Dragon boat racing really does represent cultural diversity in BC. The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is really honoured that we were asked by Global News to represent this topic for their program World Class BC on Feb 26, in a story by Elaine Yong, who shared with me that her husband is Scottish Canadian, and she is sometimes called McYong. Guess we will have to recruit her for the team!
I watched the airing of the story at a friend's home, where we were having a farewell dinner party for author Sharon Butala. Sharon has been helping the Historic Joy Kogawa House Committee with grant applications to create a writer-in-residence program, and has been staying at Joy's apartment in Vancouver's West End.
Sharon shared with me, that she really enjoyed seeing the cultural diversity on Robson St. Not only were there lots of different students from all across Asia, but people from all over the world, and even men holding hands. Coming from tiny Eastend, Sasketchewan, Sharon said that it felt like being in a different world. The great thing she said, was that everybody was happy. Vancouver's tolerance for racial and lifestyle differences is very high, and this has given support for helping create our cultural diversity in BC.
And then we heard Global News anchor Deborah Hope say that cultural diversity is one of the things that makes BC World Class. “It's on!” I called to everybody upstairs to come watch the show with us. Very appropriately, the feature unfolded with stories about First Nations canoes and carving, featuring Nu-Chal-Nuth carvers Joe Martin and Douglas David.
“Gung Haggis, Gung Haggis, Gung Haggis Fat Choy!” we heard the team cheer. And we saw the team loading up the dragon boat team. Elaine Yong explains that Dragon boating is part of a 1000 year tradition from China, and our team blends together Scottish history and culture. Todd Wong (me) is interviewed and Elaine states the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is in training for the 20th Vancouver dragon boat Festival, now North America's largest, and one of the biggest outside Hong Kong.
You can see the Global News feature on the web
Go to:
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/bc/video/index.html
Scroll down to:
WORLD CLASS BC FEB 26
fast forward to 1:34 to 2:27 for Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.
World Class BC Feb 26.
1) Joe Martin carves Nu-Chal-Nuth First Nations canoes
2) Douglas David carves Nu-Chal-Nuth First Nations masks
3) Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team with Todd Wong
4) Bangra Dancing with Raakhi Sinha
Additionally,
you can see the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team featured on a ZDF
German Public Television travelogue titled “Toronto to Vancouver, by
Train.”
http://wstreaming.zdf.de/zdf/veryhigh/071219_toronto_vancouver.asx
go to the 54 minute mark to find us!
This show aired December 2007 across Europe. The race shots were filmed at the ADBF sprint regatta. Here's the blog story: http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2007/4/14/2881088.html