Vancouver city councilor Raymond Louie asked me to support his bid to be Vancouver Mayor.  Raymond would be a great mayor... I immediately said "Absolutely!"

Raymond stands in front of Historic Joy Kogawa House on April 25th, 2008.  This was his first visit to the house, after supporting motions on city council to help save the house from demolition, and plant a cherry tree graft at Vancouver City Hall in 2005.  Raymond holds some of Joy Kogawa's books to share with his wife and children - photo Todd Wong

Raymond Louie could be Vancouver's first Chinese-Canadian mayor.  He is a multi-generational Vancouverite from the East Side.  He is a second term Vancouver city councilor.

Raymond Louie has been getting some very significant endorsers including:

My statement of endorsement is now featured on Raymond Louie's website:

"Raymond Louie actually lives the culturally diverse Gung Haggis Fat Choy lifestyle that is my creative world. His own family straddles many cultures and many generations, and he actively demonstrates that he understands the many facets that can make our city shine like a diamond. I have seen how Raymond makes things happen as a city councilor, bringing together different groups and perspectives such as arts, economics, heritage and cultures. As a mayor that empowers others to be their best, Raymond will be dynamic and our jewel of a city should shine even brighter."

Todd Wong, arts advocate and creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy

To support Raymond as the Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate, you have to
1) Join Vision as a member - click here!
2) Vote at the Vision Vancouver meeting on June 15th, Croatian Community Centre.

Raymond has recently made some wonderful statements on:

He has also currently "advocating for the creation of a non-profit foundation that will establish a long-term funding source for the chronically underfunded Childcare Endowment Reserve."

I have personally known Raymond since the fall of 2002, when he ran for city council.  Initially, I met his wife Tonya first, because she was on the board of Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society, where I had volunteered for, and then was hired as a program coordinator.  I finally met Raymond at the Chinese Cultural Centre when Mike Harcourt endorsed COPE mayoral candidate Larry Campbell. 

After that our paths just seemed to keep crossing, as Raymond was invited to present the Queen's Jubilee Medals to VAHMS board members Jim Wong-Chu and Kuldip Gill. As well, Raymond attended the opening of the "Three Pioneer Canadian Chinese Families" at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives.  My great-great-grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan's family was featured, and I was one of the featured stories as a descendant.  Raymond attended because he was distantly related to H.Y. Louie, whose family was also featured along with the family of Lee-Bick.

I have seen Raymond at many events throughout Vancouver over the past 6 years.  He is an effective city councilor and is active in the community.

To see him in action at City Council check out this video:

YouTube - EgoDensity Round 1
Raymond Louie criticizes Mayor Sam Sullivan's Eco-Density program

Here are some of the highlights when Raymond and I have shared together:

Raymond climbed on top of the Taiwanese Dragon Boat head... and reaches out to simulate grabbing a flag before crossing the finish line.  I taught him how to climb onto the dragon head - neglecting to tell him it had never been done in Canada before.  Raymond lost the demonstration race to Olympic medalist Lori Fung. - photo courtesy of Taiwanese Cultural Festival.

August to September 2003, Raymond Louie was instrumental in helping to launch the inaugural Vancouver International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race.  Raymond helped stickhandle through bureaucratic channels during a Vancouver Port strike, and participated as the flag grabber vs '84 Olympic gold medalist Lori Fung in a demonstration race.

November 3rd, 2005, Raymond supported the Save Kogawa House campaign at Vancouver City Hall, when we appealed to City Council for help.  City council used an unprecedented motion to delay a demolition permit application by 3 months, to give us time to fundraise and purchase the house.  Raymond also said that this project was so important he asked all the city councilors to make a donation that day.

January 2006, Raymond brings his family with wife and 3 kids to Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.  The featured performers are Rick Scott & Harry Wong, and the No Shit Shirleys.

July 2007, Raymond Louie calls for mediation to end the Vancouver civic workers' strike.  Mayor Sam Sullivan and the NPA decline mediation and let the "unnecessary strike" drag on for 3 months, before a mediator is finally called in on Thanksgiving weekend to settle a contract very similar to what other municipalities already settled for 3 months earlier.  Following a July 29th rally at Vancouver City Hall, Raymond Louie comes out to talk with members of Vancouver's civic unions.  I introduce him to my fellow workers of CUPE 391, Vancouver Library Workers - photo Todd Wong.

January 25th, 2008.  Raymond Louie appears on Rock 101's Bro Jake show with "Toddish McWong" to help promote the Gung Haggis Fat Choy event.

January 27th, 2008.  Raymond Louie wears a kilt to Gung Haggis Fat Choy. photo Gung Haggis collection.  A highlight of the evening is Raymond on stage with a group of men wearing kilts as a "Toast to the Lassies" chorus with co-host Catherine Barr - photo VFK.

March 13th, 2008, Vancouver Sun reports Raymond Louie's declaration to run for Vancouver mayor.  Raymond  invites me to be one of his supporters in this photo taken at the Chinese Cultural Centre courtyard.  I am standing on the far left with many key supporters of the Chinatown business and community organizers.  Dr. Kerry Jang is 5th from right - Kerry will run as a candidate for councilor with Vision Vancouver. photo Bill Keay Vancouver Sun.
April 6th, 2008.  Tartan Day is officially proclaimed in Vancouver. Raymond seconded the motion in City Council, moved by Heather Deal, which passed on April 1st.  As deputy mayor, Raymond reads the proclamation prior to a Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team practice.  In this photo l-r: Chinese-Scottish-Canadian Michael Brophy holds the Scottish flag, Todd Wong, Raymond Louie holds proclamation, bagpiper Joe McDonald-  photo Todd Wong/Georgia Thorburn

Gary Geddes is descended from Scottish ancestors from the Northern tip of Scotland. He wrote me: "Just Scots fisherfolk from the north coast who fished in Orkney waters for herring, until they were all fished out. Then they came over here and did the same nasty thing to the salmon. The family name comes from the ged, a North Atlantic sea pike. The people of the geds, totem animal and all that. Nasty little bite they have, too."....    more »

If my grandfather was alive, he would have been 140 years old. IMPOSSIBLE!!! He worked hard to pay back the head tax, most likely borrowed from relatives and family friends. $500 was charged from 1903 to 1923, after initially imposed at $50 in 1885 and raised to $100 in 1900..... It is time to fulfill the CCNC's proposal to the Conservative government submitted in 2005. Or did Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney conveniently forget about the sons and daughters left behind by their pre-deceased head tax payers and spouses.   more »

Moe Sihota rocked the house at the opening session on Monday night.  Jenny Kwan told her personal heart-warming story about the journey to find her cultural and political identity.

It's the first ever "worker of colour" conference, hosted by CUPE BC.  I am attending as a member of CUPE 391, Vancouver Library Workers. We have four members attending the conference.

This morning's session opened with a panel discussion featuring Dr. Sunera Thobani (UBC Professor, Women's Studies), Raj Chouhan (MLA Burnaby Edmonds), Jenny Kwan (MLA Vancouver Mount Pleasant), and Sid Chow Tan (Founding co-chair of Head Tax Families Society of Canada).

Each speaker talked about their own experiences in dealing with racism, as well as their community activism and what they saw as ways to address it.  And each speaker received standing ovations.  Thobani talked about racism in society, and the challenges of racial profiling in the wake of 9-11 and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Chouhan talked about his community work as founding president of the Canadian Farmworkers Union, and how it is important for unions to be active.  Tan talked about the Chinese head tax redress campaign, and how unions have been leaders in racism a century ago, and how they helped lead the CCF party and overturning racist legislation in 1947.

For me, the most powerful talk came from Jenny Kwan.  I have heard her speak a few times, but this was the first time I have heard her speak about the challenges of growing up as an immigrant in a strange culture.  Kwan arrived in Vancouver at age nine, but never felt that she felt in.  She explained how challenging it was for her mother to go to work, so her father could attend ESL classes in order to get a better job.  She described reacting against her immigrant parents, and speaking only English to them, when they could only understand Chinese.  She also described thinking that she was useless, and nobody would miss her if she died.

The turning point came when Kwan revisited her birthplace of Hong Kong, and saw the life her parents left behind so that they could come to Canada to build a better life for themselves and their children.  She then realized and appreciated the sacrifices they made, and she buckled down returning to SFU to complete her studies.  Kwan also became a community activist, working as a legal advocate.  In an effort to make a greater positive change for people's lives, she became the youngest ever councilor for Vancouver City Council in 1993.  In 1998, she became the first Chinese-Canadian cabinet minister as Minister of Municipal Affairs.

But it hasn't always been easy.  Whether it was because she was young, a woman, or a person of colour - Kwan was not treated with equal respect.  She shared stories from both her time as a city councilor and a MLA when male white opposition colleagues did their best to belittle and intimidate her.

For me, Kwan's story drove home the struggles that many people of colour face, not only from racial discrimination at school, or in the work place, but more importantly the struggle to fit in and find a cultural identity that is not in conflict with parental expectations and mainstream integration.  These same themes were repeated in the workshops that conference attendees sat on, addressing multicultural and racial issues in the union, the workplace, the community, political arena, as well as racial profiling.

I attended the workshop titled "Walking the Walk in the community."  It was led by Sid Chow Tan and Shashi Assanand.  With 14 other union brothers and sisters, we shared our own experience of racism, and issues of colour.  We discussed barriers to equal opportunity and also suggested solutions to these challenges.  Everybody came up with ideas that could help combat racism, as well as to promote cultural understanding.  We left the workshop feeling positive and vowing to take these informative ideas back to our unions and workplaces.

Tomorrow.... expect more of the same!
 

Watch GLOBAL NEWS on Tuesday Feb 26 -
6pm
TOMORROW!

Everybody knowns that BC's cultural diversity is one of the best things about living in BC.  Where else can you celebrate almost all the world's cultures worldly cuisines in a single city, go dragon boat racing, go to First Nations pow wows, enter a St. Patrick's Day parade, and learn bangra dancing?

Todd Wong (me)  was interviewed on Feb 17th for a Global TV story celebrating BC's 150 years.

I talk about cultural diversity in BC, and am seen with the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team, paddling in the background.

Cultural diversity is the topic, Todd and the Gung Haggis dragon boat team will represent it to Global TV viewers.  Our dragon boat team itself has a good mixture of not only Asian and Caucasian paddlers, but also one paddler with Iraqi heritage and 3 paddlers with both Asian/Caucasian DNA.

I also explain the history of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner, which celebrates not only the Scottish and Chinese pioneer histories of BC, but also "everything inbetween and everything beyond."



We did a poll asking people what they thought were the things that made BC a world-class place, and people/culture/diversity was one of the top 10 responses.  To illustrate some of BC's amazing culture and diversity, I thought you would be a great person to profile.  But of course, we need some viz of you doing something, and since we missed the dinner, the dragon boating would be great, as well as another example of cultural diversity.  The story is scheduled to air Feb 26.

Yesterday was the deadline... CBC Radio 690 AM had put its big guns special projects Sheila Peacock and programs director Joan Andersen to the task to drum up 1000 letters of support for its application to move to FM.  For the past  two weeks, CBC Radio One has not only been asking its listeners to write letters to CRTC, but also personally phone calling and e-mailing its "friends in the community."

I was contacted by Sheila Peacock and wrote:


Sheila wrote back today:

2007 Highlights for Todd Wong: lots of media interviews + CBC documentary + Vancouver Library Strike... and Gung Haggis Fat Choy goes international


Here's a picture of Rory, Becca and Todd Wong at the inaugural Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in Seattle.
- photo courtesy of Becca Fong

January 15th
Erin Cebula did a Global Village spot about Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner on January 15th, just prior to our Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night event at the Vancouver Public Library. Malcolm Parry also dropped by for some pictures and quick interview.


January 24th
Gung Haggis RAP Choy... It's Robbie Burns Eve, and we released a Rap version of Robbie Burns immortal poem Address to the Haggis. It is produced by Trevor Chan of No Luck Club and features myself and Joe McDonald on vocals.  The backing track features Joe on bagpipes and is titled "Gung Haggis Fat Choy."  Click on this article to download our MP3 file.

January 25th
SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival - Dragon Cart Races + Human Curling. It's the second annual installment of a new SFU tradition organized by the SFU Recreation Department and based on my Gung Haggis Fat Choy events.

CBC Radio interview with Priya Ramu + Ming Pao interview with Eric Chan.  Priya plays the Haggis Rap.  CBC Radio International also airs a previously taped interview I did with them which sends Toddish McWong and Gung Haggis Fat Choy out to the world on satellite.  Oy!  The world gets a dose of The Haggis Rap.


January 28th
Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.  The best one ever - according to bagpiper Joe McDonald who has performed at 8 GHFC dinners since 2001.

February 15th
Kyoto Journal features an article about Todd Wong and Gung Haggis Fat Choy - by author Jean Miyake Downey

February 18th
Gung Haggis Fat Choy Seattle: Scots-Americans enjoy a big success for a first initiative south of the border!



March 19th
Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour given by Mayor Sam Sullivan to Save Kogawa House Committee & TLC: The Land Conservancy of BC.  I accept on behalf of Joy Kogawa House committee, with Bill Turner executive director of TLC.

Todd Wong, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, Bill Turner TLC executive director - photo Deb Martin

April 5th
It's Tartan Day Eve... and Kilts Night in Vancouver.  Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team takes part in a kilt fashion show, and ends up becoming featured on the poster for Kilts Night at Doolin's Irish Pub.

DSC_6069.jpg

April 14th
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is filmed for ZDF German Public Television.  We participate in the ADBF sprint regatta. Afterwards we celebrate with a Scotch tasting, and cooking up deep-fried haggis won-tons for the cameras.  BC Royal Museum later asks if they can use the picture below for a display


(clockwise) Todd Wong, Stuart Mackinnon, Steven Wong, Stephen Mirowski, Tzhe Lam and Julie Wong partake in scotch tasting and eating deep-fried haggis won-ton for ZDF German Public Television film crew - photo Deb Martin

April 29th
I post an article about James Erlandsen requiring a Bone Marrow transplant from a Eurasian Donor. This begins a relationship with James, his family and especially his cousins Aynsley and Hillary and Aunt Bev. 


May 7th
I do a City TV interview with James Erlandsen, about his fight with leukemia, my own cancer experience and how I am trying to help his his need for a bone marrow transplant by blogging about his cause.  In May, we name James Erlandsen as honourary drummer for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.



June 15/16/17
The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team races in the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival.
On Friday, we take part in the Opening Ceremonies and also become emergency volunteers for the ADBF VIP Party.

June 28th
Georgia Straight features a memorial article about Roy Mah, and interviews me for two articles: Roy Mah strove to transcend race & What do you remember about Roy Mah?  The City of Vancouver pronounces July 12th as Roy Mah Day, and I attend memorial service.



July 4th
Generations: The Chan Legacy airs on CBC Newsworld.  It is the documentary about my seven generational family history descended from Rev. Chan Yu Tan who arrived in Canada in 1896.  I was the lead contributor and helped to guide producer Halya Kuchmij as she interviewed family elders Victor Wong, Helen Lee, Gary Lee as well as artist/author Janice Wong, myself and one of our youngest family members Tracey Hinder.  I watched the live television broadcast with my grandmother, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. The Chan Legacy will air six times throughout July and August. 

The documentary films me attending the 2006 Taiwanese dragon boat races, Terry Fox Run in Richmond, and the first open house event at Joy Kogawa House where I perform with my accordion, and Joy says kind words about my involvement saving her childhood home.



July 28/29
Gold medals for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team in the Greater Vernon Dragon Boat Races.  Our Vernon raised steersperson Deb Martin is featured in the local Vernon Morning Star paper.  Our dragon boat team is hosted and housed by Deb's parents in their Kalamalka Lake-side home.


July 31
North Shore News interviews me, my mother and cousin Tracey Hinder for an article about Generations: The Chan Legacy. It's a great interview.  Tracey and I were both featured in the CBC documentary.  My mother was a great support and appears a few times as we do family activities together.


August 23
"Library workers picket with pizzazz!" Globe & Mail interviews me and takes my picture. The Vancouver Library workers are on strike for the first time in our 77 year union history.  I help organize a writers' series at Central Branch inviting well known writers as Terry Glavin, Stan Persky, Tom Sandborn, Hiromi Goto, Fiona Lam, Daniel Gawthrop, Rita Wong and George McWhirter the Vancouver Poet Laureate to come read to Vancouver Library workers.  I maintain stories about the strike on my blog, and am interviewed by different media such as CBC Radio, NW98, Co-op Radio, CBC TV etc.

Read a recap of my involvement with the Vancouver Library strike with pictures.

August 30
Georgia Straight interviews me for an article: Boss and union tell different tales and asks to use my photo of myself, city librarian Paul Whitney and librarian Alexis Greenwood.















  
September 7th
This was a very busy Friday.  I started off by introducing Vancouver poet laureate George McWhirter who gave a reading to our Vancouver library workers.
 

Next I attended the opening ceremonies for the Douglas Jung Building, where Jung's son Art Calderwood gave a speech.  Art is also a paddler with the Gung Haggis Dragon boat team and several team members were there to support him.

It was the 100th anniversary of the Anti-Asian riots that attacked both Chinatown and Japantown in 1907.  I attended the 1907 Riot: The Walking Tour.  That evening I attended the Reconciliation Dinner: Addressing the 1907 Anti-Asian riot and a century of change





September 27th
I speak at Cleveland Elementary as a Terry's Team cancer survivor as part of the National Terry Fox Run Day.  I have spoken at Terry Fox Run events since 1993, when Terry's brother Darrell Fox asked me to become a Terry's Team member - cancer survivors who serve as living proof that cancer research makes a difference.


September 28th
I host the Music Cabaret for Vancouver District Labour Council at the Rhizome. An amazing event organized by Earle Peach.  Lots of incredible songs and performers about the labour movement and history.  Because of my participation, the Vancouver District Labour Council decides to donate all the proceeds to CUPE 391, Vancouver Library workers.



September 29th
Word on the Strike...CUPE 391 picket line adds creativity to annual Word on the Street event - I do double duty performing my accordion for Word on the Strike, as well as staffing the Joy Kogawa House booth for Word on the Street.


October
Joy Kogawa House Society is now legal.... next step - restore the house

October 13th
I write a "Dream Statement" for the Dream Vancouver conference that takes place October 21st.  Of course I address racial and cultural diversity.

October 10th
Vancouver IAM agregattor Blog Features www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com story as one of the TOP BLOG REPORTS

November 8th
Geist Magazine features Todd Wong's photographs of Vancouver Library workers' strike Haiku poetry
I took many pictures during the Vancouver civic strike.  I received many requests for permission to print them in Georgia Straight + on-line newsblogs - but Geist was the only magazine request.


November 10th
Ruth Ozeki and Shaena Lambert read at historic Joy Kogawa House - Wonderful community chemistry for Vancouver's new literary landmark. I am one of the hosts for this event, as a member of the Historic Joy Kogawa House committee.  At a following meeting, I am voted president.  Shaena Lambert and Ruth Ozeki were both incredible readers.  They brought so much energy to the event, and they loved what we are doing with the house to turn it into a writer's retreat centre.
November 22nd
Eating Stories with the Chinese Canadian Historical Society - book launch I am one of the authors included in this incredible Chinese-Canadian and aboriginal anthology about family and food.  Authors book launch takes place at the Rhizome Cafe, and the official book launch happens at the Vancouver Museum.







December 14th
I am a guest panelist on CBC Radio's The Current discussing Canada's 3rd official language?  We debate whether Canada should have a 3rd official language.  Chinese is now the 2nd most spoken mother tongue language outside of Quebec.  I suggest a different alternative

December 15th
I discover that I am featured in a grade 5 school text book. It is called Literacy in Action and I was interviewed and asked for photos last year... but through all the library strike action, I never saw the book until today.

December 24th
Todd Wong's Favourite Christmas Dish read on CBC Radio's "Flavour of the Week" by Maragaret Gallagher
It's my final media spot of 2007. 

Wow.... what a busy year!  Time to start it all up again.  Press releases for 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner going out this week.

Last year in 2006, the Vancouver Sun published a list of 100 Influential Chinese-Canadians in B.C. in BC.... to much criticism - positive and negative.  I commented on my blog article: GungHaggisFatChoy :: Vancouver Sun: 100 Influential Chinese...

I am now working on my list of "Chinese-Canadians that inspired me in 2007"

I was inspired by seeing the name of Roy Mah, in the Vancouver Sun's list of people we lost in 2007, and shared the idea with my friend George Jung.   Rather than create a list of newsworthy or influential Chinese Canadians, we decided on CC's that inspired us.  This way there is NO official requirement or standards.  It is  very subjective and personal.

I also emailed some friends to create their own lists:  David Wong and Gabriel Yu have sent me replies.  David's list can be viewed on http://www.uglychinesecanadian.com

In no order, other than who came to mind first, who has crossed my path, and reviewing my blog www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com to remind myself who I wrote about in 2007.


Roy Mah - the founder of Chinatown News, was written about in the Vancouver Sun after celebrating his 90th birthday, as well as when the City of Vancouver declared July 12th Roy Mah Day, in recognition of his memorial service.  I have known Roy since I submitted an article back in the early '80's.  When he would make his regular trips to the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch, he would also wave to me sitting at the Information desk.
  
  
Thekla Lit for her work with Alpha Canada, promoting the film Rape of Nanjing, and inviting media and public to meet Comfort Women survivors.  Gabriel says that a columnist on the Global Chinese Press has named Thekla the Chinese-Canadian of 2007, as she and her husband Joseph have been busy on these issues for a long decade.  I got to know Thekla when she joined the committee for Chinese Head Tax Redress campaign in the months preceding the 2006 federal election.  She is a very smart women, not afraid to say what she thinks.


James Erlandsen - the young Eurasian SFU Student needing a bone marrow donor as he fights leukemia (James was named honourary drummer for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon boat team).  James reminded me so much of my own 1989 battle with cancer, even going to the same high school and university.  There have been ups and downs, and he still puts on a brave face.  I did a City TV interview with James, when James and I met for the first time.  It was James' cousin Aynsley who first contacted me about writing about James for my blog.
  
 
Tracey Hinder - the 15 year old inaugural BC CanSpell champion, featured in the CBC documentary GENERATIONS: The Chan Legacy.  People constantly told me after watching the documentary that they  thought that my young cousin Tracey was great in it.  She was very inspiring for the future of Canada, especially with Tracey's Eurasian heritage, learning Mandarin and being involved with her school's multiculturalism club.  This summer Tracey started an e-newsletter titled "Becoming Green" that gives suggestions how to create a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.  I knew from the beginning that Tracey had to be in the documentary.  The documentary also featured family elders Victor Wong, Helen Lee, and Gary Lee, artist/author Janice Wong and myself.  Read my blog stories about Generations: The Chan Legacy
Tracey Hinder, Betty Wong and Todd Wong re: Generations: The Chan Legacy

Henry Yu - UBC professor of History, chair and organizer of the Anniversaries for Change '07 events recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Anti-Asian Riots in Chinatown.  Henry has organized events at UBC and throughout Vancouver recognizing the impact on Vancouver made by the 1907 Anti-Asian riot in Vancouver Chinatown, the 1947 franchise for Chinese Canadians enabling them full citizenship rights, the new immigration act of 1967, and the 1997 handover of Hong Kong.  Henry has attended many Gung Haggis Fat Choy and Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop events over the past few years.  Henry always seems to have boundless enthusiasm and energy for all his projects.  But this past year was also significantly inspiring because he also became a cancer support person for his wife (see below).


Brandy Lien-Worrall - editor of Eating Stories: a Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck and All Mixed Up - a Hapa anthology.  It is easy to be impressed by all the writing and editing projects that Brandy is involved in.  I got to know Brandy better when I took the writing workshops sponsored by the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC.  I truly learned what an incredible dynamo she is. She pushed us to write creatively, and from the heart.  And it was fun to have my stories and pictures published in Eating Stories. Read: Eating Stories, a Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck: book launch Nov 25th at Vancouver Museum.  But more important to recognize is that Brandy finished editing Eating Stories in between chemotherapy treatments, after she was diagnosed with cancer in the summer.  Soon she started up a cancer blog in addition to her poem a day blog, and her 12 other blogs...  Just like James Erlandsen, Brandy is Eurasian... and also reminds me of my own cancer experience. 


Larry Wong, Todd Wong, Shirley Chan, Janice Wong with editor Brandy Lien Worrall at the Eating Stories anthology official book launch at Vancouver Museum - photo Deb Martin

more to come....

Jen Sookfong Lee -

Margaret Gallagher

Karin Lee

Bill Wong

Vicki Wong

Joseph Wu

Tricia Collins

see part II
More Chjinese Canadians that Inpired me in 2007: part 2

Head Tax survivors Mrs. Der and Ralph Lee

Sid Tan - head tax activist

Bev Wong - community activist on bone marrow and blood donors

Douglas Jung building at 401 Burrard St. 

Lan Tung, leader of Orchid Ensemble, incredible musician and creator of Triaspora

Wesley Lowe - film maker, creator of I Am the Canadian Delegate - story of Douglas Jung

George Chow - city councilor

Raymond Louie - city councilor

Jenny Kwan - MLA

Jim Chu - 1st Vancouver police chief of Asian ancestry

Assaulted Fish - sketch comedy troupe

Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre VACT presented three productions in 2007, Cowboy VS Samaurai, Asian Comedy Night, and Bondage.

Twisting Fortunes duo - Charlie Cho and Grace Chin

Chinese Canadian veterans

Todd Wong and "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" are cited in a university student paper, from University of Toronto, I think.  Not so strange maybe because in 2007, I was written up for a grade 5 literacy text book, and contacted by a university professor researching for a book he is researching.

The paper is called The Narcissism of Global Citizenry by Remington Buyer, and asks "What does being Canadian mean?" in the abstract.

Check this out:

 

It's not every Christmas that you can be snow bound and car-less in the Okanagan, yet spend the day walking dogs in a park, after seeing a bobcat in the morning.  Boxing Day's gift was 15 cm of fresh Okanagan champagne powder snow at Silver Star ski resort.  And this morning I was canoeing on beautiful crystal clear Kalamalka Lake, while it was snowing!  And then there was the company... as I spent Christmas week in Vernon BC with my girlfriend's family.

CHRISTMAS EVE DAY: SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS
Christmas Eve Day started with transferring car ownership papers between father and son at the Vancouver General Insurance Agency in North Vancouver's Edgemont Village.  The Village street lights were decorated like humongous candy canes.  I don't think I've ever seen Edgemont Village so crowded before.  My usual haunts in the village are Delaney's Coffee, 32 Books, Vancouver Kidsbooks, and Village Wines.  My parents got a new car, so I was the lucky recipient of their now former '96 Acura Integra. Wonderful generous Christmas gift!  But now I was about 2 hours late picking up my friends for our trip to Vernon BC, to spend Christmas with my girlfriend and her family.

In Vancouver's West End, my dragon boat team mate Stephen loaded up his gear in the Integra's trunk.  My accordion took up most of the room, but we rearranged our backpacks to fit.  Once on our way, Stephen told me that he heard my name mentioned on CBC radio.  He said that there aren't many Chinese-Canadians writing a blog about inter-cultural adventures in Vancouver.... so it had to be me.  Margaret Gallagher, the co-host of the radio show Flavour of the Week had read my contribution to their  Flavour of the week Facebook group, answering the topic of Favorite Christmas Dishes.  Read my contribution here: hint - (it's stuffing!)  Stephen was surprised to learn that Maggie Gallagher was half-Chinese... but not too surprised to learn that she was a friend or that she had ridden on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat float for Vancouver's St. Patrick's Day parade.

Next we picked up my girlfriend's friend Zsuzsanna.  The trunk was full, so her suitcase sat on the passenger backseat beside her.   And off we were, 1:30pm, only 2 1/2 hours later than my hoped for departure time.  But the sun was shining, and the traffic was light.  We took turns choosing music for the drive.  B.B. King Christmas was followed by Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, and Yo Yo Ma's Tango album.

The weather was good into the Fraser Valley, but beyond Hope the weather turned wet and nasty.  Sleet accompanied up up the Coquihalla, quickly turning to snow as we climbed higher.  Past the toll both, we drove to an almost clear moonlit sky all the way to Vernon.  We arrived for Christmas Eve dinner by 7:20pm.  We made good time.  And we were quickly ushered in to meet the dinner guests of my girlfriend's parents. 

CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER: INTERCULTURAL  ORIGINS & CAROL SINGING
While eating a sumptious dinner of Cornish Game Hen, we discovered that one couple had recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.  He had been born in England, she in South Africa, and they met in Cairo during WW2.  It  sounded romantic, out of something like Casablanca or The English Patient. The other couple were neighbors up the street accompanied by their adult son, named Fraser.  Of course we made our usual jokes about Toddish McWong's origins at Simon Fraser University, and that Fraser should come join the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  Well... maybe it will happen.  We did talk about birth and cultural origins, as Stephen was originally from Thunder Bay, and Zsuzsanna was from Romania.  And we also talked about universal themes of Christmas such as love, joy and peace on earth - when we weren't being cleverly cynical.  I was definitely the only "Asian" sitting at the table. 

After my girlfriend's delicious dessert of a flaming brandy-doused plum pudding served with alcoholic "hard sauce" - we retired to the living room, where Zsuzsanna and I led a musical duet of piano and accordion for a group singalong of Christmas songs and carols.  Quite the busy Christmas Eve... snow was falling softly and I we all were asleep by 11pm, giving Santa plenty of time to fill the stockings.

CHRISTMAS MORNING: A GIFT FROM NATURE
Christmas morning was definitely a White Christmas.  We got up late, enjoyed breakfast with cinnamon rolls, sausage rolls, bacon and scrambled eggs.  But before we could open our stockings... Mother Nature gave us a surprise present.  Outside the window, we watched a bobcat stalk a pheasant.  My girlfriend's father said that they had never before seen a bobcat outside the house, in 35 years of living beside Kalamalka Lake.  Wow!  The bobcat slinked across the snow, while partridges pecked unawares closer to the house, beside camper.  The bobcat sat still, behind a rock. And we waited with cameras in hand. And waited.... Finally it slunk off under the trailer without it's quarry.

After the bobcat sighting, Christmas gifts seemed anti-climatic - but we had lots of fun.  Presents opened, we took the doggies out for a walk to Kalamalka Park. We walked along the cliffs and the beaches in the snow.  The youngest dog kept bringing us pine cones to throw for her to chase.  A car-less Christmas Day, spent walking in the snow in one of BC's most beautiful parks.  Stephen was amazed, and kept taking pictures as we stood on the crest of Rattlesnake Point.  A bald eagle circled the small peak about Dog Beach.  Snap snap - more pictures.

When we arrived back to the house, we were introduced to another family friend.  Susan had just arrived back from Somalia after a stint with MSF, more popularly known as Doctors Without Borders.  We had a wonderful time talking about cultural differences and challenges, as well as the adventures of working with such as group.  They are usually the first NGO aid agency into a challenged country.  Wow!  My university studies in international political studies and medical anthropology gave me plenty of understanding to talk with Susan, and yet she was equally interested in learning about Gung Haggis Fat Choy, as we showed her the recent write up about me in the grade 5 textbook Literacy in Action.  We did agree that understanding cultural differences, and stopping racism and cultural discrimination would certainly help to bring more needed peace into all corners of the world, whether the war lord controlled countries like Somalia or our many race issues in Canada.

BOXING DAY: OKANAGAN POWDER SNOW
Boxing Day gave us a present of 15 cm of fresh Okanagan powder snow at the Silver Star ski resort.  Stephen had never every before skiied on snow so light, or so deep.  I probably bored him with tales of me skiing Silver Star as a child of 10, 11, 12 and 15 when my parents would take my brother and me for a week of ski lessons.  But Thunder Bay doesn't have the close proximity of incredible ski resorts that Vancouver or the Okanagan has.  It was a fantastic day for skiing and we made the most of it, starting with my insistence that we rent high performance shaped skis for Stephen.  We skiied all over the mountain, beginning with the Comet 6-pack Express that took us to the peak.  We checked out Christmas Bowl and found some fresh powder on At-Ridge.  In the afternoon visited the Powder Gulch Express lift in the Putnam Creek area, as we skiied along Eldorado, the longest run on the mountain at 8km.

"Are you Toddish McWong?... I mean... are you Todd Wong?" a lady asked me in the lunch-time cafeteria line-up.  Every now and then, I meet somebody who had attended on of  my Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner events.  Debbie had attended the 2004 and 2005 dinners.  Hosting and meeting 300 to 590 people can be kind of hard to remember names.  Debbie said she had had a great time at the dinners and introduced me to her 10 year old daughter Lizzie.  "We have Scottish and Chinese ancestry both in our family, " said Debbie.

After skiing, we met up with my girlfriend Deb and her friend Zsuzsanna at the skating pond.  Each Christmas, Deb and I have a wonderful time skating a Silver Star, and we always invite friends to join us.  But this year, the ice was terrible.  There were cracks in the ice that people kept tripping on.  As we were holding hands skating, Deb caught the crack and fell hard, banging her knee.  She limped to the seating area to rest.  I went in to the skate rental office to demand that the ice be fixed and the dangerous cracks marked with orange pylons. 

"Don't be so grumpy," Deb called to me after another woman had shared that the skate rental attendants didn't seem to care about the bad ice, when she had complained.  When the manager said that it was "pond ice" and not much could be done, I explained that if they weren't going to refund people's money, pylon markers were needed to prevent people injuring thermselves.  I stopped short of saying that easily preventable skating injuries were the last thing one of Western Canada's premier ski resorts needed for their reputation.  Pylons were soon out on the ice, and the cracks were soon marked.  I thanked the manager for being responsive to my concerns.  There's a line between ignoring preventable injuries and negligence, and after being on successful campaigns for head tax redress apology, saving Joy Kogawa's childhood home, and the recent Vancouver Library strike - I am not going to let a stupid thing like not marking potential ice hazards go unaddressed.

DEC 28th:  CANOEING IN THE SNOW
Who goes canoeing and skiing on the same day?  We would have if we could have.  Silver Star had another 14 cm of fresh snow this morning... but we passed in favour of canoeing before heading back to Vancouver.  There was maybe 4 cm of fresh snow outside the house this morning.  Stephen and I cooked breakfast for everybody.  Bacon, raisin bread toast, and my baked omelette stuffed with mushrooms, onions and green peppers and served with melted cream cheese on top.  Yummy!

After breakfast we bundled up and went to find canoe paddles, and personal floatation devices.  But everything was already stored away for the winter - not like when we last paddled in July after winning a gold medal in the Greater Vernon Dragon Boat Races. After convincing my girlfriend's father that we were serious about paddling, the equipment was released to us, and we carried the beautiful hand-made cedar strip canoe down to the dock.  The water was so clean and clear we could see 10 feet down to the bottom.  It was amazing paddling across Jade and Juniper Bays in Kalamalka Park.  The water colours changed with the depths of the water from shallow light tourquoise green to deeper emerald greens, and really dark green.  We paddled around Marmot Point, where we had hiked past on Christmas Day.  We paddled around Rattlesnake Point, below the observation point where we had taken so many pictures on Christmas Day.  We would have kept going, enjoying the calm water and beautiful scenery, but we knew we had to get back to the dock, so we could begin our return journey to Vancouver. 

Deb and Zsuzsanna took pictures of us as we returned to the dock.  Okay, we requested that pictures document our paddling in the snow adventure.  It only took a little gentle coercion to convince them to take a turn in the canoe.  Soon they wanted to keep going, and not come back.  Paddling was a wonderful way to end our Christmas vacation in Vernon.

There are some people who grace your life fleetingly, and you wished you had known them better. I first met Lewis Perinbam 3 years ago when I joined the Canadian Club Vancouver board of directors. Lewis Perinbam was an incredible Canadian and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Last week, he passed away on December 12th. Few people can have the impact he had, as through his lifetime he helped develop many of Canada's international development programs such as CIDA, CUSO, World University Service of Canada, UNESCO as well as the Commonwealth of Learning. I am simply amazed at all the tributes I am finding in the media and on the internet.   more »

Todd Wong is featured in a new Grade 5 Canadian text book called:
LITERACY IN ACTION - STUDENT INSTRUCTION BOOK
- published by Pearson Education Canada

Should Canada have a 3rd official language? That was the discussion on CBC Radio's The Current this morning, Friday Dec 14th, with guest host Wei Chen. I was a guest panelist on the show, and now I am trying to write down everything on the blog that I didn't get a chance to say on air. It was a very tight 10-15 minutes with guest panelists from Toronto, Newfoundland and Vancouver.    more »

I had a very interesting phone call from Toronto on Monday... a producer from CBC Radio's "The Current" phoned me to ask my views on the latest Canadian census results on language and immigration released December 4th. The questions considered the issues of should Canada adopt a 3rd official language. The CBC Radio producer also asked me if I was aware that Singapore now had four official languages. I told her that New Brunswick is the only province in Canada with two official languages, and that Singapore is a city-state. Hmmm..... food for thought....   more »

Vicki Wong is the designer of the mascots, and of the Octonauts - her first children's book that was published last year. I met Vicky last year at the 2006 Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable which annually hosts an event that allows BC authors and illustrators to introduce their new books.... I fell in love with Vicki's book The Octonauts & the Only Lonely Monster. and promptly bought it, and had a great time chatting with her.   more »