St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. The British Consulate of Vancouver held a reception to mark the occasion of the visit to Vancouver of the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, The Rt Hon George Reid MSP and to celebrate St Andrews Day. I was fortunate to recieve an invitation to this event. held at the Vancouver Club. Which kilt should I wear? The invitation said "business casual." I asked my Scottish friends, and they agreed that the Maple Leaf Tartan would be appropriate. But alas... one of our dragon boat paddlers still has it after a Kilt Night at Doolin's Irish Pub... so I wore the Ancient Fraser of Lovat tartan. It is the first kilt that I ever wore - pure wool - and perfect for a wintry Vancouver night. Definitely helped to keep my bum warm on Tuesday night when I went to the Vancouver Opera performance of Macbeth... but my knees sure were c-c-c-cold.   more »

Here's a story about the first Asian Santa Claus at Richmond Centre Mall. George King, age 73, was born in Shanghai, then lived in Taiwan where he saw his first Santa Claus hawking merchandise in department stores. Apparently there is not long tradition of Santa as a benevolent figure bearing gifts in China.Mr. King isn't really up on all the names of the reindeer, and apparently wasn't aware of Rudoph. While Santa diversity may be a good idea, cultural insensitivity or ignorance cannot be ignored. I think that in Greater Vancouver's history of Chinese born in BC since Won Alexander Cumyow in 1861 - Richmond Centre should be able to find a Canadian of Chinese descent who truly understands the important role that Santa Claus plays in the development of Canadian children.    more »

Eastside Culture Crawl Friday, November 24 5-10pm Saturday, November 25 11-6pm Sunday, November 26 11-6pm Arleigh Wood is one of the artists participating in the Eastside Culture Crawl. She combines mixed media, and also draws on her combined Japanese and Caucasian heritage. Janice Wong is another artist (and my cousin) working in the same building at 1000 Parker Street. You can bet I will be visiting them both this coming weekend during the Eastside Culture Crawl. There are 47 buildings to visit.    more »

Join the BWB crew in celebrating 2 years of global fusion madness! With guest DJ and producer Jacob Cino, electric violinist Kytami, local hip-hop/bhangra crew BPM, the United Bhangra dance crew, and BWB resident DJs. Another rocking party at the Red Room :o)   more »

Tandava is performing a concert with guests Indian vocalist Sunita and bassist Tommy Babin at 3pm on Nov 25. Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace (Burrard and 15th) free tickets, but need reservation. please call CBC at 604.662.6600 for your tickets. limited space available.   more »

It was only a matter of time that the Vancouver Opera should set one of Europe's most famous operas smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Northwest First Nations culture. Last week, magnificently costumed opera singers performed two excerpts from Mozart's Magic Flute opera, but they were dressed in Northwest coast First Nations inspired designs. The young male bird catcher character of Papageno has now become himself a bird - a hummingbird to be precise. The Queen of the Night has become the mythic wild woman of the woods - T'sonokwa. Fantastic? Definitely. Absurd? Maybe. Cultural appropriation? Debatable...   more »

Trevor Chan and the No Luck Club created a hip hop / mash up, titled "Our Story" that addresses the head tax issue, using actual historic sound bites that were racist descriptions about keeping Canada "White" and about the threat of the "Yellow Peril." It is the 2006 equivalent version of a protest song. Earlier this year on January 14, I wrote about their musical/oratoria montage: "Our Story" head tax sound bites and turn table hip hop by No Luck Club Now the Globe & Mail is writing about them, as they invade Toronto, bringing the head tax issue to the ears of Toronto's hip hop and just plain head tax hip culture.Head-Tax Hip Hop Special to the Globe and Mail November 3, 2006 'We don't want Chinamen in Canada. This is a white man's country and white men will keep it so." The speaker's voice, sampled from our not-so-distant past, is but one of many shocking historic sound bites that Vancouver instrumental hip-hop trio No Luck Club spread throughout the cinematic beatscape of Our Story on their just-released album Prosperity.    more »

Jeff Chiba Stearns LIVE on MTV Canada starting Nov. 9th

Jeff Chiba Stearns, film animator and creator of "What Are You Anyways?", will be appearing on MTV Canada on Nov. 9th, Thursday 3:30pm PST, or  6:30pm EST.

Jeff recently won the inaugural award for Best Animated Short for the first annual Canadian Awards for Electronic and Animated Arts (CAEAA).  We recently chatted when we bumped into each other at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival on last Saturday morning.

http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2006/9/18/2338517.html

Here is Jeff's message:

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I will be in Toronto appearing live as a guest on MTV Canada's show MTV LIVE this Thursday, Nov. 9th. 

I will be discussing mixed-race and Hapa identity with a possible focus on my animated film, "What Are You Anyways?"  The inteview, which will be around 3-5 minutes, airs nationally on MTV Canada at 3:30pm in the west and 6:30pm in the east this Thursday.  The show is an hour long and I will appear sometime within that hour.  The episode I am on is repeated countless times throughout the night and on the weekend.  If you miss the first broadcast it will broadcast again later.  The show's topic is "Mash-ups" and if you're interested check it out. 

Now, I just hope I don't get cut by some rapper.

VAFF: Asian-Canadian or Canadian-Asian... and what about being mixed-race Canadian?

Vancouver Asian Film Festival, continues to celebrate it's 10th anniversary by asking provocative questions about identity, and exploring the qualities of Asian-ness through the eyes of immigrants or through multi-generational Canadians of mixed races parentage.

Saturday morning's program, Canadian Asian vs. Asian Canadian: Politically Correct Labels, featured films Canadian-Chinese by Felix Cheng, and Between: Living in the Hyphen by Anne-Marie Nakagawa, plus a panel discussion featuring UBC English Assistant Professor Glenn Deer, author/editor Alexis Kienlen, UBC English instructor Chris Lee, and Georgia Straight editorial assistant Craig Takeuchi.

The films each explored sensitive topics of identity.  Canadian-Chinese explored the relationship of language to first and second generation immigrants, as director Felix Cheng interviewed his parents and friends about the process of learning to speak Chinese and his resistance of it when he was younger.  Cheng said he did this film as a project while attending Emily Carr Schol of Art and Design.  His parents immigrated from Hong Kong, when Cheng was still two years old, and didn't learn English fully because they were focussed on providing for the family.  Felix says he basically grew up with his older brother watching English television programming. 

Through the interviews with his parents, it is apparent that they have a different perspective of him growing up and not wanting to lear to speak Chinese, then he does.  He is now questioning himself and his identity, as he converses with a friend who came to Canada at age six.  It is an intimate look at the schism between immigrant parents and their children as they come to grips with the children wanting to fit in more with Canadian society, at the risk of creating a communication gap with their parents.  At one point, Cheng shows moving pictures of his parents interacting and talking without sound, highlighting the inability to understand the Chinese language... imagining for the audience what it must be like to be unable at times to communicate with his parents.

Ann-Marie Nakagawa has created a beautiful lush film about the personal issues of growing up mixed race.  She spoke to the audience that Canadian and Hollywood films have addressed mixed-race relationships but never really about the children who grow up in such unions, and the issues that they have to face, sometimes ostracized from one culture or the other, or both.

Nakagawa found a variety of celtic-First Nations, Indo-German, Carribean-Caucasian, African-Caucasian, Chinese-Irish-Scottish-Swedish subjects for her interviews by word of mouth, she told the audience. 

Poet Fred Wah, the poet / retired University of Calgary Engish professor is featured in Between: Living in the Hyphen, a National Film Board film.  He  speaks about growing up mixed-race, and finding his own place in a Canada that initially wanted to homogenize everybody into a White Anglo-Saxon culture during the 1950's when he grew up.  Several other interview subjects discuss growing up as products of racial hybridity, and how they move between the ethnic cultures of either parent, as well as mainstream White Canada. 

Nakagawa proves herself to be a gifted filmaker both in presentation and subject material.  Over a period of three years, she got to know the interview subjects to the point where they trusted her enough to share intimate and personal stories of race and prejudice.  Some feel they are as Canadian as can be, while others share that because of the way they look, they will always be questioned as to their ethnic origin, as the traditional stereotype "Canadian standard" is white, blond with blue eyes.  Nakagawa plays this challenge to great effect by utilizing the famous "I am Canadian" Molson beer commercial rant, which featured a good looking caucasian male.

It is an interesting must-see film that seeks to legitimize mixed-race as a valid cultural identity within the mosaic of Canadian multiculturalism, while challenging the the pigeon-hole process of ethnic labeling.

The following panel discussion was lively.  It included perspectives that were  honest, academic, casual, immigrant -based, multi-generational, and prarie-informed.  Each panelist described themselves and their interests in relation to the themes of identity and labeling.  Kienlen said she used the term mixed race, because that is what she is.  While many of the Nakagawa's subjects grew up as solitary mixed race individuals, she grew up with her mother who is half-Chinese. 

Takeuchi says he describes himself as 4th generation Japanese Canadian, because it is important to demonstrate the relationship to the internment.   Lee said he felt he was the newcomer to the group because his parents were immigrants, and because of that he doesn't have all the familial history that the other panelists carry.

Festival founder and president Barb Lee shared she came up with the theme of Asian Canadian vs Asian Canadian on a car trip in Eastern United States with her sister.  They argued about the usage of the word forms.  Her sister stated she was Canadian Asian because she wanted to emphasize her Canadianess by putting Canadian before Asian.  Glenn Deer pointed out that the word "Canadian" is really a noun, denoting a country and a culture, so that Asian Canadian is the more correct term.

Personally, I feel that both forms of usage are valid, but Asian Canadian denotes a Canadian of Asian heritage, where Canadian Asian will more likely describe an immigrant Asian who has come to Canada.  Felix Cheng's film's subjects were Canadian Asians, born in Hong Kong, who became naturalized Canadians.  Nakagawa's film included Fred Wah a Canadian of diverse ethnic ancestry who can be included in the group of Asian Canadians. 

Friday night should be real good at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. It is the We So Funny program about Asian Canadian humor. Friday, Nov. 3rd at 9:30pm. The event will explore how comedy is a powerful vehicle by which we can comment on social issues of race and culture. Gee... sounds like a perfect setting for Gung Haggis Fat Choy. Below is from the VAFF website for We So Funny   more »

This message comes to me courtesy of Joyce Lam, president of Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre: Hey Everyone... here is a national Asian Canadian Standup Comedy show that you can't miss coming to Vancouver! Let your friends and family know and see how funny Asian Canadians can be! Hope to see you there supporting this special event and my favourite Asian Canadian standup comedian, local Jeffery Yu. For those who need a discount... here is a way to get $10 off a ticket. Now that's too good to pass up.    more »