Toddish McWong, co-founder of SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival poses with McFogg the Dog, and SFU Rowers prior to the dragon cart racing event. – photo courtesy Todd Wong
The Chinese lion looks a bit like Stitch from “Lilo and Stitch” playing bagpipes… but its colourful, and it gets your attention – photo Todd Wong
It's not everyday an SFU student gets to inspire an annual festival
event long after they graduated from their university. It was in 2005,
that I was invited to help co-found the SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy
Festival. The Recreation department wanted to create an event that
could help kick-start the Spring Semester in January. They also wanted
an event that could involve the university's large Asian student
population as well as the university's Scottish traditions for Robbie
Burns Day. Gee… wasn't that Chinese Robbie Burns Dinner thing…
Gung Haggis Fat Choy created by a SFU student?
So… they invited me up for some meetings, and learned about how I
first wore a kilt and carried the claymore in the 1993 SFU Robbie Burns
Day ceremonies. I came up with the idea of a “dragon cart race” to
simulate dragon boats racing across Convocation Mall. They came up
with a haggis eating contest.
A few years later, SFU Recreation invented “human curling” – tires
mounted on dolly wheels that can simulate curling rocks gliding down
the ice. It was a hit! No more haggis eating contests now…
The SFU Kung Fu Club provided the Chiense Lion Dance for the Festival. Here, the Lion has eaten an offering of lettuce and spits it out!
Todd Wong gives the Address to the Haggis, to help start the SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival.
The SFU Women's soccer team, wins their first heat. They would go on to win the Best of 3 finals against the SFU Demolition and Participation team.