Playwright Marty Chan came to a special evening reception at Historic Joy Kogawa House on March 30, to discuss his new play The Forbidden Phoenix, currently being produced by Gateway Theatre in Richmond.

“They are the best costumes” that Marty Chan has seen, of the three different productions for The Forbidden Phoenix.  Marty Chan and Todd Wong are impressed with the “Phoenix” costume for the musical play “The Forbidden Phoenix” written by playwright Marty Chan. They both love Chinese Canadian history, and Chan has written a fascinating father and son story, while incorporating both the story of Chinese building the railway in Canada, and a visit from The Monkey King to Canada.

Todd, president of Historic Joy Kogawa House, facilitated the evening's
fascinating conversation, and drew out the importance of the Monkey
King's famed “Journey to the West”, as actually visiting not North
America, but to go West from China to India.  Monkey King is credited
with “discovering Buddhism” and bringing it back to China.  But in North
American culture, we think of “The West” as Western Canada and the USA,
where many Chinese pioneers came to seek gold in “Gum San” or “Gold
Mountain”.  In a wonderful turn of Chinese North American Identity, Todd
and Marty discussed the graphic novel American Born Chinese, which interweaves 3 different stories and incorporates The Monkey King.