Review: Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night

Once a year, the World Poetry Reading Series at the Vancouver Public Library colludes and collides with the alignment of Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day, and is marked by the appearance of Toddish McWong.  This intersection is called Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night.

Ariadne Sawyer and Alejandro Olea-Mujica are great friends to work with, as we built a program to entertain our audience as well as inform them about Chinese and Scottish traditions while serving up new Canadian writers, proud of their Scottish and Chinese ancestral roots.  Following an introduction by Vancouver Public Library Community Programs Librarian Barbara Edwards, piper Joe McDonald led a parade of the performers into the Alice Mackay Room, around the back, up the side and across the front.  The original tune was appropriately titled "Gung Haggis Fat Choy."

Joe MacDonald, Ariadne Sawyer, Alejandro Mujica-Olea, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Ian Mason of the Burns Club of Vancouver - photo Deb Martin.

Introductions and welcomes were made by Todd Wong, Ariadne Sawyer and Alejandro Olea-Mujica, who while acknowledging the importance recognizing the multicultural holidays of Robbie Burns Day and the Asian Lunar New Year, also recognized Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, and that Chile (Alejandro's home country from which he was forced to flee in exhile during the Pinochet regime) just elected a female president, to nice applause in the audience.

Starting off the musical and poetical program were Todd Wong and Joe McDonald, singing Loch Lomand.  Unfortunately while they both knew the same chorus - they had different versions of the verses in their head.  But it set a friendly tone for the evening, as the singalong words of "You'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road," set the stage for Dr. Ian Mason, president of the Burns Club of Vancouver.  Mason gave a wee eulogy about the works and life of Burns, and gave good examples of his work. 

A Chinese fan dance was next on the menu as Yan Yan walked out in her flowing costume and fan, set to contemporary Chinese music.  It was a wonderful demonstration of how cultural dance traditions could be merged with contemporary music.

Ariadne next read a ballad set to guitar music, "The Ballad of Gung Haggis Fat Choy", which described how we mix all the cultures together, like making a stew or dinner banquet.  Ariadne first created this work last year, and it was so well recieved it was requested for this year.

Fiona Tinwei Lam, is a Scottish born lass of Chinese descent who came to Canada at age 4.  She read from her book "Intimate Distances" which had been a finalist for the 2004 Vancouver Book Prize, and picked selections that related to cross-cultural dating and relationships... and food!

A Mongolian dance was the final performance for the first half.  Bright costumes and movements simulated Mongols riding on horseback.  This was followed by a short intermission, where many people checked out books and cds for sale by the performers.

Joe McDonald and Todd Wong, leading a singalong.... - photo Deb Martin.

Joe McDonald gently played the tune "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", bringing back the audience to their seats. Todd introduced his children's poem-song about immigrants coming to Canada titled "My Haggis Lies Over the Ocean, My Chow Mein Lies Over the Sea."  Smiles rose on many faces as they all joined in for the chorus.  Todd explainined that he had been inspired to write songs and poems for children by performers Rick Scott and Harry Wong who were going to be featured artists at the upcoming Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner.  To close off my time on the stage, I informed the audience that it was an amazing coincidence that on Thursday night, the library would be hosting a tribute to the 250th Anniversary of Mozart's birtdahy.  Rick Scott's most requested song is his "Yo! Mo! Concerto" where he does a rap tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  I next did my own rap tribute to Robbie Burns with his poem "To a Haggis."

Ariadne next introduced James Mullin, who read several of his poems which created lovely peace imagery of wonderment.  Mullin is the book manager of Tanglewood Books, and hedraws on his Celtic heritage.


Alexis Kienlen reading her poetry - Alejandro and Ariadne listen intently - photo Deb Martin.

I introduced Alexis Kienlen by asking if anybody had read Saturday's edition of the Vancouver Sun, as I pointed out Alexis' guest turn at writing "Bedside Table."  Kienlen took to the stage and read several of her poems.  She shared with the audience that she had lived in many parts of the world, including Mongolia, and the performance by the dancers had coincidently coincided with some poems about her Mongolian experienes she had chosen for the evening.  Kienlen also shared her thoughts about growing up multi-racial in Canada, describing herself as 1/4 Chinese and 1/4 Scottish, with some french and english. Her poetry was inciteful and very much appreciated by the audience.

Closing off the program, the Chinese Dancers performed a final dance, Joe McDonald and Todd Wong led a gentle rendition of "Scotland the Brave" then Joe asked the audience to all stand and make a great circle holding hands for the singing of Auld Lang Syne.  Yes, it sounds hokey... but people loved it.  We could look at the smiles on everybody's faces, with our arms crossed together.
The gang:  front row: Ian Mason, Shirley Sue-A-Quan, Yan Yan, Angela
back row: Joe McDonald, Alejandro Mujica-Olea, Alexis Kienlen, Ariadne Sawyer, James Mullin, Fiona Tinwei Lam - photo Deb Martin.