Tecumseh Elementary School in East Vancouver held a special project celebrating Jung’s legacy. She taught at Tecumseh for 35 years. It was an opportunity not only to honour her achievements as the first Chinese Canadian teacher hired by the Vancouver School Board in 1950, but also to recognize her courageous role in challenging racial segregation at a local public pool — a chapter of our city’s history that far too few people know.
A 1941 Vancouver Sun clipping shows the stark reality of that era: public pool rules that explicitly segregated swimmers by race. While many of us are familiar with Jim Crow laws in the United States, fewer realize that British Columbia had its own mix of formal and informal segregation. It appeared in public pools, movie theatres, restaurants, hospitals, workplaces, and even in attempts to segregate schools. Social change didn’t arrive overnight — it came because ordinary people, including Jung, refused to accept discrimination as the status quo.
Born in Merritt, B.C., Jung faced barrier after barrier in her pursuit of becoming a teacher. In a 2012 interview with educator Bill Barazzuol, she spoke about her father arriving in Canada at just 16 years old to work on the railroad — a reminder of the sacrifices and resilience that shaped so many early Chinese Canadian families. Jung carried that resilience forward, using her voice and her presence to open doors for those who would follow.
Her story is a powerful reminder that history isn’t only made by headline figures. Sometimes it’s shaped by quiet courage — by people who simply insist on fairness, dignity, and the right to belong.
She passed away on March 30, 2014 at the age of 89.
