Yvonne Foley

Yvonne Foley was born in 1946 and brought up in Toxteth area of Liverpool.

She grew up never knowing her genetic father as he was one of hundreds of Chinese seamen who were forced to leave their families behind in Liverpool and return to China after World War Two. These men, mainly from Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore, had been brought into Liverpool to help man the ships vital to Britain's war effort. Many settled down with local girls and started families. But by the end of the conflict they were no longer wanted. Many couples were never to see each other ever again, some women believing they had been deserted.

Yvonne continues her story in her own words.

Being a Eurasian

"My mum married the man I have always thought of as my dad when I was two. My mum, my dad, my sister and I all lived in one room in Liverpool 8. I can remember being ill a lot when I was young. Perhaps that was due to the conditions we lived in then. Not too much different from the conditions many people in the city had to live in at that time.

I found out years later that lots of us Eurasian kids (the children of Chinese fathers and western mothers) lived in the area. Most of their fathers, like mine, had been forced to leave Liverpool. But I didn't know that at the time. I know now that many of our mothers were destitute and not all the kids had parents as good as mine. Some of the women had to work at two or more jobs to keep their families.

The kids in that street were a real mixed bunch - West Indians, Chinese and Eurasians like me. At the time, of course, I didn't know I was a Eurasian. I thought that one of the boys I used to play with was Chinese. But he wasn't. He was a Eurasian like me - and I met him again after 50 years. That was just a couple of years ago. We call each other every week now.

I was brought up as a Catholic. I can still remember the nuns in the school and having my fingernails cut by one of them after I had a fight with someone who was bullying a girl new to the school. She cut them so short that my fingers bled. My mother stormed up to the school when that happened. I think that was the only time she ever went near the place!

For entertainment and an escape from the place we lived in we used to go to the pictures a lot. One of my mother's friends used to work in a cinema in Granby Street and we got in for free. In those days the film was changed twice a week so we got to see a lot of movies. It was better than one room and a leaky roof!"

Moving to Kirkby

"When I was about 11 my mum and dad, my sister and I all moved out to Kirkby. That's where I stayed until I got married.

I wasn't really conscious of being different until we moved to Kirkby. Everybody there seemed to be white. Not like Liverpool 8 at all. Then my Mum started to tell me a few things. She told me my Chinese father was from Shanghai, the French quarter and that was why I was given a French name, Yvonne.

My mother said I was just like my Chinese father, always wanting to change the world. When I was a teenager I was in the 'Young Socialists'. I really did want to change things and I still believe that if you want something you have to act. Things don't come to you. You have to go and get them.

I left school without any qualifications and had a series of what were really dead-end jobs. Then I joined the old English Electric Company on the East Lancashire Road. They were offering to teach you to type if you agreed to stay with them for a year. That is where I met my husband Charles."

Liverpool in the 1960s

"Back in the 1960s Liverpool was the place to be. We went out every night for 3 years until we ran out of money. Our favourite place was 'The Shakespeare'. It doesn't exist now. I am not even sure I could find the street.

In 1968 Charles went back to Liverpool University and I went into hospital with TB! I was in hospital for almost a year and had to be on medication for a lot longer.

We got married in 1970 and lived in Liverpool for another couple of years. Then Charles got a job at Birmingham University and we moved there. I had a series of clerical jobs - clerk, receptionist, typist. Then I decided I wanted to do something different. So I went on a catering course. I finished that just as my husband got himself a job in Canberra, Australia. So off we went for 5 years."

Going to Shanghai

"When we came back to England we went to live in Stratford-on-Avon but only for 2 years. Then it was off to Hong Kong. We lived there twice for a total of about 7 years and being there gave me the opportunity to see Shanghai. When I told my mother I was going to Hong Kong she said 'Perhaps you will get to see the place where you might have grown up'. She meant Shanghai. I did go to Shanghai. In fact I have been there a few times. The first time was in 1982 and it was like going to the Liverpool of my childhood. The same buildings. The same shops. Really strange.

I made some good friends in Hong Kong. I met one of my closest friends there. She is Shanghainese. I learned a lot from her and from others about my genetic father's culture. But it is not my culture. I am English. It is only my genetics that are mixed.

I have been lucky enough to live in a few places overseas. Hong Kong, Australia and we spent some time in Canada. I think living in other places does make you reflect on who you are and what you are. When you are faced with cultures and ways of living that are not your own it forces you to think about your own values and your own behaviour. It changes you."

Liverpool now

"Now when I come back to Liverpool I look at it with very different eyes to when I lived here all those years ago. It has changed so much and so have I. A lot of the city I knew has disappeared. The streets I knew in Liverpool 8 have gone. Many of the buildings have gone and so have many of the people. But Liverpool, it is still the place where I grew up and that is part of the reason I have been so anxious to find as much as I can about the story of us Liverpool Eurasians.

Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to meet up with some of those who, like me, are the children of Chinese seamen who tried to settle in Liverpool. I think we all feel that meeting each other has given us another family. It is difficult to explain what it is like. Even though we are all different we have something in common that nobody else can share. It is not just that we all grew up in what now would be regarded as terrible poverty. It is to do with what we are and what that meant to us as we grew up. It is something that you cannot explain to others who did not share that experience."

Legacy

"We all agreed that we wanted to have a record of what happened to our mothers and our genetic fathers. Forcing the men out was not something to be proud of. I know it was a product of the time - the racial and class prejudices of the 1940s. But it marked our lives and those of our mothers and fathers.

We have put quite a lot of effort into researching the story of Liverpool's Eurasians. Not just us but those who came before us. We now have a pretty good idea of our part in the history in the city. And we have a much clearer idea of what happened to our fathers and why they were forced to leave all those years ago. It is a fascinating piece of the city's history. But more important than that, knowing what happened has helped us, their children.

That was why we wanted to have a memorial plaque put up at the Pier Head. It is for our parents and to show that we really are a part of Liverpool even if, like me, we don't live there any more."

To find out more information relating to Liverpool, its Chinese Seamen and the story of the Eurasians in the city, go to the following webpage which Yvonne has helped to create.

www.halfandhalf.org.uk

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