Monthly Archives: June 2005

Todd Wong hosts explorASIAN readings with Joy Kogawa, Jessica Gin-Jade, Alexis Kienlen + Michelle Wong

Okay... so I'm going to be on television yet again... 
but this time it is on Saltwater Water City television show.
And I am hosting the explorASIAN readings for Asian Heritage Month.

The following is from Sid Tan - who filmed, edited and produces Saltwater City TV.

Highlights of the evening on Saltwater City TV will broadcast this
Sunday June 26, 2005 with repeats (schedule follows) on $haw cable 4, the
community channel.

Hosted by Todd Wong, this explorAsian presentation was recorded on May 14 at Our Town Cafe and features readings by Joy Kogawa, Michelle
Wong, Alexis Kienlen and Jessica Gin-Jade.

Sunday June 26 at 1:00PM
Monday June 27 at 10:30PM
Thursday June 30 at 2:30PM
Saturday July 2 at 11:30AM

On $haw cable 4 - the community channel - in Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Saltwater City TV broadcasts thanks to ICTV exercising
its entitlement to access to Shaw cable 4, the cable community channel.

Saltwater City TV thanks the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society, the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, the Chinese Canadian National
Council and especially all the wordsmiths and volunteers for their help with this program and event.

If you want copies, set your VCR to record it. Or ask a friend. It takes alot of time to respond to requests for copies, especially since
this is volunteer community television and we have hard costs for tapes, transportation and refreshments. And yes, you are always welcome to
send in a couple of dollars to support ICTV and citizen-access to the public airwaves. Make it out to ICTV but put transmitter fund on it.

Also let our broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (email: procedure@crtc.gc.ca), know what
you think about the current state of community television in Vancouver. Do it now as $haw's license renewal is up in August.

Ask the CRTC why cable companies such as $haw get all the public money from the subscriber funded community channel levy and community
television groups like ICTV not only get no money. Worse, community groups have to deal with $haw, which once denied ICTV access, for their entilement to
resources and broadcast times.

Saltwater City TV Television is an Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society ACCESS/ICTV Independent Community
Television Co-operative volunteer production.

For more about ICTV and to volunteer, go to www.vcn.bc.ca/ictv or call
604.254.5844. We are volunteer managed and operated so please have a
little patience.

Obachan's Garden Film Screening at VPL with director Linda Ohama

As part of Vancouver Public Library's One Book One Vancouver program, there will be many related events designed to help bring the book Obasan to life.

Obachan's Garden, is the award winning National Film Board documentary about the filmaker Linda Ohama's Grandmother.  Ohama won a 2002 Leo Award for best direction for a documentary.

Check out a review of Obachan's Garden on Culture Vulture

Please see below for the information from the VPL web page.

Obachan's Garden: Film Screening
Thursday, June 23; 7:30 p.m.
Alice MacKay Room (Lower Level), Central Library (350 West Georgia St.)

Join director Linda Ohama for a special screening of Obachan's Garden.

In 1923, Asayo Murakami left Hiroshima and settled in a fishing
village in Steveston, BC. Her family has memories of a happy woman who
sang, danced and nurtured a colourful flower garden, but underneath,
the memory of what she left in Japan haunted her deeply.

Delicately peeling back the layers of her grandmother's life,
filmmaker Linda Ohama discovers a painful, buried past. In poignant
interviews, Asayo, now 103 years old, recalls life in Japan, her
arrival in Canada as a “picture bride,” her determination to marry a
man of her choice, the bombing of Hiroshima and the forced relocation
of her family during World War II.

Beautifully rendered dramatic sequences are merged with an exquisite
collection of memories, feelings, images and voices. Culminating in an
emotional reunion with a long-lost daughter, this film is an intensely
personal reflection of Japanese-Canadian history and a testament to one
woman's incredible endurance and spirit.

Gim Wong's “Ride for Redress” reaches Ontario

Gim has reached Ontario! Sid Tan sends this note!

Yo Folks. A friend sent me this JPEG. I am told
Gim is in Ontario and going to be in Toronto over weekend.
We are planning welcome home party for Gim and Jeffrey
as well as extend our appreciation to Jan and daughters.
I'm trying to find Burnaby resident to write Mayor and council
for a civic tribute. More later. Take care.

Below is the June 21st article about Gim's arrival in Winnipeg
in the Ming Pao (Vancouver)





Pictures of Clan Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team in action!

View photos of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team in action from the 2005 Alcan Dragon Boat Festival.

Click here for all pictures and slide show.

photos by Naoko Watanabe and Nick Chin

for articles on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team:
see http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/29/1847817.html