New Chinese Canadian History website launched in Toronto.


http://www.straight.com/article-340450/vancouver/online-chinese-history-exhibit-created

http://www.vancouversun.com/columnists/website+honours+long+ignored+Chinese+built/3454583/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/2010/08/chinese-railway-workers.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/853729--online-exhibit-recounts-history-of-chinese-canadian-railway-workers

http://news.singtao.ca/vancouver/2010-08-29/province1283075512d2697223.html

Toddish McWong takes his kilt to
Squamish Nation Pow Wow


Here I am trying to learn a simple First Nations dance step from my 2nd cousin Shelley on my right, as we dance in the closing event at the 23rd Annual Squamish Nation Pow Wow.

I had never been to a First Nations Pow Wow before, so when my 2nd cousin Shelley sent me a Facebook message about the 23rd Annual Squamish Nation Pow Wow, and that she was going to watch her nieces compete in dance competition, I knew I had to be there.

The event was held at X̱wemelch'stn Park, also known as the Capilano Indian Reserve near the South end of Capilano Road in North Vancouver.  I had grown up in North Vancouver since I was 14 years old, and have driven through the reserve many times going to Park Royal.  I had only once before attended and event at the Capilano Longhouse once before in 1990, when the Squamish Nation presented David Suzuki with an eagle feather.  Soon after, I visited Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) where I met carver Claude Davidson, father of renowned artist Robert Davidson, and also traveled to the ancient village site of Skedans.

When I was about 7 years old, my favorite book was titled "Indian Lore and Craft", I became enamored of creating buckskin clothes, moccasins, face paint, bows and arrows and other accessories.  But I never followed up.



I found lots of aspects of interculturalism happening at the Pow Wow:
Click on each of the pictures for an enlargement on my Flickr account.



Here is a video of two of my favorite male dancers at the event.  The dancer with the Purple top, has a green & crimson red tartan as a loin cloth and also on his hat.  The dancer with the eagle head mask is wearing a vintage RCMP red serge tunic with HBC blanket leggings.  Watch the background for a female dancer in a red & black jingle dance costume - that's the niece of my cousin Shelley.  At the end of the video, watch for a young boy in a white tunic with a yellow porcupine headdress with 2 eagle feathers - pretty intense performance, eh?


This video is a very intense... This is the two finalists for senior male fancy dance.  It was a great way for the dance competitions to end!

Happy Canada Day!

I am listening to the cd music of 15 year old half-Chinese/half-Scottish 100% Canadian fiddle player Jocelyn Pettit.  Perfect for the recognition of Pioneer Chinese and Scots who helped to build British Columbia.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jocelyn and her mother Siew, at the BC Highland Games last Saturday. 

I had written:


Her father replied:

 

The Land Conservancy of BC is hosting Canada Day events at some of his historic and important sites throughout BC.

Here is a list of events created by TLC Director of Operations Kathleen Shepherd.  I am on the board of TLC and have been involved with TLC, since they stepped in to partner with the Save Kogawa House campaign in 2005.

The Gorge Canada Day Picnic will include Craigflower along with other great things to do (and I’m sure, things to eat). http://www.gorgetillicum.ca/picnic.php

BC Binning House will be hosting their 2^nd annual Canada Day Open House: http://blog.conservancy.bc.ca/2010/06/canada-day-at-the-b-c-binning-residence/

For those in the Kootenays, TLC’s Associated Site, the SS Moyie will host Canada Day celebrations: http://www.klhs.bc.ca/events.htm

While not quite on Canada Day, Keating will open for summer teas on Sunday: http://blog.conservancy.bc.ca/2010/06/keating-farm-estate-summer-open-hours/

Abkhazi, Wildwood and Potholes are also open for their regular hours, check the TLC website for more information.

Happy Canada Day!

www.conservancy.bc.ca

Todd Wong: A Cultural Revolutionary in a Kilt" - pg 16-18 Pacific Rim Magazine - pick up Today's Globe & Mail. It's a nice"day-after-birthday" gift!

Asians are talented in sketch comedy too!

I chatted with VACT's founding creator Joyce Lam last week.  There is big drama for this year's Etch-YOUR-SketchOFF2!#$%.  One of last year's comedy sketch teams has split into two new teams for 2010.  That's right... dramedy is happening!  Members of last year's Darin' Joes, have formed new teams.  Fane Tse has helped to form new team Angry Asian Men. Josette Jorge was also with Darin' Joes last year but has returned to SFUU Man Chu.

Will there be a comedic show down?

Other teams competing are: Beef Noodle Soup, Laughing Make Mind Dangerous, Banana Drama, Asians Bleed Red, The Yangzters.

Of special note: Tricia Collins is performing with SFUU MAN CHU.  Tricia co-hosted the 2010 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner with me.  She is one of my favorite Vancouver actresses - having performed in her solo show Gravity, as well as Firehall Theatre's Ecstasy of Rita Joe and Urban Ink Production's Hunted.  She is also a writer, contributing to Ricepaper Magazine and Completely Mixed Up: An Asian North American Mixed Race Anthology.

35 performers will be on stage.  Mostly Asians with some members of non-Asian minority groups, representing token inclusivity and plain old friendship between races.

Check out the VACT website:  www.vact.ca

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 – Vancouver Rice Bowl Competition Thursday, April 29, 2010 – People’s CHOYS Award Nightly at 7:30 PM Buy your tickets online now! NEW GROUP RATE! BUY 8 TICKETS FOR $120! Tickets are $15 each! Buy Group Rate tickets online now!

Be a Friend of VACT

Wed Apr 21, 03:15 PM by editor

For those who have enjoyed our shows and want to support us financially – we are recognizing our fans with special benefits.  Depending on your friendship level, you will receive premium reserved seating upgrades, recognition in the programs, opening night tickets and invitations to cast parties, signed productions posters and special concierge ticketing services & privileges.  Our way of saying thank you to you.

For more details, click here.

Ali & Ali 7 Return to the stage for another outrageous skewering of Canadian Multiculturalism

WORLD PREMIERE of Ali & Ali
Created and performed by Camyar Chai, Guillermo Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef
Co-starring Laara Sadiq and Raugi Yu
Directed by Guillermo Verdecchia

at the Cultch’s Historic Theatre
Apr 14–24
Tickets for Cultch Performances available at 604-251-1363 or https://tickets.thecultch.com/

at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts’ Studio Theatre
April 28 - May 1
Tickets for Shadbolt performances at 604-205-3000 or boxoffice@burnaby.ca

Ali & Ali are to Canadian multiculturalism what Wayne & Shuster are to Canadian culture.  They poke fun at ourselves, to help us laugh at the absurdity of our history and culture.

But in today's world, Wayne & Shuster, comedy kings of the 1960's and 1970's, have given way to Kids from the Hall, and Russell Peters.  Canadian culture is no longer white and red, our cultural diversity includes black and yellow and pink and especially brown.  Canadians also come from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Azerbaijian.  Wayne & Shuster used to make fun of foreign accents.  Camyar Chai and Marcus Youssef as brown immigrant refugees from the fictional country of Agraba, take ethnic jokes to a whole different level - but with some very serious political commentary.

This was my first time at Ali & Ali. I really enjoyed reading the published play Ali & Ali and the Axes of Evil.  I couldn't stop laughing at some of the bits about Asian Heritage Month, and the Scottish stage manager.  For the 2010 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner, I had invited Marcus Youssef to read/perform an excerpt with comedian Charles Demers.  So I wasn't going to miss them.

The show opens with a montage of  current world leaders from Libya, USA, and Canada.  It's a tribute rap to Moammar Gadhafi.  Wow... we are definitely in a different cultural perspective here.  The play is interactive with the audience, asking questions, getting responses.  Surprise!  They are spoofing and utilizing experimental theatre audience participation as well as Bertolt Brecht's agitprop theatre.

Ali & Ali are presenting a show to the audience.  They introduce their assistant as Yogi Ru, in actuality Vancouver actor Raugi Yu.  Raugi is the straight man to this zany duo, even dressing up as Obama's Portuguese Water Dog. 

Along the way, an ethnic South Asian RCMP officer (Laara Sadiq) appears, to charge Ali & Ali with illegal immigration to Canada.  A kangaroo court (or would it be a "moose court" in Canada?) ensues and Ali & Ali must defend and explain themselves. This is where the character of Raugi steps up as an interpreter to explain the actions of Ali & Ali to the RCMP officer.  But true to Ali & Ali interpretation and misinterpretion, as Canadian sacred institutions such as the RCMP are poked with scenarios including tasers and cultural sensitivity training. Broad outrageous humour got loud laffs from the audience - especially the puppet show!

Ali & Ali poke some fun at Barak Obama's New World Order. The puppet show took on a weird outrageous vibe, as talking heads of Afro-American movement cultural icons, criticize Obama policies in the White House.  It would have been nice if they had been able to identify who their "Jiminy Cricket" conscience guides were, as many audience members are probably not versed in Afro-American revolutionaries such as Malcolm X and Angela Davis.  

Some serious topics are addressed such as prison detention & torture, illegal immigration and deportation.  This show uses the slap stick humour to set up and explain the underlying social commentary.  How does a normal human being cope with being detained in prison on unspecific charges?  The balance between the serious and absurdist swings back and forth, eliciting emotional reactions from the audience.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  There are many in-jokes, dependent upon the audience's knowledge of many things.  It is like a television channel-flipping barrage of issues.  But the play succeeds in informing the audience about our country's detention of prisoners, and it creating new cultural perspectives of multiculturalism.  Sometimes, how you see the world really does depend on what colour your eyes are.

Definitely not for everybody - but neither was Monty Python or Wayne & Shuster.


Check out the Neworld website:
http://www.neworldtheatre.com/productions-ali-and-ali-7.html

Stories critical of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies are in Vancouver Courier and Georgia Straight blogs.


Vancouver Courier: Allen Garr's
Much is continuing to be written about the Vancouver 2010 Opening Ceremonies that took place with great hoop-lah on Friday February 12th, in BC Place Stadium.  Yes, there were the Four Host Nations welcoming the world to their ancestral (and unceded) lands.  Yes, there were Canadian Aboriginal peoples from all across the nation, dancing and drumming, while Bryan Adams and and Nelly Furtado took the spotlight and sang a new Adams' song "Beat the Drum."

And then.... a show that has brought complaints from across the country, as Federal Minister James Moore has said "there wasn't enough French-Canadian content."

Even Quebec Permier Jean Charest, as he sat next to VANOC CEO John Furlong at a news conference Monday said, “Not at the level we were expecting,” said “It wasn’t sufficient.”

I admit that enjoyed watching the show. And my girlfriend and I watched it twice... but we were also playing video and computer games during the second time.

But we cannot ignore that so many people are speaking out, and to so is to risk great peril. Clearly there is a schism in the understanding of what make's us Canadian... as understood by new immigrants of both Asian and Celtic origins, as well as multi-generational Canadians of First Nations, Asian, Celtic, Gaelic, British, French and European heritage.

Maybe like at Expo 67, we are discovering the point of how we see ourselves in the world, and in our own country.

I especially liked Shane Koyczan's poem. He is indeed addressing the values that push us to do better, to be more inclusive, and to always try harder - just like my personal hero Terry Fox, who is very dear to me, as I hold the SFU Terry Fox gold medal, as a recipient "for courage in adversity and dedication to society."

Remember what happened after the Closing Ceremonies in Turin?
Even Premier Gordon Campbell criticized Turin closing ceremony display by saying, “I thought there were lots of stereotypes that are not what the new Canada is.” http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=8a6a6c72-05f7-4a8d-91a1-60f2ebe27219&k=96687

Yes, I too understand that we cannot please everybody all the time, and that some cultural groups will cry foul. But my experiences are also tainted by growing up in a deliberate exclusion of systemic racism, where my born-in-Canada grandmother could not vote in this country until after her brothers and cousin had been reluctantly accepted into the Canadian Forces due to pressure from Great Britain, and then sent on "Suicide Missions" to be behind enemy lines in Burma.

For these reasons I knew it was important to help save Joy Kogawa's childhood home from demolition, where she was forced to leave at age 6 due to internment of Japanese-Canadians.

For these reasons, I know it is important to support my cousin Chief Rhonda Larrabee whose mother's people had their ancestral lands taken away from them, to create BC's first capital city of New Westminster. And then to add insult, had their reservation taken away, and their band name of Qayqayt was said to not exist, because the people didn't live there anymore.

If we don't speak out on these issues, now - then it is like the silence that watches the Japanese Canadians put on trains and sent away, or like knowing that First Nations children are in Residential schools. We know something is wrong, but dare not speak.

I have tried to embrace this country and it's foibles, despite hating the bagpipes when I was little because it represented Colonialism. I speak better french, then I do Chinese.

I understand the the Ceremonies wanted to emphasize "The Land" rather than the cultural diversity.  Even Margaret Atwood's great book "Survival" argues that there is indeed a distinct Canadian literature, with its own preoccupations, themes, and ideas specific to its history, geopolitics, and landscape.

But that was so 20th Century... Now in the 21st Century, it is about the geopolitics, our cultural diversity, and our place in the global world.

Yes John Furlong has done and amazing job with VANOC. It is a very challenging, almost impossible task - But John Furlong's terrible french pronounciation seems to be an apt metaphor for VANOC's ceremonies team of understanding and including Canada's multicultural history and culture.

But come on VANOC.... We Are More!!!!

Daniel Lee 1920 - January 26, 2010 

With sorrow... we share the news that Grand-Uncle Daniel Lee passed away this morning of January 26th, 2010.  He had been in the Burnaby Hospital since Wednesday.  His daughter Grace,  she said it was quite sudden - his going into the hospital.  I had been receiving reports from my mother Betty, as her mother Mabel (Dan's oldest sister at 99 years old) was visiting the hospital each day.

Uncle Dan was born the 11th child of 14, the 5th son of seven to jeweler Ernest Lee, and Kate Chan Lee - the 2nd child, and 1st daughter of Rev. Chan Yu Tan.  As a young child he spent some time living in Nanaimo with his grandparents Rev. and Mrs. Chan Yu Tan, after the early death of his father.

When Dan was 20 years old he tried to enlist in the Canadian Army, but was turned away because at that time they did not allow any Chinese Canadians.  Instead, he went to aircraft mechanics school in Toronto and graduated two years later.  By 1942, Chinese were allowed into the Army due to pressure from Great Britain.  Dan Lee was one of the the first Chinese-Canadians accepted into the Canadian Air Force.  Soon, he was joined in England, by his brothers Howard and Leonard, plus cousin Victor Wong, who were enroute to the Pacific Theatre to serve with the Army special forces.

In the years after WW2, Dan Lee and his fellow Canadian born veterans would continue to face racial discrimination and prejudice.  The were not allowed to join any of the existing Canadian Legions for veteran soldiers.  They turned to the oldest veteran organization, the Army, Navy, Air Force Vets of Canada and were accepted to form their own unit - Pacific Unit 280.  After WW2, he and his fellow veterans and good friend Roy Mah, petitioned the Canadian Government to gain voting rights for Chinese Canadians, and also to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act.  This was accomplished in 1947.

 

But the challenges weren't over yet.  Every year Uncle Dan would write a letter to Ottawa asking for an apology for the Chinese head tax and exclusion act.  The Chinese head tax redress movement took on a larger significance after MP Margaret Mitchell brought the issue up in Parliament in 1984, and also when Prime Minister Mulroney apologized to Japanese Canadians in 1988 for the the government's interning of them during WW2.

In the 1980's, Dan Lee would continue to work head tax apology issue.  With Douglas Jung, a former veteran, lawyer, Member of Parliament, and the Chinese Benevolent Association, they proposed that a national organization be formed to deal with the Head Tax issue.  Dan Lee became one of the founders of the National Congress of Chinese Canadians(NCCC) and a national conference was held.  After many years, an apology was finally made in Canadian Parliament by Prime Minister Harper in 2006.

In 1998, the Chinese Canadian Military Museum was founded.  Dan Lee's air force uniform was one of the first displays.

In 1999, we held the first Rev. Chan Legacy Family Reunion.  Uncle Dan was a consultant for the committee.  At the reunion, it was Dan Lee who gave the Elder Address, as he talked about his grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan. 

In 2002, the Rev. Chan Yu Tan family was featured in the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum exhibit "Three Canadian Chinese Pioneer Families"  - pictures of Uncle Dan and the contributions of himself and his brothers and cousin were included.  

In 2007, Dan Lee is one of the lead stories in the film documentary Heroes Remember, produced by the Chinese Canadian Military Museum.

Dan Lee's dedication to community service is exemplary.  In 2004, Dan Lee received the Award of  Merit from Dominion Command.  It is one of the highest honours a veteran can receive.  Uncle Dan told me that to receive an Award of Merit, you must first receive the Medal for Appreciation, which he received in 1987.  In 1999 he next received the Award for Service.

And through all these years, Uncle Dan would sell poppies in downtown Vancouver for Remembrance Day, and help organize the Poppy Drive every November.  He was one of the best sellers.  He was also one of the organizers of the Victory Square Cenotaph Remembrance Day ceremonies.  In 2004, Remembrance Day ceremonies began at the Canadian Chinese Pioneer Monument in Chinatown.  The veterans of Unit 280 would attend both Victory Square and Chinatown ceremonies, even if it was raining and cold.

The contributions that Dan Lee made, will last and be remembered, while he will be missed.

We offer support and love to Uncle Dan, his wife Irene, and their children Vincent and Grace.

Peace & Blessings to all, Todd Wong - Vancouver

As part of his commitment to community, Dan annually organized the poppy campaign in Vancouver. It's not surprising he was a top-seller. For his community efforts Dan has received many veteran honours, such as the Award of Appreciation, and Award for Service - but none higher than the Award of Merit from Dominion Command in 2004. It's a fitting tribute to the grandson who evidently learned his values and strong faith in community from his Methodist Church pioneer, Grandfather Chan Yu Tan.

See VIDEO of Daniel Lee from the Chinese Canadian Military Museum

Todd goes to Vernon and meets Betty Chan, former Highland Dance champion of Canada, and Dan Huang drum sgt of Kelowna pipe band.   more »

I am now back in Canada. It was an incredible learning experience for my first trip across the Atlantic to one of the most important cultural and historical ancestral homes for this country called Canada. Canada is probably the most Scottish nations outside of Scotland. Our first prime minister, many of our explorers, BC's first premier, Vancouver's first mayor - were all born in Scotland. And yet... Scotland is a country that is learning from Canada. My trip was initiated because a life-size picture and video-interview of me were used in the photo exhibit This is Who We Are: Scots in Canada. I have written about the exhibit here: Toddish McWong arrives in Scotland for inaugural visit and reception at Scottish Parliament for "This is Who We Are". Here are my pictures from the exhibit and the reception at the closing of the event on St. Andrew's Day   more »

This is my first ever trip to Scotland... and I almost didn't make it. It's the year of Scotland Homecoming, celebrating the 250th Anniversary of poet Robert Burns, and the 2009 version of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner was one of the listed events of Burns Suppers around the world. Earlier this year, my photo was included in a web photo exhibit THIS IS WHO WE ARE, for Cultural Connect Scotland created by Harry McGrath - former director of the Centre for Scottish Studies at Simon Fraser University. + PICTURES   more »

Over 50 artists were featured at the Vancouver 2010 Aboriginal Art Exhibition at Canada Place in Vancouver BC, Oct 17/18. It's a two day free exhibition with sales to the public. On Friday evening, a live auction of highlighted artworks was held with proceeds going towards the Vancouver 2010 Aboriginal Youth Legacy Fund.   more »

John Ralston Saul says Canada is Metis/Aboriginal.... in nature - not English/French/Scottish....

Here is John Ralston Saul's 2008 book about Canada:

SUMMARY OF A FAIR COUNTRY (from his website):

"In this startlingly original vision of Canada, thinker John Ralston Saul unveils 3 founding myths. Saul argues that the famous “peace, order, and good government” that supposedly defines Canada is a distortion of the country’s true nature. Every single document before the BNA Act, he points out, used the phrase “peace, welfare, and good government,” demonstrating that the well-being of its citizenry was paramount.

"He also argues that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by aboriginal ideas: egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all aboriginal values that Canada absorbed. Another obstacle to progress, Saul argues, is that Canada has an increasingly ineffective elite, a colonial non-intellectual business elite that doesn’t believe in Canada. It is critical that we recognize these aspects of the country in order to rethink its future."

	français

http://www.johnralstonsaul.com/SUM_AFC.html

It's been too rainy and cloudy for me to go skiing at Silver Star this weekend.  So I kayaked on Kalamalka Lake and helped walk the doggies up in Kalamalka Lake Park, where the snow still lies.

Yesterday I went to Village Green Mall in Vernon, where people were buying Chocolates and in the food court, an Easter show for families consisted of trying to fit 12 members of the Vernon Girls Trumpet Band into a giant balloon.  (photos to follow).

After a week of Tartan Day/Scottish Week activities... and not having any Chinese food in recent memory... I am beginning to question my Easter heritage.  Even though my great-great-grandfather was a Chinese United Church Minister, I never went to United Church for Easter.  For many years, I was a member of Celebration of Life Centre, and Centre for Spiritual Living - both New Thought Churches.

The only Chinese cultural event that I can think of, is giving Red Eggs at a dinner, one month after a baby is born.  But this isn't necessarily related to Easter, except perhaps as a reminder of sucessful fertility in relation to Spring fertility rituals.

I remember one childhood Easter where we received Easter baskets in Honolulu.  There were always lots of Chocolate bunnies for Easter as a child, but the Honolulu baskets had the little fluffy toy chick decorations... That was cool.  No grass skirts on Easter bunnies back in the 60's though.

The Gung Haggis dragon boat team paddled this morning to Granville Island for Hot Chocolate and Coffee, and found some Easter Eggs.  This is becoming a team tradition.

My Irish-Canadian writer friend Terry Glavin sent me this email message, and a link to his website: