Category Archives: Hapa culture

2010 BC Book Prizes: Fred Wah wins Poetry Prize

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2010_April_BC_BookPrizesGala 004 by you.
Fellow nominees for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Larissa Lai for “Automaton Diaries” and Fred Wah for “Is A Door”.  Fred will be interviewing Larissa Lai for an upcoming issue of Ricepaper magazine.  Fred was the eventual winner of the poetry prize!  The banners of each prize hangs in the background.

It
was great to attend the 2010 BC Book Prizes. Very happy to see my
friends Fred Wah and Larissa Lai nominated for Dorothy Livesay Poetry
Prize – Fred won! and Charles Demers was nominated for Hubert Evans
Non-Fiction Prize.

2010_April_BC_BookPrizesGala 002 by you.
My pals!  Fred Wah with Cara Ng and Charles Demers – who was nominated for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize.  Charlie was going around saying I was responsible for his expected niece/nephew.  In actual fact, Cara's brother met his wife on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  Fate took its course as they fell in love, married last year, and are expecting a baby this year.  I am still trying to recruit Charlie and Cara and Fred to the dragon boat team.  We will have the “most literary” and “most poetical” dragon boat team in Canada!

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and Masako Fukawa &
Stanley Fukawa, and Dal Ric…hards
nominated for Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award. Great to make new
friends with many of the authors such as Ian Weir, Lori Culbert, Ehor
Boyanowsky.  

2010_April_BC_BookPrizesGala 029 by you.
Todd Wong, Masako Fukawa &
Stanley Fukawa – authors of  “Spirit of the Nikkei Fleet: BC’s Japanese Canadian Fishermen”, and Ann-Marie Metten.  Ann-Marie and I are the executive director and president of Historic Joy Kogawa House Society.  We invited Masako and Stanley to come do a reading at Joy's childhood home.

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Terry Glavin, last year's winner of the Lieutanant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence, accepts for Stan Persky, the 2010 winner!  Shirley Yew, president of the West Coast Book Prize Society and Lt. Gov. Steven Point present the award.

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Ian Weir, author of Daniel O'Thunder – nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, chats with Charles Demers nominated for non-fiction.

And always great to spend some time with Shelagh Rogers!

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Shelagh Rogers emceed the BC Book Prizes Gala at Government House.  I emceed the BC Book Prizes Soiree back on April 7th, in Vancouver.  Shelagh is a great supporter of Historic Joy Kogawa House and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.  I hope soon to have a Gung Haggis dinner in Nanaimo or Gabriola Dinner with Shelagh as my co-host!

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And of course there was dessert!

BC Book Prizes
www.bcbookprizes.ca

Vancouver 2010 Aboriginal Art Exhibition features artists from across Canada

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Aboriginal artists from across Canada, featured at Vancouver 2010 exhibition,

Over 50 artists were featured at the Vancouver 2010 Aboriginal Art Exhibition at Canada Place in Vancouver BC, Oct 17/18.  It's a two day free exhibition with sales to the public.  On Friday evening, a live auction of highlighted artworks was held with proceeds going towards the Vancouver 2010 Aboriginal Youth Legacy Fund.

Many of the artists were commissioned to create artworks for the Olympic venue sites.  These works are featured in the book,
O Siyam: Aboriginal Art Inspired by the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, which will be available in stores on November 2 — the first official Games-related book to be published.  Pre-ordered copies of the book can be made at the exhibition.

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Alano Edzerza (right) is an amazing young artist that I met. Melissa (left) is his friend who helps him plan events. Melissa is wearing a shirt that Alano designed, for her marathon running competitions.  Behind them is a 3-panel design of flying ravens. I really liked it's three dimensionality, and repeated motif.  It stands out to many of the flat 2-dimensional designs I have seen in aboriginal art. Alano also designed a 3-panel work featuring killer whales, which inspired a commission from GM place of killer whales. Born in 1981, this 28 year old artist has both a remarkable maturity, and an extensive collection of works and his own gallery.  So impressive is Edzerza's work that Roy Henry Vickers was sending people his way at the exhibition.
Visit http://www.edzerzagallery.com/index.php

2009_Oct 008 by you.
Councillor Lois Joseph of the Lil'Wat Nation Mount Currie Band is very proud of Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Museum, recently build in Whistler BC.  She said it is a collaboration by two nations, Squamish and Lilwat, and it is designed to showcase the history, culture and artworks of the Lil'Wat and Squamish peoples who have been a big part of the Sea to Sky country.  I have visited Aboriginal Cultural Centres in Alert Bay, the Haida Gwaii Museum, and even the Polynesian Cultural Centre in Hawaii.  I will definitely go visit on my next trip to Whistler.

www.lilwat.ca

2009_Oct 011 by you.

Roy Henry Vickers was one of the first aboriginal artists to recieve mass popularity in BC.  His striking serigraphs are available as postcards and prints.  He is also recipient of Order of BC, and Order of Canada.  His Aerie Gallery in Tofino is a must-see. When I found him, he was playing with a computer image of a five-finned killer whale on a lap top computer. He shared with me the very personal story of this very special whale which also includes the story of his “Chieftainship, Tlagwigila more commonly spelled,
Tlakwakila which means Copperman. Tlakwakila is from the house of WAKAS
and my adopted family,”

Mr. Vickers and I talked about commonalities about Chinese and First Nations peoples.  He said “There is no Yellow Skin, only a person, there is no Red skin, only a person, There is no black or white skin, only a person.  We are all the same race… We are human.”

When I told him about Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and how the give recognition to BC's pioneer cultures the Scottish, Chinese and First Nations instead of Canada's two solitudes of French and English… he shared with me that his mother was English. 

I thanked him for sharing his wisdom and helping make our society a better place.
Check out:
http://www.royhenryvickers.com

2009_Oct 013 by you.

KC Adams is from Winnipeg, but she doesn't identify herself as Metis, because she is part Scottish – not French-Canadian.  She is tuned into the growing Mixed-Race culture of Canada, but doesn't call herself a hybrid or mixed-race.  Instead she calls herself a cyborg, reflecting our new technology culture for the 21st Century. 

Her artwork also reflects her post-modern, post-colonial viewpoints.  She plays with stereotypes and juxtaposes them with contrary images.  The portraits are beautiful, clean, and dressed in white.  The words on the clothing say things like ““AUTHORITY ON ALL ABORIGINAL ISSUES”,
“INDIAN GIVER” You can see her Cyborg series here: http://www.kcadams.com/art/arttotal.html

KC's websites states:

Cyborg Hybrids is a photo series that attempts to challenge our views towards
mixed race classifications by using humorous text and imagery from two cultures.
The Cyborg Hybrids are digital prints of Euro-Aboriginal artists who are forward
thinkers and plugged in with technology. They follow the doctrine of Donna Harroway’s
Cyborg
Manifesto , which states that a cyborg is a creature in a technological,
post-gender world free of traditional western stereotypes towards race and gender.

KC laughed when I told her about Gung Haggis Fat Choy – but she got it.  Juxtoposing cultural images and language in ways that reflect a new understanding – that's what we both do.  We recognize Mixed-Race heritage.  She was intrigued when I told her that there were people in Madagasca called Metis, but were of Chinese and Madagascar heritage, in this former French colony. But Metis means half, just like the Hawaiian term Hapa.

http://www.kcadams.com

2009_Oct 016 by you.

While at the exhibition, my friend Sabine found me and said “You have to see Jean Taylor.”  Her biography states her “Tlingit name is Khàsx’ ân Tlâ is from the Dakhł awèdi Clan of the
Teslin Tlingit Nation in Teslin, Yukon Territory. She is also a member
of the Tlingit Haida Central Council of Alaska.”

Her artwork captures the spirit and minuitae of aboriginal cultural life.  There are scenes of dancing, farming, running with sled dogs.  It's beautiful, reflective and wonderfully presented.
Check out: http://www.yessy.com/JTaylor/bio.html

Powell St. Festival celebrates Japanese Canadian heritage – even if you are half-Japanese or non-Japanese

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I like attending the Powell St. Festival.  Somewhere in my clothes drawer I have a t-shirt from the 10th Anniversary festival back in 1986.

Powell St. Festival '07 - photo by Todd Wong IMG_1459 by Toddish McWong.
This year's Powell Street Festival will take place at Woodland Park – moving Eastward between Clark Drive and Commercial Drive, North of Venables St. – but South of Hastings St. – photo of 2007 festival by Todd Wong

Many of my friends have Japanese ancestry such as Jeff Chiba Stearns, John Endo Greenaway, Julie Tamiko Manning, or Joy Kogawa…. I grew up folding origami cranes, and relating to Japanese culture in a Pan-Asian-Canadian kind of way…

I have even performed my accordion at the Powell St. Festival main stage.  One year I played with my friend Sean Gunn as part of the “Number One Son” band… or maybe it was under the name of “Yellow Lackey Dogs.”

My friend Walter Quan is always there to sell his unique “sushi candles” and once when he was wearing a Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team cotton shirt, he was asked if he was “Todd Wong.”

Walter Quan and his famous sushi candles - photo by Todd Wong IMG_1466 by Toddish McWong. Walter Quan and his sushi candles booth at the 2007 Powell Street Festival – photo Todd Wong

Check out the Powell Street Festival on Saturday and Sunday.

www.powellstreetfestival.com

Here's a great article in the Vancouver Sun by Kevin Griffin:

Powell Street Festival: Metro Vancouver's Japanese Canadians celebrate a resilient culture

Powell Street Festival: Metro Vancouver's Japanese Canadians …

Julia Aoki, volunteer coordinator for the Powell Street Festival. Photograph by: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun. VANCOUVER — Unlike other festivals that strive …


Why Michael Jackson…. and Frank Sinatra Matters….

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Michael was a revolutionary. He changed the way music was performed, and he challenged the way we looked at the world…
Sinatra had done the same…

Like Bing Crosby with the advent of the microphone, Sinatra and long play concept albums, Elvis and rock and roll, Dylan and folk music, Michael Jackson was there for music videos and pushed the boundaries.  

Like Sinatra and Elvis, he pushed the boundaries of “race music” while helping to create greater racial acceptance.  Sinatra helped open the doors for black artists, including Sammy Davis Jr. as a member of the “Rat pack” and speaking for racial equality.  Jackson did the same in his own way, not only performing with white artists such as Paul McCartney and Britney Spears, but also in his personal life – dating and befriending many people such as Brooke Shields, Elizabeth Taylor and marrying Lisa Marie Presley, as examples of greater dissolution of borders between black and white.

This past week, I have been reading the book “Why Sinatra Matters” written by Pete Hamill soon after the death of Sinatra.  With all the media attention around MJ's death, I have listened to the music and watched the videos, and recalled my own memories and experiences of how Michael Jackson's music has been part of my life.

 

By reading “Why Sinatra Matters” it gives a greater context and template to examine how Michael Jackson's life, music and dance have impacted on both American and global popular culture.  Both were affected by their ethnic roots where their communities were treated as 2nd class: Sinatra grew up in the time between the World Wars, when Italians were immigrants to America and worked as labourers to survive.  Jackson grew up during the 60's at the time of the American civil rights movement and the rise of African-American studies and culture.  Both men forged their ways to greater acceptance of the American dream, breaking through barriers and claiming their places amongst the perceived White Anglo Saxon Protestants mainstream.

Both Sinatra and Jackson, had also been constant targets in the press and tabloids.  While Sinatra's supposed mob connections kept him out of purchasing a Las Vegas resort, Jackson was also the constant target for his court cases of child abuse and his plastic surgery.  But both men also were great philanthropists and addressed the greater good.  Jackson's songs “We Are The World,” “The Man in the Mirror” and “Earth Song” are part of his legacy, as surely as Sinatra's work with Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Antonio Carlos Jobim.



1984
Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson at the recording session for Sinatra's last solo studio album  L.A. is My Lady (not including the duets albums), produced by Quincy Jones who also produced the Jackson albums “Off the Wall,” and “Thriller.”

From the intro:

“When Frank Sinatra died on the evening of May 14, 1988, the news made the front pages all around the world.  Many ran extra editions and followed with special supplements…

“It was mandatory to chronicle his wins and losses, hisfour marriages, his battles, verbal and physical, with reporters and photographers.  His romances required many inches of type.  There were accounts of his fierce temper, his brutalities, his drunken cruelties.  Some described him as a thug or a monster, whose behavior was redeemed only by his talent…

Sinatra , however, did matter in other ways.  He wasn't simply an entertainer from a specific time and place in American life who lived on as a kind of musty artifact.  Through a combination of artistic originality, great passion, and immense will, he transcended several eras and indirectly helped change the way all of us lived.  He was formed by an America that is long gone: the country of the European immigrants and the virulent America-for-Ameriancs nativism that was directed at them… They were extraordinary times, and in his own way, driven by his own confusions, neroses, angers, and ambitions, Frank Sinatra helped push the country forward.

“Now Sinatra is gone, taking with him all his anger, cruelty, generosity, and personal style.  The music remains.  In times to come, that music will continue to matter, whatever happens to our evolving popular culture.  The world of my grandchildren will not listen to Sinatra in the way four generations of Americans have listened to him.  But high art always survives.  Long after his death, Charlie Parker still palys his verion of the urban blues.  Billie Holiday still whispers her angish.  Mozart still erupts in joy.  Every day, in cities and towns all over the planet, someone discovers them for the first time and finds in their art that mysterious quality that makes the listener more human.  In their work all great artsists help trancscend the solitude of individuals; they relieve the ache of loneliness; they supply a partial response to the urging of writer E/ M. Forster: “Only connect.” In their ultimate triumph over the banality of death, such artists continue to matter.  So will Sinatra.”
pp. 3-9 “Why Sinatra Matters” by Pete Hamill.

I have just finished watching the Michael Jackson Tribute, and am remembering all the times I saw Michael, and was touched by his music. 
Here's a youtube clip of the television cartoon show:

CLASSIC TV SHOW OPENING THEMES:

I remember:

  • Watching the Jackson 5 cartoon show as a kid, and listening to the Jackson 5, thinking… he's my age!
  • Walking home from school and singing “Enjoy Yourself” with friends.
  • Dancing
    to “Off the Wall” and “Rock With Me” during the days of disco, as well
    as the Jacksons songs “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)”, “This
    Place Hotel”
  • Seeing Michael do the moon walk on the Motown 25th Anniversary show.
  • Seeing the Jacksons concert in 1984 at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium.  We went to the 2nd concert. I still have the program and a t-shirt.
  • Listening to “Bad” with college friends when it first came out.
  • I remember dancing to “Black and White” on my Waikiki honeymoon with my then-wife…. in 1991.
  • Watching Olympic skater Katerina Witt do an encore performance to “She Drives Me Wild”

Vancouver Storytelling at Main St. Car Free Days – with Toddish McWong

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Photo Library - 2614 by you.

Toddish McWong, telling stories at 2008 Celtic Fest for the Battle of the Bards, and reading Robert Burns poetry – photo D. Martin.

Vancouver Storytelling at Main St. Car Free Days, with Todd Wong

I have been asked by Vancouver Storytellers, to give a storytelling performance

Location: located on the West Side at 18th.; on a grassy
island set back from Main Street.  We are beside a tiny mall with
a Pizza Hut.

It is Car Free Days starts at 12 noon at the following locations.
Commercial Drive (between Venables and 1st Ave.)
Denman St. (between Davie and Robson)
Main St. (between 12th and 25th)
Kitsilano (various neighborhood block parties)
http://www.carfreevancouver.org/


I will tell stories of early Chinese & Scottish pioneers in BC,

I will look down Main Street towards Chinatown and tell stories about my
great-great-grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan, who came to Canada in 1896 as a lay preacher for
the Chinese Methodist Church….  

I will tell stories about how James Douglas was born in Guyana to a Scottish father and a Creole mother, and came to BC to become the first governor of BC.

I will look south to the Fraser River, and recount how Simon Fraser was born in the United States, came to Canada with his Loyalist mother, and travelled through Western Canada, to explore this Westernmost land and named it New Caledonia.

I will the origins of Gung Haggis Fat Choy: 

  • in 1993, when I first wore a kilt for the SFU, Robbie Burns Day celebrations
  • in 1998, with a small private dinner for 16 people in a living room
  • how it has grown into an annual Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner serving 550 people
  • and spun off a CBC TV performance special
  • The SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival, by SFU Recreation department.

Happy Birthday Dinner at Hapa Izakaya

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Hapa Izakaya in Kitslano is one of my favorite restaurants.

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It was a 3 restaurant Kitsilano weekend, last week for my birthday.  On Friday we went to Sunset Grill, 2204 York Ave.  On Saturday we watched the hockey game and had Slum Dog Pizza at Hell's Kitchen 2041 4th Ave. West.  But for the “Big Day” we suggested some names… and eagrely decided to go to Hapa Izakaya 1416 Yew St.

Everytime we go there, the first bite of each dish is either “Wow” or “yummmmmm.”  A few months ago, we took a friend from Ottawa to Hapa Izakaya in Kitsilano for his birthday.  Good choice!  It's a cozy atmosphere with lots of wood, as opposed to the more high-tech “clubby” feel of the Robson St. location.  Modeled after Japanese bistros in Tokyo, owner Jason Ault returned from Japan to open up Hapa Izakaya with a fusion twist.  As sushi was supposedly invented as finger food to eat while playing games, Izakaya bistros appeared as cheap places to eat and drink after work – but Hapa Izakaya takes it to another level.  It creates a tapas style menu, with a cultural fusion twist, and sets in a glossy upscale setting.  The Robson Street location is always buzzing, while the Kitsilano location is more laid back – but the food is great in both locations.

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We started with King Crab roll. “Yum” – Deb's favorite!

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Smoked Tuna Macaroni with Ume/Seiso sauce. “Wow!”

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Dynamite roll with spicy mango sauce “Yow!”

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Creme Brule topped off the evening!

Jack Layton likes bagpipers following St. Patrick's Day parade for Vancouver's Celticfest

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It's not everyday, you meet an important Canadian parliamentary leader in a pub on St. Patrick's Day…

– but Jack Layton was in Vancouver for Celticfest and the St. Patrick's Day Parade

2009_March 120 by you.Todd Wong, Jack Layton, Allan McMordie, Trish McMordie – photo T.Wong/T.Lam

We had spent 3 hours in the cold preparing and walking in the parade
with the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Pipe & Drums, and Gung Haggis Fat
Choy dragon boat team, carrying a parade dragon, lion head masks and
dragon boat paddles.  We were cold, and in need of warm food and
carbohydrate replenishment.  Jack Layton, federal NDP leader had been in the parade too.  He often
comes in August for Vancouver's Pride Parade. Jack said he was also in Vancouver to attend an event for Don Davies, MP for Vancouver Kensington. 

I've known Don for a few years, when he first introduced himself to me at one of Meena Wong's dim sum luncheons (coincidence: Meena had been an assistant for Jack Layton's wife Olivia Chow in Toronto). Jack's wife is Chinese-Canadian MP, Olivia Chow, and they are also friends of Canadian author Joy Kogawa. Wow… Jack and Olivia are a real inter-cultural couple on a national scale!  Very Gung Haggis!  I had dim sum with Olivia in 2007, at one of Meena Wong's dim sum socials with Chinese head tax activists, see: Dim Sum with Olivia Chow in Vancouver

I asked Jack, if he had Scottish ancestry, which he affirmed. It was on Robbie
Burns Day, January 25th 2003, he became
federal leader of the NDP (New Democratic
Party”). If Robbie Burns was the ploughman's poet, then Jack Layton must be the workers' parliamentarian.

Layton's views of social democracy, probably
best represent Robert Burns's similar views – more
than the other federal leaders. Burns was such a progressive thinker of the Scottish enlightenment, that many of his views were not published until after his death – they would have been considered “that radical”.  Remember that during Burns' time, happening around him was the American Revolution, and the French Revolution, as Modern Democracy emerged.  But 250 years later they fit very much into a social democratic world.   Layton's great-granduncle, William Steeves, was a
Father of Confederation. Layton's own grandfather
Gilbert Layton was a cabinet minister in the
Quebec provincial government, and his father
Robert Layton was a Member of Parliament and
cabinet minister. 

Just as Jack Layton was preparing to leave the pub, our bagpipers started playing some songs.  Jack took out his cell phone and started videoing them, then recorded a Happy St. Patrick's Day message.  Maybe this will appear on his web page.  I used my camera to record the action. 

Check it this video:

2009_March 129

Allan McMordie, Patricia
McMordie, David Murray –
bagpipers
Filmed by Jack Layton,

FOOD: Hapa Izakaya in Kitsilano…

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Hapa Izakaya is a place to take friends and make them say:

“Ahhh…. Yummmm….“

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Duck with vegetables and green sprouts… very tasty! – photo T. Wong

We went to Hapa Izakaya Kitsilano on Thursday night.  My girlfriend Deb was entertaining her friend Peter and his girlfriend Emily from Seattle.  It was Peter's birthday.  We went to Deb's favorite new restaurant. 

Hapa Izakaya Kitsilano has only been open for about a year.  Owner Justin was there to greet us.  The original Hapa Izakaya is on Robson St. near Jervis.  And just like the original, almost every dish begs you to take a picture!  And it is ohhhhh…. so tasty.  Peter and Emily were very impressed.  They said, “Ahhhh….” and “Mmmmm” and “That is SO good!”  a lot.

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Spicy Sockeye Salmon Sashimi,

Owner Justin and his wife are “Hapa.”  Half Japanese-Cnaadian and Hafl Caucasian-Canadian.  They met while both were working in Tokyo.  Hapa Izakaya brings the “Izakaya”/ Japanese Pub food to Vancouver, but pushes it up a level with its fusion cuisine.  The Robson St. restaurant is very cool with its dark interior and club music.  The Kitsilano restaurant is more laid back.

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Unagi (eel) cone.

Silk Road Music hosts Cultural Olympiad show for Chinese New Year!

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What is typical Vancouver music for the Cultural Olympiad?  I think it is the cultural fusion music of Andre Thibault and Qiu Xia He''s Silk Road Music!

Cultural Olympiad Feb 1 09 10 by DM by you.
For Chinese New Year, Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault organized a truly multicultural show, featuring many ethnic performers and musical styles in Vancouver.  But more importantly was the intercultural representation.  Caucasian Willy Miles is singing in Mandarin Chinese.  Non-African ethnic dancers are performing traditional African dance with Jackie Essombe.  The stilt walkers are every ethnicity including mixes.  And of course the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team features Scottish and Chinese ancestry + everything in-between and everything beyond – photo Deb Martin

Cultural Olympiad Feb 1 09 6 GH Dragon and stilts in back..DM photo

Still Moon Arts Stilt walkers meet the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon dancers.  The stilt walkers are children and young teens led by Carman Rosen, who has also performed celtic music at the 2005 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner. – photo Deb Martin.

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Kathy Gibler, executive director of Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens, Ellen Woodsworth – Vancouver City Councilor, prepare to help make opening speeches with Dr. Jan Walls – MC for the show and performer of Chinese clapper tales – photo Deb Martin

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Bonnie Soon leads Uzume Taiko through some very exciting rhythmic drumming perfomances.  Uzume Taiko often performs with bagpipers.  Bonnie and I talked, and I hope we can feature them at a future Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner one year – photo Todd Wong

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Chinese Lion stilt dancers!  In one of the crazy moments of beautiful serendipity, I offered my Lion Dance costume to the Sill Moon Arts stilt walkers, for a photo prop… and the next thing we knew, another stilt walker offered to be the tail, and presto!  The very first Chinese Lion stilt walkers!!!  The kids had so much fun, it is always a joy to see them. – photo Todd Wong

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Jessica Jone is a classically trained dancers – she has studied Chinese classical and Chinese folk dancing as well as Western classical and contemporary dancing.  She always smiles and has incredible presentation. – photo Todd Wong

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Dancers from the Jessica Jone dance school come on stage for a wonderful fan dance.  I love the colour and movement. – photo Todd Wong

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Jacky Essombe and The Makalas perform traditional African Dance.  The weather was so cold you could see Jacky's hot breath steam into the cold air.  But they brought so much high energy, you just felt warmer while seeing them work so hard – photo Todd Wong

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Here's a group shot with almost everybody on stage.  The dancers posed for pictures, and so we brought the dragon to stand behind them.  Soon everybody was in the picture!

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Here we pose with Qiu Xia He, organizer of this great event. Left to right: Todd Wong, Devon Cooke, Qiu Xia, Dave Samis, hidden are Brooke and Deb – photo Marion 

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Here's our dedicated group of Dragon Boat paddler dragon dancers! Todd Wong, Deb Martin, Brooke Samis, Dave Samis and Devon Cooke. – photo Marion.

Photos from 2009 Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner

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Gung Haggis Fat Choy is always a wonderful event for photographs.  Special thanks to our incredible photographers Patrick Tam, Lydia Nagai and VFK.

If you like their photos, please contact them and purchase them.  We have asked them to put “water marks” on their photos, so that we will advertise and promote them.

They help us with our event, because they believe in the community work and social consiousness raising that we do.

DSC_3928_103489 - Mayor Gregor Robertson doing the honours by FlungingPictures.
A wonderful job by everybody last night –
Veteran Gung Haggis performers Joe McDonald and Heather pronounced last
night as “The Best Gung Haggis Dinner yet”

And Dr. Leith Davis
(Director of Centre for Scottish Studies, Simon Fraser University) said it was the best Burns Supper she had ever attended – and she just
spent 2 weeks in Scotland for Homecoming Scotland!

Congratulations
to everybody.  The energy was brilliantly contagious and fun.  There
were lots of nice surprises in the program, with the Mayor reading a
Burns poem, a treatise on the details of scotch drinking, Parks
Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon singing A Man's A Man For A' That, and
hip hop artist Ndidi Cascade coming up from the audience to rap a verse
of Burns' Address to A Haggis.

But it was the performances by
Silk Road, Joe McDonald, Adrienne Wong, Jan Walls, Tommy Tao, Rita
Wong, Catherine Barr, Heather Pawsey & DJ Timothy Wisdom, Bob
Wilkins & the Gung Haggis Fat Choy pipe band,  supplemented by
Alland & Trish McMordie with Don Scobie from Seattle… and an
immortal address by Dr. Leith Davis – that knocked the audience over!

With wonderfully warm co-hosting from Gloria Macarenko and Catherine Barr….

And strong support from stage manager Charlie Cho, and sound technician Carl Schmidt.

Many
Many thanks…. to helping rise funds for Historic Joy Kogawa House,
Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop/Ricepaper Magazine and Gung Haggis Fat
Choy dragon boat team.

We will have some pictures available for you soon.

Thank yous and Blessings to
everybody!
Toddish

Patrick Tam – Flunging Pictures 
www.flunging pictures.com

DSC_3928_103489 - Mayor Gregor Robertson doing the honours by FlungingPictures.

661 – 20090125 – Robbie Burns’… – Patrick Tam photo set.

Lydia Nagai – Lydia Nagai Photography
www.lydianagai.com

IMG_0525 by Lydia Nagai.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2009 – Linda Nagai photo set.

VFK Photography

GHFC 2009 VF3_4418.JPG by vfk.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24064901@N00/sets/72157613036584552/

GHFC 2009 VF3_4664.JPG by vfk Silk Road Music performing in front of life-size photos of Nellie McClung, Mungo Martin, Emily Carr and Todd Wong – courtesy of Royal BC Museum.- photo VFK