Monthly Archives: February 2008

Gung Haggis dragon boat team team hits the water with a Global TV cameraman filming them to celebrate BC's cultural diversity

We had a great practice in the sunshine today with a full 22 paddler boat and a Global TV camerman!

It was the first practice of the year, and all paddlers were enthusiastic veterans who braved the chilly February sunshine. We were even filmed by a Global TV camerman. Maybe it's like a dragon boat version of ground hog day…. if we can see our shadow we will have have great season of fun and medals.

It's the earliest time we've ever been out on the water. Last year we started on the first Sunday in March with only 8 paddlers in the rain who went out in Marathon canoes. This year it was 24 team members.

Even the media attention has come early. Last April, a the ADBF sprint regatta, it was a ZDF German Public television crew filming us for a travelogue documentary titled Toronto to Vancouver. We are featured near the end of the show. Check out:
http://wstreaming.zdf.de/zdf/veryhigh/071219_toronto_vancouver.asx
go to 54 minute mark of the 58 minute documentary to find the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.

Attending our first practice were:
returning Gung Haggis paddlers Wendy, Tzhe, Keng & Gerard, Georgia,
Julie, Ashleigh, Steven Wong & Jane, Stephen Mirowski, Joe, Emma,
Leanne, Daming, and myself… + Lena who joined us in Oct + Raphael,
Adam & Nicole from the UA team (who had joined us for Lotus and Ft.
Langley Races) + 5 paddlers from CC Dragons Don & Paulette, Gail,
Marg, and Debbie = 24 people on the water – Wow!

We were enthusiastically enjoying the sunshine, and happy to be out paddling, stretching our muscles!

We are grateful to the CC Dragons paddlers
who are joining us, and bringing lots of experience from years of
competitive, and Rec A/B racing. Thank you to the Gung Haggis paddlers
for making them feel welcome. We will be inclusive, sharing
leadership, wisdom, experience, enthusiasm and lots of fun, food and
drink.

The Global TV cameraman came out
to shoot some shots of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team and to
interview Todd for a story about “The Best of BC”. Cultural diversity
is the topic, and Todd and the Gung Haggis dragon boat team will
represent it to Global TV veiwers for the story celebrating BC's 150th
Anniversary.

From Global TV producer/reporter Elaine Yong:

We
did a poll asking people what they thought were the things that made BC
a world-class place, and people/culture/diversity was one of the top 10
responses. To illustrate some of BC's amazing culture and diversity, I
thought you would be a great person to profile. But of course, we need
some viz of you doing something, and since we missed the dinner, the
dragon boating would be great, as well as another example of cultural
diversity. The story is scheduled to air Feb 26 or 27,

Today was a great start
to a new Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat season. We plan to have two
teams where new paddlers can learn from veteran paddlers, and our best
paddlers can race to their potential.

Please remember to dress warmly,
with polypropelene underwear that will wick moisture away, windbreakers
to cut the wind chill, and bring water – as we still loose moisture
through our breath. It's important to stay warm and hydrated – even
more so, as we are just getting started again in cold weather and many
of us have not been exercising for awhile.

Two teams for 2008 will be GREAT!
Two boats can race together on Sunday afternoon practices
Tuesday
and Wednesday 6pm practices will evolve as either advanced paddler or
technique/beginner practices… or dependent upon which night people
can attend.

We are building flexibility into our practice schedule.
People could also paddle on one day, and help coach or steer on another day or more.

If new people would like to join they can contact me at:
gunghaggis at yahoo dot ca

or phone Todd Wong
h: 604-987-7124
c: 778-846-7090

Up the Yangtze movie showing at the Ridge – director Yung Chang in attendance

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This is the film getting lots of rave reviews for it's documentation of the building of the 
Three Gorges Dam, and deplacement of tens of thousands of people.

Click here for the official website

I almost had a chance to dragon boat down the river in 2002, as several teams were taking 
part in a 35 km rally.

If you have ever travelled in the American Southwest, and seen the man-made Hoover Dam 
and the man made Lake Mead which devasted the Glen Canyon, and countless Anasazi 
archeological sites, you might start to have an idea of what the 3 Gorges Dam project has 
caused... but on a much more massive scale.  

Now add that Canada's Export Development Corporation has funded millions of dollars 
to this devastation and wonder if the human displacement and loss of land and archeological
sites was worth it...

Up the Yangtze
Ridge Theatre

Showtimes for the week of Feb 15 to 21

              Daily at: 
              2:30, 7:00, 9:00 
              no 2:30 show Wed Feb 20

              Director Yung Chang 
              will be at the following screenings to 
              answer questions from the audience.

              Friday Feb 15, 7:00 & 9:00
              Saturday Feb 16, 2:30 - 7:00 & 9:00
              Sunday Feb 17, 2:30 - 7:00 & 9:00


http://www.festivalcinemas.ca/movies/up-the-yangtze.htm 

- please go see
http://www.uptheyangtze.com/
http://www.givemeaning.com/project/yufam

Eric on the Road podcast with Gung Haggis Fat Choy – hitting US pod cast waves

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Back in January, Todd Wong was interviewed by Eric Model for “Conversations on the Road.” Model describes his show as “journeys into the offbeat, off the beaten path, overlooked and the forgotten.”

“And today most appropriately takes us into the category of offbeat. And today's journey we go to Vancouver and we are discussing and event called 'Gung Haggis Fat Choy.'”

It's a very interesting 21 minute and 38 second pod cast with a stimulating conversation about the origins of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, early Chinese and Scottish pioneers in the late 1800's, racism, cultural traditions, inter-racial marriage, and the Canadian explorer Simon Fraser who was actually born in Vermont.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Gung Haggis Fat Choy – A Unique Scottish-Chinese Cultural Celebration

Posted by: emodel // Category: Uncategorized // 8:15 am

Gung
Haggis Fat Choy is a cultural event originating from Vancouver, BC. The
name Gung Haggis Fat Choy is a combination wordplay on Scottish and
Chinese words: haggis is a traditional Scottish food and Gung Hay Fat
Choy/Kung Hei Fat Choi s a traditional Cantonese greeting (in Mandarin
it is pronounced Gong Xi Fa Cai) used during Chinese New Year. The
event originated to mark the timely coincidence of the Scottish
cultural celebration of Robert Burns Day (January 25) with the Chinese
New Year, but has come to represent a celebration of combining cultures
in untraditional ways.

In Vancouver, the event is characterized by music, poetry, and other
performances around the city, culminating in a large banquet and party.
This unique event has also inspired both a television performance
special titled Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
Canadian Games, organized by the Recreation Department at Simon Fraser
University.

In this conversation, we speak with event founder and spearhead Todd
Wong. He tells us how it got started, and what it has come to represent
around Vancouver and far beyond.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy [21:38m]: Download

Gung Haggis Fat Choy goes Seattle…. “one of the strangest things borrowed from north of the border”

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North Seattle Herald-Outlook has written a story about the upcoming 2nd coming of Toddish McWong to Seattle. Last year we staged a Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner on Chinese New Year Day in Seattle. It was a benefit for the Pacific North West Junior Pipe Band.

Check out my blog report from Gung Haggis Seattle 2007

Gung Haggis Fat Choy!
Feb. 24 event to mark Chinese New Year, Scottish Burns Night

By Elizabeth Mortenson

01/31/2008




	¡ Joe MacDonald celebrates multiculturalism by donning a Chinese lion-head mask and Scottish kilt for Gung Haggis Fat Choy. photo/Jaime Griffiths

America
has imported its fair share of entertaining goods from Canada,
including, but not limited to Celine Dion, hockey and Crown Royal
whisky.

However, it's possible the strangest thing borrowed
from our neighbors lately is Gung Haggis Fat Choy, the Scottish/Chinese
celebration being put on by The Caledonian & St. Andrew's Society
of Seattle on Feb. 24.

And if you're thinking to yourself, 'That sounds like a bizarre combination,' you're not alone.

“It's
weird – it's totally weird,” said creator Todd Wong. Started by Wong as
a dinner between friends to celebrate the Chinese New Year and the
Scots' Burns Night, the event is now a 400-seat extravaganza in
Vancouver, B.C., entering its 10th year.

After a decade and repeated exposure to this odd idea through the media, this cross-cultural
experiment has gained some acceptance.

A CROSS-CULTURAL CELEBRATION

In
1998, Wong, a Chinese Canadian, was planning a celebratory dinner for
the Chinese New Year. Burns Night happened to fall only two days away
from the new year, so he merged them. With this unusual but interesting
choice, he became “Toddish McWong.”

Burns Night is a
traditional holiday in Scotland held to honor the poet and national
icon Robert Burns, the man who wrote the ubiquitous-on-New-Year's-Eve
“Auld Lang Syne.” Celebrated every Jan. 25, the night assumed to be his
birthday, Scots hold suppers where people eat, honor his life and read
poetry.

The festivals are held around the world, but the haggis-dim sum derivation is McWong's particular hybrid.

Everything
from the food to the dress is an intermixing of the two cultures – even
the name of the festival. During the Chinese New Year people often say
“Gung Hei Fat Choy” to each other, which translates roughly from
Cantonese (a Chinese dialect) into English as “Congratulations and be
prosperous.

“Haggis
is the national dish of Scotland and a perennial favorite at Burns
Suppers. “It's like a giant hot dog. It's sheep stomach filled with
chopped-up liver, kidneys, spices, oatmeal, and then you boil it,”
described Diana Smith, entertainment director for the St. Andrew's
Society. She added that it was like a “meat pudding” – probably one of
the nicer things it's been called.

So “Hei” was replaced with “Haggis,” and Gung Haggis Fat Choy came into being.

“I think the Scottish people come to eat the Chinese food, and the Chinese people come for the bagpipes,” Wong said.

SPREADING THE WORD

The
idea of holding a Gung Haggis Fat Choy event in Seattle was Bill
McFadden's, president of the local Caledonian Society in 2007.

According to Smith, their Seattle celebration last year had few Chinese people in attendance. Wong estimates there were four
Scots to each Chinese person in attendance in Vancouver.

This
disparity could be due to the fact that these events are sponsored by
Caledonian Societies, whose purpose is to promote Scottish awareness,
are subsequently predominately Scottish in membership. However, all are
welcome and invited to attend.

“This year we're trying to get
the word out; I've contacted the Asian publications, so we're hoping to
have more of the Chinese element…. We'll see what happens,” Smith
said.

At this year's celebration in Seattle, the Washington
Chinese Youth Orchestra and Northwest Junior Pipe Band will perform for
the anticipated 200 to 250 guests (150 people attended last year's
event). Wong, himself, will be there to emcee the event. “It's gonna be
a blast,” he said.

GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY
Sunday, Feb. 24, 5-9 p.m.
Ocean City Restaurant
609 S. Weller St., Chinatown
Tickets $35
Diana Smith, 523-2618

Tailor Made: CBC TV documentary highlights Modernize Tailors' 80 year history in Vancouver Chinatown

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TAILOR MADE: Chinatown's Last Tailors
CBC Newsworld
Tuesday February 12th
7pm/10pm EST & PST

Modernize Tailors began in 1913 when their father opened the store. Brothers Bill and Jack took it over in 1953. It's now 2007, and Bill's younger brother Milton wants to help brothers Bill and Jack retire gracefully by turning the tailor shop into a “living museum” and “hobby shop,” and move into the restored building and original site of their father's tailorshop. But will they pass the historic tailor shop on to an fashion journalist apprentice or the hot shot tailor at Holt Renfrew?

This is the story behind Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors, directed by Len Lee and Marsha Newbery, and produced by Marsha Newbery

This was a wonderful documentary that was more concerned with the present day human story of finding a successor for Modernize Tailors, rather than retelling the history of Chinatown and how the Wong Brothers Bill and Jack turned to their father's tailor shop after they were told there would be no jobs for them because they were Chinese, even though they had just graduated with UBC engineering degrees in 1946. In following the two different successor storylines, the viewer learns an appreciation for what Bill and Jack Wong created with Modernize Tailors, and why it has a special place not only in Chinatown history, but also Vancouver history. We learn that it once was Vancouver's busiest and largest tailor shop, employing up to 20 people and operating 7 days a week.

You really got to know a sense of Bill Wong, tailor. He is such as nice down to earth person. He genuinely was interested in apprentice JJ Lee, and the hot shot tailor David. But now Bill is 85 years old. There are other concerns in his life such as his wife and garden. It is shared that wife Zoe is in the beginning stages of Alzheimers disease, and there is a touching scene of them walking hand in hand in Queen Elizabeth Park near their home. And then there are the many children and grandchildren that we are never introduced to.

There are even some celebrity appearances! Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan comes into the shop to visit and says that he wants to be able to brag that he has a Modernize Tailors suit. There is a picture of Sean Connery who was a customer, as well as a thank you note from Gordon Lightfoot. At one time, Modernize Tailors was “the tailor shop” to go to in Vancouver – especially when the zoot suits were in fashion! Nowadays they just make zoot suits for the theatre and film companies.

But the best celebrity appearance is their baby brother Milton Wong. Bill shares that Milton was named to the Order of Canada and chancellor at Simon Fraser University. The narrator says that Milton is a well-known investor and philanthropist who has bought the historic Chinese Freemasons building and restored it as a senior's residence. It was also the early site of Modernize Tailors from for fifty years from 1936 to 1976. Milton has created a smaller storefront for Modernize Tailors to “retire” into, as a kind of living museum and hobby shop, because elder brothers Bill and Jack aren't ready to quit tailoring yet.

Tailor Made was filmed over a 1 1/2 year period from 2006 to 2007. Bill
Wong's son Steven is on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team so we
heard about some of the story ideas and filming events, such as “the
move.” From time to time I pop into Modernize Tailors, so I also
bumped into the film makers and Wong family members. At one point the
film crew was asking about having the 85 year old Bill Wong paddle on
our dragon boat team, because he had done so as part of “The Wong Way”
family dragonboat team in 2004 and 2005.

Bill Wong attended this year's Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, and his son Steven is a paddler on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. It's nice to get to know Bill over the past few years, as our family's have many connections.

It was nice to see my uncle Laddie in the show, since he is one of the tailors employed by Bill and Jack. And I saw my Auntie Verna, when there was a food celebration with the Wong families in the store.

My cousin Joe Wai made a brief appearance as “the architect” of the restored heritage building, that Bill Wong's younger brother Milton has bought to house the “living museum” of the working tailor shop.

Over the past 3 years there have been 4 documentaries about Vancouver Chinatown families and individuals: Mary Lee Chan: Taking On City Hall, I Am the Canadian Delegate (the Douglas Jung Story), Generations: The Chan Legacy and now Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors. I am proud to know descendants from each of the families documented, and especially that there are descendants from each family paddling on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team!

Bill Wong & Wong Family 2005 Carving dragon head photo Todd Wong

Here's a picture of tailor-turned-woodcarver Bill Wong working on a dragon boat head with the youngest generation of Wongs. Both the Wong Way and Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat teams took part in an experimental workshop to carve wooden dragon boat heads in the spring of 2005.

“The Quickie” is very Vancouver play about diversity and expectations in relationships

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We saw Grace Chin's new play “The Quickie” on Friday night. Two words quickly came to mind – “Very Vancouver.”
Two people drag their friends to a Speed Dating event, meet new people, have a follow-up date, then let the sparks and fur fly when they ask their friends to tag along on a double date.

It is a witty comedy play that had the audience talking about it during the intermission, and even making the “awwww” sound when one of the characters was rejected.

Playwright Grace has captured the diversity of even the Vancouver's Asian population, incorporating Maylaysian Chinese, Korean, South Asian and Cantonese Chinese origins, as well as Irish-Italian, and Hong Kong origins. Accents blend into the action, and you don't notice them as none of the four lead performers speak with accents.

Inter-ethnic dating is a topic discussion. Do we or don't we? It was funny, because my girlfriend and I were sitting with friends, and we were both inter-ethnic couples. So very Vancouver, in Canada's capital of inter-ethnic relationships.

Check out http://www.scriptingaloud.ca/quickie/

More later….

Georgia Straight pokes fun at “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” becoming a icon of cultural diversity

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Gung Haggis Word Play

After 10 years of walking around in a kilt, saying that Gung Haggis Fat Choy speaks to the post-multicultural intersection of Scottish-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian pioneer history in BC, people are bound to take a few fun pokes. After the initial “shock”, “Wow – that's cool”, and “Are you for real?” – people settle down and look at how the simple transformation of words and phrases, can transform how we think about objects, traditions, society and even our selves.

There was one mandarin speaker who approached our wood carving tent at
the 2005 SeaVancouver tent, where members of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dragon boat team were carving a wooden dragon boat head, as part of a
demonstration. He insisted that we should be selling haggis, because
he thought that our banner “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” was a
food stand.

Some Chinese mandarin speakers dont' quite get the play on the words, because the cantonese Gung Hay Fat Choy / Kung Hei Fat Choi phrase in Mandarin is Gong Xi Fa Cai. I once had a heck of a time, trying to explain that to somebody who was writing the Wikipedia entry. Haggis probably untranslatable in any language. It just goes to show that words, their arrangments and their meanings, can all have a diversity to whomever writes or reads them.

Craig Takeuchi knows all about the racial stereotypes Canadian born Asians have faced growing up in Canada, He is 4th generation Canadian of Japanese descent and has written an interesting story below, playing on the word playing of Gung HAGGIS FAt Choy.

February 7, 2008

How to make Chinese New Year more diversity sensitive

By Craig Takeuchi

Since
we pride ourselves on diversity sensitivity in Vancouver with our
multicultural composition and acceptance of various minority,
lifestyle, and social groups, Chinese New Year should be no exception.

A good example is Gung Haggis Fat Choy,
which caters to the Scottish, Chinese, and
Scottish-Chinese-Canadians-who-like-to-wear-kilts-in-the-freezing-winter
communities.

To make the occasion more inclusive, here are a few
suggestions of appropriate celebratory expressions for people of
different social groups.

vegetarians: Gung Hay Bok Choy

dieters: Gung Hay Skinny Choy

health food eaters: Gung Hay Flax Chow

overeaters: Gung Ho Fat Boy

crazy cat ladies: Gung Ho Cat Choy

rednecks: Dung Hay Farm Choy

cheeky gay men: Hung Gay Fag Choy

Guidos: Go Away Fat Chance

Irritable Bowel Syndrome patients: Gung Hay Fart Choy

people with rotting body parts: Gangrene Hay Fat Choy

movie buffs: Chow Yun Fat Choy

drunken male university students: Gung Hey Frat Boy

hip-hoppers: Gang Hay Phat Choy

untalented entertainers: Gong Show Fat Choy

Gung HAGGIS Fat Choy – Thank yous… + this week's events!

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Catherine Barr + “Toast to the Lassies” kilted male chorus

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!
Year of the Rat
Gung HAGGIS Fat Choy!!

Thank you to everybody for supporting Gung
Haggis Fat Choy fundraising dinner.

I am even now already planning for next year's dinner to
celebrate both: 250th Anniversary of Robbie Burns' birth + Chinese New
Year Eve… all on the same night!

Please
feel welcome to join our future events for Joy Kogawa House, Gung
Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team or Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop.

– Todd Wong aka “Toddish McWong”

Thank you for coming to the 10th Anniversary Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner at the Floata Restaurant.

Thank you for supporting our fundraiser event benefitting: Historic Joy Kogawa House
Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop & Ricepaper Magazine
Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.

It
was our best event yet, the show flowed smoothly, the food was good
with Ginger crab, deep-fried haggis wonton appetizers + Scotch tastings
from Johnny Walker.

Ji-Rong Huang on erhu + Todd Wong on accordion

Please check out www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com for links to pictures for GHFC Dinner 2008 and upcoming events.

Big Big thank you to our performers:
Catherine Barr
Blackthorn – purchase their new cd here
Brave Waves
Ji-Rong Huang
Grace Chin & Emily Chow – The Quickie
Jim Wong-Chu
Shirley Chan and Bob Sung – Chinese Canadian Historical Society
Ann Marie Fleming – The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam
Charlie Cho – stage manager
Carl Schmidt – sound technician

Big big thank you to our sponsors and gift donors:
Diageo � distributors of Johnny Walker scotch
Firehall Arts Centre's Banana Boys
Vancouver Opera � Italian Girl in Algiers
Vancouver Opera – Voices of the Pacific Rim
Uzume Taiko
Arsenal Pulp Press
Harbour Publishing
Tradewind Books
Ann Marie Fleming – The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam
Janice Wong – Chow: From China to Canada
The Quickie – by TF Productions
Ricepaper Magazine subscriptions
Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop

North American Produce Sales � gift baskets

Joe McDonald, Jim McWilliams and Hareesh
Check out these happening events for
Chinese New Year

TUESDAY to Saturday FEB 5 – 9th
BANANA BOYS
Firehall Theatre
The fun play by Leon Aureas,
based on the Terry Woo novel
Back from a hit run last year… manic comedy and Asian identity… or Asian confusion.

FRIDAY Feb 7 – 16
THE QUICKIE
– Playwrights theatre centre on Granville Island
– this is the play excerpted at Gung Haggis dinner
– this is by the same group that did Twisting Fortunes last year

Friday and Saturday Feb 8 & 9
OOZOOMAY! UZUME TAIKO
with special guest Ben
Rogalsky
Japanese Taiko drums with a multi-instrumentalist who plays accordion along with mandolin, tenor banjo and Javanese gamelan

Norman Rothstein Theatre
950 West 41st Ave.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 10,
CHINATOWN NEW YEAR PARADE
12 noon

Place: Parade starts from the Millennium Gate (Pender and Taylor St.), winds through Pender, Gore and Keefer.
Remember to bring your camera along with family and friends!
Visit www.cbavancouver.ca for more info.
Poster
Flyer front / back

Sunday February 10
CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT
Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden Courtyard
(part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad)
10:30 -11:30
1:30 – 3:30

– featuring Silk Road Music
+ Uzume Taiko
+ Loretta Leung Dancers
+ many many more!!!

download the program: click here

http://www.silkroadmusic.ca/sitefiles/olympiad.htm

Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld
TAILOR MADE

This is the CBC documentary about Modernize Tailors (1903) brothers Bill and Jack Wong took over from their father in 1953.

Bill
Wong attended our Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner. His son Steven Wong
paddles on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. This is a
wonderful documentary that received a standing ovation at the Whistler
Film Festival

Bill and Jack's younger brother Milton Wong is one of Vancouver's
important figures, and former chancellor of SFU, and known as the
“grandfather of dragon boat racing” in Vancouver.

Thursday February 15th
FLAG DAY / ORDER of CANADA LUNCHEON
– featuring keynote speaker Dr. Sid Katz C.M,

Canadian Club Vancouver
Join
us for a special luncheon ceremony acknowledging Metro Vancouver's news
recipients of the Order of Canada, and celebrating the 43rd birthday of
the Maple Leaf flag.

Westin Bayshore
11:30 – 1:30pm
$65 for members and Order of Canada members
$80
info@canadianclubvancouver.ca
or call 604-601-5101

Dr. Sid Katz is the special speaker for the Canadian Club Vancouver's annual Flag Day / Order of Canada luncheon

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I like Sid Katz… He LOVES Gung Haggis Fat Choy!
Sid is the director and connector of many things….

Sid will be the key note speaker for the Canadian Club Vancouver's annual Flag Day / Order of Canada luncheon that will acknowledge all of Metro Vancouver's newest recipients of the Order of Canada.

Sid was appointed a member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to science awareness and education in Canada. He also serves at the Excutive Director Community Affairs of the University of BC and the Chaiman of the Education Committee of Genome B.C. Sid has served as Executive Director of Science World in BC and Director General and CEP of the Ontario Science Centre…

But my experience meeting Sid has been in his role of Director of the Chan Centre at UBC. He loves arts and culture. He once came to Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and read a verse of Burns with a yiddish accent. Yes… he has Jewish DNA.

The Flag Day / Order of Canada luncheon celebrates the newest appointees in Metro Vancouver, to the Order of Canada. Margaret Gallagher of CBC Radio will host. We like Margaret… it will be her third year hosting this event.

First Nations welcome will be by Wes Nahannee. Vancouver Bach Children's chorus will also perform. This is the 43rd Birthday of the Canadian Maple Leaf Flag.

Thursday February 15th
FLAG DAY / ORDER of CANADA LUNCHEON
– featuring keynote speaker Dr. Sid Katz C.M,

Canadian Club Vancouver
Join
us for a special luncheon ceremony acknowledging Metro Vancouver's news
recipients of the Order of Canada, and celebrating the 43rd birthday of
the Maple Leaf flag.

Westin Bayshore
11:30 – 1:30pm
$65 for members and Order of Canada members
$80
info@canadianclubvancouver.ca
or call 604-601-5101

Tailor Made: cbc documentary about Chinatown's Modernize Tailors featuring brothers Bill and Jack Wong

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Chinatown History is happening in front of our eyes!

Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld

Watch this CBC documentary about Modernize Tailors (1903) – the last Chinese tailor shop in Vancouver Chinatown.

Bill Wong the tailor attended our 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner. His son Steven
paddles on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. This is a
wonderful documentary that received a standing ovation at the Whistler
Film Festival.

Bill
and Jack's younger brother Milton Wong is one of Vancouver's important
figures, and former chancellor of SFU, and known as the “grandfather of
dragon boat racing” in Vancouver. Both Milton and Steven were interviewed for a German public television documentary addressing multiculturalism in Vancouver. The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team was featured too!
Check out: http://wstreaming.zdf.de/zdf/veryhigh/071219_toronto_vancouver.asx

My own family has known the Wongs for many year, my aunts and uncles went to school with many of the Wong family members. My uncle Laddie works as a tailor at Modernize Tailors.

In 2004, both the “Wong Way” dragon boat team and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team participated in a workshop to carve dragon boat heads at the Round House Community Centre.

“Carvin' the Wong Way” Stephen Wong and nieceKaren from “Paddlin' the Wong Way” dragon boat team – photo Todd Wong

Check the Modernize Tailors Website:
http://www.modernizetailors.blogspot.com/

Tuesday February 12, 2008 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld

TAILOR MADE

A naïve apprentice and a hot, young master tailor are both interested in taking over a legendary tailor shop in Vancouver's Chinatown, but they'll have a hard time convincing the hard-working Wong brothers to retire.

Modernize Tailors opened in 1913, and in the 1950s Bill and Jack Wong
took over from their father. Over the years, they've created suits for
all occasions and for customers from all walks of life-from lumberjacks
and new immigrants to movie stars like Sean Connery and politicians
like Sam Sullivan, the Mayor of Vancouver.

Now, a newer
generation is looking to make their mark and take over the Modernize
Tailors legacy. But will the 85-year-old Wong Brothers ever stop
working?

Tailor Made was directed by Len Lee and Marsha
Newbery, and produced by Marsha Newbery of Realize Entertainment Inc.
It was commissioned by CBC Newsworld.