Long-distance call

Sidney Ming Fai Chow Tan promised his grandfather that, on his first trip back to Asia, he'd not set foot in mainland China. That was in 1967 and Tan was about to come to Hong Kong to visit the parents he barely knew and the siblings born after he had left a Taishan, Guangdong, village, as an infant.

'He was worried that I would be a smart-ass and get into trouble with the Chinese authorities,' says Tan, 59, a prominent activist in Vancouver who has spent years seeking redress for Chinese-Canadians who had to pay a hefty 'head tax' before they could enter Canada.

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