Todd Wong with Lion Head

Asian Canadian adventures in inter-cultural Vancouver
and home of Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.

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

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2009 TICKETS Available in October 2009

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 In 2004, we presented the debut of Gung Haggis Won-Ton including haggis served with plum or sweet and sour sauces.! For 2005 it was haggis lettuce wrap! 2007 saw the creation of Haggis dim sum appetizer buffet - Watch for more surprises in 2008!

On-line tickets at
Tickets Tonight - Vancouver's Community Box Office
or NEW PHONE NUMBER 604-631-2872
$2.50 extra

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
cell: 778-846-7090

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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 Sundays 1pm -3pm and Tuesdays 6pm-7:45pm 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 over 12 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. We also raced at Harrison Lake and Sea Vancouver regatta.



For more information:
Click on Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team information
phone: 778-846-7090
e-mail: gunghaggis at yahoo dot ca

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Year Archive
View Article  Asian Comedy Night returns - May 9 & 10 at the Roundhouse

9th Annual Asian Comedy Night:

Etch-YOUR-Sketch 2!
MAY 9 - Friday - 8pm
SKETCHOFF!#$%!! People's Choys Award
MAY 10 - Saturday - 8pm


Roundhouse Community Theatre
181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver
www.roundhouse.ca

Asian Comedy Night is always funny. Lots of stereotype bashing, lots of Asian-type jokes you
can relate to, or grew up with.

Host Tom
Chin has also performed at the 2005 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner event.


From the explorASIAN website:
Come CHEER the Etch-Your-Sketchers 2 on!
Wild, ZANY, Gut-aching, peeing in pants - FUNNY! Ask anyone from the 2007 competition.
Celebrity Judges award the coveted Vancouver Rice Bowl to one team only - Winner takes all!
The second night, teams are judged by the audience - measured by YOUR applause.
The highest decibel readings take 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize.
We have 9 teams entered this year to battle it out for the coveted Vancouver Rice Bowl
and PEOPLE's CHOYS Award. 3 brand new teams with 6 returning teams promise an evening
of hilarity, camaraderie and just plain ol' fun and laughter!

Celebrity judges include: Ms. Lainey Lui, eTalk Entertainment Reporter and founder
of laineygossip.com; Ms. Lauren Toyota, Host and Segment Producer with MuchMusic's Going Coastal;
and Edmond Wong, local actor “The Professor” on CBC’s Dragon Boys.
This is an event - you don't want to miss!

Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at door - plus service charges.
Tickets at the Roundhouse Community Centre or by phone at 604.713.1800 or online at www.vact.ca
Group rates, please call 778.885.1973





View Article  Good Asian Drivers Tour comes to Vancouver and Richmond
There are good Asian drivers and bad Asian drivers.... just like good and bad non-Asian drivers.

Vancouver is known for its large Asian population, and Richmond even has more Asians, and lots of "Rice Rocket" drag racing. 

But what happens when you mix social commentary with busting stereotypes of Asian drivers?

Melissa Li and Kit Yan's "The Good Asian Drivers Tour" is one of the featured performances for the 2008 explorASIAN festival, celebrating Asian Heritage Month in Metro Vancouver.

The following is from the explorASIAN website:


CANADIAN PREMIERE

"If you’re gay, bisexual, transgendered, Asian, queer, an artist, a poet, a performer, or if you’re just a supporting ally, then come out and enjoy our show!" - Melissa & Kit

Melissa Li is a singer-songwriter who has been performing in the Boston area in the United States for over 8 years. She and her tour partner, nationally recognized transgendered slam poet Kit Yan, are going on a cross-country road tour this spring and summer, lovingly dubbed "The Good Asian Drivers Tour".

Together, this radical duo will traverse the United States and cut across four different time zones, at least 30 states and over 20 major cities, including two cities in Canada.

They deliver honest and personal stories through their music and poetry about being queer Asian-Americans, while proving to the nation that they are indeed good, if not excellent, drivers. They’re so cute you might just want to adopt them.

The social impact will be tremendous, especially in areas of the United States where the voices of these under-represented groups are not often heard. In addition, the tour strives to inspire youth and provoke dialogue on gay rights, transgendered issues, feminism, and the marginalization of minorities.

Richmond and Vancouver are the only two Canadian stops on their North American tour. Don't miss this show!

Q&A after the show.

http://www.goodasiandrivers.com/

View Article  Raymond Louie hosts Wayson Choy reading
Wayson Choy Reads for Raymond Louie

Raymond Louie is hosting celebrated author Wayson Choy for a special reading in support of Raymond’s campaign for mayor.

When: April 28, 7-9PM
Where: Mekong Restaurant, 1414 Commercial Dr.
Admission: Free

I have known both Wayson Choy and Raymond Louie for a number of years.  I find them both very genuine people, dedicated to their communities.  I first met Wayson while I was on the inaugural One Book One Vancouver committee.  I first met Raymond while his wife was on the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society.  And we all worked wonderfully together.

The Mekong Restaurant plays a special role in Wayson's forthcoming new book, "Not Yet."  It will be the sequel to his first critically acclaimed memoirs book "Paper Shadows."

Wayson says this about Raymond Louie:

"Raymond emerges from the world I’ve described in my stories. His parents came here with next to nothing, and he worked his way up and proved himself again and again. He understands the struggles immigrants face because he’s been there. His success is an amazing Canadian story. Fortunately, there are still chapters yet to be written, and I would trust Raymond to invest his integrity and his wisdom of the past to secure in those pages a just and equal future for all.

Wayson Choy, author of “The Jade Peony”

View Article  Music for a New World special concert April 20 at Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver
And I know and have performed with many of the featured musicians. Silk Road Music's Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault have performed at Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner & First Night events since 2004. In the past few years I have become a big fan or Orchid Ensemble's Lan Tung, as she plays her erhu..... This incredible collaboration brings together 17 of Vancouver’s best world music artists in a one of a kind partnership in which influences from around the world mix into a melting pot of sights and sounds. Centred on a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, Music for a New World celebrates the diversity of world music.    more »
View Article  Tonight: Joy Kogawa reads her new book "Naomi's Tree"
Place: Vancouver Kidsbooks - 3083 West Broadway, Vancouver ... Please Note: Tickets are fully redeemable toward Joy Kogawa's books on the night of the event ...   more »
View Article  Tartan Day proclamation for City of Vancouver
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 »
View Article  Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival is happening! The city is turning pink!
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 »
View Article  Recommended Robert Burns poems for Celtic Fest "Battle of the Bards"
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 »
View Article  BC Book Prizes short list announced: features Rita Wong and George McWhirter for poetry
It's wonderful to see how many people you know who are nominated for the BC Book Prizes. Rita Wong, Forage (Nightwood Editions) and George McWhirter The Incorrection (Oolichan Books) are both nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. I am just going to list some of the people I know, or what I think are some Chinese-Canadian and Scottish-Canadian highlights. See www.bcbookprizes.ca for the full list.   more »
View Article  Todd Wong getting ready for "Battle of the Bards"
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 »
View Article  Mini Shum speaks at "Double Happiness" film screening for UBC centennial celebrations
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
  • 2008 UBC Centenary Screening Series - Double Happiness by Mina Shun, preceded by short film Scattering Eden
  • The UBC Film Production Alumni Association presents
    The 2008 UBC Centenary Screening Series
    February 5, March 11, May 20 & November 18th
    (For UBCO listings see Learn More)

    Screening of the hit debut film followed by a Q&A session with Ms. Shum about her experiences making the movie.

    www.ubcfilmalumni.org

    Please join us for a screening of the hit debut feature film Double Happiness directed by UBC Film alumna Mina Shum, preceded by the short film Scattering Eden directed by fellow alumna Nimisha Mukerji. Following the screening will be a lively Q&A moderated by Nimisha, where audience members will be encouraged to ask Mina questions about her experiences in filmmaking.

    Double Happiness, starring Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy) in her first feature role, was a ground-breaking film researched, written and directed by Mina Shum, and had a significant impact in Canadian cinema. In addition to the film becoming a touchstone for the Asian-Canadian community, Mina herself has been a role model for future generations of filmmakers.

    Vancity Theatre- 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 3M7

    UBCO Screenings : SSC 026 Student Services Centre Theatre (3333 University Way, Kelowna) at 6 PM, free admission. Please contact Denise Kenney at (250) 807-9632 or denise.kenney@ubc.ca for further details.

  • Vancity Theatre- 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver
  • March 11 6:00pm-10:00pm (604) 683-3456

View Article  Toddish McWong to appear as Robbie Burns in "Battle of the Bards" literary pub crawl
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.

View Clip

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.
View Article  Ron MacLeod Report Feb 29: a ceilidh, a TV program, Isle of Eigg and Talisker whisky.
Ron MacLeod is Scots Chair V at the Centre for Scottish Studies at Simon Fraser University.  Here is his latest report featuring one of my favorite single malt scotch whiskey


Greetings, a message about a ceilidh, a TV program, Isle of Eigg and whisky. 
 Regards, the other Ron
 
1.  Ceilidh
What: Gaelic Society’s next ceilidh
Where: Scottish Cultural Centre, 8886 Hudson (at 73rd Ave), Vancouver,B.C.
When: Saturday, March 1st, 2008
Time:  8:00 PM
 Other: small door fee; entertainment, munchies, some dancing.
All welcome
 

2. The following courtesy Angus MacIssaac. A short movie entitled “The Wake of Calum MacLeod” will be shown on Bravo television at 4:30 P.M., Friday, February 29th. The movie was made in Cape Breton so should have a great dollop of Highland realism.

 3. Life will never be the same on the island of Eigg again, and in this respect it can only be a good thing.  Islanders have at last joined the 21st Century and will now be able to enjoy the little things we take for completely for granted.  No doubt there will be a rush of electrical equipment being delivered to the island; appliances which the residents have not been able to use previously because their power was provided by expensive diesel generators and gas bottles. 

The Isle of Eigg Electrification Project switched on for the first time on 1st February 2008, allowing power generated from renewable energy sources around the island to be supplied to all residents, through the new island-wide high voltage distribution network. The system will generate over 95% of the island’s annual energy demand through a combination of Hydro Electric, Wind Power and Solar Energy, which is believed to be the first time that anyone has successfully integrated these three renewable energy sources. To ensure that constant power can be provided, a battery storage system has been designed which will compensate for short periods where energy from renewable sources is not available. Two diesel generators have also been installed to provide emergency back-up power, and to supplement the supply should the output from the renewable sources be lower than the demand.

 

4. Talisker Distillery in Skye is looking forward to increased interest from connoisseurs around the globe after one of its products was named “the world’s best single malt whisky” in the industry’s most prestigious awards event.

It was Talisker 18 Years Old that took the fancy of the judging panel — and the supreme title for the first time — in Whisky Magazine’s 2007 Awards. A spokesman for Diageo, the distillery’s owners, said that demand for Talisker was expected to rise sharply as a result.  The award coincides with the retirement of Charlie Smith, manager at Talisker for the past three years, following a distinguished career in the whisky industry. Mr Smith was also manager at Dufftown, Cardhu and Glenkinchie distilleries.

He is succeeded by Willie MacDougal, a native of Aberfeldy who was site operations manager at Oban Distillery for six years prior to a brief spell at Blair Athol. His family has a long association with the industry and Mr MacDougal says he is “totally thrilled” to be taking over at one of the world’s most famous distilleries.  “Talisker is one of the most successful malts in the world,” said Mr MacDougal, “though — or maybe because — the distillery’s output is deliberately a good deal lower than some other top-selling malts. It’s a distillery with massive heritage and an amazing future, with fans all over the world.” He added that he also intended to improve his piping skills while on Skye.  The Whisky Magazine judging panel’s comments on Talisker 18 Years Old fully endorsed Mr MacDougal’s enthusiasm for the brand. Dave Broom, one of the world’s leading whisky commentators, described it as “elegant with fascinating balance between smoke and subtle sweet fruit. Ever changing in the glass and on the palate.”

Edinburgh whisky dealer Keir Sword waxed even more eloquent:

“Warm, rich and attractive. Leather, pipe-tobacco, sweet sherry and polished oak on the nose, followed by a good creamy texture and a warming finish. A very attractive

View Article  Author Sharon Butala reads at Joy Kogawa House Friday Feb 22, and hosts writing workshop
Sharon Butala is helping the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society with our goal to establish a writers in residence programs at the former childhood home of author Joy Kogawa. 

Tonight, Sharon Butala gives a 7:30pm reading at 1450 West 64th Ave.
On Saturday and Sunday, she conducts a writing workshop workshop about memoir writing.

This is the house that the then 6 year old Joy and her family left behind their wonderful home in 1942, when they were sent to internment camps because they were Japanese-Canadian.

A writing workshop and public reading with Sharon Butala

Writing the Memoir

Location: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver

Date: Reading on Friday, February 22, 7:30 to 9 p.m.; writing workshop on Saturday, February 23, and Sunday, February 24, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Cost: To be determined. Space is limited. To secure a seat, please register by emailing ametten at telus dot net.

Many writers have demonstrated that even the most glamorous lives--of celebrities, war heroes, or politicians--can make for dull reading. Yet the most ordinary lives can make thrilling reading. How does the storyteller capture the essence of the story and develop a reader's interest? What are memoirs really about, and why write them? Through discussion, question and answer, exercises, and examining successful memoirs, this workshop will endeavour to answer such questions, as well as to show how memoirs might be structured, and how a writer decides what to put in and what to leave out. Memoirs are therapy for both writer and reader, but they are also good stories: at their best, they are art.

Sharon Butala is an award-winning author of both fiction and non-fiction. Her memoir, The Perfection of the Morning, was a Canadian bestseller and a finalist for the Governor General's Award. Ms Butala has been called one of Canada's true visionaries. In 2002 she was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Her newest work, The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Memory and Murder (HarperCollins Canada), will be in bookstores in March.

Watch this website over the next few days for more information

View Article  Indo-Canadian fusion with Highland Dancing, Jazz music and Bhangra
Tarun Nayar of Beats Without Borders occasionally sends me announcements of upcoming events and concerts.  Last night he and the group Delhi 2 Dublin performed at the CBC studios.  We met at the first Delhi 2 Dublin concert - back in March 2006 - see my review: St. Paddy's Eve in Vancouver - What is a man in a kilt to do? -

Looks like a nice line up of South Asian music with some cross-cultural fusion.  Especially the Transfusion dance show where "Flamenco blurs into Kathak, and Bhangra is intertwined with Celtic."

I have seen Kiran Ahluwalia both performing traditional ghazal songs as well as her performance in the jazz opera Quebecite - written by Chinese-Afro-Canadian D.D. Jackson with lyrics by Afro-MicMac-Canadian George Eliot Clarke.

Kiran Ahluwalia

Saturday Feb 23, 8pm
Christ Church Cathedral (690 Burrard St)
Tickets: 604.872.5200 or http://www.ticketmaster.ca
 
Kiran is great! Check her out if you can... From the organizers:  "Ahluwalia sings original ghazals and Punjabi folk songs, backed by her five piece ensemble; featuring tabla, harmonium, guitar, and bass. She is a multi award- winning artist, known for her lush compositions, stellar voice and captivating live performances.  Her most recent album, Wanderlust (Times Square/Fusion3) is a strikingly beautiful work just nominated for World Music Album of the Year at the 2008 Juno Awards."

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Rez Abbasi's Bazaar

Sunday, Feb 24. 4:30pm
Performance Works (Granville Island)
FREE

From the organizers: "This all-star band will delight fans of Shakti, Trilok Gurtu, and other world-jazz fusion masters. New York-based guitarist Rez Abbasi whose organic mix of jazz with elements of Indian classical music creates a singular and distinctive sound leads the group. With Juno Award winning vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia, Hammond B-3 organ player Sam Barsh, and drummer Dan Weiss in tow this stimulating cultural crossover is rhythmically captivating and utterly mesmerizing."

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Transfusion
indian dance inter-relationships

Friday Feb 29 and Sat March 1, 8pm
Vancouver International Film Centre (1181 Seymour Street)
Tix 18$ from ticketmaster or at 604.280.4444

Co-presented by the VIBC Society and the Cultural Olympiad, this unique event blends contemporary and traditional folk dance styles spanning the subcontinent of India and reaching as far West as the Latin world and the Highlands of Scotland. Watch as Flamenco blurs into Kathak, and Bhangra is intertwined with Celtic in this presentation of folk dances from around the world. Bharatnatyam, Odissi, Afro-contemporary, Chinese, Balinese, Flamenco, Kathak, Bhangra, Breakdance, Celtic - all re-interpreted with a heavy dose of multimedia. With dancers Sitara Thobani, Chengxin Wei, Stu Iguidez, Raakhi Sinha, and many many more. This is gonna be hot!!!!

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Bhangra Love
the City of Bhangra dance party

Thursday March 6, 9pm
The Red Room (398 Richards)
Tix 10$ @ the door

The BWB crew's biggest annual party, and the kick off to the VIBC festival. Killer acts including DJ Sandeep Kumar from LA, live bhangra from the city's hottest bhangra band, En Karma, and a special dance performance pitting bhangra dancers vs street dancers. More fun times at the red room! This party will sell out, so come nice and early...

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City of Bhangra

For more info about this awesome stretch of events check http://www.vibc.org/cityofbhangra
View Article  "The Quickie" is very Vancouver play about diversity and expectations in relationships
We saw Grace Chin's new play "The Quickie" on Friday night.  Two words quickly came to mind - "Very Vancouver."
Two people drag their friends to a Speed Dating event, meet new people, have a follow-up date, then let the sparks and fur fly when they ask their friends to tag along on a double date.

It is a witty comedy play that had the audience talking about it during the intermission, and even making the "awwww" sound when one of the characters was rejected. 

Playwright Grace has captured the diversity of even the Vancouver's Asian population, incorporating Maylaysian Chinese, Korean, South Asian and Cantonese Chinese origins, as well as Irish-Italian, and Hong Kong origins.  Accents blend into the action, and you don't notice them as none of the four lead performers speak with accents.

Inter-ethnic dating is a topic discussion.  Do we or don't we?  It was funny, because my girlfriend and I were sitting with friends, and we were both inter-ethnic couples.  So very Vancouver, in Canada's capital of inter-ethnic relationships.

Check out http://www.scriptingaloud.ca/quickie/

More later....
View Article  Tailor Made: cbc documentary about Chinatown's Modernize Tailors featuring brothers Bill and Jack Wong
Chinatown History is happening in front of our eyes!

Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld

W
atch this CBC documentary about  Modernize Tailors (1903) - the last Chinese tailor shop in Vancouver Chinatown.


Bill Wong the tailor attended our 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner.  His son Steven paddles on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  This is a wonderful documentary that received a standing ovation at the Whistler Film Festival.

Bill and Jack's younger brother Milton Wong is one of Vancouver's important figures, and former chancellor of SFU, and known as the "grandfather of dragon boat racing" in Vancouver.  Both Milton and Steven were interviewed for a German public television documentary addressing multiculturalism in Vancouver.  The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team was featured too!
Check out: http://wstreaming.zdf.de/zdf/veryhigh/071219_toronto_vancouver.asx

My own family has known the Wongs for many year, my aunts and uncles went to school with many of the Wong family members.  My uncle Laddie works as a tailor at Modernize Tailors.

In 2004, both the "Wong Way" dragon boat team and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team participated in a workshop to carve dragon boat heads at the Round House Community Centre.


Check the Modernize Tailors Website:
http://www.modernizetailors.blogspot.com/



Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld
TAILOR MADE
A naïve apprentice and a hot, young master tailor are both interested in taking over a legendary tailor shop in Vancouver's Chinatown, but they'll have a hard time convincing the hard-working Wong brothers to retire.

Modernize Tailors opened in 1913, and in the 1950s Bill and Jack Wong took over from their father. Over the years, they've created suits for all occasions and for customers from all walks of life-from lumberjacks and new immigrants to movie stars like Sean Connery and politicians like Sam Sullivan, the Mayor of Vancouver.

Now, a newer generation is looking to make their mark and take over the Modernize Tailors legacy. But will the 85-year-old Wong Brothers ever stop working?

Tailor Made was directed by Len Lee and Marsha Newbery, and produced by Marsha Newbery of Realize Entertainment Inc. It was commissioned by CBC Newsworld.
View Article  Chinese New Year week... Gung Haggis Fat Choy style


It's Chinese New Year week....

here are some FUN events this week.... after recovery from Gung Haggis Fat Choy
Chinese Robbie Burns Dinner recovery....

Tuesday February 5, 2008 - 6:00 PM

CITY COOKS with Simi Sara

Channel 13 in Metro Vancouver
Our cooking dragon boat chef Dan Seto (Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C.)
  1. Lotus Root Soup
  2. Steamed Pork with Salt Fish
  3. Green Beans with Fooyi Bean Cake
Check out
TUESDAY to Saturday FEB 5 - 9th
BANANA BOYS
Firehall Theatre
The fun play by Leon Aureas, based on the Terry Woo novel
Back from a hit run last year... manic comedy and Asian identity... or Asian confusion.

THURSDAY Feb 7
CHINESE NEW YEAR DAY
- Kilts Night at Doolin's Irish Pub
FREE pint of Guinness if you wear a kilt.
8:00pm - Raphael to greet you.
Hockey game starts a 7:00 pm - expect music by Halifax Wharf Rats to begin afterwards around 9:30

FRIDAY Feb 7 - 16
THE QUICKIE
- Playwrights theatre centre on Granville Island
- this is the play excerpted at Gung Haggis dinner
- this is by the same group that did Twisting Fortunes last year

purchase tickets online via PayPal at www.scriptingaloud.ca/quic
kie.

Tickets are selling fast, especially for the Friday, February 8 show.  Don't miss it. Last year, seats sold out 36 hours in advance.

Friday and Saturday Feb 9 & 10
OOZOOMAY! UZUME TAIKO
with special guest Ben Rogalsky
Japanese Taiko drums with a multi-instrumentalist who plays accordion along with mandolin, tenor banjo and Javanese gamelan  - how can Gung Haggis not resist???

Norman Rothstein Theatre
950 West 41st Ave.

SUNDAY  FEBRUARY 10,
CHINATOWN NEW YEAR PARADE
12 noon

Place: Parade starts from the Millennium Gate (Pender and Taylor St.), winds through Pender, Gore and Keefer.
Remember to bring your camera along with family and friends!
Visit www.cbavancouver.ca for more info.
Poster

Flyer front / back


Sunday February 10

CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT
Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden Courtyard
(part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad)
10:30 -11:30
1:30 - 3:30
- featuring Silk Road Music
+ Uzume Taiko
+ Loretta Leung Dancers
+ many many more!!!
download the program: click here

http://www.silkroadmusic.ca/sitefiles/olympiad.htm

DEAD SERIOUS
at CHAPEL ARTS
(CANCELLED due to illness)

2:30pm
featuring soprano Heather Pawsey and pianist Rachel Iwassa
but see them:
Friday, February 15 concert of DEAD Serious 
7:30 p.m. at Vancouver Memorial Services and Crematorium / Hamilton-Harron Funeral
Home, 5390 Fraser Street) will TAKE PLACE AS SCHEDULED.
If you would like to make reservations,
please call 604-325-7441.


View Article  Italian Girl delights opera audience - but BC's best kept secret is bass Randall Jakobsh as Mustafa

Italian Girl in Algiers
Vancouver Opera
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
January 26, 29. 31 and February 2nd 2008

An Italian girl in a Muslim harem?  A Korean soprano wife singing in Italian to her German-Canadian bass husband?  Opera is so very multicultural, and Vancouver Opera's new production of Rossini's "Italian Girl in Algiers" is a delight!

Can you imagine anything crazier than one of the opera's stars, Randall Jakobsh playing Mustafa, dancing around "naked" behind a towel, or being "powdered" by his servants while singing to a beautiful Rossini score?

I have always loved Rossini's music.  Many generations have grown up identifying Rossini's "William Tell Overture" as "The Lone Ranger Theme" - the musicality burned into our brains.  The Italian Girl in Algiers also has many memorable passages that dusted off my early memories of listening to one of the essential classical music collections - Rossini Overtures.

Vancouver Opera's new production of "Italian Girl In Algiers" originally presented in 1813, is now set during the roaring '20's, a time of mad-cap comedy described as Emily Earhart meets the Marx Brothers.  This sets the stage for the audience to accept the absurd comedic plots and situations that are to come, and all accompanied by a gorgeous Rossini musical score.

Now imagine sitting in the audience, when a 1920's bi-plane flies over your head, then sputters, crash landing on stage of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.  It actually happens... and the audience claps enthusiastically!

The opera opens with a super huge gigantic book on stage, that opens up to reveal the set design - the palace of the Governor of Algiers.  Just like a bedtime story,  the message is this: don't take this opera seriously... sit back and enjoy the story.

The Governor Mustafa has grown tired of  his wife Elvira, and thinks that an exotic Italian girl will bring him happiness.  He decides to send his wife off with Lindoro, an Italian slave at his court captured only 3 months earlier by Mustafa's pirates.  Suddenly, an airplane crashes, Isabella is looking for her lost love Lindoro.  The pirates take this "Italian Girl" to Mustafa who is instantly infatuated with Isabella, who is shocked to see her beloved Lindoro, who is supposedly being married off to Elvira, who is still in love with Mustafa. This is a comedy of love infatuations and a battle of the sexes begins.  Oh... and then there is Taddeo, the would-be Italian suitor of Isabella, during Lindor's absence. He accompanied Isabella in her search for Lindoro... what a stand up guy! Not!

Soprano Sandra Piques Eddy is perfect as a Katherine Hepburnish, pants wearing, independent woman named Isabella looking for her lost love Lindora, played by lyric tenor John Tessier, who was captured by pirates. Their voices are wonderful.  But despite this ensemble cast, Eddy clearly shines the brightest, as she loves her role as an Isabella who can tame men with a look or a wave.

Randall Jakobsh plays Mustafa, the governor of Algiers, who is instantly smitten by the vivaciously exotic Isabella. This is his debut performance with the Vancouver Opera, and his first appearance as Mustafa.  It's a perfect fit, and expect Jakobsh to be getting calls from around the world for this Rossini play as he brings so much life into a this hilarious role.

Sookhyung Park, plays Elvira the Governor's wife that he is handing her over to Lindora, to make way for this new "Italian Girl" to be added to his harem.  The Korean born Park, balances both her anger and love for Mustafa, and learns from Isabella what it takes to properly "train a husband."

Rounding out the cast is Hugh Russell as Taddeo, who brings additional comic relief.  Mustafa wants to impress Isabella, and so he names Taddeo as Grand Kaimakan (a lieutenant position amongst his followers).  Taddeo meanwhile does everything he can to thwart Mustafa's advances on Isabella.

But who is Randall Jakobsh, and why should BC opera goers be proud of him?

Imagine a younger, sexier, slimmer Ben Heppner singing Bass - and born and rasied in Vernon BC.  This is Randall.

If there ever was a role made for Randall Jakobsh to demonstrate his abilities, this might be it.  It allows Randall to be charming and sexy, but this also pushes him in his first bufo-comedy role.  He shared with me that this is the hardest role he has ever done, and he was quite anxious about his Vancouver Opera debut when I talked with him on Boxing Day in Vernon. 

But after watching Jakobsh on stage in not much more than a "towel" while singing in a "bath" while the audience laughed at the unexpected rubber ducky, we can all be assured that Randall's star is rising.  He was calm, and looked to be having fun in his role, even when not singing.  He asked what we thought of his "dancing bear" as he hammed it up on stage singing about his infatuation with the Italian Girl, while his slaves powdered him and washed him "behind the towel."  I had to laugh because when Randall had come over to the house to visit in Vernon, it had been us sitting in the hot tub, and inviting him to come join us.