Ken Sim, 42, marvels at how times have changed.
He and his wife Teena Gupta live in a 1921 Kerrisdale home with a land title that stipulated the property cannot be transferrred to “N------ or Orientals.”
The couple got looks when they started dating in 1994. But as Vancouver became more multicultural, the stares stopped. Today the couple and their four boys blend right in.
Sim also saw attitudes change in his own family. Sim says his dad would have preferred his kids marry another Chinese, but ended up with two Caucasian sons-in-law, a Thai daughter-in-law, and Gupta, who is Indo-Canadian.
“He shouldn’t have come to Canada,” laughs Sim.
Sim recalls when he was in Grade 8, he had a good friend named Harmeet. His dad told him he shouldn’t play with brown people.