11/2024, https://buildingvancouver.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/loo-gee-wing/

[xi] Quesnel Cariboo Observer, May 5 1917, Pg. A1

[xii] Privy Council Minutes. 7 Jan-12 Jan 1897. Library and Archives Canada. RG 2, Series 1, Vol. 715. http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=ordincou&id=163519&lang=eng

[xiii] Chen, Zhongping 2023. Transpacific Reform and Revolution: The Chinese in North America, 1898-1918. 1st ed. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press Pg.31

[xiv] Montreal Star, May 13 1899 Pg.11

[xv] Chen, Transpacific Reform Pg. 34

[xvi] Loo Was head of the operations of the Man On Company, 330 Carrall St, which traded labour contracts and opium. Documents relating to this viewed by author in private papers of the Ian Lee family, accessed July 11 2022.

[xvii] Ng, Wing Chung. The Rise of Cantonese Opera. 1st ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pg. 155-157

[xviii] Letter to Yip Chun Tien complaining somebody’s evil behavior, 1903, Yip Sang Collection. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0113998. UBC Open Collections.

Original Format: City of Vancouver Archives. Yip family and Yip Sang Ltd. fonds. Correspondence. Older letters in Chinese. AM1108-S2-3-083.

[xix] Victoria Daily Times Apr 25 1907 pg.1

[xx] Daily News Advertiser April 26 1907 Pg.1.

[xxi]Mar, Lisa. Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada’s Exclusion Era, 1885-1945. 1st ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. Pg. 22

[xxii] 1911 Immigration Commission: Vol 2, Chung Collection, Box 130 folder 18, Pg.839. Pg.968

[xxiii] David Lew interpreted the 1907 Riot commission before W.L.M King. In the aftermath of the 1908 Opium Act which King wrote after the riots, Loo also lost access to the vast revenues of legal opium factories in Victoria and Vancouver, which numbered about 15 at their height. David Lew then led the 1911 immigration corruption debate.

[xxiv] The Province Jan 04 1908 Pg.4

[xxv] Loo Gee Wing v. A.F. Amor (1909), 10 W.L.R. 383 (B.C. Co. Ct.)

[xxvi] Sept 30 1915, Vancouver Daily World, pg 12

[xxvii] Leon J Loo Chung Leung 盧宗亮 was born in Victoria in 1885 with twin brother Chung Sheung, and an active manager in Loo Gee Wing’s businesses. He was recorded as entering the country March 2 1902 in the Head-Tax General Register (probably after studying abroad). He travelled to HK October 1916, using a head-tax certificate even though he was native-born (CI.5 #33702, Vic. NB CI 9#219) He was issued a replacement head tax certificate with photo when he returned March 5 1917 (CI 36#12404). Leon Loo died young at age 33 on Oct 3 1918. Grave at Mountainview has nothing but English name, Chinese name, and death date. Interestingly, someone registered under his identity for a Native-born CI 9 to go to China in Oct 1923 (Vic. NB CI9#828). Under instructions from the Chief Controller of Chinese, Nov 12 1930, this CI 9 permission was removed, i.e. canceled, preventing return. This indicates that it was fraudulent and had been caught.

[xxviii] The Province Aug 4 1923 Pg.21

[xxix] The Province, Sept 26 1923 pg.11

[xxx] The Province May 30 1926 Pg.30

[xxxi] Loo Chung/Jung Yat 盧宗日. CI 44#57901, born in Vancouver Oct 18 1918, left as a child age 4 to China, returned July 17 1935 under status of student to Vancouver. In 1946 he was 27 years old and living in North Vancouver working as a merchant in the food industry. That year he married Chu Shut Far, daughter of Victoria merchant Chu Kum Wah.