The following is an excerpt from Canadian Jamaican Chinese 2000.

Although I started this book out of a sense of duty and obligation to myself and the Canadian Jamaican Chinese community, it has evolved into a labour of love. Over the past year my enthusiasm for this project has grown with each conversation and every picture collected. I've spoken to many people, many of whom wandered down memory lane, remembered past forgotten stories and dug up old photos.

Ever since my father Lee Tom Yin died in 1966, I have had the intention of publishing this book in the back of my mind. However, the need to pursue this project has never been so urgent until now. With the close of the millennium, it is time to record, evaluate and commemorate the achievements of our people.

Over the years, many of my friends have encouraged me to either reprint The Chinese in Jamaica, which my father compiled in 1957 and 1963 or publish a similar book that reflected today's community. After 40 years people still ask for copies of these books. They have become valuable to the community because they have captured the memories of our parents and grandparents who have passed on. To record the present which inevitably becomes the past, is the reason for my publishing this book.

I would like to dedicate this book also to our children. Many of them were born in Canada and know very little of Jamaica. They laugh when asked "Who yu father?" but are very curious to know how we are all somehow related. To our children and future generation, here's your story.

One important fact reinforced by compiling this book is that the majority of the Jamaican Chinese all over the world are Hakka and are related either by blood or marriage and descended from people that came from three neighbouring areas in Kwangtung province, namely: Fui Yung, Dung Gon and Bao On.

Apart from the simple pleasure derived from flipping through the pages, remembering and rediscovering family and long lost friends, we can also see how rich our lives have become. More than just a "Who's Who" or a reference book, it is a record of our people's hard work and perseverance and in some cases a memento of their happiest moments. It is a trophy of our successes and a model for the future generations.

Many of our parents were shopkeepers in Jamaica. One important duty was stocktaking. This was a way of determining the quantity and quality of the goods in our shops - of stepping back and judging our business. Stock was taken at important junctions in the life of the shopkeeper. At the beginning of the new millennium - we take stock.