Larry Kwong: A Hero to Me


Here is Gavin Donald's winning display on Larry Kwong - photo Todd Wong

Vernon student Gavin Donald creates a prize winning history display about the first NHL hockey player of Asian ancestry


Silver Star school student Gavin Donald, with his project, Larry Kwong: A Hero to Me, one of the winners in the recent Vernon and District Heritage Fair.

Gavin Donald, 11, is a Grade 6 Silver Star student, that I sat beside at last night's BC Hockey Hall of Fame induction dinner.

I was surprised at how much compassion and information that Gavin conveyed when he talked about Larry Kwong.  Gavin is passionate about his hometown of Vernon, and really wanted to choose a person from Vernon for his project.  The young man beside me wore a tie, and was thrilled to meet Larry Kwong at the BC Hockey Hall of Fame Dinner last night in Penticton.  Even though the induction of Trevor Linden, one of the greatest hockey players to wear the "C" for the Vancouver Canucks, was undoubtedly the evening's highlight - Gavin was only there to meet his hero - Larry Kwong. 

When MP Stockwell Day came over to meet Larry Kwong, it was Gavin who quickly had a pen in Day's hand to sign a petition to nominate Larry Kwong for the BC Hockey Hall of Fame.  By the end of the evening, Gavin was proudly carrying a newly won silent auction prize of a goalie stick signed by Mikka Kipprusoff, and asking other of the inducted hockey players Trevor Linden, Dallas Drake to sign the stick.  An evening highlight for Gavin was having Larry Kwong add his signature that same goalie stick.

Gavin did his history project on Larry Kwong, a Vernon native who was the first person of Asian descent to play in the NHL.  Gavin is 1 of 4 Vernon students who went on to the Okanagan Regional Heritage Fair in Kelowna and four projects from Vernon students were selected for the prize of a trip to the Provincial Heritage Fair in Barkerville June 30 to July 4.

Here is a quote from the article:

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

Winter Olympics invited countries from around to the world to multicultural Vancouver, but cultural diversity was missing in the Opening and Closing ceremonies.

Apparently the opening ceremonies did feature performers of cultural diversity.  But we missed it.

Only before the televised official opening... ("Miss Jully Black to the back of the bus please")... not "Canadian" enough to be televised.... and February is Black History month in Canada!

Read Vancouver Sun Pete McMartin's review of the opening ceremonieshttp
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=195883fa-d774-4385-9365-2cda2e55e631

The Closing Ceremonies were promised to include more French content, and to feature Canadian humour and myth-busting of Canadian stereotypes.

Vancouver's cultural diversity was represented in the hundreds of jumping Grade 9ers holding snowboards in the opening sequence.  My First Nations 2nd cousin was there - his mother was very proud.  But all the featured performers were White - with the exception of K-OS.  And most of the volunteer performers of colour were dressed as hip-hop dancers, instead mounties, lumberjacks and hockey players.  Because there are no Asian hockey players in the NHL - but that's another Canadian Myth that's been busted since Larry Kwong played one game in the NHL in 1948, 10 years before Willie O'Ree became the first black hockey player in 1958.

A Few days later the same Pete McMartin quoted Tung Chan in an opinion piece -
Opinion - An Olympic Games as white as snow
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Opinion+Olympic+Games+white+snow/2620782/story.html

But read the comments to the above piece, or to Craig Takeuchi's pieces in the Georgia Straight.
2010 Olympic closing ceremony: Why wasn't there any aboriginal content?
or
Vancouver 2010 Olympics: The Great White, er, Multicultural North?

Despite all the crowd cheering, street filling patriotism, when Canada wins a gold medal hockey game, there is still a dark anonymous racism that haunts all the internet comments, and rears its head at any hint of "affirmative action" or ethnic inclusion.

This is the next story.   This is the next stage of insight. 

The aim of the Closing ceremonies was to have some fun, poking fun at Canadian stereotypes, and doing some "myth busting."  But one of the myths that got reinforced is that Canada is White.  Despite generations of immigration from all around the world, Canada cannot find a performer of colour good enough to speak at or perform at and during the Closing ceremonies. 

Would it have hurt Canadians if one of the chorus line lumberjacks, mounties, or hockey players had been a shade of colour other than white?  Would we have heard a chorus of boos, if one of the mounties had worn a turban?

We know that racial discrimination in sports can be cruel to kids growing up, so it can't be a wonder why our top athletes are mostly White.  But we have succeeded in the Arts.

Where was Indo-Canadian comedian Russell Peters?
Canadians of multi-ethnicity are cool and sexy.  What better examples do we have than actors Kristin Kreuk of Smallville?  or Lisa Ray of Bollywood?  Even Keanu Reeves primarily grew up in Toronto, despite being born in Lebanon - but we didn't hold Steve Nash's birthplace of South Africa against him.

First Nations actors Graham Green and Tantoo Cardinal were good enough for "Dances with Wolves" but not for the Closing Ceremonies?  And Tantoo just received her Order of Canada too...

Our authors Joy Kogawa, Thomas King are amongst the most studied authors in our Canadian high schools, colleges and universities. Wayson Choy and 7th generation descendant of Black Loyalists
George Elliot Clarke are also amongst our most loved - these four authors also are Order of Canada recipients.

We are not saying that Canada should enforce racial inclusivity guidelines for its sports teams.  But we are saying that the closing ceremonies lacked the representation of Canada's population, and it reinforced every sad stereotype of Canada.  Alongside the Mounties, lumberjacks, beavers and moose was the sad realization that Canada is only populated by White people, despite multi-generations of accepting people from all over the world.

And where are the bagpipes?

Canada's first Prime Minister, BC's first Premier, and Vancouver's first mayor were all born in Scotland.  Has the former largest ethnic group of Vancouver so much assimilated into mainstream culture, that they have forgotten their ethnic roots?

The SFU Pipes and Drums is the six time and current World Champion pipe band.  There are more bagpipers in Canada then there are in Scotland - or is this a Canadian myth that we are not proud of?

Bagpipers have performed with Uzume Taiko, and Delhi 2 Dublin, - two internationally recognized examples of cultural fusion music happening in Vancouver.  To me, these are the examples of performers that should have been featured at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, demonstrating how Canadians have come from all over the world, put aside our racial differences, and blend our cultures, and our shared our histories together. 

This is the Canada that I am proud of - not the beer swigging garage band party music that was featured - without any relevance to the historic Olympic successes that we witnessed over the past 17 days

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!!!!

The Land Conservancy of BC (TLC) is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting on August 8th to elect new board members.


TLC founder Bill Turner gives a positive "thumbs-up" approval with proposed board members from the Save TLC Committee.  They all attended a one day workshop and meeting on July 5th in Saanich with other proposed board members, committee members and community leaders.
Standing: Todd Wong, Bill Turner, Ken Millard, Magnus Bien
Sitting: Cheryl Bryce, Elspeth McVeigh, Briony Penn

The Land Conservancy of BC (TLC) is one of the important players in land conservancy in Canada.  It is a non-profit organization, based on the The National Trust of England, Ireland and Wales.  TLC purchases lands and creates environmental convenants in order to lands, and buildings of environmental, scientific, historical, cultural, scenic and recreational value that would otherwise be loss to destruction, demolition, or development.

TLC: What happened?

On March 27, TLC executive director and founder Bill Turner was "fired" without warning or rational explanation.  This is only three years after the founding visionary was appointed the Order of Canada for  "his tremendous energy and selfless dedication to preserve his province's natural environment. A realtor, he founded the Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC) to advocate for the protection of the environment through conservation covenants and ecological gifts."

According to Save TLC website Q's and A's "At the same time, "another Director gained access to TLC's head offic, once the staff had left for the day, disabled TLC's communications network and changed the locks on the doors.


TLC members were shocked to learn of the events, and of the allegations by the TLC board about the TLC founder Bill Turner.  The Save TLC committee was founded to support the return of Bill Turner and senior management staff to TLC.  As well, the TLC committee has diligently worked to challenge the TLC board on its allegations, and to inform TLC members about these events.

The Save TLC committee has recruited 11 proposed board members that have worked with TLC in many capacities and/or have related experience and background to helping TLC recover from this current situation.

Both the Save TLC committee and TLC Board have agreed on a procedure that would see all members of TLC vote to elect a full 11 member Board at the EGM. All Directors of the current board will resign at the EGM and those eligible may stand for re-election.

I am pleased that Bill Turner asked me, Todd Wong, to be on the Save TLC slate.  I have worked with TLC and Bill Turner since December 2005, when TLC became partners with the Save Kogawa House Committee, in an effort to save the childhood home of famous Canadian author Joy Kogawa from demolition. 

I have always been interested in the history of BC, and especially its pioneers.   I have always loved the natural history of BC, and am very aware of the need to protect its environments and eco-systems.  I was honoured that David Kogawa nominated me for the BC Community Achievement Award, citing my community work with the Save Kogawa House Committee, as well as my multicultural community events for Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.



Former Founding Director Briony Penn has written a letter and sent it out to friends and members of TLC.  Briony writes:

Theatre Under the Stars at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park

July 15 to Aug. 22

Tickets $32 to $39,

www.tuts.ca

Falling in love is one of the most wonderful things in life.  There's lots of "falling in love" in the Thoroughly Modern Millie production by Theatre Under the Stars.  This makes it a wonderful choice to see with a date.

Diana Kaarina is wonderful as the title character Millie Dumount, who hops off a bus from Kansas and makes her way in New York City.  Set in 1922, Millie decides to find a rich husband, by seducing her boss.  Trouble is, first she has to get a job, and a place to live.. 

Millie settles in at the Hotel Priscilla, a place for young women.  It's on the wrong side of 42nd St., and run by the very strange Mrs. Meers - who may be Chinese or not.  Millie has a series of adventures that include getting a job as a stenographer, going to a speakeasy during prohibition, getting arrested, and going to a fabulous party in the penthouse suite of socialite Muzzy van Hossmere.

Everything about this musical is campy, and over the top.  The music is a pastiche of well-known melodies from other productions.  The plot contains misplaced identities, misunderstood intentions, star-crossed lovers, and a kidnapping.  But the wonderful dancing and singing numbers make you forget that everything seems cliched.  Indeed, Thoroughly Modern Millie is designed to pay homage to old musicals, with tongue-in-cheek fun.

Diana Kaarina brings a lot of experience to this production.  She created the role of Miss Dorothy Brown (Millie's BFF) for the First National tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003).  Kaarina brings lots of Broadway experience, having been the closing Eponine in Les Miserables (2003) and also playing roles in Rent and The Phantom of the Opera.

Kaarina brings a touching humaness to the character of Millie.  She isn't just the talk-talking gold digger who wants to marry her boss, but she also cares for her friends and is willing to make sacrifices.

All the lead roles are played well.  Meaghan Anderssen plays the ditzy Miss Dorothy Brown with great comic aplomb, which she did so very well in last year's TUTS production of Annie Get Your Gun.

Danny Balkwill plays Jimmy Smith, the poor but dashing young son of a gardener.  Audience members might recognize him as one of the competitors in Canadian Idol. 

Seth Drabinsky plays Trevor Graydon, the boss that Millie wants to marry.  Drabinsky excells in elocution, as he sings "The Speed Test" which is a Gilbert & Sullivan parody, complete with Busby Berkeley styled dancing.  Wow!

I didn't expect to see Asian-Canadian actors or Asian characters in Thoroughly Modern Millie.  But it was there in subtle ways... and not so subtle ways.  The program points out that lead actor Diana Kaarina is Half -Finnish and Half-Chinese. Either way, she is still a beauty, similar to Smallville actor Kristin Kreuk who ancestry is Half-Dutch/Half-Chinese.

The subplot involves the character of Mrs. Meers who runs the Hotel Priscilla, and also employs two Chinese henchmen for a side business of kidnapping.  Sarah Rodgers is over the top, as Mrs. Meers - so highly unbelievable character, that she can only exist in a musical.  Aaron Lau and Daeyoung Danny Kim play the characters of Ching Ho and Bun Foo.  They strive to make the characters realistic, speaking in only Chinese, and also performing some martial arts moves on stage.

While I found it refreshing to see Asian actors playing authentic Chinese characters speaking good Chinese, without being traditionally stereotyped. The stereotypes still persisted in other ways.

Racial stereotypes of Chinese in Thoroughly Modern Millie

I was shocked that this musical contained lots of out-dated Chinese stereotypes including: a Chinese laundry, kidnapping for white slavery, bad Chinese accents, and a female actor in "white face" playing a white woman masquerading as a Chinese woman. Much less culturally sensitive than Robert Downey Jr playing a black man in Tropic Thunder

Part of the sub-plot is that white girls are sold into white slavery and shipped off to China, by the character of Mrs. Meers, a white woman dressed up as a Chinese woman - who doesn't even have a proper Chinese accent - She keeps mis-prounouncing her "L's" as "R's"

She keeps saying things like "Ssssso saaaad, to be arrrr arrrrone in dis worrrrld"

I realize that this is supposed to be a fun frothy romp, and every character is stereotyped to extreme measures...

Actual Asian ethnic actors play the Asian roles and do NOT speak in bad Chinese accents - but actually in good Cantonese.  The play makes fun of the stereotypes...

But I still felt uncomfortable watching the perpetuation of racist stereotypes in this way.  There are many people in today's audience who don't realize the origins of such stereotypes, nor the harm that was caused over decades of racism.

Check out what the Asian American theatre review had to say about the two Chinese henchmen, singing "Mammy" in Chinese - originally sung by Al Jolson, wearing a "black face" when he played a black man on stage.
http://www.aatrevue.com/Old/Millie.html

The original movie was made in 1967 starring Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore. Japanese-American actor comics Jack Soo and Pat Morita played the Chinese henchmen. The Broadway musical debuted in 2002, with the roles of the Chinese henchmen expanded. They only speak in proper Chinese. It's the white actress playing a white woman who disguises ... Read Moreherself as a pastiche of Asian stereotypes and accents. The purpose was to "cleverly" make fun of racial stereotypes. Almost every character is stereotyped to extremes in this post-modern Broadway musical.

It's arguable that the perpetuation of stereotypes in any form is still de-humanizing and destructive OR have we come far enough that we should be able to recognize such stereotypes for what they are, and be able to laugh at the stupidity and ridiculousness of the people who perpetuate them?

The best use of "Clever" parodying of racial stereotypes was in Marty Chan's "Mom, Dad, I'm Living With A White Girl." The stereotypes take place in the main character's dream about him mother and father becoming a dragon lady and her loyal henchman. In this case, the context is about racial and cultural stereotypes, and easily understood by the ... Read Moreaudience.

But in Millie, while the 2 Chinese characters are played very straight and respectful, speaking in good cantonese, and humourously holding up sheets of laundry for a clever display of "subtitles" - The fact remains that they are still Chinese laundry workers, part of a "white slavery" kidnapping operation.

The character of Mrs. Henessey is still a white woman pretending to be Asian, by wearing a "painted face", speaking mixed up Asian accent, and perpetuating stereotypes.  Check out youtube portrayals of Mrs. Meers.
http://www.youtube.com/results?feature=moby&search_query=thoroughly+modern+millie+they+don%27t+know&search_type=&aq=0&oq=thoroughly+modern+millie+they+d

Otherwise - the cast is GREAT!
And the lead who plays the title character Millie Dumont is Broadway veteran, Vancouver born Diana Kaarina, half-Chinese and half-Finnish.

Other reviews

Vancouver Sun review: Millie shines in a show burdened by too much business

Georgia Straight: Thoroughly Modern Millie full of relentless enthusiasm

Gay Vancouver Review: Thoroughly Modern Millie is throughouly enjoyable | Theatre

Michael was a revolutionary. He changed the way music was performed, and he challenged the way we looked at the world...
Sinatra had done the same...



Like Bing Crosby with the advent of the microphone, Sinatra and long play concept albums, Elvis and rock and roll, Dylan and folk music, Michael Jackson was there for music videos and pushed the boundaries.  

Like Sinatra and Elvis, he pushed the boundaries of "race music" while helping to create greater racial acceptance.  Sinatra helped open the doors for black artists, including Sammy Davis Jr. as a member of the "Rat pack" and speaking for racial equality.  Jackson did the same in his own way, not only performing with white artists such as Paul McCartney and Britney Spears, but also in his personal life - dating and befriending many people such as Brooke Shields, Elizabeth Taylor and marrying Lisa Marie Presley, as examples of greater dissolution of borders between black and white.

This past week, I have been reading the book "Why Sinatra Matters" written by Pete Hamill soon after the death of Sinatra.  With all the media attention around MJ's death, I have listened to the music and watched the videos, and recalled my own memories and experiences of how Michael Jackson's music has been part of my life.

 

By reading "Why Sinatra Matters" it gives a greater context and template to examine how Michael Jackson's life, music and dance have impacted on both American and global popular culture.  Both were affected by their ethnic roots where their communities were treated as 2nd class: Sinatra grew up in the time between the World Wars, when Italians were immigrants to America and worked as labourers to survive.  Jackson grew up during the 60's at the time of the American civil rights movement and the rise of African-American studies and culture.  Both men forged their ways to greater acceptance of the American dream, breaking through barriers and claiming their places amongst the perceived White Anglo Saxon Protestants mainstream.

Both Sinatra and Jackson, had also been constant targets in the press and tabloids.  While Sinatra's supposed mob connections kept him out of purchasing a Las Vegas resort, Jackson was also the constant target for his court cases of child abuse and his plastic surgery.  But both men also were great philanthropists and addressed the greater good.  Jackson's songs "We Are The World," "The Man in the Mirror" and "Earth Song" are part of his legacy, as surely as Sinatra's work with Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Antonio Carlos Jobim.


1984 Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson at the recording session for Sinatra's last solo studio album  L.A. is My Lady (not including the duets albums), produced by Quincy Jones who also produced the Jackson albums "Off the Wall," and "Thriller."

From the intro:


I have just finished watching the Michael Jackson Tribute, and am remembering all the times I saw Michael, and was touched by his music. 
Here's a youtube clip of the television cartoon show:

I remember:

• Watching the Jackson 5 cartoon show as a kid, and listening to the Jackson 5, thinking... he's my age!
• Walking home from school and singing "Enjoy Yourself" with friends.
• Dancing to "Off the Wall" and "Rock With Me" during the days of disco, as well as the Jacksons songs "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "This Place Hotel"
• Seeing Michael do the moon walk on the Motown 25th Anniversary show.
• Seeing the Jacksons concert in 1984 at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium.  We went to the 2nd concert. I still have the program and a t-shirt.
• Listening to "Bad" with college friends when it first came out.
  
• I remember dancing to "Black and White" on my Waikiki honeymoon with my then-wife.... in 1991.
• Watching Olympic skater Katerina Witt do an encore performance to "She Drives Me Wild"

A New Perspective on the Scottish Diaspora Source: www.arts.gla.ac.uk Dr. Leith Davis of SFU Centre of Scottish Studies, writes that "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" bucks the trend of "Scottish Discursive Unconscious." She writes: "In his contribution to the recent volume on Transatlantic Scots, Colin McArthur comments on what he calls the "Scottish Discursive Unconscious," a restricted range of "images, tones, rhetorical tropes, and ideological tendencies, often within utterances promulgated decades (sometimes even a century or more) apart"... "There are indeed traces of the Scottish Discursive Unconscious at work in Vancouver.... "Gung Haggis Fat Choy takes many of the features of traditional Burns nights and gives them a non-traditional twist...The "Address to the Haggis" morphs into the "Rap to the Haggis," featuring Joe MacDonald and Todd Wong with a synthesized beat maker in the background."   more »

 

 

 

Terry Glavin named recipient of the sixth annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence

Okay.... it was author Terry Glavin who partly inspired me to create a "writer's speaking series" on the 2007 strike line of CUPE 391 Vancouver Library Workers.   Terry called me up for some reason or another, maybe to admit he was a big fan of my Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner, and somehow I asked him to give a reading on our strike line.  And that's how it started!  After Terry came many other authors such as Stan Persky, Hiromi Goto, Daniel Gawthrop, Rita Wong, Tom Sandborn, Chuck Davis....  but it started with Terry! http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/15/3160687.htm

We since became friends and look for reasons to go for a pint of Guinness at the Irish Times Pub in Victoria, or host a Gung Haggis house party at his place... but the only thing we manage to do is leave comments and links to each other blogs. 

Terry has written amazing books, and is very big on diversity - both cultural and environmental and bio-diversity.  Moreover, I think we recognize in each other a deep respect for First Nations culture and history, the ability to laugh and poke fun at mainstream institutions, and the necessity of shaking up the world a little now and then.

But on this Saturday, I will be able to have a drink and toast to my rabble rousing "outspoken voice" as he is feted by the BC literati.  In the mean time he says he "Vows To Resist The Urge To Cash The Cheque And Head Straight For The Track"

http://transmontanus.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-vow-to-resist-urge-to-cash-cheque-and.html

At last year's BC Book Prizes, I got to hang out a bit with Gary Geddes, the 2008 winner of the Lt. Gov's Award for Literary Excellence.  Rita Wong and Gary Geddes big winners at BC Book Prizes Gala http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2008/4/29/3666200.html

Terry and Gary are friends, so Terry won't mind if I put Gary's picture in here...

Check out the official BC Book Prize website...

and what they have to say about Terry:

Vancouver, BC – The West Coast Book Prize Society is proud to recognize Terry Glavin as the recipient of the sixth annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

British Columbia’s Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Steven Point, will present the award at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prize Gala to be held at the Marriott Pinnacle Hotel in Vancouver on April 25, 2009.

The event will be hosted by BC BookWorld publisher and author Alan Twigg .

“Terry Glavin, author and journalist, has been an outspoken voice in British Columbia as a conservationist and nature writer. He is known for his passionate commitment to British Columbia ’s First Nations and for his deep understanding of how First Nation culture and way of life are bound up with the province’s natural history and our future as a just and sustainable society.
 

In addition to his books, Glavin’s many articles on social and political issues are evidence of his strong journalistic ability to marshal facts and his unwillingness to go with the accepted wisdom of either the right or the left. In his role as an iconoclast, he is a critical voice in the dialogue that sustains a civil society.

As editor, Glavin has also brought us the innovative and courageous Transmontanus series, published by New Star Books. Established in 1992 with the aim of exploring the relationships between landscape and imagination, this innovative series of 16 titles has given voice to authors and the mes that might o the rwise have been lost to us.

Glavin offers an extraordinarily holistic vision that does not focus on single issues, but instead in everything he writes shows us a world where culture and nature, human aspiration, natural beauty, language, history and social justice are inextricably intertwined.
 

Terry Glavin has won many awards for his work as a journalist, as a science and technology writer, for his editorial innovation and for his powerful essays. We are privileged to honour him with the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in 2009, for his contribution to life and letters in British Columbia and for his willingness to show us how to see our world more deeply, more fully and more truthfully.”

– Jury member Ellen Godfrey

The jury for this year’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award: Ellen Godfrey, author and former literary publisher; David Hill, Manager of Munro’s Books, Victoria; and Sheryl Mac Kay , host of CBC’s North by Northwest.

This prize was established in 2003 by former Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Iona Campagnolo, to recognize British Columbia writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the province. The recipient receives a cash award of $5,000 and a commemorative certificate.

 

All BC Book Prizes info at www.bcbookprizes.ca

 

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:

This picture was created while Todd Wong was involved with the local CBC television performance special "Gung Haggis Fat Choy", based on the concepts of his annual Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner. This picture was reproduced in the Vancouver Sun today uncredited... even though it was first used by the Vancouver Sun, Dec 21, 2004, in the Mia Stainsby article "Have a taste of 2004". Recently, Jason Kenney waded into the discussion about Canadian identity, and immigration language classes, when he talked with editors at the Calgary Herald: New Canadians, says Kenney, "have a duty to integrate." Further, he says, "We don't need the state to promote diversity. It is a natural part of our civil society."    more »

BLOGGERS RULE at the Vancouver Opera... Live Blogging for Rigoletto!

Local Bloggers sat in the lobby during intermission, live blogging opening night at Rigoletto. (l-r) Monique Trottier "So Misguided", Rebecca Bollwit "Miss 604", Tanya "Netchick", Kimli "Delicious Juice" - photo Todd Wong

Opera is one of the most intercultural art forms.  It forces its audience to listen to foreign languages, as it tells stories from different cultures.  Okay, it also presents a lot of stereotypes and racial chariactures too!  But today's productions will balance historic stereotypes with 21st Century sensitivity for cultural diversity.

Vancouver Opera has been one of the most innovative arts organizations to find new ways to market themselves, whether creating Manga comics for promotion, marketing to the Asian population base in Vancouver with the Voices of the Pacific Rim recital, or beginning live blogging with Carmen and now Rigoletto operas.

Opening Saturday Night at Vancouver Opera, there are lots of people dressed up in the finery.  The lineups are deep and long for the cappucinos or wine.  Over at the East side of the lobby, 6 bloggers sit madly typing into their laptop computers during intermission.  It's Live Blogging Night at the Opera.  It started with a few bloggers being invited to blog Carmen in January.  And now a few more have been invited to blog Rigoletto. 

Some of the audience members are curious.  Some are demanding.  Some are complaining about the sound in the balcony.  One audience member insists that they are not having a true opera experience unless they are drinking wine.  One of the bloggers writes that she is having sooo much fun people watching, she finds it hard to touch type at the same time.

I bring out my camera and ask the bloggers for a picture.  Actually I yell out, "Bloggers... smile for the camera!"

They all look up and smile.  I will post the picture laters...

I recognize Miss 604 Blogger, Rebbecca Bollwitt.  She recognizes me and writes on her blog that "We were just visited by Karen Hamilton of TinyBites.ca who is here to enjoy the show as well as Gung Haggis Fat Choy.

Rebbecca Bollwit "Miss 604", Todd Wong "Gung Haggis Fat Choy", Tanya "Netchick" - photo A. Youngberg/T. Wong

Back on January 18th, she was live blogging the Canucks hockey game.  I comment that she probably wishes she was at the Canucks vs San Jose game.  She says "yeah." 

It turns out that blogger NetChick is a rower, now interested in dragon boat paddling.  I tell her that my Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team has been featured on television documentaries for German and French public television, as well as the CBC.  It would be pretty cool, if she joined our dragon boat team... we have lots of opportunities for blogging.  Oops, I forgot to tell her we will have a parade entry in the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

At the opera, it's always interesting to see who is there in the audience.  I spy an older couple, a male caucasian with an Asian woman.  They are always at major arts events.  I think he used to work at the CBC.

I chat with Doug Tuck, VOA Marketing and Selina Rajani, Communications/Media.  I introduce them to my date for the evening, Alexandra Youngberg, my CUPE 391 Vancouver Library workers president.  Alex loves this production of Rigoletto.  She loves music and sings in a choir.  Alex has even sung O Solo Mio, while I played my accordion.

The 2nd and 3rd Acts are wonderful ( I will write my formal review tomorrow).  Some members of the audience give a standing ovation to Eglise Gutierrez who plays Gilda, Rigoletto's daughter.  We all stand up up for Donnie Ray Albert who plays Rigoletto.  It's quite the multicultural cast.  Donnie Ray is African-American, born in Louisiana.  Eglise is born in Cuba.  Sam Chung, Chinese-Canadian born in Winnipeg, steps out of the Vancouver Opera chorus to play his first supporting role with Vancouver Opera in the role of Matteo Borsa. I congratulate Sam at the reception following.

During the reception, I also chat with Michael Mori, who is hapa Japanese-Canadian.  Kinza Tyrell, chorus master tells me how exciting this production is, and asks me how I know Sam and Michael.  "Well... through events at Joy Kogawa House, because we really supported, and raved about the Naomi's Road opera. 

James Wright, VOA General Director congratulates the cast at the opening night reception - photo T. Wong

My old friend Walter Quan is here!  We first met back in 1986, while we were volunteers for the Salt Water City exhibit celebrating 100 years of Vancouver Chinatown history.  We recently had lunch in Victoria 2 weeks ago, when I had to return the life-size photos to the Royal BC Museum.

Opera Manager James Wright spots me, and waves at me.  So does orchestra concertmaster Mark Ferris, who along with his wife Gloria, have been friends for years. Mark performed at the 2004 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner. Meanwhile, the bloggers are noshing at the food tables, taking pictures of the event, and chatting amongst themselves.

I think it's great that Vancouver Opera is connecting with bloggers.  Back in December 2004, I blogged my own review of the VOA production of Madama Butterfly: Madama Butterfly Review: Vancouver Opera Nov 27 to Dec 11.

Since then, I have also reviewed:


Check out the opera night blogs:

• 
  Miss 604
  Rigoletto and Blogger Night at the Opera
• 
  
• So Misguided

  It’s Not Over Until ... Rigoletto Cries Out

  
  
• NetChick

  Live blogging Rigoletto

  
  
• 
  delicious juice

  rigoletto!

  
  
• A View from the Isle

  And we begin, Blogger Night at the Opera: Rigoletto commences
• 
  

I didn't expect to be in the same Georgia Straight Headline as Obama... but maybe because it's because I am a person of colour?

re: Why Canada will never have an Obama, except maybe Todd Wong

http://www.straight.com/article-197382/why-canada-will-never-have-obama-except-maybe-todd-wong

I told the Georgia Straight's Pieta Woolley - that it was author Terry Glavin who first told me about bi-racial Gov. James Douglas's vision for a British Columbia that could welcome people from every corner of the world... that it was Douglas who invited Black Americans from San Francisco when he heard that were being discriminated against...

BC's history is not the two solitudes of English and French - but it is the 3 pioneer cultures of First Nations, Scottish, and Chinese.  But we have had to go through the Potlatch Law, the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, the Komagata Maru, the Internment of Japanese Canadians - before we could understand ourselves and our future.

It has taken 150 years for us to finally understand the multicultural/ intercultural vision that Douglas wanted for BC, instead of BC as a "White Man's Province" in the years that followed Douglas.

The Obama presidency in the United States is historic.  He has a vision to bring people together, to move beyond racial divides, perceived stereotypes and the cultures of blame and "otherness."

My own life views have been shaped by growing up as a multi-generational racial minority in Canada.  I have learned about the discrimination and hatred faced and overcome by my ancestors, since the time my maternal great-great-grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan arrived in 1896, as a Methodist lay preacher for the Chinese Methodist Church of Canada.  Similarly, my paternal grandfather also faced many challenges arriving in Canada in 1882 at the young age of 16.

But I have also learned about the importance of communities working together.  My life path has involved me with many community organizations such as Canadian University Press, Hope Cancer Health Centre, Terry Fox Run Organization, Canadian Mental Health Association, Chinese Cultural Centre, Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens, Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society, and many many more.

In the past few years, I have learned much about Robert Burns' views on social justice, equality, political change, speaking up for others, love of life.  These are as important today as there were 250 years ago in Burns' time, or 150 years ago in Douglas' time.  Maybe it's actually more important today, because we have the choice to embrace our responsibilities or to take them for granted.  We have the choice today, to choose to be selfish or community minded.  We have the choice today -  not tomorrow - not yesterday, but the choice is today -  to make a difference or not.

Why Canada will never have an Obama, except maybe Todd Wong

This editorial cartoon ran in the Vancouver Sun, and has now been circulating the e-mails of certain Celtic/Gaelic-Canadian musicians....  with the added  quote:

"The Islanders and Highlanders came to this country of Canada---- discovered, settled and governed it. Pipes are used for just about all special occasions and this is the thanks we get!!!"

I ran the following article on my blog  www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com - which is syndicated into some other blog feeders.... Vote for Kilt wearers in the upcoming Vancouver civic election! Mackinnon... Louie... Deal... Robertson... Chow...

It seems an amazing coincidence that the winning 10 elected city councilors and mayor, all attended the 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner:  Councilors David Cadman, Raymond Louie, George Chow, Tim Stevenson, Heather Deal, Suzanne Anton, former Councilor Ellen Woodsworth, rookie councilors Andrea Reimer, Geoff Meggs and Kerry Jang +  MLA Gregor Robertson, and then current mayor Sam Sullivan (who did not run in the election).

Defeated mayor and councilor candidates Peter Ladner and Elizabeth Ball, as well as BC Lee (who did not run) had attended past dinners, along with BC Lee - but they did not attend the 2008 dinner.

At the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners... we recognize and respect all our hard-working politicians.  They all contribute to a vibrant Vancouver and it is important to recognize their contributions and support to help support our beneficiary organizations: Historic Joy Kogawa House, Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop/Ricepaper magazine, and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.

Remember: 

• The first time we saw Gregor Robertson in a Kilt in 2008 - was at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner....
• City councilor Raymond Louie declared on Brother Jake's Rock 101 radio show, on January 25th, that Louie would wear a kilt for Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner....
• And city councilor Heather Deal came to Doolin's for the March Kilts Night, and made the motion (seconded by Louie) that City of Vancouver proclaim Tartan Day for April 6th,
• I put tartan sashes on city councilors Tim Stevenson, George Chow + Mayor Sullivan and a mini-skirt on councilor Capri - for a Tartan Day photo opportunity on April 4th.
• Parks Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon didn't even own a kilt, until after he joined the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team!