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Vivienne Poy, the First Chinese Canadian Senator
Vivienne Poy, born in Hong Kong, is the first Chinese Canadian and the only Asian to be appointed to the Senate of Canada.
She is also a fashion designer and an entrepreneur. Before her appointment to the Senate in 1998, she founded her own brand Vivienne Poy Mode in 1981 and enjoyed great success in fashion design, manufacturing and retail.
After reading the brief write-up on her in the webpage of the Global Summit of Women 2001 held this month in Hong Kong, she said she went to Canada after graduating from a Hong Kong high school and studied history in Canada's McGill University. Then she got married with a doctor and spent twelve years at home as a housewife and mother, taking care of her three sons.
"So I have a better understanding of housewives and mothers about their prides and frustrations." she said, "and I learned from the experience that if a woman can solve the original problems and build harmonious relationship at home, she can cope with anything in the outside world."
Poy never stopped studying during her stay at home. "I used to read, write, paint, take language classes and even teach myself sewing," she said.
When her youngest son was 5 years old and went to the full-day school, Poy took a three year, full-time diploma course in Fashion Arts from Seneca College. She has always the passion and creativity on art, painting and beautiful things.
Poy said she believed that knowledge is power. "Not political power or money that defined one's success, but the knowledge," she reiterated.
"These are key elements for women to achieve success," she added.
History remains Poy's favorite subject. She got a MA in history from the University of Toronto and still a PHD candidate there although she is much busier as a full-time senator now.
Poy's love of history led her to examine her own family's past and she published two books about her families and her father, an important member of the business community in Hong Kong.
Poy's appointment as a senator was hailed as an honor to over a million Chinese Canadians across Canada. But she did not take it as her own success. "It is a position of service, not of prestige, " she said.
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