Last year, Larissa Lai was a guest at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner. She enjoyed the event so much she is coming back... as our featured poet! At a reading event at the Vancouver Public Library, Larissa shared with me that she teaches Robert Burns to her students at University of BC. Wow... Perfect! But Larissa is much more than that... She is an acclaimed poet in her own right, and the author of two novels - When Fox Is A Thousand, and Salt Fish Girl. Both books are in my personal collection. I first met Larissa back in 1994, when I wrote an article for the SFU Student Newspaper, and she was a featured poet for the Go For Broke Festival - the forerunner of Asian Heritage Month..... + MORE   more »

Every year I do media interviews. On Robbie Burns Day, I was woken up at 7am by a request from BBC Radio Scotland. Yesterday, I did an interview for French CBC television. Monday was Epoch Times. Last week the Georgia Straight did a food feature article. Somewhere in Scotland there is an interview in the Sunday Post. Even SFU, Seattle and North Shore News have stories about Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner this year. Check out the links:   more »

BBC Radio Scotland woke me up at 7am for a 9:30 am interview. There is 8 hours time difference. After I was woken up, it was hard to get back to sleep, so I got onto the computer and listened to BBC Radio Scotland for awhile. It's always fun to listen to them both on New Year's Eve and Robbie Burns Day.... + PICTURES + MORE   more »

2009 featured photos in exhibits at Royal BC Museum and Scottish Parliament. Other highlights included the inaugural writer in residence program at Historic Joy Kogawa House, and Todd Wong's first visit to Scotland for the finale weekend of Homecoming Year. And there was the 250th anniversary of poet Robert Burns.    more »

Why do we sing Auld Lang Syne at New Year's Eve?

Todd Wong be heard today on CBC Radion One 690 AM - ON THE COAST. 3-6pm

They asked me about the origins of singing "Auld Lang Syne" - the Robert Burns lyrics connection and the proper way of holding hands while singing. Of course I threw in similarities between Scottish Hogmannay and Chinese New Year - such as making lots of noise and paying off your debts.

They asked if I will be with friends ringing in the New Year. I said I am at Silver Star in Vernon, with good friends... including Craig Brown who was at my 1st Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, when the only "kilts" we had were Canadian Mackinkaw lumberjack shirts tied around our waists...

Origins of singing Auld Lang Syne in North America are traced back to a Scottish tradition that spread through Scottish and British emmigration.

Wikipedia writes:

Singing the song on Hogmanay or New Year's Eve very quickly became a Scots custom that soon spread to other parts of the British Isles. As Scots (and other Britons) emigrated around the world, they took the song with them.

Canadian band leader Guy Lombardo is often credited with popularising the use of the song at New Year’s celebrations in America, through his annual broadcasts on radio and television, beginning in 1929. The song became his trademark. In addition to his live broadcasts, Lombardo recorded the song more than once. His first recording was in 1939. A later recording on September 29, 1947 was issued as a single by Decca Records as catalog #24260

Wikipedia's entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne
also compares the 1711 version of Old Long Syne by James Watson to the 1788 version of Scots verse by Robert Burns.

Featured author panelists: CAROLINE ADDERSON (A History of Forgetting, I Bruno) CARELLIN BROOKS (Wreck Beach, Carnal Nations) DAVID CHARIANDY (Soucouyant) LARRISA LAI (Salt Fish Girl, When Fox is a Thousand STAN PERSKY (The Short Version: An ABC Book, Mixed Media Mixed Messages) BILL TIELMAN (24 Hours, The Tyee) + moderator DANIEL GAWTHROP (Rice Queen Diaries)   more »

Toddish McWong, telling stories at 2008 Celtic Fest for the Battle of the Bards, and reading Robert Burns poetry - photo D. Martin.

Vancouver Storytelling at Main St. Car Free Days, with Todd Wong

I have been asked by Vancouver Storytellers, to give a storytelling performance
Location: located on the West Side at 18th.; on a grassy island set back from Main Street.  We are beside a tiny mall with a Pizza Hut.

It is Car Free Days starts at 12 noon at the following locations.
Commercial Drive (between Venables and 1st Ave.)
Denman St. (between Davie and Robson)
Main St. (between 12th and 25th)
Kitsilano (various neighborhood block parties)
http://www.carfreevancouver.org/

I will tell stories of early Chinese & Scottish pioneers in BC,

I will look down Main Street towards Chinatown and tell stories about my great-great-grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan, who came to Canada in 1896 as a lay preacher for the Chinese Methodist Church....  

I will tell stories about how James Douglas was born in Guyana to a Scottish father and a Creole mother, and came to BC to become the first governor of BC.

I will look south to the Fraser River, and recount how Simon Fraser was born in the United States, came to Canada with his Loyalist mother, and travelled through Western Canada, to explore this Westernmost land and named it New Caledonia.

I will the origins of Gung Haggis Fat Choy: 

• in 1993, when I first wore a kilt for the SFU, Robbie Burns Day celebrations
• in 1998, with a small private dinner for 16 people in a living room
• how it has grown into an annual Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner serving 550 people
• and spun off a CBC TV performance special
• The SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival, by SFU Recreation department.
  

Eastside Stories is an offshoot of the Heart of the City Festival,
3 community leaders will speak at Carnegie Centre June 21st at 3pm. 
Shirley Chan, Hayne Wai and Larry Wong

Event 3. Standing up for Community with Shirley Chan, Hayne Wai and Larry Wong, Sun June 21, 3pm Carnegie 3rd floor (see below and http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com/news/eastside-stories/

Shirley, Hayne and Larry are contributors to the book EATING STORIES: A Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck

All three helped to fight against the freeway proposal that would have knocked a swath through Chinatown in the 1960's.

Shirley and her mother helped lead the protests against freeway development in Vancouver Chintown in the 1960's, and were the topic of the documentary film Mary Lee Chan takes on City Hall. Mother Tongue | chinese community

http://www.mothertongue.ca/community.php?id=1093574665

Hayne has been involved with many anti-racism programs, and has served on the boards of Chinese Cultural Centre and Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens, and Saltwater City Vancouver Centennial Exhibition.  He founding member of Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC.  Hayne is also my cousin, role model, and one of my inspirations in creating Gung Haggis Fat Choy

Larry Wong is curator of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum, at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives.  He is also childhood friend of Wayson Choy, and founding member of Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC.

MONTREAL POET WRAPS UP RESIDENCY THIS WEEKEND

 

Historic Joy Kogawa House celebrates success of its first writer-in-residence

 

During his residency in Vancouver Asfour has hosted a number of writers for readings at the house, including Judy Rebick, Ann Diamond, and Daphne Marlatt, George Stanley, and Nilofar Shidmehr—three poets nominated for this year’s Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. On Saturday, May 30, Gary Geddes and Ann Eriksson join him for a final reading.

 

Asfour has also welcomed visits from writing classes and he has coached numerous individual writers. Following an evening class at the house, SFU Writers’ Studio lyric poetry instructor Rachel Rose wrote: “John has been so generous with his time, meeting many students for individual consults.” Another writer said: “I had a very good, productive meeting with John and learned more in meeting with him than I had learned in a whole year studying creative writing at university. He taught me how to edit.”

 

Asfour’s frequent writing consultations did not keep him completing a book of poems entitled Blindfold, which is partly autobiographical—born in Lebanon, Asfour was blinded at age 13 during the Civil War in 1958. His poems explore feelings of loss and displacement and suggest that the disabled often feel like foreigners in their own land, hampered by prejudice (sometimes well-meaning), communications barriers and the sense of “limited personality” that characterizes the immigrant experience.

 

While in Vancouver Asfour also presented poetry readings to a variety of audiences, including the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Christianne’s Lyceum of Art and Literature, the BC Muslim School and in collaboration with Neworld Theatre at the Vancouver Public Library. On Thursday, 58 students from Killarney Secondary School will practice their creative writing while scattered over the lawns, patio, and deck at Kogawa house.

 

Asfour is the author of four books of poetry in English and two in Arabic. He translated the poetry of Muhammad al-Maghut into English under the title Joy Is Not My Profession (Véhicule Press), and he selected, edited and introduced the landmark anthology When the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945–1987 (Cormorant Books).

 

Further information can be found on the website of the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society at www.kogawahouse.com or by calling (604) 263-6586.

 

ends/more

 

Contacts:

Kogawa House Society: Ann-Marie Metten (604) 263-6586

 

Notes to Editors:

1. Information on Historic Joy Kogawa House

 

Historic Joy Kogawa House is the former home of the Canadian author Joy Kogawa (born 1935). It stands as a cultural and historical reminder of the expropriation of property that all Canadians of Japanese descent experienced after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Between 2003 and 2006, a grassroots committee fund raised in a well-publicized national campaign, and with the help of The Land Conservancy of BC, a non-profit land trust, managed to purchase the house in 2006.

 

Together with Joy Kogawa, the various groups decided that the wisest and best use of the property would be to establish it as a place where writers could live and work. Following the models of the writer-in-residence programs in place at the Berton House Writers’ Retreat in Dawson City , Yukon , and Roderick Haig-Brown House in Campbell River , BC , the Historic Joy Kogawa House writer-in-residence program brings well-regarded professional writers in touch with a local community of writers, readers, editors, and librarians. While in residence, the writer works to enrich the literary community around him or her and to foster an appreciation for Canadian writing through programs that involve students, other writers and members of the general public.

Beginning in March 2009, as a partner with TLC, the Historic Joy Kogawa Society will begin hosting writers to live and work in the house on a paid basis. Funding is provided through the Michael Audain Foundation for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, the Canada Council and through donations from the general public.

John Asfour with "Joy Kogawa" and Judy Rebick at the April event for Historic Joy Kogawa House inaugural writer-in-residence programming. - photo Todd Wong

I look forward to seeing you at one or both events,

Ann-Marie Metten
Executive Director

       
       
Contact Information

Telephone:  604-263-6586
Email:   kogawahouse@yahoo.ca
       
       
Historic Joy Kogawa House |  1450 West 64th Avenue |  Vancouver  | BC |  V6P 2N4 | Canada

I was at the BC Book Prizes last night and my friend Terry Glavin received the Lt. Gov. Award for Literary Achievement.

It was a fun evening, and I sat with the Editors Association of Canada, the table organized by my friend Ann-Marie Metten.

Lt. Gov. Stephen Point always makes a great speech, not only about his personal contradictory job of being a First Nations Catholic representing the Queen, head of the Anglican Church, for which he had spent a large part of his life in defiance to for pushing First Nations rights, but also about the ability of BC authors, publishers and citizens for overcoming challenges for racial, historical and cultural differences.  I first met his honour, last year, when the BC Community Achievement Awards were presented at his Victoria home of Government House.  He really likes the concept of "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" and he shared with me that he does have some Scottish ancestry from a forefather named Jamieson.  Commander. King Wan is one of the six rotating honour guards that accompany the Lt. Gov. when he attends events in the Vancouver area.  Cdr. Wan is the first Asian-Canadian high ranking officer at HMCS Discovery in Stanley Park.  We know each other from the many events of Pacific Unit 280 for the Chinese Canadian veterans.

Our friend Daphne Marlatt won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. 

I met Steven Hume, author of Simon Fraser: the Search for Modern British Columbia.  We had a great time talking about Simon Fraser history - especially how Fraser was actually born in the United States just outside Vermont, in disputed New Hampshire territory, and how Fraser himself, had never ever set foot in Scotland.  The kilt I am wearing is the modern hunting Fraser tartan, which Steven thought looked amazing similar to a Hume tartan.  I recounted the story of how the origins of "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" go back to my days as a tour guide at Simon Fraser University telling stories of Simon Fraser University in the mid-1990's.  Standing with is is Howard White, publisher of Harbour Publishing.

Hume's "Simon Fraser' is the one book that I purchased at the end of the evening, published by Harbour Publishing.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (aka "Haida Manga Guy") was nominated for the BC Bookseller's Choice Award, for his book Flight of the Hummingbird: A Parable for the Environment.  Sheryl Mackay presented the first award of the event for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, then recorded the rest of the evening for her CBC Radio early morning radio show North By Northwest, and had everything edited for the delight of listeners less than 10 hours later... WOW!  Hopefully she was still perky and beatific!

Here are my pictures on Flickr.

BC Book Prizes 2009

MEDIA RELEASE

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  April 26, 2009  Vancouver

 

 

BC Book Prizes Winners Announced

 

 

 

Vancouver, BC – The West Coast Book Prize Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 25th Annual BC Book Prizes. They are as follows:

 

Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize Supported by Friesens and Webcom

Lee Henderson, The Man Game (Penguin Group Canada )

 

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize Supported by the BC Teachers’ Federation

Daphne Marlatt, The Given (McClelland & Stewart)

Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize Supported by Abebooks

Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (Knopf Canada )

 

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize Supported by Editor s’ Association of Canada , BC Branch

Stephen Hume, Simon Fraser: In Search of Modern British Columbia (Harbour Publishing)

 

Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize Supported by the BC Library Association

Polly Horvath, My One Hundred Adventures (Groundwood Books)

 

Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize Supported by Kate Walker and Company

Katarina Jovanovic (author), Philippe Béha (illustrator), The King has Goat Ears (Tradewind Books)

 

BC Booksellers’ Choice Award In Honour of Bill Duthie

Supported by BC Booksellers' Association and Duthie Books

Stephen Bown and Douglas & McIntyre, Madness, Betrayal and the Lash: The Epic Voyage of Captain George Vancouver

 

 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR’S AWARD FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCE

Terry Glavin is the recipient of this award, established in 2003 by the Honourable Iona Campagnolo, which recognizes British Columbia writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the province.

 

A total of $19,000 is awarded to winners with each prize providing $2,000 with the exception of the Lieutenant Governor’s prize which awards $5,000.

 

This year’s gala, emceed by Alan Twigg and attended by the Honourable Lieutenant Governor Steven L. Point, took place at the Marriott Pinnacle Hotel in Vancouver . The BC Book Prizes were established in 1985 to celebrate the achievements of British Columbia writers and publishers. The prizes are administered and awarded by members of a non-profit society who represent all facets of the publishing and writing community. The West Coast Book Prize Society congratulates all of the winners!

 

For fur the r details, visit www.bcbookprizes.ca.

 

 

 

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

 

JOY KOGAWA HOUSE TO HOST AL PURDY PARTY

This is going to be an exciting event, created for BC Book and Magazine Week.

4 poets in an intimate setting with special host Shelagh Rogers.  Innaugural Kogawa House writerinresidence John Asfour has invited  3 nominated poets for the BC Book Prizes Dorothy Livesay Poetry Award: George Stanley, Nilofar Shimehr and Daphne Marlatt.

Shelagh Rogers did the last public  interview Purdy at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival. Shelagh says "He was awesome," and will share her Al Purdy memories with the audience.
www.cbc.ca/wordsatlarge/blog/2008/05/al_purdy_an_uncommon_poet_memo.html

This will be also be a fundraiser for Save the Al Purdy A Frame… in the Joy Kogawa childhood home, a house that was saved from demolition to be turned into a writer in residence program and a historical/literary landmark for all of Canada


April 21 is National Al Purdy Day.
http://www.poetrymap.ca/news_item.php?NewsID=35



from www.kogawahouse.com

Meet Judy Rebick

Special guest at Historic Joy Kogawa House
with writer-in-residence John Asfour



from www.kogawahouse.com

When: 5 p.m., Friday, April 17
Where: 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver

Admission by donation. Space is limited.

To reserve a seat, please RSVP kogawahouse@yahoo.ca

Writer-in-residence John Asfour welcomes Judy Rebick to Historic Joy Kogawa House on Friday, April 17. Rebick is a veteran activist, former host of CBC Newsworld, chair of Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University and former publisher of www.rabble.ca. Come join us on Friday, April 17, as Judy Rebick speaks about her new book Transforming Power.

One reader commented that Transforming Power "[is] a powerful, inspiring treatise on a paradigm shift in social action that is taking place from around the world. It offers new pathways to change making that are critically needed in this time of crisis, and is an exciting window into stories of hope and possibility around the world." To attend this event, please RSVP kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.

Wayson Choy's new memoir "Not Yet" is now available. 

Brandy Lien Worrall wrote the related cover story for the Georgia Straight last week about Wayson.

Also check out Charlie Smith's sidebar cover story:

Wayson Choy's Chinatown memories inspire

featuring Jen Fooksong Lee, author of "The End of East"
http://www.straight.com/article-210547/choys-chinatown-memories-inspire

Life and Death are linked.  Wayson Choy has defied death twice.  His memoir writings are just as important as his novels.

Brandy Lien Worrall is just finishing up the last courses and meetings for her Masters of Fine Arts, Creative Writing.  I got to know her during the Spring 2007 writing workshop she taught for the Chinese Canadian Historical Society, which produced the book Eating Stories: A Chinese Canadian & Aboriginal Potluck.  Just before the course was finished, Brandy was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She would fight and survive.  Check out Brandy's blog

In 1989, I was diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer tumor.  When I found myself questioning whether I would live or die, I knew I wasn't finished yet...  I didn't know what I still had to do, but I knew I wasn't finished.... not yet.

Wayson Choy also said "Not Yet."

Not Yet is now the title of Wayson's newest memoir.  It follows the 1999 memoir, Paper Shadows, which was concerned with the ghosts and secrets of his adoption.

I got to know Wayson and his work while I was on the inaugural One Book One Vancouver program with his boyhood friend Larry Wong.  The Jade Peony was the perfect book and lent itself easily to create so many events to help make the book come alive for readers and participants.  We organized events for the library, coordinated with Asian Heritage Month, created "Jade Peony Tours" in Chinatown led by John Atkins, a reading at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens with pipa player Qiu Xia He of Silk Road Music.

But one of my favorite events was the "Dim Sum With Wayson Choy" for which Larry brought together friends of Wayson, that had inspired some of the characters to speak to the audience.  And Larry even surprised Wayson with a video greeting from Carole Shields, who was unable to attend due to cancer treatment.

But even with the impending death of Wayson's teacher, Carol Shields, few people knew about how close Wayson had come to death.  Jade Peony almost wasn't chosen because Wayson almost wasn't available. 

In July 2001, Wayson Choy suffered a combined asthma and heart attack that would put him in a coma.  He would later suffer a second heart attack in 2005.

Wayson's public talks are very accessible and intimate.  He shares openly his brushes with death, and his time in a coma, his discovery of issues about his adoption and birth parents.  Wherever he speaks, he always connects with the audience and they walk away touched by his generosity of spirit, knowledge and insight.

In 2002, the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop held their inaugural Community Builders Dinner during which Wayson and Paul Yee were both recognized along with special Community Pioneer Roy Mah.  Wayson told stories about being both intimidated and inspired by Roy Mah, the founder of Chinatown News.  It was a very special evening.  I was proud to be one of the event organizers, and especially to have pushed ACWW to hold an event to recognize Wayson's achievements.

In 2005, Wayson Choy's novel All That Matters, was a runner up for the 2004 Giller Prize.  With that came a whirlwind of more publicity tours and speaking engagements.  In the fall of 2005, he suffered a second heart attack.

Heather Pawsey, Leslie Uyeda, perform at Bloedel Conservatory for a FREE event for Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival.... Heather Pawsey has been a performer at Gung Haggis Fat Choy events since 2004.  Sometimes she brings flautist Karen Cernauskas. Heather has been a pioneer of New Music in New Spaces, performing in places as diverse as Brittania Mines, a wine vat at Calona Winery, the Vancouver Aquarium and the Vancouver Crematorium at Mountain View cemetary. Last year, Heather performed Historic Joy Kogawa House, with poems by Joy Kogawa set to music by Leslie Uyeda. http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2008/4/26/3661604.html This looks like a fun event... and Free... to get into the Bloedel Conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park.

What is the C-Word that is the meaning of life?

The C-Word cast (Foreground, from left): Preet Cheema (Akesh Gill), Grace Chin (Kelly Cho), Sheryl Thompson (Ashley Hennessey). (Background, from left): Fane Tse (Steve Chung), Raahul Singh (Pal Prasad). Photo by Terry Wong, courtesy of The C-word.

The C-Word  April 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 2009
written by Grace Chin
at the Playwrights Theatre Centre on Granville Island, Vancouver

The C-Word is an engaging play... even before you sit down in the seats.  What is the C-Word?  Is it for  Chinese?  Or the derogatory Chink word?  Does it mean Coloured?  Is it a four letter word that belongs below the belt?  One for male appendage, or for female anatomy?

Is the C-Word something more abstract, profound and perhaps "Complicated"?

Or is it "Compassion" or "Cheating"?

In the opening scene, "The Love Guru" is giving a seminar on how to get some action for his male clients.  Pal Prasad (played by Raahul Singh), gives a short talk about goals, and what it takes to follow through.  It's about intention and going after what you want.  It could be any personal development seminar, but this is about the C-word.

Next we meet girlfriends Kelly Cho and Akesh Gill played by Grace Chin and Preet Cheema.  They are on a shopping trip and talking about Kelly's upcoming wedding plans.  Soon we learn that Kelly has a live-in boyfriend named Steve Chung (Fane Tse) who is a yellow guy, while Akesh is single, but she doesn't like brown guys.

Things become complicated when Steve goes to see his old friend Pal to ask for some advice, and compare his relationship and impending marriage with Kelly to Pal's long term "open relationship" to a blonde woman named Ashley (Sheryl Thompsson).  What follows becomes an intercultural Vancouver-style dramedy of errors, innuendo, suppositions on the study of relationships. 

Excuse me... the proper words are cheating, commitment, compassion, change, comic and consolation - after all this is "The C-Word."

"The C-Word" is the third play by Grace Chin.  Twisting Fortunes was co-written with her TF Productions partner Charlie Cho, and was a delightful comedic romp, set to Vancouver's caffeine drive.  "The Quickie", Chin's first solo playwright experience, explored multicultural speed dating.  "The C-Word" goes to the next level, exploring a search for meaning in relationships.  This is Chin's most frank and sexual play to date, and hints at the darker sides of relationships and human nature, not to mention weddings.

In all three productions, Vancouver's multicultural society is the setting, but it is the intercultural nature of the characters where the culture clashes occur.  It's not just a Chinese-Canadian 2nd generation immigrant experience that is explored, but also South Asian this time around too.  And somehow this is juxtoposed with what might be mainstream Canadian or possibly alternative sexual lifestyles.

From the beginning, the characters are all interesting and engaging.  The topics are easily relateable to the audience... unless you don't have any friends of a different ethnicity, or have never dated.  The pacing is good, and the diaglogue never flags.

The casting all works.  Raahul Singh has fun being the egotistical "Love Guru" and his character makes reference to the Mike Myers movie.  More cultural references abound as character development exploration occurs when Kelly and Ashley try to figure each other out, and what their men may see in each other.  Here the extremely self-critical Kelly tries to get a handle on the brazen Ashely, she labels a "Samantha" compared to her "Miranda" - or is she really a Carrie Bradshaw?  Grace Chin actually displays a bit of each of the Sex in the City characters in her role of Kelly.

Much of the action revolves around Kelly and Pal, but while Steve's character seems stalled and doesn't give Fane Tse a big range to play with, Preet Cheema gets to push her character Akesh in the 2nd Act.  Supporting actors Lili Lau Cook and Vincent Cheng provide wonderfully surprising turns as Kelly's parents.  Mel Tuck directs this ensemble cast.

Previous productions

a take-out love story	an accidentally Asian romantic dramedy

Web: www.scriptingaloud.ca/cword

See previews in Review Vancouver and Vancouverplays.com.

How does the poetry and songs of Robert Burns affect Canadians in West Coast Vancouver?

Dr. Leith Davis, director of the Centre for Scottish Studies, Simon Fraser University, has organized a conference about the global Robert Burns - titled "Robert Burns in a Transatlantic Context."

Leith loved attending the 2009 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, and how we blended and juxtaposed Scottish, Chinese cultures with a Canadian twist and a seasoning of First Nations.  In planning her conference for Tartan Week, we wondered how to give a "Gung Haggis" experience to her conference attendees.  So for the Tuesday night evening of Robert Burns songs and poetry, A Musical Celebration of Burns in North America, she has invited Toddish McWong and Gung Haggis Fat Choy performers to give our "Rap to a Haggis", a Chinese claper tale performance by Dr. Jan Walls set to a Robbie Burns poem, and a performance of Auld Lang Syne (with the first verse sung in Mandarin Chinese) augmented with our parade dragon and Chinese Lions.  Deep-fried haggis wontons will hopefully be served along with haggis on Tuesday evening. 

On Wednesday afternoon, I will be part of the Community Research Forum of "Burns in BC." - where I will talk about the history and development of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and how it inspired both a CBC TV television Gung Haggis Fat Choy performance special and the SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival.

2009 SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival features "dragon cart racing" invented by yours truly - photo Todd Wong.

How did I first meet Dr. Davis?

After brief email introductions, I called her with the idea of a wreath laying ceremony at the Burns statue in Vancouver's Stanley Park to mark the 250th Anniversary of Burn's birth.

We emailed and talked by phone and organized some activities, but we didn't meet in person until after she had spent 2 weeks in Scotland for the 2009 Homecoming activities, and arrived back in Vancouver on January 25th, and came to Stanley Park for our planned event, which her husband and two children were already present at.

That evening she and her husband were guests of honour at the 2009 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.  Leith gave "the immortal address" and marvelled at all the songs, guests, food and performances at the Gung Haggis Dinner, and especially at the impromptu ceremonial cutting of the haggis by Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson.

Please check out the free public events for the:

SFU's Centre for Scottish Studies presents

"Robert Burns in a Transatlantic Context"

 

Public events:

 

Tuesday, April 7^th

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; concerts starts at 7:00 p.m.

A Musical Celebration of 
Burns in North America

Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebsaat, 
“Burns Songs in BC”

Kirsteen McCue and David Hamilton, 
“Burns Songs Set by Serge Hovey”

Gung Haggis Fat Choy Performers

Scottish Cultural Centre, 8886 Hudson Street , Vancouver

 

Wednesday, April 8^th, 3:00 - 3:30 p.m.

Michael Russell, Scottish Minister for Culture,
External Affairs and the Constitution
“Connecting Scotland and the Scottish Diaspora”

Room 1425 SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street , Vancouver

Wednesday, April 8^th, 3:45 - 5:00 p.m.

Community Research Forum on 
“Burns in BC”

Room 2200 SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street , Vancouver

 

Wednesday, April 8^th, 7:00 p.m.

Lecture: Dr. Robert Crawford, 
“Writing Burns’s Biography”

Room 1400, SFU Harbour Centre (reception to follow)

 

Thursday, April 9^th, 3:00-4:30 p.m.

Workshop: “Connecting Diasporas: 
Scotland, Asia and the Caribbean ”

Room 2200, Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street , Vancouver

 

All events are free and open to the public. 

Please contact Ron Sutherland to reserve a seat:

rsutherl@sfu.ca; 604-988-0479

 

Sponsored by SFU’s Centre for Scottish Studies; the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; and the Vancouver Burns Club