Category Archives: Chinatown Vancouver

Generations: The Chan Legacy documentary to be shown Oct 28 at Heart of the City Festival

Great news for BC history and genealogy buffs. The CBC documentary about the Rev. Chan Family descendants is being shown at Heart of the City Festival on Oct 28.

http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com/program/thursday-october-28/
Film & Conversation
THE
REV. CHAN FAMILY LEGACY: Five Generations of Vancouver
Chinese
History 1888 to 2007
Thursday October 28, 7:30pm
Chinese Cultural
Centre Museum & Archives, 555 Columbia
The Chan family
first came to Canada to help start the Chinese Methodist Church and
every generation since has made contributions to Canadian society. In
2007, filmmaker Halya Kuchmij interviewed members of one of the oldest
families on the West Coast and made a documentary about the stories and
achievements of Reverend & Mrs. Chan, their sons Luke Chan
(Hollywood actor) and Jack Chan (golfer); grandchildren Helen Lee and
Victor Wong (WW2 veteran); great-grandchildren Gary Lee (entertainer)
and Janice Wong (artist); and great-great grandchildren Todd Wong
(community and cultural activist) and Tracey Hinder (high school
student). The many turns of the Chan family reflect the challenges of
exclusion, the fight for rights, the strength of family and citizenship,
and the right to vote. The festival is pleased to show The Chan
Legacy, directed by Halya Kuchmij, from the CBC Learning
Generations Series (2007, 43:37) and we are fortunate to have Todd Wong
moderate the conversation afterwards. Todd is a descendent of Reverend
Chan and the creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, the annual celebration of
Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day (www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com) –
an event that marries two cultures that once lived completely separate
in the early days of British Columbia. Everyone welcome. Free

This was the lead show in the CBC Generations series that aired
on July 4th 2007. The purpose was to interview multigenerational families across Canada, and help tell the story of Canada through the lives of that family.

I am a 5th generation great-great-grand son of Rev. Chan Yu Tan, and one of the featured stories. My grandmother's sister Helen Lee and cousin Victor Wong are both interviewed and tell stories about their grandparents Rev. & Mrs. Chan Yu Tan, whom they respectively lived with and visited as children.

Victor Wong is a WW2 veteran and shares stories about becoming a soldier for Special Forces operations with his cousins Howard and Leonard Lee, while Dan Lee was one of the first Chinese Canadians in the Airforce. All this happened at a time when Canadians of Chinese ancestry were not allowed to vote in Canada, until after the Chinese-Canadian veterans returned from WW2 and lobbied the Canadian government to repeal the 1925 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Gary Lee, also tells stories about Rev. Chan's sons Luke Chan, who became an actor in Hollywood, and Jack Chan – an avid golfer and the first Chinese Canadian to serve on jury duty.

Artist Janice Wong is shown working and attending book launches for her recipe/memoir book “Chow: From China to Canada: Memories of Food + Family”
– which shares the history of the Rev. Chan family through her father Dennis Wong, chef of Chinese restaurants in Sasketchewan, son of the Rev's daughter Rose, and Victor's brother.

13 year old Tracey Hinder is seen winning the inaugural Vancouver area Canspell contest. Tracey goes on to compete at the National Canspell in Ottawa and the Scripps in Washington DC. Tracey is interviewed as a high school student, dedicated to learning about her community and family histoy.

Todd Wong is a community and cultural activist, known for creating Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner. Excerpts from the CBC produced television performance special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” are shown along with Todd's community commitments including the saving of the Historic Joy Kogawa House, Terry Fox Run, and dragon boat racing.

5 of the 7 part series are available for for sale through the CBC Learning Division
The
Chan Legacy
The
McCurdy Birthright
The
Crowfoot Dynasty
100
Years in Alberta
100
Years in Saskatchewan

http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com/program/thursday-october-28/

National Post: Museum probes link between Chinese Restaurants and small-town Canada

Leave a reply

Chinese Restaurants and small-town Canada exhibit at Royal Alberta Museum

My friend Linda Tzang, cultural curator at the Royal Alberta Museum is responsible for this: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Museum+probes+link+between+Chinese+restaurants+small+town+Canada/3360480/story.html

Way back in 2002, Linda had initiated a project proposal on the Three Canadian Chinese Pioneer Families at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives – but had moved to Alberta, before the project really started. Linda was also a guest speaker at our 2nd Rev. Chan Legacy Family Reunion dinner in 2000. In 2002, she was also part of our board for Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop that created the 1st ACWW Community Builders Dinner that honoured Roy Mah, Paul Yee and Wayson Choy.

Back on April 6th, Linda wrote to me:

Hello Toddish,

I guess the guy who came up with the idea of ‘six degrees of
separation’ was right – the world is much smaller than we think.

Now that you’ve written, I’m going to hit you up for some
help. I have almost accomplished the impossible – the museum is on the
brink of giving me permission to do my Chinese Restaurant project. It
doesn’t look anything like the project I was working on at the CCCMA – I
think it’s a better version. I was wondering though if you knew anyone
with memorabilia related to Chinese restaurants – ideally someone with a menu
collection. I don’t need
a huge number of them but a few would be nice.

If you had any leads it would be appreciated. Maybe one day
I’ll be able to attend another Gunghaggis banquet but I always just seem to
miss the date.

Linda

Museum probes link between Chinese restaurants and small-town Canada

www.nationalpost.com

There’s one in nearly every Canadian city and town. And yet some argue the Chinese landmarks,

Courier article on Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant: History Ho Ho

Leave a reply

Courier article on Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant – one of my favorite restaurants in Chinatown
Features
interviews with our “Friends of Foo's Ho Ho” main organizers Jim
Wong-Chu, chef Joanne Sam, celebrities Tommy Chong, Red Robinson, and
Chinatown Lions Club Robbie Burns Dinner organizer Chuck Lew.
http://www.vancourier.com/li…fe/History/3341852/story.html

I had
lunch today at Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant with friends from Heart of the City
Festival: Terry, Theresa and Celia. We talked about my family's historical connections to
Chinatown, Strathcona, and DTES.

Theresa really liked the House Special Chow Mein – photo Todd Wong

Celia was very impressed by the curried beef and potatoes. It's one of my favorite dishes. – photo Todd Wong

We ate: BBQ Pork Egg Foo Yung, Curried Beef & Potatoes, House Special Chow Mein on Crispy Noodles + Gai-Lan. Yum yum yum… It was crowded. Maybe the Courier article is to blame.

History Ho Ho

www.vancourier.com

Vancouver
Courier is your online source of local news on Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada. Find the latest breaking news from Vancouver, as well
as local sports, opinion, letters, entertainment, lifestyles, community,
events, TV listings, movie guide and reviews, community photos, jobs,
cars, and…

My family elders

Leave a reply

My family elders

Rev. Chan Yu Tan came to Canada in 1896 to serve at the Chinese Methodist Church, which had been co-founded by his elder brother Rev. Chan Sing Kai in 1888.

My family elders have lived through two world wars. They have lived through the Chinese Head
Tax era, and the1923 Chinese Exclusion Act.

3 brothers and a cousin served in WW2, who were first not allowed to join the Canadian Forces, even though they wanted to fight for the country they were born in.

They could not vote in the country they were born in until after the Exclusion Act was appealed in 1947 – because up until then, Canadians of Chinese ancestry were considered resident aliens.

They grew up and watched the younger generation become: Miss Canada runner-up, TV news reporter, BC Lions Cheerleader, lawyer, RCMP officer, city councilor, killer-whale habitat warden, mining environment consultant, and then there’s me… cultural and community activist.

One great-grand-daughter of Rev Chan Yu Tan is Chief of the Qayqayt First Nations. Watch the NFB Film Tribe of One to learn the story of Rhonda Larabee, my mother’s cousin.

My parents have appeared with me in the 2004 CBC television performance special Gung Haggis Fat Choy, when we re-created a small Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner of 10 for the cameras.

In 2007, CBC created a TV documentary about her Rev Chan Yu Tan and family descendant history titled Generations: The Chan Legacy.

Some of my elders have been an inspiration to me, and also very encouraging of me for playing my accordion, when I was a child.

Our family committee organized a Rev. Chan Family Reunion in 2000. We had representatives from many branches of the Rev. Chan Family, descendants from his children Kate, Rose and Millicent, and families from son Jack also attended.

Many of my family elders have also attended my Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner. I wrote about their influence on my cooking and heritage in the 2007 book Eating Stories: Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Pot Luck.
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2007/11/21/3367190.html

Chinese Laundry Kids @ Friends of Foo's Ho Ho dinner event

Leave a reply

Chinese Laundry Kids grow up to be writers, professors and community activists:

Friends of Foo's Ho Ho launches another successful event combining Chinese Canadian history with local cuisine and issues of the global Chinese diaspora. When Committee member Elwin Xie discovered that author Judy Fong Bates was coming to speak at UBC, and that she was reading from her memoir about growing up in a chinese laundry – a light must have gone off.

Elwin quickly remembered that retired psychology professor Dr. John Jung had expressed interest in coming to speak to the Friends of Foo's Ho Ho committee, after learning about their effort to save Vancouver Chinatown's last restaurant serving pioneer style Cantonese cuisine. A community activist with an interest in Vancouver's Chinese Canadian history, Elwin had also ordered books by Dr. Jung about Chinese restaurants and laundries. It turned out that like Judy Fong Bates, Dr. Jung had also grown up in a Chinese laundry – but instead of Canada, Dr. Jung had grown up in Macon, Georgia – deep in the American South. Elwin's interest was keen, because he had grown up at the Union Laundry, owned and operated by his parents in Vancouver.

Event host Todd Wong, with featured guests Dr. John Jung, Judy Fong Bates and Elwin Xie.

Guests began arriving at the 6pm reception time. Books by Dr. Jung and Ms. Bates were for sale, and the authors were set up to sign copies for the evening's patrons.

The event started off with a 10 minute film about Chinese laundries in the United States. This really helped set the tone for the evening, showing pictures of laundries, the laundry machines, and even some of the racist cartoons and songs of the times.

Soon the first appetizer dish of deep-fried squid, pork and chicken wings arrived. Yum Yum, some good food to accompany the hearty conversations that filled the upstairs banquet hall.

Elwin Xie was the first speaker. He gave a power point presentation with pictures of his family's laundry that included himself as a little child. He described how he was encouraged to climb into the giant washing machines to find coins, only to figure out many years later that he was “exploited” because of his small size.

Dr. John Jung was the second speaker. He also had a power point presentation that featured pictures of both Chinese laundries and restaurants from across North America. It was really interesting to hear how he grew up in the only Chinese family in Macon Georgia. An especially amusing story was how the family became media stars one day. In 1943, they were asked to come out and attend a media photo opportunity with Madame Chiang Kai Shek, the First Lady of China, came to visit Macon. As the only Chinese family, they had been invited to help welcome the wife of the Taiwanese leader, who had grown up and attended Wesleyan women's college in Macon, before marrying Chiang Kai Shek.

My role as the evening's emcee, was to make sure the presentations flowed smoothly and try to keep the evening running on time. With John's stories, it was a good way to illustrate that no matter where Chinese had settled in Canada, USA or even Scotland, their stories all had universal themes. As John had talked about the influence of the Church during his growing up, I shared that my own family was descended from two Chinese Methodist missionaries Rev. Chan Sing Kai and Rev. Chan Yu Tan. While Yu Tan stayed in Canada and ministered in Vancouver, New Westminster, Victoria and Nanaimo, his elder brother had ministered in Oregon and Nevada, before settling in the Los Angeles area. Similar to John discovering that he had distant relatives operating a Chinese restaurant in Sasketchewan, my grand mother's cousin Dennis ran a restaurant in Prince Albert SK. John had even seen the CBC documentary about Dennis' daughter Janice Wong, returning to Prince Albert to sign copies of her book CHOW, about growing up in the restaurant.

Judy Fong Bates reads from her memoir “The Year of Finding Memory”

Judy Fong Bates was the final speaker of the evening. She remarked how a friend had described the evening's program as “sexy”! Judy read from her memoir about how her family had come to Canada, and how she had grown up. Like John and Elwin before her, she also commented about the racism against Chinese that had permeated the social issues of the day, and how growing up in a laundry also had a stigmatism.

It was a wonderful evening with an appreciative audience. The evening had unfolded with discovered stories that one attendee had had his wedding banquet at Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant 38 years ago. Another woman, my Aunty Sue, was also a Chinese Laundry Kid, with her family involved with Keefer Laundry in Vancouver.

Chinese New Year welcomes Year of the Tiger in Vancouver Chinatown

Leave a reply

It looks like a Tiger of a year… with the Olympics in town, and lions running everywhere at Vancouver's Chinatown Chinese New Year Parade

Lions were everywhere in Vancouver Chinatown, celebrating the Year of the Tiger.

All the celebrities, politicians and VIP's walk at the beginning of the parade.

Next come the Chinese Canadian veterans of Pacific Unit 280 (minus my uncle Dan, who passed away less than a month ago). But the veterans all wore red Olympic mittens!

Here's a Chinese parade dragon. How to tell a dragon from a lion? You wear the lion costume over your body, while the dragon is always held up on poles!

The Kitchen God always marches in the parade. The trick is to put honey on the Kitchen God's lips before he makes his report to heaven about your kitchen, so he can only say sweet things with honey on his lips.

Here I am with my friend Georgia, who paddles with us on the Gung Haggis dragon boat team.

The Carnival band all tried to dress up as Tigers….

City Councilor Kerry Jang hands out lucky red envelopes called “li-see” for good luck!

Here I am dressed in my kilt and red Chinese dragon vest. I met this fellow in his black utility kilt outside the skytrain stop at The Bay. Kilters greet each other, and I invited him to join us for the next kilts night. Since it was Chinese New Year we took a picture of him waring my Chinese jacket. Very cool.

Todd Wong appearance on CTV Canada AM for Sunday Feb 14th

Leave a reply

Todd will be on Canada AM
on CTV, Sunday morning

– must be there at 5am so Toronto people can see
a brief interview between 8 and 9am.. I will do the interview at Robson Square, which is part of the the BC Canada Pavillion.

Then will do an interview and
filming at Chinese New Year parade with ZDF tv from Germany. We will meet at 8:30am, as the parade starts at 9:30am in Vancouver Chinatown.

Now….Must get
ready to attend the Women's hockey Canada vs Slovakia today at 5pm

Gung Haggis dragon boat team paddle on Sunday Feb 7th

Leave a reply

Gung Haggis dragon boat team paddles False Creek and takes in pre-Olympic sight-seeing.

We have a dragon boat team of keeners…. who wanted to paddle in February. It was our first paddling practice since early November, when we had a few practices after paddling in the Ft. Langley Cranberry Festival Canoe Regatta. Fifteen people jumped into the dragon boat for 11am practice on Sunday Feb 7th,

And… I think… I really needed to paddle to get myself warmed up for paddling in the dragon boat flotilla that will accompany the Olympic Torch Relay on Feb 12th, for when Gold medalist Olympian Hugh Fisher will pass off the Olympic Torch from a dragon boat to Olympian Kamini Jain in a voyageur canoe.

I only paddled for half the practice. if
that… I also coached some of the paddlers a bit for some 1-on-1 coaching for only half the
time. I steered for the remaining half, after switching with Stephen Wong, who started off steering for the team.

The team met at the parking lot for False
Creek Yacht Club for 11am, then had a quick warm-up, then headed to the
boat for 11:15am, headed over to Alder Bay to pick up Debbie, then back to
FC Yacht Club to pick up a paddler named Tony who arrived late after his morning meeting. Next we paddled towards and past the Burrard St. Bridge to show
paddlers where the lights are for the from the
nightly spectacular light show.

I pointed out where the boat launch for the Burrard Marina is, where dragon boat paddlers for the flotilla that will accompany the Olympic Torch Relay will organize.

Next we paddled Eastward to Granville Island to identify the Ferry dock at West Side of Granville Island,
where the torch will be handed to torchbearer Olympian Hugh Fisher. We looked over at the bright yellow building, formerly known as Bridges Restaurant, that is now being transformed into the Swiss Pavillion. At the North end of the Granville St. Bridge is a floating hotel lodge that has been towed down from Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) that is normally lodged at Langara Island.

We took a little stretch, then switched sides. I took a turn at steering, and let veteran paddlers Stephen Wong take his turn for paddling. Just East of Granville Island is the Spruce Harbour Marina, where nearby, is the area where Hugh will pass the torch to Kamini
Jain in the middle of False Creek. Hugh will be in the dragon boat, and pass the torch to Kamini in the voyageur canoe. There are great viewing areas from both the North and South sides of False Creek, so it is perfect for cameras and television crews to set up for a unique photo opportunity.

We spotted the big black
pontoon floats that are being used for security to block off the boat
traffic in the East Bay, that are positioned along Cambie St. Bridge. We paddled along beside it and waved to the officers in the Police Boat, guarding the perimeter, that includes the Olympic Village.

Next we paddled near the Yaletown ferry dock, where
Kamini will hand the torch to a runner, after she climbs out of the voyageur canoe. The torch will then proceed up the streets towards Georgia Street, where it will arrive at the First Nations Aboriginal Pavillion where there will be a blessing ceremony. This will be one of the final stops of the Olympic Torch before it travels to the Opening Ceremonies about 2 blocks down the street to BC Place Stadium, later in the evening.

It was a good paddle, and our paddlers were happy and pleased that I would be a part of the dragon boat flotilla accompanying the Olympic Torch Relay. But most of all, the paddlers were all happy to be paddling again, and in friendly company. Many times I heard somebody say, “I'm just here for the social aspects” as we paddled back to FC Yacht
Club…. by about 12:30pm.

The next plan was to have lunch. I promised that I would treat everybody to dim sum lunch, if they came paddling.

We were at Floata Restaurant for dim sum,
at 1pm, at least my car was. Other people got re-routed by traffic
diversions. By the time they arrived, there were lots of dim sum selections on the table. Haw-gow shrimp dumplings, Siu-mai pork dumplings, Lo-bak-goh pan-fried turnip cake. We also tried a special appetizer plate that included jelly fish, crispy pork skin and bbq pork. There was also shanghai style dumpling with shrimp meat and green vegetable, steamed pork bun, sliced-almond covered shrimp balls, fish cakes, and more! I also ordered house special chow mein with crispy noodles, and Geurng-chow-ngor-hah flat rice noodles with sliced beef.

This was Katie's first time having dim sum in Vancouver. She's originally from Ontario, and only been in Vancouver almost a year…. and somehow never found her way to dim sum yet.

Georgia pronounced that the meal was “heaven”

GREAT LUNCH!!! and we finished off with Chinese egg tarts for dessert.

Lan Tung erhu virtuoso is bringing her trio Birds of Paradox to Gung Haggis Fat Choy

Leave a reply

Birds of Paradox brings cultural fusion music to Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner for 2010

Ron Samworth, Lan Tung and Nealamjit Dhillon make up the cultural fusion trio of Birds of Paradox – photo courtesy of Lan Tung

Lan Tung is a fantastic virtuoso erhu player who has recently toured across Europe and was just in Halifax with Symphony Nova Scotia for a January 7th concert of new music.

For the past few years I have been attending her concerts with Orchid Ensemble as they have explore Ghosts, Origami Paper Folding and Chinese-Canadian history and other special projects. Lan came to Canada fom Taiwan in 1994, she incorporates Chinese music with contemporary
expression in her works. Her strong interest in music outside her
tradition has been a major drive in her artistic explorations, crossing
the lines between classical,
contemporary, folk, blues, creative improvisation, and various ethnic
styles, such as Indian, Flamenco and Middle Eastern, to expand the horizons of the erhu.

I am really excited that we can present Lan and her collaborative trio
Birds of Paradox featuring Ron Samworth and Neelamjit Dhillon in an exploration of composition and improvisation on the combination of electric guitar, erhu, voice, tabla, flutes and saxophone.

Lan is a dynamic force on the Canadian music scene, serving multiple roles as erhu
performer, composer, concert producer, and administrator. She has toured extensively in North America, working with
composers, musicians, dancers, visual and media artists of various
cultural backgrounds. She performs regularly in a number of ensembles: the JUNO nominated Orchid Ensemble (http://orchidensemble.com) performs Chinese and western contemporary music in a trio of erhu, zheng/Chinese zither, marimba and various percussion instruments.

Lan Tung
Artistic Director
Orchid Ensemble
Chinese Music and Beyond…
http://www.orchidensemble.com
http://myspace.com/orchidensemble
http://youtube.com/TheOrchidEnsemble

Vice President of
Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra
http://www.vi-co.org

Tandava
http://tandava.com
http://myspace.com/tandavamusic

Trio – Ron Samworth, Lan Tung and Neelamjit Dhillon
http://myspace.com/samworthtungdhillon

Special Projects
http://myspace.com/triaspora
http://myspace.com/ghostprojectorchid

http://myspace.com/lantung
http://youtube.com/LanTungErhu

Gung HAGGIS Fat Choy

Toddish McWong's Misadventures in Multiculturalism: through arts, culture, food, dragon boats, travel + more…

Category Archives: Chinatown Vancouver

Generations: The Chan Legacy documentary to be shown Oct 28 at Heart of the City Festival

National Post: Museum probes link between Chinese Restaurants and small-town Canada

Courier article on Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant: History Ho Ho

My family elders

Chinese Laundry Kids @ Friends of Foo's Ho Ho dinner event

Chinese New Year welcomes Year of the Tiger in Vancouver Chinatown

Todd Wong appearance on CTV Canada AM for Sunday Feb 14th

Gung Haggis dragon boat team paddle on Sunday Feb 7th

Lan Tung erhu virtuoso is bringing her trio Birds of Paradox to Gung Haggis Fat Choy