Monthly Archives: June 2005

“The Wong Way” dragon boat team makes the front page banner of the Vancouver Sun

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That multi-generational family dragon boat team “Paddlin' The Wong Way”
had their picture featured in the banner on the front page of the
Vancouver Sun, Thursday June 16.

The Wong Family is an important family in the Vancouver Chinatown
community.  Modernize Tailors is a Chinatown landmark.  83 year old
tailor, Bill Wong is the patriarch.  His younger paddling brother
Milton Wong helped start dragon boating in Vancouver in 1986. 
Milton is also a Canadian cultural icon recieving both the Order of BC,
and the Order of Canada.

The Wong Way coach, Peter Wong, “Uncle” Bill's son, also chair of the
Alcan Dragon Boat Festival. Both Peter and Milton have been key figures
in the devleopment of the Lotus Sports Club in Burnaby.  And now
they are extending their passion for dragon boats to the rest of the
family members.

My family has known the Wongs for generations… in fact my uncle
“Laddie” Tak worked at Modernize Tailors for many many years… and Milton Wong was the best man at my Aunt Sylvia's wedding!

Here's the short blurb from page C23 of the Vancouver Sun:

Back for its second year, this unique
family team has build momentum and is keener than ever.  Paddlin'
the Wong Way is made up of three generations of Wongs ranging in ages
from 18 to 83.  Word of the fun made its way around the family
circle and even more relations have requested a seat on the boat. 
A cousin from L.A. had his first paddling lesson in the hot tub last
month, a Calgary relative who's been in Longdon is making a special
trip and another will jet in from Germany.  Coach Peter is
sticking to his guns – no squabbling or you get a time out.

Below are pictures of Bill Wong and grandchildren, Stephen Wong and his niece Karen Jang carving (or sawing!) a
dragon boat head at the Round house Community Centre in February – see
the “finished product” beside the “Gung Haggis dragon boat head and
tail” this weekend at the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival in the Alcan
Dragon's Den – photos Todd Wong


Gim Wong: 2002 Burnaby Now interview

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Here's an interview with Gim Wong back from 2002.
Click here for the Gim Wong Ride for Redress updates on this webpage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head tax took its toll on Chinese veterans


By Julie MacLellan,reporter, Nov 6 2002


Tears glint in Gim Wong's eyes as he dons the wool coat he wore nearly 60 years ago.
The coat belongs to the uniform that marks him as what he is: a loyal Canadian.
It wasn't so very long ago that his government saw things differently.


For Wong, who'll be 80 in two months, the Chinese
head tax and the Exclusion Act aren't just a nearly forgotten chapter
in Canadian history books. They're part of his past, part of his
family's story.

Wong was born in Vancouver's Chinatown.
His parents both came from China: his father in 1906 at the age of 15,
his mother in about 1921.

She made it into the country in a brief
window of time in which men could send home for brides, after the First
World War and before the Exclusion Act that prohibited Chinese
immigration starting in 1923. NEXT

http://saltwatercity.bc.ca/ccmgimw02.htm

Are we the dragon boat team with the most multicultural spirit? Chinese & Scottish? and more? You bet

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Alcan Dragon Boat Festival

To Whom It May Concern:

Re: David Lam Multicultural Award

Google the words “dragon boat” and “multiculturalism” and the 1st entry is Gung Haggis Fat Choy.

Ask anybody on the street to tell you about “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” and
they will pause, smile, then say: 1) It’s that Robbie Burns Chinese New
Year Dinner in Vancouver; 2) it’s that CBC TV special that mixes Scots
and Chinese music; 3) Wasn’t that the dragon boat float in the St.
Patrick’s Day parade?; 4) I heard about Gung Haggis Fat Choy on the CBC
radio; 5) Isn’t it that crazy Dragon-cart race up at Simon Fraser
University? 6) It’s that guy Toddish McWong, who invented “haggis
won-ton!”

Indeed Gung Haggis Fat Choy is known across Canada, and all around the
world.  CBC Radio’s Shelagh Rogers co-hosted the our infamous
Robbie Burns Chinese New Year fundraiser dinner, that has now grown to
600 people.  People in China, Scotland, California and New Jersey
have all posted links to www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com – our website that
highlights our favorite cultural fusion events.  This crazy boat
of Canadians is led by the Gung Haggis of Clan Gung Haggis – otherwise
known as “Toddish McWong.”  This team for the past 3 years has
embraced Canada’s Scottish and Chinese heritage, based on the unlikely
but coincidental conjunction of Robbie Burns Day on January 25th and
Chinese New Year (late January/early February).

But it is with humour that we celebrate Canada’s cultural diversity.
Vancouver Museum Curator Joan Siedl says, “I think you’ve identified
Vancouver’s “two solitudes.”  But in reality we celebrate
everything in-between and everything beyond.  Our team’s members
claim birthright from all around the world.  Russian, Japanese,
African, and even mixtures of ancestries.  This is very “Gung
Haggis.”

The first time a dragon boat was featured in a Vancouver parade, was at
the inaugural St. Patrick’s Day parade in 2004.  The Gung Haggis
Fat Choy entry was especially solicited by the Celtic Fest organizers
to bring their special multicultural energy to the parade.  We
were asked to return and for 2005 we featured City Councilor Ellen
Woodsworth on the drum and CBC radio host Margaret Gallagher who is
Chi-rish (Chinese and Irish), with a paddle.

Last year, Gung Haggis Fat Choy was the dragon boat team chosen to
represent multiculturalism in the television documentary series
“Thalassa” filmed by France 5, public television, at the 2004 ADBF. The
team was used to demonstrate how  ethnicities from around the
world, live, work and paddle together as one community, as one team, in
the very multicultural city of Vancouver. The Director and producer
Anne Gourmand felt this was important to show not only France, but to
francophone communities all around the world.

Our logo features a chinese dragon wearing a Scottish tam hat. 
Our team uniform features Chinese “lucky coin” designs.  Every
member of the team wears a cloth swath of the “Fraser Hunting tartan”
and some of our members will even be wearing kilts!  We are
inclusive and welcome everybody and anybody to our team.

Please consider the Gung Haggis Fat Choy to be the 2005 recipient for
the Hon. David C. Lam Award, for all the continual multicultural
ambassadorship this team has done all around the world.

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


Peace and Blessings,

Todd Wong,
Coach and Founder of Gung Haggis Fat Choy

604-987-7124
gunghaggis@yahoo.ca
www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com

Dragon Boat with Community Spirit? We've got it! Gung Haggis! Gung-ho!

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Alcan Dragon Boat Festival

To Whom It May Concern:

Re: Alcan Community Spirit Award

Google the words “Vancouver”, “dragon boat team”, and “community” and the 1st entry is Gung Haggis Fat Choy.  

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is very active in Vancouver’s
community. Our Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner “Gung Haggis Fat
Choy” which our team is named after, is considered one of Vancouver’s
annual cultural highlights.  We share our proceeds with Asian
Canadian Writers’ Workshop and Rice Paper Magazine, helping to promote
Canada’s rich and important Asian Canadian heritage.  This is a
dinner that creates and shares community spirit, and is inclusive for
all who attend.  People walk out of our dinners with big smiles on
their faces, and say “This is so Canadian,” and “I have to tell all my
friends.”

The spin-offs from our cultural fusion dinner have included the CBC
Television performance special also titled “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” as
well as the Simon Fraser University “Gung Haggis Fat Choy Canadian
Games” for which our coaches Todd Wong and Bob Brinson conceived of and
created the world’s first “dragon carts” to simulate a dragon boat race
on land.

Everybody attending Vancouver’s 1st and 2nd St. Patrick’s Day Parade
can tell you how surprised they were to see a dragon boat float rolling
down Granville St. Invited to bring our multicultural energy to the
inaugural parade in 2004, we are now a featured attraction, and were
written about on the front page of the first edition of the Metro –
Vancouver’s first of the new free daily newspapers, as our special
guests Vancouver City Councilor Ellen Woodsworth and CBC radio host
Margaret Gallagher were interviewed.

People walking into the Roundhouse Community Centre in February, saw
dragon boat heads being carved from cedar wood.  Yes, Gung Haggis
Fat Choy was there, carving away, ensuring a community presence and
informing onlookers about the importance of multiculturalism and our
love for dragon boating.  We will also be carving dragon boat
heads and tails at the inaugural SeaVancouver Festival this coming July.

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy team and its members have made contributions
to many dragon boat events and international teams as well.  Our
coaches Todd Wong and Bob Brinson were two of the founding organizers
of the Vancouver International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race, and worked
in close coordination with the Taiwanese Cultural Festival.  We
participated in the World’s first dragon boat barrel races in Seattle,
with the Tacoma Dragon Boat Association, and helped to develop dragon
boat barrel races as part of  the Vancouver Taiwanese DB races. We
have also worked behind the scenes to not only help supply prizes for
the other teams’ events, but we have contributed coaching many other
local teams as well.

We have many dragon boat friends outside the Vancouver community. 
Over the past few years we have contributed to and formed teams with,
and taken in paddlers for our races from Fraser Valley Dragon Boat
Association, Tacoma Dragon Boat Association, Dieselfish from San
Francisco, Wasabi Paddling Club in Portland, and the Fort Langley Canoe
Club.

And just a two weeks ago, we helped take three boats full of high
school students from North Vancouver and Quebec City on a dragon boat
program in False Creek, and accompanied them to lunch in Chinatown.

Last year, Gung Haggis Fat Choy was the dragon boat team chosen to
demonstrate the spirit of  multiculturalism in the television
documentary series “Thalassa” filmed by France 5, public television, at
the 2004 ADBF.  The Director and producer Anne Gourmand felt this
was important to show not only France, but to francophone communities
all around the world.

What is our community spirit?  We share our love of dragon boating
and multiculturalism openly and freely with not only other dragon
boaters, but also with the community of Vancouver, and Canada. 
But the “Gung Haggis spirit” is about cultural fusion and humour, and
iit is this “spirit” that is spreading not only all across Vancouver to
Simon Fraser University and the CBC, but also all across Canada, and
the world.

Please consider the Gung Haggis Fat Choy team to be the 2005 recipient
for the Alcan Community Spirit Award, for all the sharing and community
activities that this team and its leaders willingly demonstrate for all
communities, all across Canada and the world.

Peace and Blessings,

Todd Wong,
Coach and Founder of Gung Haggis Fat Choy
604-987-7124
gunghaggis@yahoo.ca
www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com

East Meets West themes in literature: Half and Half

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I work in a library…
I am a board member for Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop
I have always been attracted to books with Asian North American themes or by Asian North American authors.

Here is what caught my attention in the past month:

HALF AND HALF
by Lensey Namioka

A children's novel about a young girl growing up in Seattle WA with
both Scottish and Chinese parentage. Her Scottish-Canadian grandparents
travel from Vancouver BC, with their Scottish Highland Dancing troupe
for the Seattle Folklife Festival. Her Chinese grandmother wants her to
be a nice Chinese Girl. Her red-haired brother wants nothing to do with
the kilt that his grandfather has given him – he just wants to do his
martial arts demo at Folk-life. How to walk the line between cultural
identity, family obligations and following your heart's desires.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I think I will invite Lensey Namioka to the next Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.

WHITE TIGRESS
by Jade Lee

A romance paperback set in Shanghai 1897. An English Woman sails to the
Orient to meet her fiance, but is drugged, kidnapped and sold to a
brothel. She is next sold to a Chinese man, who seeks to balance his
overactive Yang, by developing her Yin. A peek into the secret
practices of Chinese Sexual Arts, and the Tao of Love. The dynamic
tension arises from culture clashes, a perception that the other race
is barbaric, and that the secret to Tantic and Taoist love practices is
to not waste the Yang seed.

This is the first time I have ever heard of the secret practices of
Dragon/Tigress practices, or of seeking Imortality by Yin and Yang
blending.

From the author's bio:

Children of mixed races have their
own set of rules. As the daughter of a Shanghai native and a staunch
Indiana Hoosier, Jade Lee struggled to find her own identity somewhere
between America and China. Her search took her to Regency England,
where the formality of culture hid a secret sensuality that fascinated
her. But Devil's Bargain was just the beginning –  that same
search adds a mystical element in her Tigress series. In those books,
Jade delves into the hidden sensuality of the Dragon/Tigress sect in
pre-revolutionary China.


At home, her husband and two
daughters try to ignore her stacks of Zen sexual texts. Instead, they
brag about her award-winning humour pseudonym, Katheine Greyle.

This book was very interesting… Now I have a way to blend my Chinese
“Tao of Love” books with the Scottish Highlander Romance paperbacks…
And I thought Mr. Willougby in Diana Galbadon's “Outlander” series was
the only Chinese character in romance fiction. Silly me.

Gim Wong “Ride for Redress” Press Conference in Winnipeg for Friday June 17

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Click here for the Gim Wong Ride for Redress updates on this webpage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is the press release about the

Friday June 17th Press Conference for Gim Wong in Winnipeg.

GIM WONG'S 'RIDE FOR REDRESS'
Seeking Justice from the Government of Canada for victims of the
Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act

PRESS CONFERENCE

Friday, June 17, 11:30 am
The Winnipeg Chinese Cultural And Community Centre at 2ND FL.,
180
King Street
June 15, 2005 –

B'nai Brith Canada, The Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre and The Ad Hoc Winnipeg Organizing Committee For
Redress are delighted to welcome and introduce Mr. Gim Wong to members of
the media.

Gim Foon Wong, at 83 years of age is riding his motorcycle across
Canada to bring a message to all Canadians about how Canada's infamous
Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act devastated Chinese Canadian families
for generations. In force from 1885 until 1947, this legislation
plunged the Chinese community in Canada into more than 62 years of debt
and family separation.

Gim was born in Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood and is a World War
II Canadian Air Force veteran. His father and uncles paid the head tax
when they came to Canada as 11 and 12-year-olds in the early 1900's.

“They were forced to work for slave wages,” he says. “I want to do this
ride for the Chinese railway workers and all those Chinese pioneers. I
want to do it for my good friend Charlie Kwan, who is a head tax payer
living in Vancouver. Charlie is 99 years old. I want to do it for my
family. This ride is about demanding respect for the generations of
Chinese Canadians who built this country. This ride is about demanding
an apology and redress from the Canadian government.”

As he visits communities across the country, Gim will hold local
information sessions about Canada's history of discrimination against
Chinese Canadians. Gim, accompanied by his son Jeffrey, began the 'Ride
for Redress' in Victoria in June 3, stopping in Vancouver, Calgary,
Regina, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
Gim is scheduled to arrive in Ottawa by July 1- Canada Day.

For many years, Chinese Canadians referred to Canada Day as Humiliation
Day, because it was on July 1, 1923 that the Canadian Government
enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Act virtually excluded all
persons of Chinese descent from coming to Canada and was not repealed
until 1947. The 24 years of Chinese exclusion separated families,
condemned generations of men to a life of isolation and loneliness and
acutely impeded the economic and political development of Chinese
communities in Canada. Legislated discrimination against Chinese
Canadians started in the form of a Chinese Head Tax in 1885, right
after they helped build and complete the Western section of the
Canadian Pacific Railway.

For further information about the 'Ride for Redress',
please contact:
Dr. Joseph Du at 943.2627 or David Matas at 944.1831 or
Alan Yusim at 487.9623
The Ad Hoc Winnipeg Organizing Committee For Redress

Our First Dragon Boat Race at Alcan Dragon Boat Festival

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Hi Everybody

Our first race is 10:30am Lane 3.
So…
10:30am race
10:00am loading dock
9:45am martial area
9:15 warm up at tent
9:00am team strategies
8:45am meet at tent.


Very important for everybody to be early and not late.

Please know that 180 teams and hundreds of vendors and thousands of
attendees will be attending. Give yourself plenty of time to find a
parking spot, take skytrain, and to find our tent.

To find our tent – enter the
racer's village area on the North side of Creekside Park – entrance is
probably on Quebec St. just north of Science World and just south of
Pacific Blvd. Got to Racer's info booth – find out Tent number. I will
be there early with Team banner to put up on tent.

Tent space. This is our “home”
for 2 days. Let's make it nice. If anybody has blankets or mats to lay
down on the blacktop or grass – that will be good. deck chairs are
always good. But no security.

If you have a friend who would
like to do some security shifts while we are paddling… please invite
them. Dave Montrose will be our Race Manager for the weekend, but will
need to watch the races in case we need to launch a protest. Our spare
paddlers can also take turns rotating, when not on the boat.

Bring your own water and food for the tent.
We will coordinate some fruits and power bars for sharing… We could
do a pot luck and bring coolers. This means we do not have to go
searching for food and pay top prices. Maybe somebody can do a run to
Chinatown for some buns. I will bring some gatorade and a cooler. It is
very important to make sure everybody is hydrated, and eating lightly…

OUR RACE
Our first race at 10:30am is called a seeding race.
All the teams have been ranked according to past reputations and
performances in recent regattas and races. Ideally, this helps
determine performance ability for each team for placement in Comp A/B/C
or Rec A/B/C/D/E divisions.

Expect approximately, lane 5 to make it to Comp Div, Lane 4 & 6 to
be in Rec A/B, Lane 3 & 7 to be in in Rec B/C, Lane 2 to be in Rec
C, Lane 8 & 1 to be in Rec D/E

Don't read too much into this,
as teams are jostling for positions, and a tight race between two boats
could move one boat up, and one boat down. Repechage races will follow
to further help refine the divisions. Use the Saturday races to get
comfortable, and blend as a team. Sunday races will be very tight. The
bottom line is we want to do the best we can in each race, this helps
hone our racing skills.

Here's the expected order of finish for our first race.
Let's do our best so that lanes 7,2, 8 & 1 don't pass us.

5 Fresh Off the Dragonboat
4 TDBA – Destiny Dragons
6 Drunk'n Dragons Blue
3 Gung Haggis Fat Choy
7 JET-Ai
2 Missabittatitti
8 OC United Dragons
1 Dragons Abreast Australia

Oh – yeah… remember to have fun…

Roy Miki lecture at the Chan Centre for UBC Laurier Institution Multicultural Lecture

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The UBC Laurier Institution Multiculturalism lecture featured Dr. Roy Miki last night at the Chan Centre at UBC.

The event opened with a welcome from Dr. Sid Katz before introducing host Paul Kennedy, from CBC Radio's Ideas program. Preceding the lecture were selections from Vancouver Opera's upcoming production “Naomi's Road” based on the children's novel by Joy Kogawa. Grace Chan and Jessica Cheung did a wonderful presentation of the songs.

I always enjoy the way Roy plays with language. 
In his “lecture” he opened and closed with a poems.  The songs
from Naomi's road had set the evening's tone with issues from the
internment of Japanese Canadians during WW2.  Roy himself was
practically born in an internment camp, as his mother was 5 months
pregnant when they were uprooted from their Vancouver home.  He also recently finished his book Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice.

Roy painted a broad pallet of events, such as 9-11, Global free trade,
terrorism and brought them into the context of how the racist interment
of Canadian born Japanese happened.  He drew on similar Canadian
issues such as First Nations redress for Residential schools, and the
racist Chinese Head Tax, mentioning how 83-year old Gim Wong is riding
his motorcycle across Canada to Ottawa as an awareness campaign.

I was able to ask a question to Dr. Miki.  Pointing out that
Naomi's Road was being turned into a Vancouver Opera Production, and
that Obasan was the selection for One Book One Vancouver – what does
this kind of mainstream acceptance mean for the Asian community, and
does it help with Redress issues.  Does the Chinese Community have
to write books and find iconic heroes to help advance the cause for
Head Tax redress?

Because I have known Roy for many years, he said “The redress movement
probably helped Obasan more than Obasan helped the Redress movement –
but they do go hand in hand.  It does make a difference.  And
, you already the answer to that one… But having things like that
does help the causes.  Having the stories told would certainly
help the Chinese redress issues.”  Roy did answer in more detail,
and he has called Obasan, “probably the most important important novel
of the last 30 years for understanding Canadian society.”

“That was a good important question,” Joan Anderson, CBC Radio Regional
Director, told me afterwards.  “It's important for the audience to
hear these things.”  Joan is also presently chair of the Vancouver
Public Library, so she really has her fingers on the pulse on being
able to influence Canadian culture.  We agreed that it would be
great to have a One Book One Vancouver program at the Central Library
featuring  Roy Miki and the Vancouver Opera  Naomi's Road
selections.

Roy's lecture and the Naomi's Road musical performances will be broadcast on CBC Radio's Ideas program on June 27th, 9:05pm.

Great meeting and talking with friends and the performers at the
reception following, such as Dr. Sid Katz (who had his brand new Order
of Canada pin on his lapel), Bev Nann, Pam Chappell, Brian Sullivan –
all from my explorAsian / Asian Heritage Month network.  Veera Devi Khare
was able to make it as well, and had a wonderful chat with Andrew
Winstanly of the Canadian Club.  Sid Tan videoed the event for a
future Saltwater City TV segment.

 Lovely chat with Grace Chan – turns out she
already knew my girlfriend when they used to work at Vancouver Opera
together.  Grace introduce Jessica Cheung to me, who had just
discovered www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com the previous night, when she was
googling “Naomi's Road.”  Hmm… maybe we can have Grace singing
at the next Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner…. hmmm… maybe…

BC Highland Games

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The BC Highland Games
is Saturday June 25th,  Jim Bain is one of the organizers and he
showed me around back in 2003.  It was a great little festival –
very friendly.  Not as splashy (no pun intended) as the Alcan
Dragon Boat Festival – just very community oriented.

There is highland dancing, drum and bagpipe competition, The athletic
events will be: light stone, light hammer, 28lbs. and 56lbs. weight for
distance, weight for height, caber toss; for everyone and the A's will
also do: Braemar stone, heavy hammer and a sheaf toss.

Maybe I could try the athletic events as a walk-in.  This might
start to satisfy my “all things Scottish” obssession.  As I walked
around through the festival site, I wondered if my amazement at all the
“ethnic” events and booths was similar to non-Chinese walking through
Chinatown on Chinese New Year Parade day or during the Night Market.

Speaking of markets… maybe this year is the year, I have a booth to
promote Gung Haggis Fat Choy events at the BC Highland Games.  I
have GHFC t-shirts, event posters to give out.  I could sell cd's
by my musician friends Joe McDonald and/or Silk Road Music.  Wow! maybe I could have my booth next to Bear Kilts, and pass out haggis won-tons!

Jim and I inquired about the dancers and bagpipers, looking for any
participants with any Chinese and Scottish blended heritage, as Moyra
Rodgers was then  preparing for the CBC Television special “Gung
Haggis Fat Choy.”  Surprisingly, it was not an uncommon request,
Jim's own daughters are half Chinese and Scottish.  But alas Jim's
daughters have now long since graduated university and moved to
Toronto.  Apparently there is a young bagpiper who is half
Malyasian Chinese, and there are some dancers who are “hapa” – but
somehow I missed them that day.