|
Registration: Bureau of Heraldry (South Africa),
registration, certificate 2148, February 9, 1990.
Private Registration: American
College of Heraldry, registration number 893, The Heraldic Register of
America, Volume Five, June 4, 1990.
The armiger designed
and assumed these arms as a university student. When the Canadian
Heraldic Authority was established, he petitioned for the arms to be
granted to him. He became the second Chinese Canadian to receive a
grant of arms from the Canadian Heraldic Authority, preceded only by
the Hon. David See-Chai Lam, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.
The colours combine the traditional colours of China (red and gold),
the German Empire of 1871 to 1918 (black, white, red), and Canada (red
and white). The German Imperial colours and the black eagle are
symbols of Germany, referring to the armiger's home town of Kitchener,
Ontario, which was known as Berlin before World War I. The eagle holds
a key, a medieval symbol of accountants. The "bezant pierced square"
resembles an old Chinese coin, another symbol of the armiger's
accounting profession. The dragon is another symbol of China, and the
maple leaf is a symbol of Canada.
The blazon developed and registered by the South African Bureau of
Heraldry is:
Arms: Gules, on a bend Sable fimbriated Or, between in chief a bezant
pierced square and in base a maple leaf Or, a Chinese dragon passant
Argent, langued Gules.
It differs slightly
from the Canadian blazon in that it: specifies the mantling to be red
and white instead of red and gold; it does not specify the number of
claws on each paw of the dragon, so the dragon can conceivably be
drawn with four claws per paw. The illustration shown here is drawn by
artist Tina Olah according to the South African blazon.
Ms. Olah's illustration shows two of the armiger's decorations
suspended from the shield: the decoration of an Officer of the Most
Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem and the
Golden Order of Merit of the Japanese Red Cross.
The armiger designed his badge by combining the Chinese coin from his
coat of arms with the sun in splendour, a European heraldic device.
The badge is also reminiscent of another Chinese symbol, the
twelve-ray sun that is the national emblem of the Republic of China.
 |
The armiger is a
chartered accountant, an Officer of the Most Venerable Order of
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, and a Vice-Chair of the Library
Committee of the Royal Canadian Military Institute. He has
Master's degrees in Accounting (University of Waterloo) and
Military Studies (American Military University). Brereton C.
Jones, Governor of Kentucky, commissioned him as an honorary
Colonel on the Governor's staff. He is also an author of science
fiction novels and stories, one of which, "Transubstantiation",
won the Aurora Award, Canada's national award for science fiction. |
|
