A gathering of Wongs

Every 45 seconds, another Wong is born.
As one of the world’s most prominent last names, Wongs number more than 60 million worldwide – nearly as many as the population of the U.K. Smith – the most popular name in much of the English-speaking world – has a mere five million members.
Over the weekend, 1,200 Wongs gathered in Toronto for the Wongs’ National Convention, a two-day celebration of all things Wong. Delegates took a bus trip to Niagara Falls, participated in a family lion dance and mingled over Wong-themed drinks. On Saturday night, the delegation sat down for a 10-course meal said to be the largest Chinese banquet in Canada. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty even dropped in to tell the Wongs about his plan to boost trade missions to China, if re-elected.
The assembled Wongs hailed from across Canada and the United States – with some even making the trek from Hong Kong.
Toronto hosts around 3,000 of the world’s Wongs, according to the telephone directory Canada411.com. All told, the assembled delegates represented 0.0002 per cent of the global Wong population.
Canada’s Wongs get together once every three years in one of six rotating Canadian cities. The convention was organized by Wong Kung Har Wun Sun Association, a 49-year-old group established to help ease new immigrants into Canadian society.
This year, the Association officially unveiled the Wong Coat of Arms. Created with the official endorsement of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, the symbol features a crest flanked by a panda and a polar bear wielding a pickaxe and a hammer, a salute to the Wongs’ legacy as gold miners and railroad labourers.
The symbol is Canada’s first coat of arms to include Chinese characters – although Asian symbology has made appearances in Canadian heraldry before. In 2007, Alberta Lieutenant Governor – and former CFL player – Norman Lim Kwong got a coat of arms featuring two Chinese dragons propping up a crest decorated with footballs.
The first Canadian Wongs arrived in Victoria in 1858. Like most of Canada’s early Chinese immigrants, Wongs came across the Pacific as railway labourers or to work in the B.C. gold fields. In the 150 years since, the Wong name has found its way throughout Chinese-Canadian history.
In 1982, Sudbury’s Peter Wong became Canada’s first Chinese-Canadian mayor. Five years later, Toronto’s Bob Wong would become the first Chinese-Canadian cabinet minister when he took a post as Ontario’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure. Vancouver-born Randall Wong is Canada’s first federally-appointed Chinese-Canadian judge.
Wong Who’s Who, an online hall of fame of notable Canadian Wongs, includes Toronto City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, Richmond MP Alice Wong and astronaut Terry Wong.
Wong is an anglicized version of Huang, a Chinese word meaning yellow – a colour that the Chinese typically associate with Mother Earth. The words use as a surname is thought to date back to the Huang Kingdom, an ancient Chinese city-state that stood for more than 1,400 years until 648 BC when their homeland was overrun by the neighbouring Chu Kingdom. Survivors from the conquest adopted the Huang name in remembrance of their fallen homeland.
For the media, the Toronto gathering was an irresistible opportunity to try out the occasional Wong pun. “Hanging out with the Wong crowd,” read a headline in the Toronto Star. “Canadian family takes up arms to write a Wong,” wrote the Vancouver Sun in describing the Wong Coat of Arms.
National Post
thopper@nationalpost.com