...or should that be Gung Haggis Fat Choy ?
Province Newspaper reporter Cheryl Chan interviewed me about the multiculturalism of Chinese Lunar New Year, and about my recent Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner. I told her about how I have been asked to speak at Elementary schools to help them express the Lunar New Year as a multicultural event, that all cultures can share in - not just Chinese New Year, Tibetan Losar, or Vietnamese Tet celebrations.
Gee... like everybody can be Irish for St. Patrick's Day, or everybody can be Scottish for Robbie Burns Day, or all Canadians can celebrate Chinese New Year.... definitely!!!
Then she asked what I was up to for Chinese New Year's Day... I told her going to see Banana Boys Play... and Kilts Night at Doolin's Irish Pub. The writer included it in a list of events for Chinese New Year.
But darn... she didn't use any of my quotes about inter-culturalism expressed in a dragon boat team!
I am going to spend some time with my Hapa-Canadian niece and nephew today, then go see bagpiper friend Joe McDonald, who has survived 9 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners, and a dragboat float in the 1st Vancouver St. Patrick's Day parade.
Some of our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team members and Kilts Night clan will be having Chinese New Year dinner at Hon's before they head over to Doolin's Irish Pub, Nelson and Granville for Kilts Night and to watch the hockey game before the Halifax Wharf Rats start playing. I am going to see the 7:30pm Banana Boys show at the Firehall Arts Centre- but should make Kilts Night around 9:30 to 10pm.
Slainte, Todd
Chinese New Year joins Canadian mainstream
Communities come together in parade
Cheryl Chan, The Province
Published: Thursday, February 07, 2008The Year of the Rat kicks off today -- not with a squeak but with a mighty cross-cultural roar.
Chinese
New Year, the most important holiday on the Chinese lunar calendar, has
become a reason for many Canadians, including those of non-Chinese
heritage, to eat, drink and make merry.
"It's becoming, in
that great way, a Canadian tradition," said Todd Wong, a
fifth-generation Chinese-Canadian. "It's for all cultures to celebrate,
not just Chinese or Asians."
View Larger ImageJoin the Rat Pack: It'll be a good year for Rats, especially if you're looking for a job. Roosters? Well, you could be facing problems.Sherman Tai predicts the year ahead, B6-7 n The changing taste of Chinese food, B8-9
Illustration, Nick Murphy -- the Province
More pictures:Wong,
47, recently hosted Gung Haggis Fat Choy, an annual salute to Chinese
New Year and Robbie Burns Day, where bagpipes serenaded banquet diners
munching on hybrid delicacies such as a haggis lettuce wrap.
He
said Chinese New Year's popularity is due not only to the large number
of Chinese immigrants but the interracial friendships and marriages
that have introduced the family-oriented holiday to mainstream
Canadians.
"There's a heck of a
lot of white people out there learning about Chinese New Year because
their grandkids are half-Chinese," said Wong, whose maternal cousins
all married non-Chinese.
Even
traditional offerings have taken on a cross-cultural flavour. The
annual Chinese New Year parade, expected to draw more than 600,000
spectators from across Metro Vancouver, is an example of
multiculturalism at work.
More
than 2,000 participants, including bhangra dancers, marching bands,
bagpipers, traditional dragon- and lion-dance teams and a unicorn-dance
team, will make their way on foot and floats through Chinatown starting
at the Millennium Gate at noon on Sunday.
"At
the parade, you see multiculturalism when the fabric of communities in
Vancouver come together," said Kenneth Tung, head of Success, one of
the event's organizers.
"It's a multicultural
parade in a culture-specific setting," adds Wong, who says he'll be attending the festivities.
Other celebrations:
- Thursday: The Vancouver Police Department's lion-dance team performs at Vancouver City Hall at noon.
- Thursday night: Kilts Night at Doolin's Irish Pub. Free pint of Guinness if you wear a kilt.
- Friday through Sunday: Chinese New Year celebration at International Village, 88 West Pender St.
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