Tonight is the night I get to see my contributions in print for the book: Eating Stories A Chinese-Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck.
Brandy
will be on CBC Radio Friday morning with Rick Cluff, Morning Edition, at about
7:50AM.
Also some hot news from
Henry. Jerry Kwok has done a
wonderful job with the 8 min. teaser film on the workshop. It's downloadable at
http://www.instrcc.ubc.ca/CCHS/CCHS_workshop.wmv .
We are having an author's book launch tonight at the Rhizome Cafe on Broadway, before the official book launch at the Vancouver Museum Sunday Nov. 25th at the Vancouver Museum.
It was a wonderful pleasure to meet so many people interested in the writing process, and how to improve their own writing skills. People were so interested in food, our workshop discussions often took forays into Chinese-Canadian history, memories of food and family, as well as cultural traditions and differences.
The first book, Tracing Roots, by the CCHS is especially memorable for me because my cousin Hayne Wai contributed stories about his mother and our uncles. It was great to be able to take the book home as a gift to my parents, and show them the paragraphs featuring “Uncle James,” “Auntie Rose,” and my father – “Uncle Bill” to my cousin or “Bok-Sook” (#8 Uncle).
Tonight all the writing workshop participants get to take home copies of the book. I will get to show my parents my published contributions of photographs and paragraphs, which introduce the stories of how I developed my love for salmon, my creation of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and how our dragon boat team cooks up it's own haggis won ton. This anthology features 2 current (Dan Seto and myself – Todd Wong) and two past paddlers (Grace Chow and Meena Wong) from the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.
Brandy
Lien-Worrall, our workshop leader and anthology editor, will be on CBC Radio Friday morning with Rick Cluff, Morning Edition, at about
7:50AM.
Also some hot news from
Henry. Jerry Kwok has done a
wonderful job with the 8 min. teaser film on the workshop. It's downloadable at
http://www.instrcc.ubc.ca/CCHS/CCHS_workshop.wmv .
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: info@cchsbc.ca
Meals and Memories Come
Alive in New Collection of Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Food and Family
Stories
Groundbreaking work
captures authors’ personal stories of family and community
VANCOUVER – The
Chinese Canadian Historical Society (CCHS) is pleased to announce the
publication of Eating Stories: A Chinese
Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck, edited by Brandy Liên Worrall and with
Foreword by Margaret Gallagher.
Following the
success of the first workshop and the resulting book publication, Finding Memories, Tracing Routes
(English and bilingual English-Chinese editions), CCHS held a second writing
workshop with the theme of “Food and Family”, which had nearly tripled in
size. Twenty-three participants of
Chinese Canadian or Aboriginal backgrounds researched, discussed, and wrote
their memories of family gatherings, home cooking, restaurant outings, and
other stories cooked up by the smells, tastes, sounds, sights, and textures
that bring families and communities together.
Together with their stories, 37 family recipes and over 170 images
complete the collection. Additional
contributors include Imogene Lim, Lisa Moore, Janice Wong, and Henry Yu.
George
McWhirter, Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, says of this groundbreaking collection:
“I want one of those meals and to be in one of those families. If I can’t be that in actuality, these
stories make me a guest of all, complete with recipes for me to try out on my
own, after. These are more than
literate tellings of family food rituals and recipes; they are elegantly and
pungently related. . .In the process, these pieces become evocative literature
and unforgettable history.”
“This
collection is amazing in terms of the scope of experiences in these Canadian
communities, from the 1930s all the way to present day,” states editor and
workshop facilitator Brandy Liên Worrall.
“Reading these stories is just like sitting in a Chinatown café eating
apple tarts in the 1960s or going to a barbecue at the reservation, catching
salmon and having a good time. This is really history you can eat.”
Writers include
Jacquie Adams, Jennifer Chan, Shirley Chan, Allan Cho, Grace Chow, Lilly Chow,
Betty Ho, George Jung, Jackie Lee-Son, Roy Mah, Gordy Mark, Amy Perrault, Dan
Seto, Bob Sung, Hayne Wai, Evelyn Wong, Larry Wong, Todd Wong, Harley A. Wylie,
May Yan-Mountain, Candace Yip, Gail Yip, and Ken Yip. The Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC would like to
acknowledge the support from the Provincial Capital Commission for the
participation of two First Nations authors in the writing workshop.
An “authors
reception” will be held at Rhizome Café (317 East Broadway) on Thursday, November 22, 2007, at 7:00 PM. This intimate event will have a short
presentation and author readings. Media
interest in this event, including requests for interviews with the authors,
should be directed to Nancy Fong, nancy.wy.fong@gmail.com. Media attendance to this event is by RSVP
only.
The “Eating
Stories: A Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck” book launch, hosted by
CBC’s Margaret Gallagher, will be held at the Vancouver Museum on Sunday, November 25, 2007, at 4:00 PM. Authors will read from the book, as well as
answer questions from the audience. In addition, New Voices: Chinese Canadian Narratives of
Post-1967 Diaspora, a post-secondary student-initiated anthology of
literary and artistic works by Chinese Canadians living in the Lower Mainland,
will be also launched that day. This book is now available at http://www.newvoicesproject.org/
.
Copies of Eating
Stories can be purchased at the authors reception and the launch. For more information, bulk and educational
orders, and press kits, email nancy.wy.fong@gmail.com. Copies may also be purchased online at http://www.lulu.com/cchsbc. Proceeds go toward the “Edgar Wickberg
Scholarship for Chinese Canadian History.”
ABOUT the CHINESE CANADIAN
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
The
Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia (CCHSBC) is a broadly
based membership society with educational goals. Our main objective is to bring out the untold history of ethnic
Chinese within the history of British Columbia. We achieve this through sustained efforts at document
preservation, research, family and oral history promotion, public education
programmes, an active website, and many other initiatives.
MEDIA
CONTACT-ENGLISH AND CHINESE [interviews &
press kits]: nancy.wy.fong@gmail.com