HI BOB!
read this!!!

Trevor Linden, Red Robinson, Dal Richards, Ida Chong and Todd Wong are the newest invitees to the Royal BC Museum's exhibit "The Party" to celebrate BC's 150 year history.

Terry Fox and "Cougar Annie" stand at the top of "The Party" exhibit celebrating BC's 150 Anniversary with a life-size photo collage of some of BC's most colourful characters. - photo Todd Wong.

If you could invite 150 of BC's most colourful citizens throughout it's 150 year history to "The Party" who would you invite?

Governor James Douglas or Pamela Anderson?  Architects George Rattenbury, Arthur Eriksen, or James Cheng?  Athletes Joe Sakic, Karen Magnusson, Steve Nash or Nancy Greene?  Artists Emily Carr, Toni Onley, Jack Shadbolt or Robert Davidson? Community Activists Nelly McClung, Rosemary Brown or the Raging Grannies? 

Inspirational icons Terry Fox or Rick Hansen?  Politicians Svend Robinson, Grace McCarthy, Dave Barrett, Kim Campbell or Amor de Cosmos?  Musicians Bryan Adams, Diana Krall, David Foster or Sarah McLachlan? Authors Jane Rule, Douglas Coupland, Dorothy Livesay  or Joy Kogawa? 

Actors Chief Dan George, Yvonne De Carlo, Kim Catrall or Bruno Gerussi?  Environmentalists David Suzuki or Roderick Haig Brown?  Business leaders Tong Louie, Jimmy Pattison or Nat Bailey? And what about "Hanging Judge" Begbie, Expo Ernie or Mr. Peanut?

The Royal BC Museum's website says"

All of the above are all invited as guests... and now... Gung Haggis Fat Choy founder Todd Wong has joined them along with new invitees Trevor Linden, Ida Chong, Dal Richards, Red Robinson, and Jennie Butchart - the inspiration behind the Butchart Gardens.

Todd Wong stands beside BC hockey player Sakic, beneath author & friend Joy Kogawa, activist Betty Krawcyk, and nearby Gov. James Douglas, when he visited the exhibit on April 23rd - photo Deb Martin.

To see the picture of me in the exhibit check out http://www.freespiritbc.ca/virtualexhibition/theparty.aspx and scroll to the far right.  The picture was taken by my friend Richard Montagna. So far only six of the most recent invitees are on website.  The official press release announcement will be on August 6th.

The Royal BC Museum website says:

It is indeed an honour to be included with so many illustrious and creative BCers.  It's amazing to think that Gung Haggis Fat Choy has created such an impact, inspiring dinners in Seattle, Whistler, Ottawa, Wells BC and Santa Barbara California (that I know about).  As well there has been the 2004 CBC television performance special "Gung Haggis Fat Choy", and the SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival.

I had visited the exhibit on April 23, when I traveled to accept my BC Community Achievement Award.  We were excited to see the picture of Joy Kogawa, which I had taken.  Joy was one of the original 132 persons chosen for the exhibit, but it was challenging to find a full length picture of her, so I volunteered myself and girlfriend as photographers for her. 
Check out my story about bout finding Joy's picture and visiting the exhibit "The Party":
Todd's adventure in Victoria: Traveling to "The Party" at BC Royal Museum

I guess it is time to write that  "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" book I have wanted to for awhile... or a theatrical play about the mythical Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner called "Gung Haggis Fat Choy."

I personally really think it is time for post-multiculturalism, when we can embrace a mix of cultures as well as creating our own new cultures and traditions out of that mix. 

150 years ago, James Douglas was BC's first governor.  But a lot of people don't realize that he was born of mixed Scottish and Creole bloodlines in Guyana. He married a Metis woman, Amelia Connolly, whose father was an Irish-French fur trader and whose mother was a Cree Chief’s daughter. Author and friend Terry Glavin told me that Douglas had envisioned a new land where people from all over the world could come and live harmoniously in peace.

Racial and cultural issues have always been part of our province's history, whether it was wars between the Haida and the Kwakiutal, Black American or Chinese miners coming to BC for the gold rush, the Potlatch Law, the Chinese Head Tax, the Komagata Maru incident, the internment of Canadian born Japanese-Canadians during WW2, or even the present day First Nations treaty negotiations, migrant farm workers from Central America, nurses and nannies from the Phillipines, rising immigration from Hong Kong and China.

Here are the write-ups for my fellow newest invitees to The Party.


http://www.freespiritbc.ca/virtualexhibition/theparty.aspx

Did the Chinese discover North America 1000 years before Columbus?

"Who were BC's first seafarers?" is the cover feature on this week's Georgia Straight?

Daniel Wood writes a very interesting feature that addresses the Chinese legendary land of Fu Sang, interviews underwater acheologist enthusiast Tom Beasley, and explores the Gavin Menzies book 1421, the Year China Discovered the World.

I have written about connections between First Nations and Chinese people when Storyscapes was exploring the oral history of such meetings:  Vancouver Storyscapes: Where the Chinese met the First Nations peoples
It's not unfathomable that the Chinese discovered North America first.  Afterall, ancient Chinese civilization and science was much further advanced than European civilization circa 500 AD.  According to Menzies, the Chinese had huge boats 5X the size of Columbus' flagship.  A lot of trade and knowledge migrated to Japan from China, and Japanese glass fishing floats have regularly made their way to BC's shores, due to ocean currents.

I have often spoke with BC's First Nations people about Chinese-First Nations connections.  Afterall, my mother's blood cousin is Rhonda Larrabee, chief of the Qayqayt (New Westminster) First Nations.  Larry Grant, Musqueam elder, is half Chinese, like cousin Rhonda.

When I was up in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), I spoke with Haida people about the shared "mongolian birthmark" that both Chinese and First Nations people are born with.
Check out my stories:

Check it out:
http://www.straight.com/article-152876/who-were-bcs-first-seafarers?

Canada Day Eve is one of the greatest celebration events not celebrated...


Hapa-Canadian "Standing on Guard for Thee"! original drawing by Jeff Chiba Stearns

Why don't we have a midnight countdown to celebrate our country's birthday?  Okay, there are fireworks celebrations at the end of Canada Day, but everybody has to go to work the next morning.  Aren't holidays better celebrated when you can stay up late the night before, then sleep in?

Last night, I met up with two friends, Leanne Riding and Judy Maxwell.  When I introduced them, it took only a few minutes before one of them said "Are you hapa?"

And this was in a darkened room!

If people think that "Canadian Identity"is a conundrum, try to define being Hapa.  It's a Hawaiian term that is now more commonly used to define mixed race Asian-Canadians and Asian-Americans.

My friend John Endo Greenaway writes this:

http://www.canadiannikkei.ca/blog/what-is-hapa/

So.... back to Canada Day Eve....

With my two Hapa friends, we start talking about our "Hapa radars", that intuitive sense that immediately lets us know when we think that somebody we've never met before is Hapa.  We talk about the reactions that people have to them, when people realize they are neither Asian nor Caucasian, but both.  We talk about the first time when I realized they were Hapa.

We go down to Kitsilano Beach, finding a secluded spot, watch dusk settle in because we just missed the sunset after 10pm.  We talk more about Hapa-ness... the beingness of Hapa, about our Hapa friends, our Hapa cousins, Hapa nieces and nephews.



We talk about Hapa friends like Jeff Chiba Stearns who is an animator, and created the Hapa short animation film "What Are You Anyways?" We talk about Brandy Lien-Worrall who is the editor of "All Mixed Up"an anthology chap book of Hapa poetry.

Maxwell and Riding... two very un-Asian sounding names.  But they chatted on about how easy they can be mistaken for Asian or Caucasians in different settings.  Both are very active in the Asian-Canadian community.  Judy is presently a researcher for the Chinese Canadian Military Museum, and has done many academic and conference presentations because of her research on the Chinese disaspora and migration patterns.  Leanne has been studying Asian-Canadian history and is now active as co-president of Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop and the Asian Canadian Organization, which started as a student initiated project at UBC.

But both have family histories that are rooted in the racial turmoils of our country.  Judy's great-grandfather was a Member of Parliament that had pushed for the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, while Leanne's grandparents and great-grandparents had been interned during WW2 because they were of Japanese ancestry.

They name me a "Honourary Hapa," because of the community building work I do such as Gung Haggis Fat Choy, which they both totally love, and attended earlier this year, back in January.  They both made fun of me, because I couldn't initially remember where they were sitting in the room of 430 people, even though one of the them was sitting at the head table with me along with the Vancouver.

And then it dawns on me.  Being Canadian is being Hapa... and being Hapa is being Canadian.  Canada celebrates it's cultural diversity, and nowhere is that diversity better celebrated than in the mixed race DNA enhanced ethnicities of it's peoples... even better if it all rolled up in one.

With BC celebrating it's 150th Anniversary this year in 2008, we are reminded that Simon Fraser came down the "Fraser River" with a crew of Metis (French-First Nations mix), and BC's first Governor James Douglas was born in Jamaica of mixed Scottish and Creole bloodlines.  BC's history is Hapa.... and most people don't even realize it.

So... sitting on English Bay... (Somewhere there must be an original First Nations Name that can be chosen as a "rename") we toasted to Canada's birthday eve, and our Hapa-ness.  And in our lively and wonderful conversations (which later moved to a Kitsilano area apartment), we had so much fun, we forgot to do a countdown to midnight until it was long past.


Here are some Hapa websites:

The Hapa Project

Eurasian Nation

MAVIN Foundation

Hapas.com

Meditating Bunny
Home page of Jeff Chiba Stearns, whose short animated film What Are You Anyways? deals with growing up hapa.

Halvsie
“For, by and about Half Japanese”

Being in a parade doesn't allow you to take pictures of your group, so it's always interesting to find pictures on flickr. Steven Duncan took some pictures of us setting up. Check out his flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/9057324@N08/sets/72157604144696435/   more »

The 15 foot long Chinese dragon undulated up and down in the air above the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Vancouver’s Granville Street. A mini version of the larger 10 or 20 person dragons used in Chinatown Chinese New Year parades, it jerked hesitantly. Five Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team members carried short poles sporting a yellow body with red scales and blue and yellow ridge...... A Chinese dragon in a St. Patrick’s Day Parade? Didn’t St. Patrick drive the snakes out of Ireland? Ahh… but this is multi-inter-cultural Vancouver. Dragon boaters paddle in kilts, and bagpipers perform in the Chinese New Year Parade. And the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner serves up deep-fried haggis won tons. Welcome to Vancouver!   more »

This is the CTV documentary about my cousin Rhonda Larrabee's struggle to resurrect Canada's smallest First Nations band the Qayqayt.......... Once upon a time the band flourished on the banks of the Fraser River. Then White settlers moved into their territories and renamed it New Westminster. The Qayqayt were put on a Reserve, but that was taken away from them too....... Rhonda's mother fled her homeland territories due to racism and shame. She came to Vancouver's Chinatown, where she met Rhonda's father. Rhonda grew up into her teenage years thinking she was Chinese. Then she discovered she was First Nations.    more »

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

Review:  Gravity astounds the senses - Tricia Collins takes the audience on a journey into her past and across two oceans



Gravity
Chapel Arts
304 Dunley St.
Oct 25 - Nov 3, 2007

It seems like a very Vancouver thing to be from somewhere else, to live in two cultures, and to share your family story, and to do it artistically.  But Tricia Collins is all of this and more.  Both she and her self-penned one-woman theatrical show Gravity are "very Vancouver."

Tricia Collins is hapa.  Her mother's family came from Guyana, and from China before that.  Tricia is an actor, a  writer and an amazing performer/story teller.  She also does acrobatic work while hanging suspended from cloth draping... and speaking in a lucious juicy Caribbean accent.  This is one smart talented agile woman who can capture your attention.... and hold it for a long, long time.Gravity is a multi-media theatrical work based on similarities in her family history.  But Collins takes it much much further.  While images of knitting or maps are projected onto the wall, Collins tells the multi-generational story of 4 women.  The stories travel through and co-exist in time... and fall through time. 

When you first walk into Chapel Arts, on Dunlevy and Cordova, it feels different.  The last time I was in the building had been for the funeral of my grandmother's brother, at least 15 years ago.  The former Armstrong Funeral Home has now been converted to an arts centre.  My grand-uncle Henry had worked for many years at Armstrong, and the building was packed to over flowing.  He had been a well-known community figure and had played and important role of helping to bring up his 13 younger brothers and sisters.  They were all born in Canada, grandchildren of Rev. Chan Yu Tan. 

It's fitting that I now back in this building where I am attending a theatre work based on the family history of Tricia Collins.  Hers is also a story about the Chinese diaspora coming to Canada.  But her story comes by way of Guyana on the Caribbean coast of South America, where the Chinese worked as replacement labourers after the African slaves had been set free.

The chapel has now been turned into a black box theatre room with chairs set up on two sides of the room.
White sand is in the middle of the stage floor, with small lights in a large circle.  Theatrical fog hovers over the floor, as fish netting hangs beside one wall, and a large wooden box is in the back corner.  Calypso music plays faintly in the background.   I got the feeling that something special is going to happen.

The house lights dim and Tricia Collins walks to the centre of the stage floor.  She explains to the audience that her name is Maya, and she is working on her Ph.D. thesis and trying to help counter the flooding in her family's ancestral home of Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana.  A screen projection shows on the wall her project, and a map of Guyana, showing its location between Venezuela and Suriname.  A voice whispers.... words appear on the screen... and the storytelling magic begins.

Tricia Collins has created a riveting piece of work that interweaves the tale of her mother, her Granny Ling, and her mother before her, who was kidnapped from China and sold in Guyana, after being shipped in a crate across the ocean.  We learn about the hopes and dreams of each woman, and how they deal with the challenges that they find themselves in. Collins plays each of the women, as she simultaneously tells stories about them, in an attempt to unravel the mystery that binds them together, while pulling them apart.

Gravity is what creates the dynamic tension as Collins tells her story as she twists around, suspended in the cloth drapes. It is a unique visual device that I am more accustomed to seeing in Chinese acrobatic shows, modern dance or Cirque Du Soleil.  Collins moves smoothly, her foot deftly wrapping the cloth around her calves or ankles, or her hands wrapping the cloth into a bundle that becomes a baby as she gently rocks it.

The lighting design by James Proudfoot, video and installation by Cindy Mochizuki, stage management by David Kerr, and direction by Maiko Bae Yamamoto are fantastic.

"This was the dream team," Yamamoto repeated several times during the opening night reception as we talked about the production. "They created all lighting and projections specifically for this space.  James just lets the space talk to him and tell him what it needs."

Gravity has been developed in several stages, and this is it's most complete.  At times Collin's character Maya interacts directly with the audience, talking as if presenting a lecture or at point - touching the arm of an audience member.  Other times, she is acting out scenes while telling her stories, oblivious to the audience.  Sound, projection, lighting, and Collin's expressions, voices and movements complement each other on cue. This is an exciting production and well worth seeing, and telling your friends.

Sha Lin Noodles is one of my favorite places to eat fresh noodles in Vancouver. Throughout the summer, we often dropped in for dinner after Tuesday night dragon boat practice... or even on a Saturday afternoon for lunch. Today, Oct 15, CBC's Living Vancouver did a spot with Jennifer Burke visiting Sha-Lin Noodles. It's a funny but informative story with Jennifer trying to twirl noodles, and slurping like she's famished. She even handles chop sticks like an expert. Wait! Jennifer IS half Chinese. According to internet sources, she was born in London England, but raised in BC. Her father is Chinese and her mother English.   more »

How(e) Sound: Heather Pawsey takes "New Music in New Places" to Brittania Mines

How(e) Sound
October 7, 2007 at 2:00 pm
B.C. Museum of Mining
Britannia Beach, “Sea to Sky” Highway 99
FREE (Reservations toll-free 1-866-640-9881)

Soprano Heather Pawsey is always creating "don't want to miss" concerts in really cool spaces.  Earlier this year, she was singing at the aquarium.  A few years ago, she was singing in a Kelowna wine vat.  I have known Heather since 2003, when she invited me to a performance where she sung in Mandarin Chinese.  This Scots-Canadian lass who grew up wearing tartan, soon joined the Gung Haggis Fat Choy roster for our annual Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner fundraiser.

Pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwassa is hapa, and a Japanese Canadian descendant.  She also plays in a flute/piano duo called Tiresias with fellow hapa musician Mark McGregor.  I first met her after a concert at West Vancouver's Silk Purse.

Kathryn Cernauskas came to play at Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner earlier this year with Heather.  Kathryn plays wonderful flute, and also hand drums.

Here's the press release that Rachel just sent me:
 

Hip Hapa and Happening... Sep 21 +

Here's my weekend plans....


Friday Sep 21, (repeats Sep 22)
Triaspora at the Chan Centre
Dance, Music and multimedia telling of Chinese Canadian history, through the elemental themes of Fire, Air and Water.  Featuring Orchid Ensemble, Moving Dragon Dance

Saturday, Sep 22
private function annual Scotch Tasting fundraiser.
(by invitation only)
 
The hosts are a married couple, He is of Scottish descent and she is of Chinese descent.  She is well known in the community and has worn a tartan at my Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.  Last year, I performed at this private fundraiser with my accordion... a few of the songs I do for Gung Haggis Fat Choy events such as Loch Lomand, When Asian Eyes Are Smiling... and The Haggis Rap.
They LOVED me... and so... I have been invited to return.

Sunday, Sep 23
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team
Dragon Zone docks and clubhouse (just south of Science World)
12:30pm
We are training paddlers now for the Sep 30th UBC Day of the Long Boats event and the Oct 6 Fort Langley Cranberry Festival Canoe Regatta.
3:00 - Voyageur Canoe Orientation at Jericho Paddling and Sailing Centre

Sunday Sep 23
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Vancouver Recital Society
Chan Centre, UBC

Maori folk songs and the best of classical voice and opera singing.  I first saw Kiri Te Kanawa perform in 1986, the weekend that Princess Diana and Prince Charles came to Vancouver.  Okay... it wasn't the same night.  But the event was still magic.  She is a wonderful singer... and better looking than Pavarotti.  Her last Vancouver performance was 1993 at Deer Lake.  More tickets now available with the move from the Orpheum Theatre to two nights at the Chan Centre.  Here is last night's review from the Vancouver Sun:

Kiri Te Kanawa builds to glorious concert ending

Powell St. Festival 2007 - Always lots to see and do!


Is this Todd Wong?  He's wearing a Gung Haggis Fat Choy shirt and he's Chinese-looking...  I tlooks like he's hawking haggis won-ton...

Noooo!!!!  It's Todd's friend Walter Quan... and he is holding up his famous sushi and won-ton cnadles that he sells at the Powell Street Festival every year.

Lots to see and do at the Powell Street Festival.  Great arts, entertainment, history and culture displays.  It integrates traditional and contemporary Japanese-Canadian cultures with the Downtown Eastside and the historic sites of Japantown.

Generations: The Chan Legacy on CBC Newsworld.
July 29th - 4pm and midnight

The Chan Legacy is the lead episode in the new documentary series Generations on CBC Newsworld.  It debuted on July 4th - my grandmother's 97th birthday.

How fitting!  Because the show is about her grand-father Rev. Chan Yu Tan who came to Canada in 1896 as a Christian missionary.

Feedback has been very positive.  Family members are very proud.  Friends are very supportive.  Historians are enthusiastic. Strangers are thrilled.

Listen to Auntie Helen and Uncle Victor tell stories about Rev. and Mrs. Chan, and about growing up in pre-WW2 BC, and facing racial discrimination.  Uncle Victor Wong also tells about enlisting as a Canadian soldier to go behind enemy lines in the Pacific for suicide squadrons, fighting for Canada, even though Chinese-Canadians could not vote in the country of their birth.

The next generations assimiliated more easily into Canadian culture.  Gary Lee became an actor and singer.  Janice Wong became a visual artist and author of the book CHOW: From China to Canada - memories of food and family, which addressed the history of Rev. Chan coming to Canada, and how Janice's dad started a Chinese restaurant in Prince Albert SK.

Then there is Todd Wong - cultural and community activist who founded Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner - which inspired a CBC Vancouver television performance special.  Todd is shown active in the dragon boat community, and speaking at a Terry Fox Run in the role of a 16 year cancer survivor.  Renowned Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa makes an appearance, as Todd was also involved in helping to save Kogawa's childhood home from demolition and to turn it into a national historic and literary landmark.

July 29th Sunday - repeats at midnight

4:00 p.m.

Generations: The Chan Legacy - Missionaries from China come to the West Coast help Westernize Chinese immigrant workers in the late 1800's.

J

Kilts and family history abound during two episodes of the 6-part Generations series on CBC Newsworld

Find out what a 250 year old Anglophone family in Quebec City and a 120 year old Chinese-Canadian family in Vancouver have in common.

Both have:
bagpipes and kilts
+ accordion music
+ canoe/dragon boat racing
+ immigration as a topic
+ Church music
+ archival photos/newsreels of an ex-premier
+ cultural/racial discrimination stories
+ prominent Canadian historical events to show how
   the families embraced them or were challenged by them
+ both featured saving a historical literary landmark.
+ younger generation learning the non-English language

Generations: The Chan Legacy features Todd Wong, founder of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, a quirky Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner, which inspired a CBC Vancouver television performance special.  Todd's involvements with Terry Fox Run, Joy Kogawa House campaign and dragon boat racing are also shown.

July 29th 4pm PST / July 30th 12am

4:00 p.m.

Generations: The Chan Legacy - Missionaries from China come to the West Coast help Westernize Chinese immigrant workers in the late 1800's.

August 5th 4pm PST

4:00 p.m.

Generations: The Blairs of Quebec - An Anglophone family with 250 years of history in Quebec City struggles to maintain it's heritage.

Produced by Halya Kuchmij, narrated by Michelle Cheung.

Work took Ronnie Blair and his family to England in the 1960’s but his children longed to return to Canada, and to Quebec City. Alison Blair was the first to return, as a student, in 1972. Her brother David followed in 1974. Both were excited by the political and social changes that had taken place during the Quiet Revolution in Quebec and threw themselves into everything Francophone. David learned to speak French, married a French Canadian and settled into a law practice.

I first met Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas when I introduced him at the Word On the Street Festival a few years ago at Library Square. He was reading from his Haida Manga book. and I held the book up and turned the pages so the audience could see the incredible drawings. Michael was touched by this gesture, and warmly signed my copy of his book. This new show features installations at the Museum of Anthropology. Michael has collected argillite dust from all his fellow carvers and used it to create an "argillite paint" which was used to cover a Pontiac Firefly car (“Pedal to the Meddle”), upon which more uniquely Yahgulanaas artwork was painted. It sounds inspirationally crazy - just like Michael.    more »

Apparently there is a bone marrow registry for Mixed Race Donors and transplants! My friend Jeff Chiba Stearns has just sent me this message. Jeff describes himself as half-Japanese, half-Euro mutt - or "Hapa" - according to the Hawaiian term meaning "Half-White" or "Half-Asian"... depending on your Hapa perspective Check this out: http://www.mavinfoundation.org/projects/matchmaker.html   more »