By Lydia M

My name is Bruce and I have a Chinese culture name called Zongmao. In 2016, around August, my family moved to Toronto, which was nearly three years ago. When I entered to Forest Hill, the first thing I decided to do was to start a club called “Go Club”. Go is a Chinese traditional board game. In Chinese, it is called “Wei Qi”. I found this is a very interesting game to introduce to Canadians and a proper way to practice your critical thinking and even mathematical skills.

At the very beginning, I knew I wasn’t good at English,  just as a pro-player in Go, but I assume that you don’t need language to spread a culture. However, to make sure the club functions, I made a rule that only Chinese are permitted and other people like Russians,  Russia people are treated well in China since the relationship between these two countries is always close. For example, in Russia, to graduate from high school, you need to pass a national uniform exam, Chinese is one of the subjects in the exam. The president of Go Club is me, there is no vice-president nor a secretary because I thought I could handle everything by myself, sort of follow the thinking of totalitarianism which has many disadvantages.

Thus in the first few months of the year, we had 14 members,  nevertheless, as time passes, there were only two or three. After two years of struggling, I found it’s very helpful to have a vice-president and some assistants whom you can discuss. Besides, my parents support me a lot: they made me a fine poster which is still posting in front of the guidance and in the school library. As facing these problems, now I think my English level can fully explain all the concepts of Go.

Today in my club, there are twenty more members, they are from Canada, Japan, China and everywhere else around the World. I am so thankful to my parents and everyone who had supported me. I feel I’m now more qualified in Canadian society. Also, I reckon it is a great option to challenge the social norms at the very start. The steps are simple: firstly, you need to get involved in the community and secondly, you can just start your plan and introduce your culture. That is pretty much my story about Go Club and my immigrant history. #FamilyLove #Immigrant