Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan to attend Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2006 - will read poem in Cantonese?
It's official! Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan will be attending the 2006 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner event at Floata Restaurant on January 22nd.
But will Mayor Sullivan wear a kilt? Will he wear the Sullivan tartan? Or will he be stylishly attired in a Chinese jacket?
Will he read a Robbie Burns poem, or a Chinese poem? After all, this mayor is known for his fluency in Cantonese - the same language as the early Chinese Canadian pioneers, many of home all paid the Chinese head tax to enter the country.
I have known Sam Sullivan for a number of years. We first got to know each other when he visited the BC History and Genealogy Day fair at the Vancouver Public Library back in 2001 or 2002. Since then, we have bumped into each other many times at the Central Branch Library where I work, as well as the Yaletown neighborhood where he lives.
We initially had a great talk about our family histories in Vancouver, and we discussed how we both grew up in Vancouver's East Side. My father had a signwriting shop on Venables St between Clark Drive and Commercial Drive, called Hopp Signs. Sam's father ran "Sully's Autoparts" on Hastings Street, between Clark Dr. and Commercial Dr.
As a councillor, Sam Sullivan has also attended a number of events for Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop. At our 2003 ACWW dinner, he gave a welcome as deputy Mayor. At the recent Ricepaper 10th Anniversary dinner in September 2005, he surprised people by showing up after a long hard day, which saw him victorious over Christy Clark for the NPA position of mayoralty candidate.
This morning, I learned that my Sam and I were both attending Vancouver Technical Highschool at the same time. I was in grade 8 at Van Tech when the young Sullivan was in grade 9. Then I moved to North Vancouver. Sam will probably see some his old Vancouver Tech school mates as some of my Laura Secord Elementary School classmates are planning to have Laura Secord alumni table for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner. I hope they invite Howard Jang, who is now general manager for the Arts Club Theatre. Sam went to the other feeder school, Chief Maquinna.
Last year we started the tradition of inviting the Mayor of Vancouver with Larry Campbell - now Senator Campbell. Mayor Campbell showed up wearing a brightly coloured Chinese jacket over his mult-coloured kilt. And we had him on stage reading the Burns poem "A Man's A Man for All That A' That" along with MLA's Joy McPhail and Jenny Kwan, along with myself and co-host Shelagh Rogers.
Mayor Larry Campbell at the 2006 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner:
1) reading Burns poetry in his brightly coloured Chinese jacket
2) having a slice of the haggis with host Todd Wong
3) reading Burns poetry "A Man's A Man For All That and All That" with MLA's Joy McPhail, Jenny Kwan, and hosts Todd Wong and Shelagh Rogers. photos by Ray Shum - Tempest Photography
