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Alvin Tolentino's “She Said” – featuring vibrant contemporary Dance
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Monthly Archives: February 2005
The Empty Orchestra – featuring Maiko Bae Yamamoto and Adrienne Wong
| THE EMPTY ORCHESTRA Theatre Replacement ScotiaBank Dance Centre |
Here is a love story powered by karaoke. Love can break your heart. Can the cold pull it back together again? It's forty below and almost everyone has left for warmer climates. Trapped in the middle of a cold snap, two broken souls huddle around opposite ends of a heating vent searching for a little warmth. The persistent sound of karaoke (the word's English translation is “empty orchestra”) eventually draws them together—but will it tear them apart? The Empty Orchestra is built and performed by Theatre Replacement Co-Artistic Directors James Long and Maiko Bae Yamamoto, and features the talents of Veda Hille (musical direction and arrangement). |
Gung Hay Fat Choy – Sun Nien Fai Loh
Gung Hay Fat Choy – Sun Nien Fai Loh
Happy Lunar New Year everybody!
Hope you remembered to open the windows to let out the old year and let the new year in. Don't sweep your good luck away by cleaning the floor or get your hair cut done.
Eat your moon cakes – or join with me to invent a new Canadian Tradition – special Lunar Chocolate Croissants. Sorry but I do prefer chocolate croissants to moon cakes. But I have always loved the chinese sponge cakes and almond cookies and apple tarts of my childhood.
I think I'll pick some up to watch the CBC TV performance special Gung Haggis Fat Choy tonight with friends and family, and top it off with some Drambuie.
Last night we had a wonderful time attending a concert by Golden Pearl Ensemble led by by Zhi Min Yuwho is also the featured Ruan player with Silk Road Music in the Gung Haggis Fat Choy CBC television special. Golden Pearl Ensemble is a trio consisting of pipa, ruan and erhu, and managed by Diane Kadota Arts Management.
We were invited by “Jack” Jin Zhang who composed and arranged most of the music for the special Chinese New Year's Eve celebration at the Women's University Club at Hycroft Manor. Also featured was a talk by my friend Judy Maxwell about the early Chinese Canadian pioneers who fought in WW1 and WW2.
May everybody have something to crow about for the Year of the Rooster!
Todd
CBC Television Performance Special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” on February 9th – 7pm
7pm, on Wednesday February 9th – is the CBC Television performance special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy”
To
celebrated the dual holidays of Robbie Burns Day (January 25th) and
Chinese New Year in 2004 (January 24th), CBC Television in Vancouver
decided to produce a performance special based on the concepts of “Gung
Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year
Dinner. This humble dinner event has grown from a 1998 dinner of
16 people to an incredibly entertaining dinner of 600 people in 2005,
co-hostedy by CBC Radio's Shelagh Rogers and attended by Vancouver's
mayor, city councilors and MLA's plus many other cultural and community
leaders.
This is the re-broadcast of the 2004 performance
special that received nominations for 2 LEO Awards for best in
television in BC. It was produced by Moyra Rogers of Out To See
Productions, and directed by both Moyra and Ken.
check out www.cbc.ca/bc
articles on this website about the special can be found at:
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/CBCTVSpecialGungHaggisFatChoy
Gung
Haggis Fat Choy has grown from a simple greeting in 1993, to a house
party in 1998, to a growing fundraiser dinner event (1999 – 2005) to a
CBC television performance special in 2004, a First Night Vancouver
featured musical performance and the Simon Fraser University Gung
Haggis Fat Choy “Canadian Games” recreation event.
At its heart
is the sense of inclusion between cultures. We learn more about
our similarities by exploring our perceived differences. As
Canada grows more intercultural through inter-racial marriages and the
new generations of multi-heritage Canadians, we must find ways to
celebrate our shared heritages.
I hope you enjoy the show,
Todd Wong (aka Toddish McWong)
Creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy
CBC website features Gung Haggis Fat Choy website and event picture!
CBC website features Gung Haggis Fat Choy website and event picture!
CBC must like Gung Haggis Fat Choy!
Here is a picture
of Sounds Like Canada host Shelagh Rogers with Todd Wong and Tom
Chin, taken by Boris Mann at the 2005 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner.
CBC British Columbia celebrates the Lunar New Year
in both radio and television. There will be a morning radio broadcast
direct from Floata Chinese Restaurant on Chinese New Year morning and
of course… the CBC Television Performance Special Gung Haggis Fat
Choy airs February 9 at 7pm.
Harry Aoki's First Friday Forum: February 4th
Harry Aoki's First Friday Forum
is the first Friday of every month at the Nikkei Heritage
Centre. Harry performed at Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2005 dinner on
double bass accompanying Veera devi Khare, with Janine Oye on
clarinet. Harry has also both attended and performed at past GHFC
dinners, performing with singer Margaret Gallagher (Yes… the same
Margaret Gallager heard regularly on CBC Radio's Early Edition in
Vancouver).
Harry discussed the Chinese head tax as one of his forum issues
tonight, and had different musical friends performing, including: Max
Ngai on violin; Janine Oye on clarinet, other musicians on japanese
banjo, trumpet, piano… It is a wonderful evening of cameraderie and
musicianship.
Harry also invited me up to the front to perform on my accordion –
Hungarian Dance No. 5, accompanied by Harry himself on Double
Bass. At the 2003 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, we performed this
for the audience with a then-12 year old Alex Sachs on violin, Pat
Covernton on keyboards, Karen Larson on tambourine, and Nealamjit
Dhillon on tabla drums. Very cool! Thanks Harry. See
you in March when you have Sean Gunn performing “Head Tax Blues” as
your special guest.
Toddish McWong meets George Sapounidis – featured in the CBC tv special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy”
Toddish McWong meets George Sapounidis
George Sapounidis was the one featured performer in the CBC television
special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” that I hadn't met – until tonight.
He is the Montreal-born Greek Canadian who spends most of his time
working as a statistican in Ottawa, but remarkably has become a popular
Mandarin singer in China.
George arrived in Vancouver this weekend to perform in February 4th
& 5th Spring Festival concerts at Burnaby's Michael J. Fox Theatre
and Simon Fraser University, organized by impressario Lily King.
King, who speaks little English, has taken Canadian performers such as
Sapounidis, Joe McDonald and Brave Waves, and Dr. Jan Walls to China to
show Chinese audiences the musical and cultural diversity of Canadian
performers, as well as how well some of the White Canadians speak and
perform in Chinese.
I arrived at the Michael J. Fox Theatre and immediately found George
Sapounidis standing just outside the hallway to the stage dressing
rooms. “Todd Wong, wow! Finally…” says George.
“George… wow! Finally…” says Todd. I presented him with a
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team t-shirt. George is
thrilled. After performing in the CBC television special “Gung
Haggis Fat Choy”, and now finally meeting the creator that inspired the
show – it is like George is finally being inducted into the Gung Haggis
Fat Choy club.
We like each other immediately. George speaks
enthusiastically about the concepts of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, crossing
intercultural boundaries. I explain to him the nature of my
families 7 generations in Canada and how my cousin's grandchildren are
now only 1/4 Chinese. “The future of Canada,” I say, ” needs to
celebrate dual and the multi-heritages of their ancestors. Gung
Haggis Fat Choy is a celebration of that inclusivity – where
multiculturalism only celebrates separate cultures… and usually
stereotypes at that. I get to flip the stereotypes.”
George takes me to the dressing rooms to introduce me to Lily King, but
instead I bump into my friends Joe McDonald and Dr. Jan Walls – both of
whom just performed at the January 30th Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner
event at the Floata Restaurant. Both Joe and Jan have told me
about Lily King, as has Opera Soprano Heather Pawsey. Finally…
George finds Lily and we are introduced. We exchange cards.
She speaks little English, and I speak little Chinese. The show is
starting, and Lily must go out to the front.
Meanwhile backstage… I meet more of the English speaking
performers. One is Gabrielle, a former student of Jan's.
She will be singing along with Jan, and others on a traditional Chinese
song that Jan has recently translated into English, called the Dragon's
heir. Joe McDonald will play piano and his Chinese flute. I
also meet Mike, one of Canada's top old time fiddle masters. He
is a surprisingly young 30-something.
We go to the stage wings and watch Joe, Jan and group perform. I
give them each high-5's as they come back stage. Next we wait to
watch the Brazillian dancers. Three women in Canaval costumes –
Wow! This is definitely a multicultural program.
George goes on and cracks jokes about Ottawa – pronouncing it
“Whot-toe-Wah!” – the Chinese equivalent, similar to “Wan-Goh-Wah” as a
Chinese pronounciation of Vancouver. He launches into Da
Ban Cheng de Guniang (Girls from Da Ban Cheng) as a female dancer
accompanies him on stage. After the song concludes, George says
to the audience “This song was featured in a CBC television special and
you can see it performed on Tuesday February 9th. The show is
called “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” and blends together Scottish and Chinese
cultures. (laughter from audience at this point) And it was
created by Todd Wong, also known as “Toddish McWong” and he is
somewhere here in the theatre tonight!”
Wow! Good plug for the CBC television speacial George!
And… he also plugged his upcoming music cd, inviting people to
pre-order. George next performed an orginal song called “I Also
Love You, China” then concluded with a song about the Olympic
experience, as he was both a bearer of the Olympic torch in Montreal,
and a volunteer assistant with the Chinese Athletes in Athens 2004.
During the intermission, George and I take some pictures together –
then some with the Chinese dancers. They all love George… I
will post the pictures as soon as George sends them to me. He has
been regularly reading this website – he will remember – right George?
Check out the following link for George.
which provides photos and my story at the Athens Olympics last August as personal assistant to the Chinese team in the Olympic Village.
You may see www.being-george.com for info and trailer regarding the documentary film that will be released this year on CTV and BBC.
Todd Wong's Burnaby visit to Westridge Elementary School's multicultural Chinese New Year Celebration
Todd Wong's Burnaby performances at Westridge Elementary School's multicultural Chinese New Year Celebration
Today and tonight was very busy. I was a guest speaker at
Westridge elementary school in Burnaby. One of the parents had
seen my picture in the Burnaby News Leader local community newspaper
and immediately liked my multicultural angle for Gung Haggis Fat
Choy. I was the featured performer for Westridge's Chinese New
Year concert and party, which for the first time took on a
multicultural angle, as all children were encouraged to dress in ethnic
costumes and to celebrate any aspects of their ancestral
heritage. Even the principal was wearing plaid pants to celebrate
his Scottish heritage and my appearance.
Watching the children file into the gymnasium, I was reminded of how
many of our Vancouver area schools are filled with 1st or 2nd
generational Asian students who come from homes where Chinese is
probably the main spoken language. To me, it seemed more
important that multicultural concerts now introduce the cultures of
Canada to an ever increasing Asian immigrant population, rather than
introducing immigrant cultures to a dominant Caucasian Canadian
population.
I lead off by asking the children if they knew what I was wearing and
which country it came from. They correctly identified that a kilt
came from Scotland. I asked who had Chinese ancestry, and who had
Scottish ancestry. Then I asked my trick questions – who shares
the Scottish and Chinese cultures of Canada. We all do, in
informed the children. As Canadians we get to celebrate every
culture that has come to Canada.
Then I invited all the teachers to come to the front with me to sing
“When Asian/Scottish Eyes Are Smiling.” All the children enjoyed
this immensely – even though I suspect they were unfamiliar with the
song.
Next I spoke about how both Scots Canadians and Chinese Canadians
played important roles in the building of Canada, citing Sir John A.
MacDonald as the first prime minister of Canada, and explained the
similarities of Scottish Hogmanay and Chinese New Year. This was the
perfect introduction to playing a short clip from the CBC TV Special
“Gung Haggis Fat Choy.”
The children appeared to be fascinated and really laughed when the
animated story of Robbie Burns came on. The principal presented
me with wrapped presents as gifts from the school, and I presented him
with Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner posters, and postcards for the CBC
television special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.”
January 5th Chinese New Year Parade from Victory Square to Chinese Cultural Centre
January 5th Chinese New Year Parade from Victory Square to Chinese Cultural Centre
11am starts at Victory Square. Hastings and Cambie
Streets in Downtown Vancouver, led by Dragon River musicians Karen Wong
and Zhongxi Wu.
There will be a sidewalk parade featuring custom made lanterns and
organized by Carmen Rosen and Karen Wong with the Vancouver Parks
Board. Carmen and Karen just performed at the Gung Haggis Fat
Choy January 30th Dinner event. I will try to find more details.
Note: this is not the Chinatown traditional Chinese New year parade – It will take place on Sunday January 13.
Cheers, Todd
Kilts Night at Doolin's Irish Pub – February 5th, 2005
Kilts Night at Doolin's Irish Pub – Februrary 5th, 2005
7:00pm – 654 Nelson Street at Granville Street
Vancouver BC
Doolin's Irish Pub will again host Kilt's Night in Vancouver.
Wear a kilt and get in past the line-ups. Wear a kilt and receive
your first beer FREE!
Come say hello to Terry “Bear” Varga – owner of Bear Kilts, the
first kilt maker of synthetic tartan kilts in North America.
Come say hello to Raphael, the planner for the August Gathering for X Marks the Scot Forum
Come say hello to “Toddish McWong” – creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy.