This year's dinner will be a mix of announced performers, traditional singalongs, surprise guests, documentary movie excerpts + sneak preview of a brand new Asian Canadian theatre play + lots of raffle prizes.
To recognize our 10th anniversary… we are trying to recreate the spontaneity of the very first dinner for 16 people back in 1998 – but with 400 guests. For that dinner, each guest was asked to bring a song or a poem to share. We will alternate singalongs, poetry reading, musical performance, movie excerpt, mini theatrical reading, along with a 10 course Chinese banquet dinner.
Please read below for descriptions of 2008 performers, and planned events.
Media Alert
January 25th, 2008
Gung Haggis Fat Choy!
Chinese-Scots-Canadians deep-fry Robbie Burns and lettuce rap the haggis.
10th Annual Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner
features special guests and surprises… like the anticipation of
Vancouver councilor Raymond Louie wearing a kilt! Mc Louie and McWong
will start off Robbie Burns Day by a joint appearance on Rock 101's Bro
Jake Show.
January 27th, 2008
5:00 reception, 6:00 dinner
Floata Seafood Restaurant
#400 – 180 Keefer St.
Vancouver Chinatown.
“This is shaping up to the best
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner yet!” states bagpiper Joe McDonald, who has
piped in the haggis for 8 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners beginning in
2001. Joe and organizer Todd Wong will be featured on CBC Newsworld's
6pm tv broadcast to the nation on January 25th, when they will perform
a short rap version Robbie Burns' immortal poem – Address to a Haggis. McDonald and his cross-cultural fusion band Brave Waves provide a sonic setting for many of the evening's singalongs.
Gung Haggis Fat Choy is a dinner like no other.
Jam-packed with cross-cultural references to the Scottish and Chinese
pioneer history of British Columbia, it feeds its audience a
cultural-fusion cuisine of deep-fried haggis wun tun and lettuce wrap
in a 10 course Chinese banquet. It looks forward to the future of
Chinese-Scottish-Canadian mixed DNA, and present-time Hapa-Canadian
culture of mixed ethnicity.
Vancouver poet Laureate George McWhirter
has written a special poem for the event. He unveiled it at the
Tuesday night rehearsal dinner to a very pleased private audience.
Blackthorn, the celtic music band, is
really looking forward to the cultural fusion mix that Gung Haggis Fat
Choy. Vocalist/flautist Michelle Carlisle really loved the
taste-testing dinner and played a duet of Loch Lomand with host Todd
Wong on his accordion, for Shaw TV's The Express with Sukhi Ghuman.
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Blackthorn's Rosie, Michelle, and Dianne with Tim and Michael (sitting)
features a cinematic retelling about her great great grandfather
magician. Fleming is a new board member for Asian Canadian Writers'
Workshop – a recipient for this increasingly famous fundraiser dinner.
Generations: The Chan Legacy
is a CBC documentary – which features Todd Wong and his Gung Haggis Fat
Choy creation. Wong is a 5th generation descendant of Rev. Chan Yu Tan
who arrived in Canada in 1896.
Catherine Barr,
media columnist is going to introduce a Burns dinner tradition never
before presented at a Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner. Watch out for a
Toast to the Lassies and Rebuttal, like you've never seen or heard
before. Definitely YouTube worthy.
A sneak preview of The Quickie,
a new play by emerging playwright Grace Chin. Burns so loved the
ladies. But do Asian ladies prefer Chinese guys or White guys?
Poetry by Robbie Burns and Chinese Canadian poets
Singalongs
of traditional and culturally-tweaked familiar songs, such as “When
Asian Eyes Are Smiling”, and “My Haggis Lies Over the Ocean, My Chow
Mein Lies Over the Sea.”
+ Raffle Prizes and Auction Prizes
This
event is a fundraiser for Historic Joy Kogawa House, Asian Canadian
Writers' Workshop / Ricepaper Magazine, and Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon
boat team.
For more information
Call Todd Wong
h: 604-987-7124
c: 778-846-7090
email: gunghaggisfatchoy.com
www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com
Here are the latest media appearance and stories about Gung Haggis Fat Choy:
Friday January 25
Bro Jake Show Classic Rock 101 FM
with Vancouver City councilor Raymond Louie – some time between 7:30am and 8:45am
Friday January 25
The Express on SHAW TV – channel 4
Interviews and footage from the taste-testing rehearsal
at 10am, 11am, 11:30am, 2pm, 3pm
January 25
TIME CHANGE
CBC News World 12:45pm PST
CBC TV 26 – Todd Wong interview + Haggis Rap by Todd & Joe McDonald
Georgia Straight – Straight Choices – Jan 24
King of Culture – page 19
Vancouver Sun – January 23
On the burner – Mia Stainsby,
Gung Haggis Fat Choy: This Scottish-Chinese-Canadian tri-brid event celebrates its 10th year
Georgia Straight – Blog – Jan 16
I will wear a kilt to Robbie Burns dinner, Coun. Raymond McLouie
Hi You Guys have somuch fun! I am very envy of not live close to your area. I am Chinese-American and a Scottish Great Highland Piper. I wish I would escort your Haggis with both Chinese and scottish pipe tunes.
well…. email me, and let's talk.
There are a few Chinese-born bagpipe players living in the Vancouver area.
Where do you live?