Category Archives: Hapa culture

CBC TV's Gloria Macarenko to co-host Gung Haggis Fat Choy! Where is Clan Macarenko from?

What Scottish clan is CBC TV News anchor Gloria Macarenko from?

Celebrity Media co-hosts are confirmed!
Gloria Macarenko, CBC TV News anchor “Vancouver at Six”
Catherine Barr, Metro News / Radio 650 AM

Gloria Macarenko from CBC TV's “Vancouver at Six”
Gloria first got to learn about deep-fried haggis won ton when I
brought some down to her newscast, when CBC was promoting the 2004 Gung
Haggis Fat Choy television performance special.

View Clip

I'm really happy that CBC TV news anchor Gloria Macarenko is coming to co-host the 2009 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner with myself and Catherine Barr. It turns out that Gloria and Catherine also know each other and are really looking forward to having some fun at the Gung Haggis dinner.

I looked in a tartan clan wesbite and found MacA'chailles, MacAchounich, MacAdam, MacAdie, MacAindra, MacAldonich, MacAlduie, MacAlex, MacAlister, MacAllen, MacAndeoir, MacAndrew, MacAngus, MacAra, MacAree, MacAskill, MacAslan, MacAuselan, and MacAy… but no MacArenko!

What clan is Catherine Barr from? I found there are clans named Barrie and Barron, and of course there is MacNeil of Barra, or the Barra MacNeils. I know that Catherine's family has a family tartan… In fact, it was
her father Robert Barr that introduced me to the Burns Club of
Vancouver about 5 years ago. Last year Cat managed to get 10 kilted men on stage all singing a “Toast to the Lassies” – what will she lead us into this year?

Special musical performers:

Silk Road Music Ensemble:
Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault have become good friends since I first met them on the set of the 2004 CBC television performance special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.” I really appreciated what they were doing musically, and they really appreciated what I was doing. They have performed at the Gung Haggis dinner in 2004, 2007. Qiu Xia plays virtuoso pipa (Chinese lute) and Andre can play fiery flamenco music – but they also play scottish and french-canadian reels and jigs too! For their 2009 Gung Haggis performance they are adding a Scottish-Canadian percussionist, Liam MacDonald.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy Pipe & Drums
Last year, Bob Wilkins approached me with the idea of creating a Gung Haggis Fat Choy pipe band… with lion dancers and chinese drums. Okay… I was hooked. Our paths have crossed in our mutual appreciation of BC Scottish and Chinese pioneer histories, and Bob has a vision of a multicultural pipe band that could also incorporate BC's Chinese cultural history and traditions. Okay… we have the pipers but are still searching for Chinese lion dancers.

Heather Pawsey opera soprano
Heather sings in Mandarin, Cree, Italian, French, German, Spanish and probably Russian and Scottish too! Heather has graced stages with Vancouver Opera, Vancouver Symphony and many other ensemble and chamber groups throughout BC. She always lights up the stage when she comes to Gung Haggis dinners, such as 2004 and 2007. Heather grew up wearing kilts on the Saskatchewan prairies, and she really loves the Gung Haggis concept. In 2008 she was paired with DJ Timothy Wisdom to create something new and exciting. She called me up and said “Todd – I've got something for you and Gung Haggis!”

Timothy Wisdom DJ
I only met Timothy last week, when he came to the Gung Haggis Fat Choy rehearsal dinner on January 11th. He brought with him a dvd of his performance with Heather Pawsey. What was on it? Opera with hip hop beats… Scottish and Chinese musical notes and references… And hopefully Timothy will spin some tunes after the Gung Haggis dinner, so we can party until midnight for a countdown to Chinese New Year! “Best Party Rockin DJ in Vancouver…a sonic genius” – Vancouver Folk Festival “so much exhilaration in his sets…slaying audiences” – E13 Records

Joe McDonald, our “rapping bagpiper”
I first met Joe McDonald when he performed with a South Asian tabla drummer in 2001. I saw the kind of world music sounds they were creating and three weeks later, his music ensemble Brave Waves was performing at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner. Joe has performed at every Gung Haggis dinner since, including the Gung Haggis Fat Choy CBC television performance special too! A few years ago, we starting “rapping” the Robbie Burns immortal poem “Address to a Haggis.” We created an MP3 file with Trevor Chan of the No Luck Club… and it is going to be played on BBC Radio Scotland's Robbie Burns radio special on January 25th for Burns' 250th birthday – Woo-hoo!

Adrienne Wong – Neworld Theatre actor/writer for “Mixie and the Half-Breeds“
Adreinne is a long time friend of Gung Haggis Fat Choy. She co-hosted the 2004 dinner, and in 2003 she paddled on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. Growing up with Chinese and French ancestry, heritage and culture, Adrienne knows what it's like to walk in both worlds, as well as in-between. She's written a new theatrical play called “Mixie and the Half-Breeds.” We think it's perfect for a Gung Haggis Fat Choy world… and she's going to give us a sneak preview before the show opens later this year. I saw Adrienne give a stage reading of “My Name is Rachel Corrie” last fall – fantastic!

Special guests include: The Famous Grouse whisky 37 year old blend
Larry Grant, Musqueam Elder
Rita Wong, 2008 BC Book Poetry Prize winner “Forage”
Dr. Leith Davis, SFU Centre for
Scottish Studies
Jan Walls, former SFU Director of International Communications
Tommy
Tao, poet translator
Chuck Lew QC, keeper for the flame for 49 years of Burns Dinners for the Vancouver Chinatown Lions Club.
+ 1 bottle of 37 year old Famous Grouse scotch – one of only 250 made to be featured at Burns Suppers around the world.

Georgia Straight: Kevin Chong writes an intercultural love story about a Chinese guy and his Jewish non-girlfriend

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Intercultural Love Stories… or almost-love stories do happen.

Once upon a time, I had a non-girlfriend who was half-Jewish, half-Caribbean. Then we dated. Then we didn't.

Today, I still listen to Leonard Cohen music. I have friends who have Jewish ethnicity. And I have a girlfriend who claims we share the same cultural identity – multi-generational Canadian. But she doesn't have any Chinese DNA.

Writer Kevin Chong has written an interesting Christmas time short story for the Georgia Straight that traverses multi-ethnic cultural definitions. Afterall… Love knows no boundaries, right? In the end, we are all Canadians in love… or out of love.

No Christmas at the Happy Panda

By Kevin Chong

What’s an angsty Chinese guy to do when his wry Jewish non-girlfriend leaves him lonely during the holidays?

Ellie
Simmons didn’t wear makeup and had thick, sideways-sprouting hair that
was the colour of dark chocolate. She slouched around campus in a
leather trench coat, smoked hand-rolled cigarettes, and drove an
unreliable Mazda GLC. It was 1994. We were 19 when we first met outside
the university library. She made fun of me for reading a collection of
poetry by Leonard Cohen. “Guys only read poetry to impress women,” she
said with her characteristic scorn. “You would do better if you wore a
clean shirt and looked me in the eye.”

Read the story at: http://www.straight.com/article-176244/no-christmas-panda

Barack Obama is the 1st “Aloha Spirit” Hawaiian US President – not just Black & White!

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Barack Obama is now president-elect for the United States. The media keeps saying that he is the first Black-American president. But is this true?

Barack Obama, third from left at rear, in 1972 with his fifth-grade
class in a photograph from Na Opio, the yearbook of the Punahou School.

The AFP printed this story History as Obama elected America's first black president

If Barack Obama's mother was a White American woman from Kansas, and his father was
a Black man from Africa – doesn't this make him a
Black&White-American?

If American speed skater Apolo Ohno became U.S. president, would they
say he was the first Eurasian president? Or the first Asian-American
President? Or the first President of Japanese ancestry?

Since Obama was raised in Hawaii, isn't he really the first Hawaiian
President? ….The way that George Bush was a Texan president, Jimmy
Carter was a Georgian president, and Bill Clinton was an Alabaman
president?

I think it is so fitting, that Barack was raised in Hawaii. I have
always found Hawaii to be a very inclusive multi-cultural society. So
many people from all around the world have settled in Hawaii, including
Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Samoans, Portuguese, Caucasians… and
Americans…. and Canadians too!

In Hawaii, if you are half-white, you are called a “Hapa Haole.” The
term “Hapa” is now used to describe people who are of mixed Asian
ethnicity.

In Hawaii, there is the “Aloha Spirit.” “Aloha” is the Hawaiian word for “hello.” And it also means “Love.”

Obama has a half-sister who is half-Asian. In a March 17, 2007 New York Times story Charisma and a Search for Self in Obama’s Hawaii Childhood, she says:

“I think Hawaii gave him a sense that a lot of different
voices and textures can sort of live together, however imperfectly, and
he would walk in many worlds and feel a level of comfort.”
said Ms. Soetoro-Ng, the child of Mr. Obama’s mother from another
marriage, who remains close to him.
“People from very far-away places collide here, and cultures collide,
and there is a blending and negotiation that is constant.”

Media commentators on CNN said that Obama did not make this election a
race issue. Instead he emphasized inclusiveness. He spoke about hope,
instead of fear. He talked about working together.

It is now a time when people from all races must work together. When
people from all countries, and all continents must work together.

To me… I think the issue is not that Obama is Black-American or
Half-White American… but he is All-American. Barack Obama is
striving to inspire all Americans, and all humans to be the best that
we can be, and to work together by helping each other.

Barack Obama is bringing the Aloha spirit to the American presidency and hopefully to the world.

Silk Road Music brings dancing to Enchanted Evenings concert at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Gardens

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Chinese and African dancing accompanied Silk Road Music's always entertaining world music concert at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden's final Enchanted Evenings concert series.

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Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault of Silk Road Music Ensemble with their
friends African dancer Jacky Essombe and percussionist Pepe Danza – photo Michael Brophy

It was a great concert to close out the Enchanted Evening series, Friday Sep 4th, at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens, by Silk Road Music, made more exciting by the presence of Cameroon dancer Jacky Essombe and the Chinese creative dance team of Jessica Jone and Cheng xin Wei, also known as Moving Dragon Dance Company.

Picture from Program.

The program opened with a traditional reel – not out of place in french-canadian or celtic circles. Qiu Xia demonstrated esquisite picking skills on her pipa (Chinese lute), as Andre Thibault strummed furiously, and Pepe Danza played his drums. Andre shared that they have played all over the world with Pepe, and they also perform together in the group Jou Tou where Andre is band leader (Qiu Xia leads Silk Road Music).

Qiu Xia invited dancers Cheng Xin and Jessica Jone out to join them, explaining that they would perform traditional Xingjian music from China, not often performed in Vancouver or Canada. Next she invited African dancer Jacky Essombe, sharing that Jacky had been part of the Cultural Olympiad show that Qiu Xia had organized for Chinese New Year's earlier this year.

Clouds was a celtic inspired instrumental compsed and performed by Qiu Xia on her pipa, while Jessica performed a Chinese fan dance. It was an unlikely but beautifully harmonious fusion of cultures, dance and song. Hmmm…. definitely something to consider for the next Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.

Andre and Pepe followed with a rollicking flamenco song, which Qiu Xia joined in on. Andre loves playing flamenco, and it is amazing how Qiu Xia picks the melody on her pipa with her vituostic skill.

Jessica spoke to the audience about Moving Dragon's upcoming show at the Scotiabank Dance Centre for Sep 12/13, titled LuminUS.

Full of surprises, the rest of the program blended more chinese and african dancing with the Silk Road Music repetoire. For the final song, Jacky invited audience members to the centre stage area to join her in African dancing. She encouraged people to yell and make noise, as the room filled up with vibrant energy. Canadian Africanized dancers young and old joined in the dancing.

Check out this links.

www.movingdragon.ca

www.silkroadmusic.ca

www.myspace.com/silkroadtocanada

www.cdbaby.com

Royal BC Museum invites 6 new people to “The Party” including Trevor Linden, Dal Richards, Red Robinson, Ida Chong and Todd Wong!

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Trevor Linden, Red Robinson, Dal Richards, Ida Chong and Todd Wong are the newest invitees to the Royal BC Museum's exhibit “The Party” to celebrate BC's 150 year history.

If you could invite 150 of BC's most colourful citizens throughout it's 150 year history to “The Party” who would you invite?

Governor James Douglas or Pamela Anderson? Architects George Rattenbury, Arthur Eriksen, or James Cheng? Athletes Joe Sakic, Karen Magnusson, Steve Nash or Nancy Greene? Artists Emily Carr, Toni Onley, Jack Shadbolt or Robert Davidson? Community Activists Nelly McClung, Rosemary Brown or the Raging Grannies?

Inspirational icons Terry Fox or Rick Hansen? Politicians Svend Robinson, Grace McCarthy, Dave Barrett, Kim Campbell or Amor de Cosmos? Musicians Bryan Adams, Diana Krall, David Foster or Sarah McLachlan? Authors Jane Rule, Douglas Coupland, Dorothy Livesay or Joy Kogawa?

Actors Chief Dan George, Yvonne De Carlo, Kim Catrall or Bruno Gerussi? Environmentalists David Suzuki or Roderick Haig Brown? Business leaders Tong Louie, Jimmy Pattison or Nat Bailey? And what about “Hanging Judge” Begbie, Expo Ernie or Mr. Peanut?

The Royal BC Museum's website says”

The history of our province is filled with fascinating people. Find out who they
are. Uncover their stories. These are the guests invited to The Party so far.

All of the above are all invited as guests… and now… Gung Haggis Fat Choy founder Todd Wong has joined them along with new invitees Trevor Linden, Ida Chong, Dal Richards, Red Robinson, and Jennie Butchart – the inspiration behind the Butchart Gardens.

Todd Wong stands beside BC hockey player Sakic, beneath author & friend Joy Kogawa, activist Betty Krawcyk, and nearby Gov. James Douglas, when he visited the exhibit on April 23rd – photo Deb Martin.

To see the picture of me in the exhibit check out http://www.freespiritbc.ca/virtualexhibition/theparty.aspx
and scroll to the far right. The picture was taken by my friend
Richard Montagna. So far only six of the most recent invitees are on
website. The official press release announcement will be on August 6th.

Read Todd's August 8th account of visiting his picture at the Royal BC Museum:

“Toddish McWong” installed at the “Free Spirit” exhibition at Royal BC Museum

The Royal BC Museum website says:

Todd Wong

“Passionate about intercultural adventures, “Toddish McWong” founded Gung Haggis Fat Choy, a Robert Burns / Chinese New Year event that has been celebrating with an annual dinner since 1997.”

It is indeed an honour to be included with so many illustrious and
creative BCers. It's amazing to think that Gung Haggis Fat Choy has
created such an impact, inspiring dinners in Seattle, Whistler, Ottawa, Wells BC
and Santa Barbara California (that I know about). As well there has been the 2004
CBC television performance special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy“, and the SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival.

I had visited the exhibit on April 23, when I traveled to accept my BC Community Achievement Award. We were excited to see the picture of Joy Kogawa, which I had taken. Joy was one of the original 132 persons chosen for the exhibit, but it was challenging to find a full length picture of her, so I volunteered myself and girlfriend as photographers for her.

Check out my story about bout finding Joy's picture and visiting the exhibit “The Party”:

Todd stans in front of “The Party” in front of his friend Joy Kogawa. – photo Deb Martin

Todd's adventure in Victoria: Traveling to “The Party” at BC Royal
Museum

I guess it is time to write that “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” book I have wanted to for awhile… or a theatrical play about the mythical Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner called “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.”

I personally really think it is time for post-multiculturalism, when we can embrace a mix of cultures as well as creating our own new cultures and traditions out of that mix.

150 years ago, James Douglas was BC's first governor. But a lot of people don't realize that he was born of mixed Scottish and Creole bloodlines in Guyana. He married a Metis woman, Amelia Connolly,
whose father
was an Irish-French fur trader and whose mother was a Cree Chief’s
daughter. Author and friend Terry Glavin told me that Douglas had envisioned a new land where people from all over the world could come and live harmoniously in peace.

Racial and cultural issues have always been part of our province's history, whether it was wars between the Haida and the Kwakiutal, Black American or Chinese miners coming to BC for the gold rush, the Potlatch Law, the Chinese Head Tax, the Komagata Maru incident, the internment of Canadian born Japanese-Canadians during WW2, or even the present day First Nations treaty negotiations, migrant farm workers from Central America, nurses and nannies from the Phillipines, rising immigration from Hong Kong and China.

Here are the write-ups for my fellow newest invitees to The Party.

Ida Chong:

This Victoria native first entered politics in 1993 and three years later became the first Canadian-born person of Chinese ancestry elected to the British Columbia legislature.

Dal Richards (1918 – )
A member of the Kitsilano Boys Band in his youth, this Vancouver native began his professional musical career 70 years ago, and is now playing more gigs than ever.

Red Robinson (1937- )
At the age of 16, he was one of the first Canadian disc jockeys to play Rock'N' Roll. He is a member of the Canadian Broadcast hall of fame, and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Trevor Linden (1970 – )
This National Hockey League All-star played 16 of his 19 seasons as a Vancouver Canuck. A holder of many team records he retired in June 2008.

Jennie Butchart (1866-1950)
Wife of Portland-cement pioneer Robert Butchart. Her inspired creations of Butchart Gardens in the limestone quarry at Tod Inlet became a world-renowned destination for visitors to British Columbia

http://www.freespiritbc.ca/virtualexhibition/theparty.aspx

Did Chinese discover BC first? Oldest new immigrants? DNA connections? Georgia Straight tackles the question?

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Did the Chinese discover North America 1000 years before Columbus?

“Who were BC's first seafarers?” is the cover feature on this week's Georgia Straight?

Daniel Wood writes a very interesting feature that addresses the Chinese legendary land of Fu Sang, interviews underwater acheologist enthusiast Tom Beasley, and explores the Gavin Menzies book 1421, the Year China Discovered the World.

I have written about connections between First Nations and Chinese people when Storyscapes was exploring the oral history of such meetings: Vancouver Storyscapes: Where the Chinese met the First Nations peoples

It's not unfathomable that the Chinese discovered North America first. Afterall, ancient Chinese civilization and science was much further advanced than European civilization circa 500 AD. According to Menzies, the Chinese had huge boats 5X the size of Columbus' flagship. A lot of trade and knowledge migrated to Japan from China, and Japanese glass fishing floats have regularly made their way to BC's shores, due to ocean currents.

I have often spoke with BC's First Nations people about Chinese-First Nations connections. Afterall, my mother's blood cousin is Rhonda Larrabee, chief of the Qayqayt (New Westminster) First Nations. Larry Grant, Musqueam elder, is half Chinese, like cousin Rhonda.

When I was up in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), I spoke with Haida people about the shared “mongolian birthmark” that both Chinese and First Nations people are born with.
Check out my stories:

Storyscapes Chinatown premieres on Saturday – check out my “Creation Story”

Storyscapes Chinatown: “Spiritual Kinship” – Todd Wong

Check it out:
http://www.straight.com/article-152876/who-were-bcs-first-seafarers?

Hapa Canada Day Eve!

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Canada Day Eve is one of the greatest celebration events not celebrated…

Hapa-Canadian “Standing on Guard for Thee”! original drawing by Jeff Chiba Stearns

Why don't we have a midnight countdown to celebrate our country's birthday? Okay, there are fireworks celebrations at the end of Canada Day, but everybody has to go to work the next morning. Aren't holidays better celebrated when you can stay up late the night before, then sleep in?

Last night, I met up with two friends, Leanne Riding and Judy Maxwell. When I introduced them, it took only a few minutes before one of them said “Are you hapa?”

And this was in a darkened room!

If people think that “Canadian Identity”is a conundrum, try to define being Hapa. It's a Hawaiian term that is now more commonly used to define mixed race Asian-Canadians and Asian-Americans.

My friend John Endo Greenaway writes this:

“Some people don’t like the term hapa, given its somewhat
derogatory roots, but many mixed Asian-Canadians/Amercians have
embraced it, although it has yet to enter the mainstream vocabulary.
But whatever term you want to use, hapas are here to stay. With a 90% intermarriage rate (give or take) Japanese Canadians are producing hapa children at a prodigious rate. Attend a Japanese Canadian gathering or event and chances are you’ll see hapa everywhere, ranging in age from infants to mid-thirties.”

http://www.canadiannikkei.ca/blog/what-is-hapa/

So…. back to Canada Day Eve….

With my two Hapa friends, we start talking about our “Hapa radars”, that intuitive sense that immediately lets us know when we think that somebody we've never met before is Hapa. We talk about the reactions that people have to them, when people realize they are neither Asian nor Caucasian, but both. We talk about the first time when I realized they were Hapa.

We go down to Kitsilano Beach, finding a secluded spot, watch dusk settle in because we just missed the sunset after 10pm. We talk more about Hapa-ness… the beingness of Hapa, about our Hapa friends, our Hapa cousins, Hapa nieces and nephews.

We talk about Hapa friends like Jeff Chiba Stearns who is an animator, and created the Hapa short animation film “What Are You Anyways?” We talk about Brandy Lien-Worrall who is the editor of “All Mixed Up“an anthology chap book of Hapa poetry.

Maxwell and Riding… two very un-Asian sounding names. But they
chatted on about how easy they can be mistaken for Asian or Caucasians
in different settings. Both are very active in the Asian-Canadian
community. Judy is presently a researcher for the Chinese Canadian
Military Museum, and has done many academic and conference
presentations because of her research on the Chinese disaspora and
migration patterns. Leanne has been studying Asian-Canadian history
and is now active as co-president of Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop
and the Asian Canadian Organization, which started as a student
initiated project at UBC.

But both have family histories that
are rooted in the racial turmoils of our country. Judy's
great-grandfather was a Member of Parliament that had pushed for the
Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, while Leanne's grandparents and great-grandparents had been interned during WW2 because they were of Japanese
ancestry.

They name me a “Honourary Hapa,” because of the community building work I do such as Gung Haggis Fat Choy, which they both totally love, and attended earlier this year, back in January. They both made fun of me, because I couldn't initially remember where they were sitting in the room of 430 people, even though one of the them was sitting at the head table with me along with the Vancouver.

And then it dawns on me. Being Canadian is being Hapa… and being Hapa is being Canadian. Canada celebrates it's cultural diversity, and nowhere is that diversity better celebrated than in the mixed race DNA enhanced ethnicities of it's peoples… even better if it all rolled up in one.

With BC celebrating it's 150th Anniversary this year in 2008, we are reminded that Simon Fraser came down the “Fraser River” with a crew of Metis (French-First Nations mix), and BC's first Governor James Douglas was born in the Caribbean nation of Guyana of mixed Scottish and Creole bloodlines. BC's history is Hapa…. and most people don't even realize it.

So… sitting on English Bay… (Somewhere there must be an original First Nations Name that can be chosen as a “rename”) we toasted to Canada's birthday eve, and our Hapa-ness. And in our lively and wonderful conversations (which later moved to a Kitsilano area apartment), we had so much fun, we forgot to do a countdown to midnight until it was long past.

Here are some Hapa websites:

Meditating Bunny
Home page of Jeff Chiba Stearns, whose short animated film What Are You Anyways? deals with growing up hapa.

Halvsie
“For, by and about Half Japanese”

Gung Haggis Fat Choy parade dragon and paddles on flickr

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Happy St. Patrick's Day. It's the day after Celtic Fest and the Vancouver St. Patrick's Day parade. I am still wearing my green Gung Haggis Fat Choy t-shirt.

Being in a parade doesn't allow you to take pictures of your group, so it's always interesting to find pictures on flickr.

Steven Duncan took some pictures of us setting up. Check out his flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/9057324@N08/sets/72157604144696435/

Michael Brophy gets in touch with his “inner dragon” – photo Steve Duncan (by permission)

Julie and Hilary help Todd assemble the new parade dragon – photo Steve Duncan (by permission).

Check out these pictures by
By Kashmera

Stuart MacKinnon and I sat on the front of my car with our kilts on… and paddled. We tried to get a dragon boat named “Fraser” into the parade, but it ran into trailer problems. So we improvised. It was quite funny, because a few people yelled out “Where's your boat?” And Stuart insisted on paddling with my Chinese dragon hand puppet stuck on his hand. I don't think I ever saw it come off, until there was a glass of Guinness in his hand after the parade.

Our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team carried our new Chinese parade dragon.
Below Raphael and Leanne lead the dragon, while Michael wears a Chinese lion head
and terrorizes the volunteers!

Gung Haggis Fat Choy puts a dragon (not a snake) in the 5th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

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Gung Haggis Fat Choy puts a dragon (not a snake) in the 5th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon team: Stuart holds the paddles, while Joy, Deb, Hillary, Richard, Michael and Leanne (out of picture) hold up our new parade dragon! – photo Julie

The 15 foot long Chinese dragon undulated up and down in the air above the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Vancouver’s Granville Street. A mini version of the larger 10 or 20 person dragons used in Chinatown Chinese New Year parades, it jerked hesitantly. Five Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team members carried short poles sporting a yellow body with red scales and blue and yellow ridge.

It flowed unsure of itself, as the leader lowered and raised the head and the body followed. It ran from one side of the road to the other, slowing down to flap its mouth and pay attention to the children.

A Chinese dragon in a St. Patrick’s Day Parade? Didn’t St. Patrick drive the snakes out of Ireland?

Ahh… but this is multi-inter-cultural Vancouver. Dragon boaters paddle in kilts, and bagpipers perform in the Chinese New Year Parade. And the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner serves up deep-fried haggis won tons. Welcome to Vancouver!

Yesterday I was in Chinatown looking for some kind of dragon to use for our parade entry. I had only learned the day before that the trailer used for Fraser Valley dragon boats had some safety issues. Damn!

It would have been very cool to put a “Fraser” dragon boat into the Celtic Fest St. Patrick’s Day parade, and have our dragon boat team members wearing the Hunting Fraser tartans (okay we call them “sport tartans”).

I checked around to try to find a Vancouver area dragon boat and trailer to use as a replacement. But no luck.

For the first three years of the festival, I had featured a Taiwanese dragon boat, that we pulled on a trailer. Very colourful. Very ornate. Very good audience reaction, as we “paddled” on the boat and banged the drum.

But this year… Sorry – no dragon boat… so we improvised…

I looked in Chinatown stores at seven foot long plastic expandable dragon decorations. They looked cheap. Some looked pretty cool, with bright jewel cellophane coloured assembled pieces for its head. $49.

But then I saw a larger cloth covered dragon for $148, like the kind used in the Chinatown parades, but with only two poles.

Then I saw a large dragon face staring at me, with a large pink tongue sticking out. A large round body, stretching 16 feet long alongside the staircase leading to the second floor. Wow! It’s yellow head was about the same size as the large Chinese Lion head mask that I have. I wanted it!

A big commitment buying a parade dragon like that. As I was looking at it, a woman said to me, “ Are you Todd Wong?” My daughter Shane did a lion dance at Gung Haggis Fat Choy!”

“Hi… uh… that’s great! Nice to see you… was that at SFU?” I answered (I didn’t remember ever having a Lion Dance at a Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner).

“No… it was about a month ago, in Seattle!” She said, “My name is Sam.”

In Seattle Bill McFadden had organized a grand Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner with 5 Lion Dancers. The mother and daughter had popped up to Vancouver from Seattle for the day, just to see a martial arts demonstration earlier that day on Saturday. We had a wonderful conversation about Lion dancing, and what a beautiful dragon we were looking at.

“We don’t have a dragon at our school,” they said. “This dragon is gorgeous! It would be great to have.”

I bought the dragon.

The weather was chilly today for the March 16 parade this morning, high overcast. But 5 Years…. and NO RAIN!!! Incredible!

Our dragon boat team members started assembling about 10:15am. It took awhile for some of us to find us, because our car had been “temporarily” ushered into the “walkers” area instead of the “motorized” area, so that we could unload the car and decorate it.

Our paddlers marveled at the new dragon making its’ public debut. We struggled trying to screw in the poles to the dragon. We put green Gung Haggis Fat Choy shirts on our participants. We put kilts on the people who didn’t show up in them. We put green plastic bowler hats on the men or tiaras on the women, and we gave everybody mardi-gras style green, purple and blue beads.

We were festive. We were fun. We were happening!

People seemed to like the Chinese dragon we had on 5 poles…
and the Chinese lion head character…. Michael lead the dragon first. He is 1/2 Chinese, 1/8 Irish and 1/8 Scottish. Following and supporting the dragon were Leanne, Richard, Hillary and Joy.

Lots of interaction with the audience, playing to the cameras… giving attention to the children. Raphael and Stuart carried dragon boat paddles. I wore the large Lion Head mask.

Todd Wong and Lion Head mask – photo Michael Brophy

We got lots of crowd reaction, when Raphael and I started sitting over the front fenders on the car hood, paddling dragon boat style.

In the parade we saw lots of great pipe bands, Irish dancers, Scottish highland dancers and even horses and Irish Wolf Hounds.

It was nice to see a Korean parade entry, and a Chinese Falun Dufa entry. Apparently for the Chinatown parade – they wouldn't let Falun Dufa participate, because it is a “hot issue” for the Chinese embassy. And I even found two Chinese bagpipers. Xi “Jonsey” is in the J.P. Fell pipe band and Fu Cheong is in the Irish Pipes and Drums.

Jonesy Wu and Todd Wong – Celtic loving Chinese-Canadians in kilts – photo Michael Brophy

After the parade, we visited the Celtic village set up on Granville St., then dipped into Ceili's Irish Bar for some food and well-deserved Guinness beer. It was great to be back at the very site where Thursday night, I had won the inaugural “Battle of the Bards” playing Robbie Burns!

But I couldn't stay long, as we still had a dragon boat team practice, and I was coaching!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to the Celtic Fest organizers for having us in the parade. We are glad to add a multicultural aspect to the festival, and hope to organize an event for “Celtic-Asian-Canadians” next year – celebrating Celtic-Asian-Canadian literature, music and arts!

The rain started about 4:30pm in Vancouver after the most successful St. Patrick’s Day Parade ever.

Gung HAGGIS Fat Choy

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

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Gung Haggis Fat Choy parade dragon and paddles on flickr

Gung Haggis Fat Choy puts a dragon (not a snake) in the 5th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.