Over the last few years, the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner has caught the attention of many of our city councillors and mayors, past and present. Dr. Fred Bass, former city councillor and 2008 mayoral hopeful came to our 2007 dinner, sitting with Anne Roberts, also a former city councillor on the previous council. Also attending this year's dinner were current mayor Sam Sullivan, current councillors Heather Deal, Peter Ladner and Suzanne Anton, and former councillor Ellen Woodsworth.
I have gotten to know Fred over the past year and we discovered many connections through health interests, library connections, exercise, and city issues such as saving Joy Kogawa House. Fred's enthusiasm for fitness and preventative healthcare is expressed through his fondness for bicycling. He even came out this summer to try dragon boat paddling and was a very enthusiastic novice.
Fred now has a blog and on January 30th, he wrote:
"On January 28, I had the good fortune to attend Gung Haggis Fat
Choy--China meets Scotland and vice versa. Under the skilled and
persistent leadership of Todd Wong, this event has turned into one
of Vancouver's most wonderful multi-cultural celebrations.
There was music, Chinese classical performed eloquently by Silk Road, Western opera sung gracefully by Heather Pawsey, American pop belted out by Leora Cashe, classic bagpipe and Chinese pop classics. In traditional Robbie Burns celebration style, the gathering did a reasonable number of Scottish sing-alongs. However, the ultimate musical experience for me was Joe McDonald's performance of rap in full Scottish brogue!
There was laughter. Whether during the music, the speeches, or the appreciations, people proved themselves to be in good humour. To see a multi-ethnic crowd so enjoying themselves was to honour one of Vancouver’s greatest strengths—our multi-culturalism.
Not only is this sharing of cultures and identities vital to the
life of our city, it is a key strength in our economic development.
Research has shown that an important factor in the growth of research
and development businesses is the presence of a high proportion
of immigrants in the population. Furthermore, knowledge-based industries
have employees who want an interesting and vital community to live
in, and the many cultures of Vancouver provide this...
This event, at $75 a plate, was a fund-raiser for a number of worthy causes: Save Kogawa House, Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop, and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat Team. The driving force in Gung Haggis is Todd Wong. I had the good fortune to serve as a novice under Todd Wong’s captainship in a multicultural dragon boat crew. He was patient, knowledgeable, reasonably demanding and always in good humour.
Check out more of what Dr. Fred Bass thought about the 2007 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner at
www.drfredbass.ca
