Tetsuro Shigematsu (centre) tells wild and crazy stories about co-hosts Toddish McWong (left) and Jenna Chow (right), as Todd and Jenna prepare to read the poem “Recipe for Tea” composed by Jim Wong-Chu, one of our traditional Gung Haggis Fat Choy poems – photo Lydia Nagai
Tetsuro himself is very intercultural, very Gung Haggis. While he is of Japanese ancestry, he was born in London England, and raised in Quebec. His wife is Persian… He speaks Persian as well as English, French and Japanese… And his beautiful spirited children are Japanese-Persian-Canadians.
I first got to know Tetsuro back in the early 2000's when he was a member of the sketch comedy group, The Hot Sauce Posse. Soon after he was the new radio host for CBC Radio's “The Round Up” replacing Bill Richardson.
In February, Tetsuro was a speaker for TedX – the topic sounds soooo Gung Haggis. Chinese in Kilts? A walking Oxymoron?
TEDxTerrytalks 2010 – Tetsuro Shigematsu – The Awesomeness of Your Contradiction… |
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHlSuPe0imA22 Feb 2011 – 17 min – Uploaded by TEDxTalks
Stick out your thumb. That's the thickness of my press package. If you flip through it, fanning past you would … |
This past summer Tetsuro has been very busy. He hosted the Asian Comedy Night by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre in June.
But in August, I saw Tetsuro in the play Salmon Row, about the history of the Steveston community in Richmond. It was a brilliant play that told the history of BC and the salmon and cannery industry which also focused on the interactions of the non-White communities. The audience witnessed the effects of the provincial legislation against Chinese workers such as the head tax and Exclusion Act, against the First Nations workers such as the Potlatch Law and Residential Schools, and against the Japanese fisherman such as reduction of fishing licenses, and the internment during WW2. Tetsuro did an incredible job, playing multiple roles and
Enjoy this clips from Tetsuros's video website www.shiggy.com
China VS Japan – Who is Smarter
This is the video that went viral – a response to the Maclean's article “Too Asian?” – As
seen in the National Post, Global Television, Vancouver Sun, Geist
Magazine, Epoch Times, Vancouver Observer, etc.
Tickets now on sale
through Firehall Arts Centre
https://tickets.firehallartscentre.ca/TheatreManager/1/tmEvent/tmEvent526.html