Business Prevented by poor eyesight from serving in World War I, Wong returned to the Colony to serve as a civil engineer in government service, designing sea walls, bridges, roads, sluices and other infrastructure. He thereafter managed a family sugar plantation and refinery.
Politics In 1926, at age 31, Wong won election to the British Guiana
Court of Policy from the
Essequibo Islands. This body became the
Legislative Council following a Constitutional change in 1928. As a result, Wong has been identified as the first person of East Asian descent elected to a national legislature in the Americas. His subsequent appointment to the Executive Council was also a first for a West Indian Chinese. As a legislator, Wong was a principal proponent of the introduction of personal income taxation. Wong won election to a subsequent term on the Legislative Council in 1934 under a slogan reflecting his initials: Right Vanquishes Every Wrong. Wong's business interests included Good Hope Ranch in the
Rupununi Savannah, Anchor Ranch in
Berbice, and interests in an abattoir, tannery and shoemaking factory. He owned a number of stone quarries, as well as oil and
bauxite mining concessions. Wong promoted a government and internationally financed sustainable development project for tropical hardwood industry, cut short by World War II. Wong was co-founder and President of the Durban Race Club. His stone quarry on the Essequibo was expropriated by the Allies during World War II under the
Destroyers for Bases Agreement, and supplied stone for air defenses throughout the Caribbean. Wong died on October 19, 1952. == In popular culture ==