Happy Hogmanay - listening to BBC Radio Scotland Live!

It's almost midnight in Scotland.
I am listening live to BBC Radio Scotland, as they count down the minutes.

15 minutes ago when I tuned in, they were playing Elvis Presley, followed by Dolly Parton's "9 to 5".... then there was Tom Jones...

Now they are going live to Edinburgh....
A pipe major plays the bagpipes.
There is a countdown.... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....
Then everybody sings a song - what is it??
It's not Auld Lang Syne!?!?!
It's some song about Happy New Year!

The hosts come back and ramble on like New Year's hosts do...
They pop a champagne cork.
Now I hear accordion music... sounds like a polka - no it's not.
It's some song about Caledonia...
I've never heard it before.
"Come in, come in...here's my hand..."
Oh - it's Andy Stewart... whoever he is...

Now they thank Radio Scotland listeners from around the world.
Oh- here's a song I recognize.  "I Would Walk 500 Miles" by the Proclaimers.  This reminds me of the 2003 GHFC dinner when my musician buddies Pat Coventon and pd wohl played their own version with a "Eat Haggis" bridge, and words about Toddish McWong.

Happy New Year everybody!!!!

The Tyee: Article on Mixed Marriage aka inter-racial marriage by Amy Chow

Amy Chow has written an article called The Face of Asian Mixed Marriage in BC
 http://thetyee.ca/Life/2005/12/27/MixedMarriageBC/ for The Tyee.ca

She tells the story of a nice Canadian boy eloping with a nice Canadian girl because his mother, has always wanted him to marry a girl that would be "more appropriate" for him and the family. It's a familiar story - not a new story... but one that most Canadians could related to and share. In this case, the boy is of Jewish ancestry and the girl is of Chinese ancestry.

I grew up in Vancouver, first meeting people from mixed marriages in the early sixties when I was a child. "Chinnie" was somebody who always was hanging out at my great-grandma's house - one of her best friends. She was white. I have recently bumped into her daughter Evelyn. It's great that we have shared history of our elders.

Mixed race marriages is common place on both sides of my family. On my mother's side, there has been a mixed race marriage in every generation since our elder Rev. Chan Yu Tan arrived in Canada in 1896. There was his son Luke, who became an actor in Hollywood. There were his grandsons Henry and Art. Incidently it was Art who married a First Nations woman, and their daughter Rhonda has become the elected band chief for the Qayqayt Nation (New Westminster), that she singlehandedly resurrected.

My mother's youngest brother married a woman of Scottish-English background, steeped in Ontario Canadian heritage. 9 of my 12 cousins on my mom's side have married caucasians + my brother. And on my father's side, 6 of my 9 cousins married caucasians.

I was the only person out of my maternal cousins that married somebody of Chinese Canadian descent. It should have worked out... our grandparents had known each other, as had our parents, our aunts and uncles, our cousins, and even their children.... but it was not to be. No regrets.

And today, I am spending my 2nd Christmas with my Canadian girlfriend of British ancestry, and her parents. I haven't seen another Asian since I left the Kelowna airport two days ago. There haven't been any racial clashes. We talk about the issues that I am involved in such as the Save Kogawa House campaign and the Chinese Canadian head tax - even with their caucasian friends.

We listened to my friends Joy Kogawa and Ann-Marie Metten on CBC radio yesterday, and we read in the newspaper about my friends Bill Chu and Gabriel Yiu and Thekla Lit who helped organize a Boxing Day press conference on Head Tax redress. And these are just Canadian issues. And the 3 dogs love all the hugs they can get. Race isn't an issue for them.


Todd out walking with dogs in Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park.

"Have a multi-cultural Christmas" - Vancouver Sun's Douglas Todd vs Todd Wong's experiences

Douglas Todd looks at the students and celebrations of Sir Richard McBride elementary school in Vancouver.  He compares present day activities and student ethnicity to when he attended in the early 1960s.  DT is a thoughtful writer and he explores the issues of religious holidays, political correctness, inclusion, school  cultural programming, and what the children really want and think.

Of special note, DT writes that more schools are celebrating Chinese New Year, or rather the more exclusive term "Lunar New Year," as an inclusive event that often celebrates all ethnic cultures.  I have certainly found this to be true, especially when I was invited early this year to bring my Scottish-Chinese fusion of "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" to Westridge Elementary School in Burnaby.  http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog
/_archives/2005/2/5/303618.html

Check out DT's feature article titled
A Multicultural Christmas:
Sir Richard McBride students balance ethnicity with new traditions
Vancouver Sun - Dec 24th page C1

Personally, when I grew up at Vancouver's Laura Secord elementary school in the from 1965 to 1973 - I thought I was already experiencing multiculturalism by going to school with mostly white students.  Okay... there were a few students of Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese...etc heritage there too.  By 1973, the Chinese proportion grew significantly, and in my grade 7 class there were 6 other Wongs in the class, including the teacher.

I had started noticing more ESL immigrants of Chinese ancestry around 1970.  This was the effect of changed immigration laws in 1967, that now allowed independant Chinese immigrants, no longer only sponsored by relatives to come to Canada.  You see, even though the Chinese Exclusion Act was removed in 1947, only very limited immigration was allowed for family members only.

My experiences of Christmas growing up, involved dinners with sticky rice, turkey, cranberry sauce, stir-fried vegetables - always a combination of Chinese and Canadian food.  When we visited  my father's side of the family - there were more Chinese speakers, as his mother spoke almost exclusively Chinese, and his eldest sister had been raised in China - despite having been born in Canada. I referred to my mother's side of the family as our "English side" because the family had been in Canada longer since the arrival of my grandmother's grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan in 1896.  Even my great-grandmother Kate Chan was fluent in english.  So... even in my family we were multicultural... I guess.

Last year I visited my girlfriend's parents in Vernon, and we attended Christmas dinner at a friend of theirs.  I was the only, non-Asian attending, of the 10 guests.  It was my first ethnically "white" Christmas dinner.  We ate turkey with cranberry sauce, potatoes, salad... just like my own family dinners.  I felt comfortable with the company, because of shared language and values.  Nobody asked how I was enjoying the new "cultural experience" because they just assumed I was "Canadian", knowing that I considered myself a 5th generation Vancouverite.  The cultural differences and conversations were more concerned with the differences between Vancouver and Vernon. Big City culture versus Small City culture.

Culture and "multiculturalism" is relative.  Especially if it is married into the family.

Chinese style bbq turkeys for Christmas.... yum yum!

Jenny Uechi of Ricepaper Magazine wrote this very interesting foodie article about turkey dinner served Chinese style for the Georgia Straight.  I LOVE Chinese style bbq duck, and was intrigued with this idea....  I mentioned it to my mother, and she told me that she sometimes would take a turkey to a Chinatown butcher/meat store, and they would BBQ it on a price per pound basis.

Jim Wong-Chu is a long-time friend and Asian Canadian Arts mentor.  We came up with the idea of haggis won ton, as he has helped advise me on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners over the years...  Jim loves Chinese food too!

Put a little extra red in your dinner with a Chinese-style BBQ turkey

By jenny uechi

Publish Date: 15-Dec-2005

Traditionalists will tell you that Christmas dinner just doesn’t feel complete without a roasted whole turkey as its centrepiece. The more daring, however, may want to try a new spin on this holiday favourite: Chinese-style barbecue turkey. With its reddish skin and sweet-savoury flavour, it’s a dish that not only tastes (and looks) spectacular but also reflects Vancouver’s multiethnic history.

Jim Wong-Chu, Ricepaper publisher and local Asian-food guru, takes time to meet with the Straight to recount the origins of the Chinese-style turkey. “From what people tell me,” he says, “this tradition started way back in the olden days, when none of the Chinese had ovens in their homes. So on special occasions, they asked the local barbecue houses to roast the turkey for them.” Prepared much like a traditional roasted duck, the turkey had crisply seared skin, marinade sauce, and better-preserved juices than the oven-roasting birds. “Even now, when most people have their own ovens, people crave that barbecue taste,” he says.

As proof of this, many barbecue houses in Chinatown still cater to that tradition. At Kwong Hing Co. Ltd (228 East Pender Street, 604-681-1939) and Dollar Meat Store (266 East Pender Street, 604-681-0536), turkey is sold at $4.99 a pound and can be ordered in advance. As with most stores in Chinatown, Cantonese is the lingua franca among staff: Wong-Chu advises that non–Cantonese speakers may want to order through a translator to avoid miscommunication.

For more of the story click here

Winter Solstice 2006 Dong Zhi at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens

We went down to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens last night in Vancouver's Chinatown.  Chinese Winter Solstice or Dong Zhi was being celebrated as part of the Secret Lantern Society's extensive programming that took part at Chinatown, Yaletown, Westend, Strathcona and Brittania Community Centre.

Chinese Winter Solstice is also a time when there are special foods and activities, especially to be shared with family and friends. 

It was my girlfriend's first time seeing the Chinese garden all lit up with hand made lanterns and candles, and it was magically beautiful.  Even before we had walked into the garden, I bumped into musician friends Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault who regularly perform at the Garden as Silk Road Music.

Ji Rong Huang performed erhu in the Scholar's Study, and Alcvin Ramos performed shakahachi flute in the Hall of One Hundred Rivers.  Click here for a virtual tour of the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens.

Because of rain, many of the paper lanterns were not hanging on the trees, in the ritual of returning the fallen leaves of Autum, to their original trees in new forms of lanterns.  Many of these paper lanterns feauting leaf designs were instead hung along the walkways of the gardens. 

My favorite lanterns are the floating ones designed like lotus flowers.  The gentle breeze pushed them around on the ponds, and they looked gorgeous in the dark.


A floating lotus lantern lit by photo flash - photo Todd Wong

We soon bumped into my friend Meena Wong showing the garden to a friend of hers visiting from Singapore.  My first dragon boat mentor James Yu was there with his mother.  James is also restorer for the gardens, making sure it is in good maintenance and running order.  He has taught me how to steer dragon boat as well as both Tai Chi, and  many stories about the Chinese garden and traditions.


Dragon Boat buddies Todd Wong and James Yu - photo Deb Martin

As we left the Gardens, we looked around in the Gardens giftshop, and I found a lovely little amulet thingy with the Chinese character for "Love" - which I bought as a gift for my girlfriend.  We also had some fun, doing water brush strokes on a "buddha board" where I demonstrated my long lost skills of having taken a class in Chinese brush painting back in 1980.  It was also a big surprise to meet the new Gardens giftshop manager Alexis who used to run the balloon shop in Deman Place Mall.  Alexis had attended my 2002 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner when her good actor /voice coach friend  Sonia Baker co-hosted with me.

A real big surprise was bumping into former classmates from Grade 7 at Laura Secord Elementary in Vancouver.  While I have bumped into Selina So over the past years through many Asian Canadian events, this was the first time I had seen Leslie Ikeda since 1978 - and we both fondly recounted that we had been in kindergarten together, as well as grade 7 and grade 8 Math. Winter Solstice really is a time for friends and family, as they meet at all the community events!

We met in the Terracotta Warrior gift shop, owned by my friends Charles and Grace.  It's a wonderful shop and I bought two silk ties - one with Pandas, another with dragons... and a special framed print as a Christmas present for my parents (shhh.... it's a secret for now!)


Classmates from Grade 7 Reunited - Selena So, Leslie Ikeda and Todd Wong - photo Deb Martin

Winter Solstice in Vancouver - Dong Zhi at the Chinese Classical Dr. Sen Yat Sen Gardens



Today is Winter Solstice.  It is a significant time for many cultures around the world.  In Chinese, it is called Dong Zhi in mandarin.  As a chilld growing up in Vancouver, I never learned about many Chinese traditions as my family became integrated and assimilated as 2nd 3rd, 4th and 5th generation Canadians.

Vancouver is a hub for cross-cultural events and the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Gardens is a leading proponent.  For the past two years, I have been attending the Winter solstice events at the gardens.  It is decorated with hand made lanterns and is gorgeous.  Leaves that fell during the fall, are placed on lanterns and hung back on the trees. I particularly enjoyed my 2003 Winter Solstice visit to the gardens where I met and talked with erhu musician Ji Rong Huang.

For this year's visit I have invited new friends to attend with me, from the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team, and the Save Kogawa House committee.

If you come.... remember to bring your camera!

What happens when two Vancouverites go on a backpacking holiday to Scotland and stumble upon a mystical magical town named Brigadoon, which only appears once every one hundred years? Many Vancouverites and Canadians can claim to have some Scottish blood in their ancestry, and many more Vancouverites make attending Robbie Burns Dinners an annual not-too-miss event.   more »

Brigadoon brings out the kilts and haggis for opening night at Richmond's Gateway Theatre

It was a grand opening for Brigadoon at the Gateway Theatre's opening night on Friday, December 9th.  Following a wonderfully enthusiastic and well-recieved performance, the opening night audience was treated to a buffet feast of Scots broth, sandwiches, and haggis. 

A piper led the procession followed by Gateway Manager Simon Johnston, and Gateway Board president Gordon Dalglish.  Dalglish was dressed in Scots finery with his ancient tartan kilt, and his wife had on a fine tartan wrap.

The cast was so warm and friendly, revelling in tasting their first haggis.  For many of the male cast members, it was their first time wearing kilts.  Many of the cast members are Asian because the Gateway has a strong colour blind casting rule.  Wearing the kilt was "quite freeing" said actor Calvin Lee.

Review to follow - I will be reviewing the production on Tuesday night.

Brigadoon opens Dec 9th at Richmond Gateway Theatre until Jan 1st!

Tonight is opening night at the Richmond Gateway Theatre for Brigadoon, that wonderful Lerner and Lowe musical that features one of my favorite songs - Almost Like Being in Love.  Gene Kelly imortalized the mystical Scottish village that only appears once every hundred years in the movie version of Brigadoon.

I will don my kilt and sporran and go join the other Asians in kilts and tartans - as the Gateway Theatre has a colourblind casting rule.  General Manager Simon Johnston himself, is half Chinese and also playwright of Gold Mountains Guest, and Running Dog  Paper Tiger.

I'm heading down for the opening night party where scotch tastings will be featured.

Dialogues of the Carmelites: Not your ordinary opera - but extraordinary

By Francis Poulenc
Vancouver Opera
November 26, 29, December 1 & 3, 2005
All performances 7:30 pm  Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Conductor                 Jonathan Darlington
Director                    Tazewell Thompson   
Blanche de la Force    Kathleen Brett
Prioress                    Judith Forst
Madame Lidoine        Measha Brueggergosman
Marie Mere                Claire Primrose          
Constance                 Nathalie Paulin

I walked out of Vancouver Opera’s 2005 serving of Dialogues of the Carmelites simply amazed.  It was a production you either loved or hated. It pushed buttons. It wasn’t traditional. It was inspiring. It was beautiful. It made you think. There was no love story between a man and a woman.

There were no familiar songs that would ever appear on Opera’s greatest hits.  But it provided extraordinary showcase performances for Judith Forst, Kathleen Brett, Measha Bruggergosman and Claire Primrose.  How strange it is to see an opera where all the main characters are women, and where men play only secondary and supporting roles. But while there are no sexy tunes between men and women, there are many arias that deal with the relationship of spirit and to God. 

It is 1789, the dawn of the French Revolution.  After an incident in which her carriage is surrounded by The by mobs fin the street, a young agitated aristocratic woman named Blanch de la Force decides to join the Carmelite Order seeking refuge from both her family and the social turmoil happening in France. 

Blanche discovers an inner journey that is challenged once again by inside forces when she befriends a fellow initiate named Constance who shares with Blanche that they will die together.  Blanche is again challenged when  she is present at the death of the Pioress, who wails that Death is ugly, unforgiving and unspiritual. Soon after, outside forces come to play when the New French Republic orders that all Religious Orders become outlawed, and the nuns are forced to leave their home. It is at this point that Blanche flees the convent to find refuge as a servant in an aristocratic house.

Judith Forst sings a knock-out performance as the Prioress, while sitting in her death bed.  Kathleen Brett readily captured the agitated psychological state of Blanche de la Force, although her voice was weak at points - perhaps due to playing Blanche's weak state of mind, because in Act 2 & 3, as Blanche matures psychologically in her convictions, her voice becomes stronger.  Nathalie Paulin provided a clear and calm foil as Constance, to Brett’s Blanche.  And when finally Measha Bruggergosman came on stage in the 2nd Act, her voice and movement had so much presence it was hard not to be enthralled.

This is not a "pretty opera" despite its beatific moments where the nuns pledge themselves to martyrdom.  It is indeed a psychological drama that questions our own relationship to spirit, heroism, totalitarianism, religious order and self-sacrifice.  While watching I could not help but compare the exiling of the nuns from their convent to the internment of the Japanese-Canadians in 1942, which was nicely explored in Vancouver Opera's production of Naomi's Road.  Nor could I not draw comparison to the Vancouver Opera's past production of Beethoven's only opera Fidelio, also set during the French Revolution.

The final climatic scene is difficult to tear one's eyes away from.  Here is a spoiler - but good to know as the real story was first published by Marie Mere as a memoir.  Despite first suggesting martyrdom to her fellow nuns, it is she alone who somehow survives the imprisionment of the nuns, and their final walk to the guillotine.  Musically it is very powerful, as the cast sings Salve Regina, each one walks up, across and finally off-stage, one  by one, until you hear the metalic sound of a guilotine.  The choir of voices becomes smaller one by one until only Constance remains.  It is then that Blanche appears to hold hands with her friend Constance and to fulfil Constance's vision that they would die together.

Here was a modern opera written by Francis Poulenc, sung in French, set during the French revolution, about Carmelite nuns – and directed by African-American theatre and opera director Tazewell Thompson.  As a 9-year old boy, Thompson was sent by his grandparents to live in the convent of the Sisters of St. Dominic, in Blauvelt, N.Y. where he spent six years.  He says he learned Gregorian chants before he ever knew pop, jazz, folk or opera music.  What an extraordinary experience to learn and develop a relationship with a spiritual diety, as well as evolving one’s own spiritual development!  It makes sense that Thompson was asked to help create this particular production first with Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera.

Poulenc's music is indeed both beautiful and spiritual. I was moved by its thoughtful passages, and found myself humming Stravinsky's Infernal Dance of King Katschei from the Firebird Suite.  As well, I found myself thinking of Gershwin's American in Paris, and Porgy and Bess.  It was not a surprise then to read in the progam notes that Poulenc named Stravinsky as one of his greatest influences, as well as Gershwin.

Donald Eastman’s set design is beautiful in its simplicity.  A simple wall, stands halfway back on the stage, creating the interior of the Church.  Muted light enters through a high window.  At scence changes the pillars come forward to become walls, and to create individual rooms.  Later they recede, and the lighting changes to create and exterior scene.  The lighting changes again, and it is another scene in the Church, this time the harsh early light of morning.  The walls move again, and the nuns are in a prison cell.

Classical music has always been kind to colour-blind casting, as opposed to theatre or film. Casting New Brunswick born Afro-Canadian Measha Bruggergosman has absolutely no negative impact.  In fact, I think it speaks loudly about the multicultural ease that opera moves with.  The opera audience listens to French, German, Italian easily, and there has even been an opera now in Cree.  The settings are from around the world such as China in Vancouver Opera’s production of Turandot.  I look forward to the January 2007 production of Mozart’s Magic Flute reconstructed with a First Nations theme blending western and First Nations traditions together and designed with a team of First Nations artists.

In the end, it is the inspiration of the performances that moves us.


check out these reviews and links
Dialogues of the Carmelites
Georgia Straight review by Jessica Werb
Divine inspiration behind Vancouver Opera's latest
Vancouver Courier Review by Louise Phillips
All Praise to the singing nuns
Globe & Mail review by Elissa Poole
Religious Reflections
Georgia Straight interview with director Tazewell Thompson by Colin Thomas

Vancouver Opera Insight Articles
Facing the World Inside the Walls
Notes on the production of Dialogues of the Carmelites
by Stage Director Tazewell Thompson
Measha!
by Doug Tuck
Francis Poulenc, Graceful Composer
by Doug Tuck
Hearing the voice of Grace, Poulenc's Musical Style
by David Shefsiak