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Welcome to GungHaggisFatChoy.com
Home to my passions for my inter-cultural adventures, Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner event. Save Kogawa House campaign, Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team, Find what you are looking for by 1) scroll the topics links, 2) use the search function ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Join the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team for lots of summer fun, fitness and friendship. We are a social team full of cultural vigor, that likes to eat. We have been featured on television, local, national and international. We have a unique and internationally famous fundraiser dinner event. We practice Sunday 1:30 pm -3:30 pm Tuesday 6pm-7:45pm Wednesday 6pm - 7:45 pm We meet at Dragon Zone clubhouse - just south of Science World in Creekside Park above the Aquabus and dragon boat docks. Our coach Todd Wong has 15+ years of experience including novice, recreational and competitive levels, and both community and corporate teams. Our 2005 Season brought us the David Lam Award for being the team that best represented the multicultural spirit of the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival, and Bronze medals at the Vancouver International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race. In 2007, we won Gold in B Division at Vernon Races. For more information: Click on Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team information phone: 604-987-7124- e-mail: gunghaggis at yahoo dot ca ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2009 TICKETS Available in October 2008 WHAT: GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner - 12th Annual Dinner, celebrating 250th Anniversary of Robert Burns' birth + Chinese New Year's Eve. WHEN: 6PM January 25 2009, SUNDAY doors open 5pm WHERE: Floata Chinese Restaurant, #400-180 Keefer St. CULTURE: Our Performers create something special for us every year with traditional and contemporary performances featuring everything in-between and beyond! FOOD: A quirky fusion/mix/buffet of Scottish Canadian and Chinese Canadian culture 10 course Chinese banguet dinner 2004 - The debut of Gung Haggis Won-Ton 2005 - Haggis lettuce wrap! 2007 - Haggis dim sum appetizer buffet 2008 - Scotch tastings! Watch for more surprises in 2008! Description of 2006 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner featuring performers: Rick Scott & Harry Wong, The Shirleys, Joe McDonald & Brave Waves, Sean Gunn, author Joy Kogawa, with co-host Prem Gill . Media Inquiries Call Gung Haggis Productions 604-987-7124 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sponsors
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Monday, March 31
Tartan Day proclamation for City of Vancouver
by
Todd
on Mon 31 Mar 2008 06:04 PM PDT
I solicited SFU Scottish Cultural Studies to created a proclaimation, which I passed to city councilor Raymond Louie.
Kilts Night "Tartan Day" celebration happening at Doolin's Irish Pub - after the hockey game... or between periods?!?!
details TBA
more »
Sunday, March 30
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival is happening! The city is turning pink!
by
Todd
on Sun 30 Mar 2008 10:19 PM PDT
This festival celebrates the blossoming of the city’s 36,000 Japanese flowering cherry trees and is the brainchild of Linda Poole. I guess it was a sign of times to come when I first met Linda at a special cherry tree planting at Vancouver City Hall in Novemember 2005. That was the symbolic planting of a graft from the cherry tree at Joy Kogawa House, the very tree that has now inspired Joy's new children's book "Naomi's Tree"
Check out the many events programmed for Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. There are photography workshops, cherry trolley tours, picnic lunches and more! more »
Tuesday, March 18
Vancouver Sun: The next celebration - Toddish McWong helps to spread the word about Tartan Day
by
Todd
on Tue 18 Mar 2008 02:10 AM PDT
The Vancouver Sun wrote a story about Tartan Day coming up on April 5th, and how it isn't grandly celebrated in Vancouver. New York City has a huge celebration which they call Tartan Week. Last year we had a wee celebration at Doolin's with a kilt fashion show and a scotch tasting by Johnny Walker. Our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team participated in the kilt fashion show, and we ended up on the Kilts Night poster for Doolin's. more »
Monday, March 17
Gung Haggis Fat Choy parade dragon and paddles on flickr
by
Todd
on Mon 17 Mar 2008 12:17 PM PDT
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 »
Sunday, March 16
Gung Haggis Fat Choy puts a dragon (not a snake) in the 5th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.
by
Todd
on Sun 16 Mar 2008 11:36 PM PDT
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 »
Friday, March 14
Rhonda Larrabee, chief of Qayqayt First Nations, in CTV's One Women Tribe
by
Todd
on Fri 14 Mar 2008 02:46 PM PDT
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 »
Thursday, March 13
Courier: Wong celebrates Celtic Fest's kilty pleasures
by
Todd
on Thu 13 Mar 2008 01:18 PM PDT
Last week the Vancouver Courier interviewed me for a Celtic Fest story about tonight's Battle of the Bards. Photographer Dan Toulgoet met me at the Robert Burns statue in Stanley Park, which had been erected 80 years ago.
It's always interesting to find out how other people perceive Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and what they think about my persona as "Toddish McWong." more »
Wednesday, March 12
Wayson Choy gives "spirited" reading for Vancouver Cultural Olympiad
by
Todd
on Wed 12 Mar 2008 09:31 PM PDT
Wayson Choy came back to Vancouver to read from his upcoming book, "Not Yet a memoir of living and almost dying," Wayson is famous for his first novel "Jade Peony" and its' subsequent prequel "All That Matters"which was nominated for a Giller Prize..... On Tuesday night, Wayson talked about his second heart attack, and his conversations with ghosts. more »
Celtic Fest opens in Vancouver: Robert Burns (Toddish McWong) is guest poet on Co-op Radio's Wax Poetic
by
Todd
on Wed 12 Mar 2008 08:36 PM PDT
Wax Poetic recognized the first day of Celtic Fest by highlighting the "Battle of the Bards" event featuring celtic poets Dylan Thomas, William Butler Yeats and Robert Burns, played by Todd Wong.......
Diane and Steve asked Todd about the origins of Gung Haggis Fat Choy http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com and how he became interested in Robert Burns......
Todd also read poems "My Luv Is Like a Red Red Rose" and "A Man's a Man For A' That and A' That". more »
Monday, March 10
The secret is out: Fortune Cookies aren't really Chinese...
by
Todd
on Mon 10 Mar 2008 11:42 PM PDT
They were always written in English, never in Chinese. Our friends had their own Fortune Cookie factory near Chinatown. I even toured in it.
Jennifer 8 Lee has now written a book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. She writes how so-called North American "Chinese food" is really not Chinese at all - but Mainstream American......
Lee exposes all the myths about North American Chinese food, myths that Chinese-Canadians and Chinese-Americans have known for generations - but White Americans are just learning about. Geez... first the Easter Bunny, then Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, and now Fortune Cookies! more »
Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC honours Brandy Lien-Worrall
by
Todd
on Mon 10 Mar 2008 11:22 PM PDT
On Saturday Night, CCHS honoured Brandy Lien-Worrall for leading the CCHS writing workshops, which singlehandedly helped fund and make a reality the Edgar Wickberg scholarships for students studying Chinese-Canadian history. Brandy really is an amazing and inspiring person. Not only did she succeed in editing the Eating Stories anthology over the summer and seeing it through to publication in November, but she did it while fighting a serious bout with breast cancer. On January 1st, I named Brandy to a list of Chinese Canadians that inspired me for 2007. more »
Recommended Robert Burns poems for Celtic Fest "Battle of the Bards"
by
Todd
on Mon 10 Mar 2008 12:12 PM PDT
We will go on a pub crawl reciting poetry to (un)suspecting patrons starting at Doolin's Irish Pub at 5:30pm. Then we will go to Atlantic Trap and Gill for 6:05. Johnny Fox's Irish Snug at 6:45. Then the finale at Ceili's Irish Pub and Restaurant for 8pm, where we will be accompanied by a DJ and a celtic fiddler..... Not being a complete expert or scholar on Robert Burns, I asked my friends in the Burns Club of Vancouver, as well as Ron MacLeod, Chair of the Scottish Cultural Studies program at Simon Fraser University for advice. They readily obliged: more »
Monday, March 3
Todd Wong getting ready for "Battle of the Bards"
by
Todd
on Mon 03 Mar 2008 11:53 PM PST
It took me by complete surprise when Steve Duncan initially asked me to play Robert Burns in a literary poetry slam for Celtic Fest Vancouver, based on the "Battle of the Bards" originally done in Dublin. more »
Mini Shum speaks at "Double Happiness" film screening for UBC centennial celebrations
by
Todd
on Mon 03 Mar 2008 11:35 PM PST
I loved the film Double Happiness by Mina Shum. It was like a grittier Canadian version of Joy Luck Club. It starred Sandra Oh, as a young Asian Canadian woman trying to reconcile her love for her non-Asian boyfriend and her traditional Chinese Canadian parents.
Sandra Oh won a Genie award for her role in Double Happiness. How timely that Mina Shum will speak about this movie, since Oh just hosted the Genie awards on March 3rd. UBC is celebrating 100 years, and Mina Shum has been invited to screen and give a director's talk with the audience. Following information from www.100.ubc.ca/events/more-info/15
Toddish McWong to appear as Robbie Burns in "Battle of the Bards" literary pub crawl
by
Todd
on Mon 03 Mar 2008 12:17 PM PST
The word is out. Scotland's favorite poet son, will be represented in Vancouver CelticFest's Battle of the Bards by 5th generation Chinese Canadian Todd Wong aka Toddish McWong - creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner, and other intercultural events.
 Wong first participated in Celtic Fest's first St. Patrick's Day parade, when he put a Taiwanese dragon boat on a trailer and towed it down the street in the parade. Seated in the boat were bagpiper Joe McDonald, and guitarist Andrew Kim, the Brave Waves. 
 Both McDonald and Kim were also featured in the CBC Vancouver television performance special Gung Haggis Fat Choy - another spin off from the Todd Wong creative braintrust. Check out official CelticFest promotional blurbs from event organizer and poet Stephen Duncan http://www.poetryradio.blogspot.com/ With CelticFest and St. Paddy's day fast upon us, we decided a tribute
to the Scotch and Irish would be appropriate, so we are raising the
dead for this show and bringing in William Butler Yeats and Robbie Burns to help celebrate. Yeats and Burns (really two great performers, Mark Downey and Todd Wong) will be going head-to-head, along with Dylan Thomas in a unique literary event this year on Thursday, March 13: The Battle of the Bards Literary Pub Crawl, a combination pub crawl/poetry slam where the legendary poets go from pub to pub downtown performing their works and being judged by members of the audience armed with scorecards. The event culminates in a Jack Karaoke-style match at Ceili's Pub, where they must do their pieces accompanied by a DJ (All Purpose's Michael Louw) and fiddler Elise Boeur. Once the contest is over much drinking and dancing is done into the wee hours. Click on the image below for more details. 
Sunday, March 2
Where is Fu Sang? Did Columbus use a Chinese map to "discover" America?
by
Todd
on Sun 02 Mar 2008 10:59 AM PST
I read the Gavin Menzies book 1421 a few years ago. It was very cool to see Western documentation about Chinese exploration of North America 71 years before the Columbus "discovered" America. Click here to see a fascinating animated map of Admiral Zeng He's voyages that circumnavigated the world.
There are are "World Literature" courses that are Euro-centric and don't include Asia. Why shouldn't "World History" be Euro-centric as well. In the English speaking world, books written about North America by Chinese pioneers and explorers would have been written in Chinese. Over the past few years, I have also watched the Cheuk Kwan's film documentary series Chinese Restaurants. Cheuk has travelled across the globe interviewing people who run Chinese restaurants. Along the way, he has also found not only the commonalities of Chinese restaurants and peoples across the world, but also the history of Chinese people. How can you explain that a highland tribe of Madagascar can claim Chinese ancestry or that the national soup of Madagascar is called soupe de la Chinoise, and resembles Chinese won ton soup? Are these the decendants of Admiral Zeng He's shipwreck on Madagascar? Check my 2005 review of his movie: http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/2/643422.htmlDid the Chinese beat Columbus to America? is an interesting internet article I discovered this morning featured on the Yahoo! website. by
Josh Clark
Inside This Article
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Introduction to Did the Chinese beat Columbus to America?
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