Ying Jia, Corner Store in La Petite Patrie

NFB
presents
reporter : Judith Lussier
photographer : Dominique Lafond
sound design : Cedric Chabuel
web design & development : Deux Huit Huit
in collaboration with
le Devoir
Bing Lu
Bing
Ying Ying
Ying Ying
Xiang Yang
Xiang
chapter one
Changes
chapter two
Reality
chapter three
Roots
chapter four
Language
chapter five
Values
Bing Lu
Bing Lu
We’d like to thank the Lu family.
CREATIVE TEAM

Journalist

Judith Lussier

Photographer

Dominique Lafond

Sound Designer

Cedric Chabuel

Web Development & Design

Deux Huit Huit

PRODUCTION TEAM

Producer

Dominique Willieme

Executive Producer

Hugues Sweeney

Project Manager

Martin Viau

Production Manager

Marie-Pier Gauthier

Interactivity Officer

Anne-Marie Lavigne

Administrators

Manon Provencher

Marie-Andrée Bonneau

Production Coordinators

Dominique Brunet

Caroline Fournier

Assisted by

Fernando Calderon

Marketing Managers

Sophie Thouin

Jenny Thibault

Assisted by

Karine Sévigny

Information Technology

Sergiu Raul Suciu

Bruno Gervasi

Accessibility and Digital Entreprises

Julie Matlin

Carolyne Weldon

Kathryn Ruscito

Press Relations

Nadine Viau

LE DEVOIR TEAM

Editor-in-Chief

Josée Boileau

Deputy Director on Information for Internet

Paul Cauchon

Web Administrator

Yanick Martel

Artistic Director

Christian Tiffet

Online Editors

Marie-Pier Frappier

Benoit Munger

Philippe Papineau

Journalist

Valérian Mazataud

Ted Baryluk's Grocery

Michael Mirus, & John Paskievich, 1982, 10 min 19 s

Ukrainian-Canadian Ted Baryluk's grocery store has been a fixture in Winnipeg's North End for over 20 years. In this photo study, Ted talks about his store, the customers who have come and gone and the social changes his multicultural neighbourhood has seen. But most of all he wonders what will become of his store after he retires. He hopes his daughter will take over, but she wants to move away. The film is a wistful rendering of a shopkeeper's relationship with his daughter and a fascinating portrait of a neighbourhood and its inhabitants.

Arrival

Donald Ginsberg, 1957, 29 min 32 s

This drama portrays an immigrant family and the mingled feelings of hope and despair that characterize their life in a strange land. An Italian wife joins her husband in a large Canadian city. After two years in Canada the husband feels his dream of a better life is close to realization, but his wife feels that differences of language and custom are insurmountable. How such feelings are dispelled by simple gestures of friendship from Canadian-born neighbours gives a heartening conclusion to the film.

The Third Heaven

Georges Payrastre, 1998, 48 min 52 s

This documentary gives us a glimpse inside the influential but little-known community of Vancouver's Hong Kong Chinese. Prejudices fall by the wayside as we discover the community's way of life and the vital role it plays in the Canadian and world economy through a moving, intimate portrait of the Lam family, who arrived here in 1991.

Ying Jia

Corner store in La Petite Patrie

Photographer Dominique Lafond and reporter Judith Lussier met the Lu family in 2009 while criss-crossing the province to research a wide variety of owners of convenience stores—called dépanneurs in Quebec—for their book Sacré dépanneur! They were deeply moved at how this Chinese family had settled into the heart of the Petite Patrie neighbourhood, in their convenience store at the intersection of Rosemont Boulevard and de La Roche Street.

Although the name of the dépanneur has been changed to "Ying Jia", its previous name can still be seen in the window and, inside, a photo of former owners Mr. and Mrs. Fiset, taken in the 1930s, takes us back to the corner stores of long ago. The Lu's story reminds us that behind every dépanneur's counter, a family's history waits to be discovered.