Janice Chow - my wonderful artist/family historian / cook book cousin sends me this great news!

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Today - I just feel so proud to be a Canadian.  

Terry Fox, Simon Fraser University, Joy Kogawa, Obasan, Naomi's Road, CBC, Tommy Douglas, Medicare, Burrowing Owl, Ecology Conservation, Order of Canada - were the themes of the Day.

Terry Fox Run - in Richmond BC

This morning I spoke at the Terry Fox Run Richmond BC run site.  It was at Garry Point Park.  352 people showed up amidst the rainy drizzle, but the mood was happy and cheerful.  I invited teenage runners Amber and Irene, to help me set up some tents for the run site.  John Young is the event organizer, and he introduced me to some of the other platform party members that included Richmond city councillor Sue Halsy Brant, and singer Jack McIntosh.  We are piped to the staging area by bagpiper Noel.

As a cancer survivor and member of Terry's Team, I serve as a living example that cancer research has made a difference.  I shared that when I was diagnosed with a cancer tumor in 1989, the doctors only gave me a 60% chance to survive.  Because my condition was so serious, they told me that without treatment I might last two weeks.

Glyn Davies is the media/communications coordinator for the Richmond run site.  And I shared a story about meeting his father Lorne Davies while Lorne was still athletic director at Simon Fraser University.  In 1993, Terry's younger brother Darrell asked me to help start a Terry Fox Run at Simon Fraser University - he told me "Remember what Terry said, 'It just takes one person.' " I went to see then Athletic Director Lorne Davies who had known Terry Fox, at SFU, and tells a memorable story about going to visit Terry at the hospital the night before his leg amputation.  I was wonderful to meet Mr. Lorne Davies, and to ask him to help set up a Terry Fox Run for SFU.

I had to go back to Darrell, and say "Sorry - but there won't be a Terry Fox Run this year (due to logistics).  But next year there will be... and there will be a Terry Fox Day!"  In 1994, there was indeed a Terry Fox Run.  And there was a trophy case that included Terry's favorite SFU t-shirt from the 1000 Mile Club.  And there was a presentation of the 1994 Terry Fox Gold Medal recipient.  The first Terry Fox Day at SFU was attended by the Fox family.  Then SFU basketball coach Jay Triano, one of Terry's SFU friends, was also there.

I reminded the audience that this is an example of what one person can do.  Terry said "One person can make a difference." On my Terry Fox Gold Medal plaque, it quotes Terry saying, "Dreams are made if people try."  I enjoyed sharing this story

It was a great day filled with a wonderful community feeling.  I gave "High Fives" as I passed Terry Fox Run participants, and met many wonderful people and we took many pictures.  I will write about these experiences and stories in the next day or so, such as meeting Eric and Matt - two young teens with the faces painted for Terry Fox Day.

Kogawa House

The open house event at Joy Kogawa House went very well.  Many many people came to see the house, and to meet Joy Kogawa, buy copies of her books and have Joy sign them.  The Land Conservancy of BC did a wonderful job setting up displays about the history of the house, and the time line events about the Save Kogawa House campaign.

It has been great for the Kogawa House committee to work with Heather Skydt and Tamsin Baker of TLC. Members of our Kogawa House committee also attended to help host and volunteer: Ann-Marie Metten, David Kogawa, Richard Hopkins, Jenni Kato, Joan Young, Sabine Harper and myself.

As people walked up to the house, the first thing they saw was that the white picket fence was decorated with pictures and events highlighting the timeline to save the house from demolition, starting from when the house was built in 1942, and when Joy's family moved into the house.

A tent was set up in the front yard, attended by TLC volunteers Jon and Janet, who gave people an information sheet about the house, and recieved donations for the restoration of the house.  TLC also had another display with newsclippins and pictures from events during the Save Kogawa House campaign. 

Volunteers greeted people as they entered the house, and other volunteers stood throughout the house to help explain stories of different rooms, as well as historic family items such as toy cars belonging to Joy's brother Timothy, a calligraphy set used by Joy's father, and wooden crates used by the family as they moved from the internment camp in Slocan, BC, to Coaldale, Alberta. 

And everybody wanted to say hello to Joy Kogawa.

There was a man who used to play with Joy as a child, before she moved away - Ralph told me that his older brother was in one of the pictures on display that featured Joy and her brother Timothy as children in 1940.

There was a woman who brought pictures of the house, during the 1940's when her grandparents lived there, after her family moved away.  Both Joy and this woman were very moved by this meeting.

There was a woman Daisy Kong, who had taken pictures of Joy at the Order of BC ceremony earlier this year in June, because Daisy's brother Dr. Wallace Chung also recieved the Order of BC along with Joy, in Victoria.  Daisy was amazed when I told her that Dr. Wallace's wife Dr. Madeline Chung was the doctor who delivered me as a baby.

Garry Geddes, current writer in residence at Vancouver Public Library, arrived to give Joy a hug.

Attending the event was also Jen Kato, on our Kogawa House committee, and Jeff Chiba Stearns, who just won the Best Animated Short for the Canadian Awards for Electronic Arts and Animation.

People bought Joy's books and asked her to sign them.  My friend Gail Thomson helped manage the booksales.  Gail is a librarian at Fraserview Branch in Vancouver, where Joy came to speak during the One Book One Vancouver program.

We surprised Joy with a special musical performance:  Jessica Cheung (who played the role of Naomi in the Naomi's Road Opera) sang "The Farewell Song" from the Opera, I accompanied on accordion, Harry Aoki on double bass, and Harry's friend Misako Watanabe on accoustic guitar.  Joy was moved to tears.

After the event, we had birthday cake to celebrate David Kogawa's birthday.  David is one of our wonderful Kogawa House committee members, and Joy's ex-husband and friend.

CBC Generations

A CBC documentary film crew followed me around today, because I am one of the subjects for a Generations program - which will feature 120 years of the Rev. Chan Yu Tan family and descendants in Canada.

This evening, CBC producer Halya Kuchmij met with a few Rev. Chan descendants, and we watched a 10 minute segment that she produced/directed for A People's History of Canada.  And then we watched a 45 minute show Generations: 100 Years in Saskatchewan - which featured the Hjertaas family.

Halya says the Generations project with the Rev. Chan family is going to be awesome.  There are great people and topics for the show.  Rev. Chan, WW2 veterans who fought for Canada, then for the vote for Chinese Canadians and head tax redress; Rhonda Larrabee - a First Nations Indian Chief - who is a great grand daughter of Rev. Chan Yu Tan; Janice Wong - an artist painter who wrote a book about food and family; me; and 14 year old Tracy Hinder - the 1st BC CanSpell champion who went to Washington DC for the Scripps Spelling Bee, and the CanSpell national bee in Ottawa.  Wow!

It's great to know where you family came from, who you are descended from, and what nice people are in your extended family.  I really am blessed to belong to the Rev. Chan Yu Tan family descendants.

The past 2 days, I have been busy introducing CBC producer Halya Kuchmij to members of the family, who will be interviewed or featured in an episode of Generations: The Chan Legacy.  Halya is an multiple award wining veteran producer, working CBC projects such as Man Alive, The Journal, and now the Documentary Film Unit - where she produced Life and Times of Northern Dancer, Who's Lorne Greene, Tom Jackson: The Big Guy, Chernobyl the Legacy, Mandela I & II, and many many more.

Generations is a fantastic CBC television program, that shows this history of Canada, through the experiences of a family's generations.  So far there have been 3 shows: 

Tuesday:  10am.  Halya and I meet at her hotel.  After many e-mails and phone calls. I like her at first smile.  It's the start of a wonderful friendship.  In between the many appointments we will have, small comments and gestures are appreciated.  The story arc that Halya senses is one of community service.  It begins with Rev. Chan Yu Tan arriving in Canada in 1896 as a Methodist lay preacher, serving the Chinese community in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and New Westminster.  It is carried through by many generations of his descendants, as they too, seek to build bridges between their Chinese culture and mainstream White Canadian culture, despite years of racism and adversity.

We go to the Goldstone restaurant in Vancouver Chinatown for some coffee and pastries.  She picks two different coconut pastries, and we share.  A gentleman comes to ask about the picture display of the Rev. Chan family that look at set up on the table beside us.  He has only been in Canada for 5 years, originally leaving Vietnam with the US withdrawal because he worked at the US embassy.

11am We meet Col. Howe Lee at the Chinese Canadian Military Museum.  Howe is the perfect person to give us a tour.  It was his idea to develop the military museum, and he was on the board of the Chinese Cultural Centre when the CCC Museum and Archives was being built (incidently designed by my architect cousin Joe Wai).  Howe gives us an introduction to the "Three Chinese-Canadian Pioneer Families" story boards left over from the 2002-2003 exhibit that had featured the Rev. Chan family, along with the Lee-Bick and H.Y. Louie families.  We are joined by my mother's cousin Gary Lee, who co-chaired the Rev. Chan Legacy Reunions with me for 1999 and 2000.

Upstairs, Howe gives a tour of the Military Museum, explaining the adversity and racism Chinese Canadians faced in joining the Canadian military, and how it was the British Military's need for Chinese soldiers to go behind enemy lines in the Pacific Theatre that finally allowed Chinese in the Canadian military.  Howe emphasizes the special combat units named Force 162, and Operation Oblivion that were sent to India and Burma.  My grand uncle Victor Wong was in Force 136.  My grandmother's brothers Uncles Daniel Lee, and his brothers Howard and Leonard went to England.  We see Uncle Dan's Air Force Uniform on display.  There is a picture with Uncle Leonard, with his buddies during the war.

In particular, Howe explains how the Chinese Canadian veterans were instrumental in helping to gain franchisement and the right to vote for the Chinese community. It is also the veterans that have also helped to lead the fight for redress of the Chinese Head Tax and the Exclusion Act, that finally came to and apology, community funds and indvidual payments on June 22, 2006.

12pm  Halya, Gary and I have lunch at the Ho Ho Restaurant.  It is a restaurant that I grew up with and specializes in old time Cantonese style food.  Gary talks about his father Gordon Lee, who had started up Lee's taxi with his brother Art. We also learn about Gary's entertainment history.  As a child actor, he appeared in an episode of the early television show Rin Tin Tin, with Keye Luke (known for his role in Kung Fu).  Gary was also locally known as "The Chinese Sinatra" as he performed on the local night club scene. Gary has also done a lot of community service work with many years spent as a Lion's Club member, even starting up the Westside Lion's Club.

2pm  Halya and I go back to the CCC Museum, and go through the archival picture displays that I have, and talk more about the family history.  We also go for a walk through the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park and Garden, as she scouts sites for interviewing and view footage.  Of course I tell her that the Gardens and Park are one of my favorite places designed by architect Joe Wai, and that I bring the dragon boat team for our annual tour and Tai Chi lesson.

Thursday 10:30am  We visit artist/author Janice Wong and her mother Mary (visiting from Saskatoon).  Janice's contribution to the family is recent and enormous.  After growing up in Prince Albert SK, with vitually no contact to her Rev. Chan family in Victoria where her father grew up. Janice's mother shares that when she grew up in Nanaimo, she met Mrs. Chan Yu Tan, and that her mother was friends with her.  Janice authored the book CHOW: From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family.  She shares the history of Rev. Chan Yu Tan, and how his grandson Dennis moved to Prince Albert to start up a Chinese restaurant.  Chow was published in 2005, and it recieved incredible local and national media attention across Canada.  Halya is surprised to learn that Janice and I have only known each other for a year.  We attribute our wonderful friendship, that seems like decades, to a shared knowingness of family history.

1pm  We meet my mother's cousin Rhonda Larrabee. I first heard of Rhonda many years ago, when I first started doing a family tree in the late 70's as an interest.  It wasn't until 1999, that Rhonda and I really got to know each other during meetings for the Rev. Chan Family Legacy, as we planned the 1999 and 2000 reunions.  Rhonda is the subject of the NFB film "Tribe of One" which recounts how she single handedly rebuilt the Qayqayt First Nations Band, which is her heritage from her mother.  Rhonda's father is Art, my grandmother's second oldest brother.  Rhonda shares that she feels both her Chinese and First Nations cultures really have a deep respect for elders.

3:30 We meet Tracy, daughter of my mother's cousin Gail.  Tracy was the first CanSpell Champion for BC, last year.  She went to Washington DC for the annual Kripp's Spelling Bee, and also to Ottawa for the first national CanSpell contest.  Halya asks Tracy what she knows about Rev. Chan Yu Tan, the WW2 Veterans and about the family reunions.  She answers all the questions easily and with a poise and awareness you don't expect from a 14 year old.  She says she is proud of her family history.  Even though she has both shared English and Chinese ancestry, she calls herself Chinese-Canadian rather than simply as a Canadian. She and her friends had come to Park Royal shopping centre to purchase pinatas to celebrate Mexican Independence Day at their school.  They are first year members of the Multicultural Club.  She figure skates, she plays flute in concert band.  She is exactly what you could wish all children could grow up to be like.  Accomplished, knowledgeable and still humble and a bit shy.  It makes you proud to be part of her family, and it makes Halya and I hopeful for Canada's future.