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Image Credit: Forty-eighth annual report of the Okanagan Historical Society January 24, 2021 - 8:00 AM West Kelowna residents may know Mar Jok by his name on an elementary school but his legacy stretches far beyond that as a communicator between the Chinese and Caucasian communities in the Okanagan in the 20th Century. The Canadian Chinese pioneer and his beloved Golden Pheasant Restaurant welcomed everyone, even the poor, during a time when Chinatown, located along Leon Avenue, and its residents faced racism and discrimination. Born in 1900 in Canton, China, Mar Jok came to Canada via Hong Kong in 1912, at the age of 11, according to an Okanagan Historical Society report. With his brother Mar Fee and his father, they opened a laundromat in Revelstoke.