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Origins: Rosa Kai
Origins is Torontoist’s new video feature, which aims to tell the stories of Torontonians with roots both here and elsewhere.
Rosa Kai was eleven when her family moved from the Kowloon peninsula in Hong Kong to Toronto on April 18, 1976. Her parents, who did not speak English, went from well-paying jobs in China to working for minimum wage—which meant that Rosa, who was receiving a scholarship from her Catholic private school, had to maintain honours marks in order to continue attending it. She was sixteen when she suffered a nervous breakdown, and two years later was told she had schizophrenia. Rosa moved out of her parents’ house and almost immediately into shelters for the homeless. Today, she lives in a home for women in downtown Toronto.
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