Featured Article | Newspapers, Magazines & Books | Television & Radio Listed below are just a few of the articles and books that, over her 16 year career, Patsy has been featured in. Newspaper Articles “Home Thoughts: Realtors Raising Funds For Children's Hospital". "Home Thoughts: Realtors Raising Funds For Children's Hospital." Vancouver Sun 19 Jul. 2008. “Vancouver's Top Real Estate Professionals Agree on Canadian Home Market Prosperity.” "Vancouver's Top Real Estate Professionals Agree on Canadian Home Market Prosperity" Ming Pao Vancouver 14 Mar. 2008: Real Estate Outlook Supplement. “Realtors Are Active In Bettering Your Community.” “Realtors Are Active In Bettering Your Community." The Vancouver Sun 24 Feb. 2004: F4. “I predict for 2002...Vancouver Realtors look at the year ahead.” Nutt, Ron. “I predict for 2002...Vancouver Realtors look at the year ahead." The Vancouver Sun 5 Jan. 2002: D1+. “Richmond's Top Realtor talks about Community Service” “Richmond's Top Realtor talks about Community Service." The Richmond News 9 Dec. 2001: 2. “They May Not Be Superwomen, But They’re All Super-Successful” Zacharias, Yvonne. “They May Not Be Superwomen, But They’re All Super-Successful.” The Vancouver Sun 1 Feb. 2001: B1+. “The 1999 Top Producing Realtors” “The 1999 Top Producing Realtors.” The Vancouver Sun 4 Feb. 2000: F11. “Condo King Retains Real Estate Reign” Chow, Wing. “Condo King Retains Real Estate Reign.” The Vancouver Sun 15 Jan. 2000: F1. “Asian realtors shine in tough selling market” Ford, Ashley. “Asian realtors shine in tough selling market.” The Province 17 Oct. 1997: A63. “Heading Home: Hong Kong Immigrants Decide Canada Can't Provide The Wealth They Crave” Volgenau, Gerry. “Heading Home: Hong Kong Immigrants Decide Canada Can't Provide The Wealth They Crave.” Hamilton Spectator 5 June 1997: B7. “Women Mean Business” “Women Mean Business.” The Richmond Review 4 March, 1995: 3B. “A Question of New Values: As Larger Homes Go Up, So Do Richmond Taxes” Odem, Jes. “A Question of New Values: As Larger Homes Go Up, So Do Richmond Taxes.” The Vancouver Sun 12 May, 1994: B6. Magazines “A Positive Attitude Can Get You Through A Lot Of Open Houses” “A Positive Attitude Can Get You Through A Lot Of Open Houses.” Business in Vancouver 8 Oct. 1996. “Home Sweet Home: Wheeling and Dealing at the Top” “Home Sweet Home: Wheeling and Dealing at the Top.” Pacific Business Sept. 1995: 3. “Welcome To Dragonville”           “Welcome To Dragonville.” Western Living Sept. 1994. “Hot Properties: Free Advice from Two Real Estate Agents with 30 Years Experience in the Market” Potter, Greg. “Hot Properties: Free Advice from Two Real Estate Agents with 30 Years Experience in the Market.” Vancouver Magazine April 1993: 80+. Books Canada Our Land: Chinese Life In Canada Today – What It’s Like, Business Prospects, How To Get In Mann, Richard I. Canada Our Land: Chinese Life In Canada Today – What It’s Like, Business Prospects, How To Get In. Toronto: Gateway Books, 1986. (Chapter 1: “Patsy Hui, Realtor, Vancouver.” 9-19) ISBN: 0921333005 *This book is currently out of print, but is available at both the Vancouver Public Library and Richmond Public Library: Vancouver Public Library: Call Number: 971.004 M28c Vancouver Central Branch Mount Pleasant Branch Richmond Public Library: Call Number: 305.8951 MAN Brighouse (Main) Branch Canada Our Land: Chinese Life In Canada Today – What It’s Like, Business Prospects, How To Get In Patsy Hui  ~ I came to Canada to live maybe forever and I’m having a heck of a good time. One gloomy autumn day in 1970 Patsy Hui, then 19, arrived from the hustling, bustling, metropolitan, international 5.5. million strong city of Hong Kong at the tiny town of Mission nestling in the foothills of the forest clad Canadian Rocky Mountains. “Mission was just one main street with two rows of street lights and the memory of seeing it for the first time is still very vivid in my mind.  Mission is 50 miles from Vancouver and I had come to stay with my uncle who lived six miles outside Mission.  His nearest neighbour was a mile away. "When I arrived in Vancouver from Hong Kong in October 1970 it was raining and miserable and I had to sit waiting at the airport for about three hours before the immigration officers finally processed me.  I was brave and I sat there and sat there looking at everybody who went passed and eventually my turn came and I was let out.  I had never met my Canadian relatives but the first thing I saw was my uncle and aunt and a whole group of their friends smiling and waving to me. “Hong Kong is very modern and the first thing I noticed was that these very “country folks” but they were very, very friendly and warm and took me to a big welcome banquet.  I was super tired and home-sick and very down and although the food was the best in Canada it wasn’t good at all compared to Hong Kong but the warmth and friendliness of the people compensated for everything." At 19, while waiting to enter teachers training college, Patsy secured a coveted position as a filing clerk and typist with a major Hong Kong bank.  But after winning scholarships she had achieved top marks at St. Luke’s Co Educational College in Hong Kong and typing in dates on form letters wasn't her idea of life in the fast track. “This experience really totally destroyed my desire to stay in Hong Kong.  I was so bored and in any case by then I had decided that I wanted to go to a foreign university instead of training as a teacher.  None of my immediate family had gone abroad to live and I was the pioneer but I come from a very loving family and they understood why I felt I had to go away.  Throughout my whole life I had always been extremely independent and even though I had come from a middle class family as the middle child of seven I didn’t want to be a burden on my parents.  My mother was always very good in training us to be independent and when I told her I wanted to come to Canada she helped me and was very supportive.  She helped me buy clothes, bought my airline ticket, comforted me and arranged the send-off.  In Canada I had some friends and a relative whom I had never met so at least in coming to Canada I had the back-up of people I could turn to. “When I first arrived after we had driven through Mission we came to a little house on an acre of land where my uncle lived.  It was totally dark and next to an arm of the Fraser River.  I was so tired and I was put upstairs in a room all by myself.  I had never had a room of my own because I always shared with my sisters.  The next day I toured the mill where my uncle worked and which belonged to Canada Forest Products.  About 700 men work there and I felt like a VIP because I was given a hard hat and toured through the whole place.  A lot of people came to welcome me.  It was incredible.  I felt so warm. "The main reason why I came to Canada was that I had an offer from the Royal Bank of Canada to work at its Mission branch and so I went to the Bank and met the manager and he was like a father to me – and he still is.  He showed me what a quarter is, showed me what a dime is and really helped me.  He told me that I probably needed a few days rest and I started work as a teller (cashier) at the Bank’s Mission branch on November 6, 1970.  In Hong Kong people think very fast and very soon I was promoted to Head Teller. “I loved Mission because it is a small town and the whole town seemed to come in a see me.  The people were so warm it was incredible.  I was just overwhelmed.  I never remember feeling lonely.  People used to invite me to their homes and old ladies would bring bread to me.  It was quite an experience.  If I had gone to live in Vancouver or Calgary I would probably have been a completely different person to what I am today. “Although I enjoyed my time in Mission after a while I was getting depressed and bored doing the same things every day and with nothing to do after the Bank closed.  I was so bored and I wrote tons of letters – every friend got letters from me every two days.  I didn’t watch television because when I first came my English was not too good and there were words I could not pick up although everyone was really encouraging and told me my English was excellent.  Now a lot of people think I was born here! “I lived in the traditional Canadian way including Sunday “dinner” of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and baseball games.  My uncle and aunt were a very, very old fashioned family whereas in Hong Kong my mother was a very open minded Western world type of person.  I did have boy friends and friends coming and going and ‘phoning me when I lived with my uncle but I felt very uneasy and I felt that I had to be very 'proper'.  I wasn’t doing anything wrong but I needed my own friends, my own age and then, finally, one night after I had picked up my aunt at about three o’clock in the morning from the restaurant where she worked I had a car accident and drove into a ditch.  She wasn’t very happy and that brought everything to a head. “I had tried so hard to but I was being misunderstood and my aunt felt I was to blame for the accident.  I wanted to go home to Hong Kong.  I felt awful.  My accountant at the Bank was so nice.  He took me aside, comforted me and said: “No, you’re not going home.  You’re staying here.  You’re living out.  They knew my uncle and aunt very well and they how old fashioned they were. “I stayed on with the help of a lot of friends in the Bank and all around.  I moved out and stayed in my own apartment, walked to work – I wouldn’t drive a car anymore – I joined book clubs, did a lot of voluntary work visiting old folks in old age homes, played tennis, watched baseball games, had a lot of friends and had a ball! “I learned so much about Canadian life and people – root beer, A&W hamburgers, fish and chips, Christmas, Easter – I loved the life, every little bit of it.  At weekends we’d cruise around town and visit; when we visited everyone brought a bottle and we played charades, penny poker and monopoly.  After work, on Friday, everyone would go down to the ‘Pub’ and talk (I don’t drink so everyone knew I would only have a ‘Coke’) and it was just a great life. “I was promoted throughout the whole branch and invited to join what they called the Accountants Training Program.  But although I learnt a lot and accomplished a lot I told myself I could not do the same thing for the rest of my life and that it was time to move on.  First of all there were not too many boys in Mission in whom I was interested and most people there liked to stay home and watch television; that’s all they wanted but it wasn’t what I wanted.  I’m not really a city person but I wanted to be able to do more with myself and after the training program the Bank transferred me to its main branch in North Vancouver and I was in the big city. “After a year, in 1974, I became branch administration officer at a small branch in Richmond employing about 11 people and with only the manager above me.  During that year the Bank sent me to Simon Fraser University to study business administration at night and I succeeded in winning a diploma. “I was very ambitious until I met my husband and that changed my life because suddenly I wanted to be a housewife and in 1975 we were married.  My husband, Hilary, is also Chinese and a medical doctor educated at Wah Yan College in Hong Kong and at the University of Toronto in Canada.  I had gone out on dates with Caucasian boy friends but I never, never thought of marrying one, perhaps because I hadn’t met the right man until my husband. “I did worry about what life might have been like if I had married a non-Chinese.  For example, I love Chinese food.  I can’t do without it.  I always take a rice cooker with me when I’m traveling and I think subconsciously maybe I was rejecting non-Chinese boys.  Actually I found that the Caucasian boys really, really liked me because I am Chinese and different to what they were accustomed to and they really liked me as a person because I had so much to tell them from my background. “I was very properly brought up in Hong Kong but my mother is a very open minded person and the freedom we have in Canada I also had in Hong Kong so there was nothing I wasn’t used to in my contact with boys.  I don’t think there is any difference between Chinese and non-Chinese.  I have never though of myself as a foreigner.  I’m just me and everybody treats me as me and not as Chinese.  I’ve never felt I was being discriminated against. “When I returned from my honeymoon in 1975 the Bank promoted me again to a much bigger branch of 22 people and I stayed there until 1977 when I became pregnant.  We moved into a really nice home, I had a little girl, Denise, and I was all ready to retire and stay home with the family.  Three months later in my newly decorated home and with the baby sleeping most of the time one day I woke up and found myself climbing up the wall.  I picked up the ‘phone and called the Bank and although they didn’t have a full time position they asked me to work part time relieving branch administration officers. “I was so happy and although my son, Aaron, was born 14 months later, in 1979, for four years I kept working because I fell in love with going around to so many different branches, sometimes for one day, sometimes for months, and because I was relieving everybody loved me and I was treated like a saviour.  I was getting thank you cards and flowers all the time and it really made me feel as if I was on a cloud.  But the more people treated me that way the more I felt I owed them and it made me want to do more.  I like helping people and I’ve always been very conscientious.  The only goal I have in life is to do a good job. “Whatever somebody assigns to me I have to get it done well or else I couldn’t sleep and I think that’s the main reason why people are successful. “It was during that time that I really learned banking because when you’re in one branch one doesn’t learn so much about so many different aspects of the business.  Once again I had a ball for four more years. “When Denise started to attend pre-school I had to drive her and that meant giving up work again or at least not doing so much and quite soon I was bored again.  That was 1982.  For two years I went to a local college in Richmond taking a course in marketing.  At the same time I also tried to learn everything I could – calligraphy, swimming, skating, piano – anything I could think of, just for the heck of it.  I took up marketing because I knew marketing would help me in everything regardless of what business I was in.  I have just graduated from the University of British Columbia, winning a Marketing and Sales Management Diploma. “If I had not had the chance of coming to Canada even though I did pretty well at school in Hong Kong I would not have had any university education at all.  The opportunity for university education is much rarer in Hong Kong. “After two years I told myself that I had to plan for my future and ever since my second year in Canada I wanted to be a realtor.  People at the Bank had told me I was a really good sales person and I like houses – I owned my own home before I was married and I felt very proud of that. “My biggest expense is my home, just like any ordinary Canadian.  They are always spending money on their houses fixing them up all the time.  I don’t spend a lot of money on clothes or anything like that. “People had told me I should be in real estate and whereas if one sets up one’s own business one has to have capital and maybe machines in real estate all I needed was me and about six months expenses in case I didn’t make any sales.  I could work whenever I wanted to and take holidays whenever I wanted to whereas if one had gone into retail or something like that it would have been hard to have that freedom. “Even while Aaron was a baby I put in my application and waited and waited and timed it right so that as soon as both of them were in School, so that they wouldn’t miss me, that was the time I started in May 1984.  Five days after I started work I completed my first sale, in seven months I was top sales person in Richmond branch of the Montreal Trust Company and a year later number one sales person for the company in British Columbia. “I loved it so much and there were times when I was working so hard I didn’t know how many deals I’d done or how much money I’d made. “I think for other people coming to Canada today they have to be ready to work hard.  If somebody coming here has money they cannot expect to buy their success.  Nobody can.  My advice to newcomers would be: ‘Do not give up, look forward, do not look back at what may have been achieved or what they many have had in Hong Kong.’  They have to tell themselves that they are in this country and that they have to look forward.  The culture is different and the people are different and newcomers should not try to bring their own habits or culture into Canada.  They should try to learn the habits and culture of Canadians.  That’s the only way to be happy living in a foreign country.  If they join the local people they will be loved but if they want local people to join them then why should they?  That’s my philosophy of immigration. “No-one should think that it is easy to come to Canada and set up a business.  They definitely should not think this.  Its actually very, very hard, especially for somebody who has already established themselves in Hong Kong.  Among middle aged new immigrants from Hong Kong I’ve only seen one or two real success stories.  For most of them the transition is pretty disastrous, especially for people in their late thirties and forties who may have had high positions in Hong Kong.  They feel extremely frustrated.  They remember what they had in Hong Kong, the power that they had, the titles that they had, the exposure that they had, the money that they had, the big business cars and all the glory that went with their jobs.  Here they don’t have that and its not easy to get – but it they work hard it should be possible. “I like British Columbia because the scenery is nice and the weather is good – one gets the fours seasons – and the people are extremely nice, if one treats them right!  There are a lot of opportunities to work if people really want to, even if it means going round house to house and asking for odd jobs. “I loved this country from the start and thought my family should come and join me and now my parents and brothers and sisters are all here.  No matter what people say about the beautiful clothes, the cheaper clothes, the good food and the night life in Hong Kong my family are all over here, we’re really close and I really don’t miss anything.  I would if my family were still there.  I would miss them a lot. “Of course the business opportunities there are food and one can make fast dollars but is making fast dollars really the main thing in life?  I like a stable family life with no big ups and downs, where one can go home from work and go skiing and do things with the family.  And life over here is a lot better for children because they don’t have to just study, study, study.  Education in Canada is good.  There is a very, very good learning atmosphere but its more a question of ‘you do it’ rather than the teacher telling one what to do all the time.  The teachers let pupils explore and encourage them to do their own research instead of just being assigned a book to read.  As far as education is concerned I like the Canadian way a lot better than the Hong Kong way. “I am sorry to say that even though I was born and brought up in Hong Kong I really don’t miss it.  There are memories but I really wouldn’t want to go back there to live.  Of course, I don’t mind going back to visit once in a while.  I keep myself up to date with what’s happening in Hong Kong.  Every day I read Chinese language newspapers from Hong Kong and listen to Chinese radio. “We speak Chinese at home all the time, so do the children and we send them to Chinese schools.  I love the Chinese culture, I just love it, especially the poetry; its incredibly beautiful and the history.  And its in one’s mother tongue.  I don’t know if my children can learn about these things or not but I am providing them with as much chance as possible.  Who knows, one day, maybe the children may want to go back to Hong Kong or China! “Nobody should feel that they shouldn’t come to Canada whether they are very rich or just factory workers and whether or not they speak English well – they can soon learn.  But they remember that life over here is completely different from Hong Kong – not necessarily better in every way – but certainly different.  A lot of parents have come here, many of then don’t speak good English and most of them suffer. “Now Hong Kong television can be watched here so things have improved but before that the older people who couldn’t speak English found themselves surrounded by foreigners, perhaps they didn’t drive and they were completely handicapped.  My in-laws and my mother are very adaptable people and they went to school to learn English and my father in law still does – even after 10 years.  He likes to be there to speak English and to make friends. “One has to be very adaptable, find friends and not just stay cooped up in the house feeling it was a mistake to come.  Everything is completely different here.  In Hong Kong one could just go down the street to a shop while here one has to drive; there is a lot of frozen food here rather than the fresh food we could get in Hong Kong.  But it is not good sitting at home complaining.  People have to make the best of what we have here. “I think Chinese people are making a major contribution to the economy of British Columbia.  Most of the higher priced homes seem to be being purchased by Hong Kong immigrants. “When I first came hotel restaurants and lounges were the best dining in Vancouver but now we have many fancy restaurants and hotels offering good exotic food and many of them have a lot of Hong Kong money in them – not just Chinese restaurants but fast food, Japanese and even Hawaiian. “Big dollars are being spent in the auto industry, mostly by Hong Kong immigrants, on Volvos and Mercedes Benz.  People didn’t use to dress up much before but now if one goes to a concert, particularly for a Hong Kong singer, the style, the fashion and the jewellery is incredible.  Just in the past five years in Vancouver everything has totally changed and the most conspicuous spenders are Hong Kong immigrants.  There are a lot of shopping centres purchased by Hong Kong entrepreneurs as well as strip shopping malls.  Hong Kong immigrants are scooping up real estate in Vancouver. Patsy has visited Toronto but she says she ahs never considered living there. “Toronto is such a big city, the airport is huge, big and crowded like Hong Kong and its hard to park your car.  I didn’t like that too much.  It is too much like Hong Kong.  I landed in Vancouver and I have loved it ever since.  My first impression of Vancouver Airport was of how quiet it was and how well organized and basically I am not a big city person.  I like to live near a city, say, in the suburbs but not right in the city. “It is true that the economy in British Columbia is still very slow.  Its coming around but it will take time.  It won’t happen in the next few years but I really believe that whoever gets in first will have a head start. “The climate is good, we have an excellent location with our port and other facilities – the next big port is Los Angeles, there’s not much in Seattle.  There have to be opportunities for Vancouver in the trade with China.  The British Columbia government is trying very, very hard to get things going.  I have full faith in Vancouver, a lot more than in Toronto and Montréal – because of our location. “As far as investors are concerned the business climate for manufacturing is not very perfect yet – unless one is willing to take a risk. “Land is a good investment and the time is right now to get into a trading business that doesn’t require a lot of factory workers.  There should be opportunities for investment in the resource industries but the price of labour is extremely high here and resources need a lot of labour.  One could give it a shot but I don’t really think the time is right. “We have the climate, the land, the resources and the facilities.  Politically its very democratic and stable.  All we need now is labour to be available at a more reasonable cost.  No matter how bad the economy is there are always opportunities.  Even for people with little money the opportunities are still there for those who don’t want to just sit at home and complain.  The key is not to give up, to give things a shot, to think positively. “I’ve never been out of work.  When I worked for the bank in Mission I was such a workaholic that, on the weekends, I worked in a Chinese restaurant as a waitress.  I didn’t need the money but I enjoyed it so much.  Sometimes I even did it during the weekdays after banking hours working until midnight. “One has to be flexible, not to give up too easily, work hard and the harder one works the luckier one gets. “Ever since I first arrived I loved Canada and I have never regretted coming here. “I came to Canada maybe to live forever and I’m having a heck of a good time.  I belong here.” By Mann, Richard I. Reproduced with permission from Gateway Books: www.indonesiabooks.co.uk