Bertha Hosang Mah

Hosang was born in Lillooet, British Columbia,[1][2] the daughter of Lena Hosang.[3] Her older sister recalled, "We were the only Chinese family and there weren't any separate classes in the school, so we talked English all the time."[4]

Hosang attended McGill University, first at the Vancouver satellite location (now the University of British Columbia), and later at the Montreal campus; when she graduated in 1917, she was described as "the first Chinese woman graduated from a Canadian university".[5] At McGill, she won an award for best speech, from the Women's Literary Society (Delta Sigma).[6] She also won first prize in a national essay competition, with her article "Physical Education for Chinese Women", which was later published in Chinese Students' Monthly.[7]

Hosang was elected to the University Women's Club of Vancouver in 1918, and gave a presentation to the group that year, on "Chinese Literature".[8] Hosang worked as a secretary at the Chinese consulate in Vancouver in 1918 and 1919.[1] Her older sister Myrtle Hosang Lee studied economics at the University of California in Berkeley.[9]

In May 1921, in Berkeley, California,[3] Hosang married Dr. Ng Wing Mah,[10] a Chinese-born political scientist who taught at the University of California. They had three children, Winberta, Bertwing, and Lynn.[11][12] Bertha Hosang Mah died in 1959, aged 62 years.[13]