Category Archives: Recent Reviews

Hip, Hapa and Happening – check out Uzume Taiko and First Nations Magic Flute

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Hip, Hapa and Happening for April 6/7
– check out Uzume Taiko and First Nations Magic Flute: Quest for the Box of Shadows

If I was in Vancouver this weekend.  I would have been at the Paco Pena flamenco concert last night.  I seen Paco twice in concert when he presented Misa Flamenco – a musical mass written for flamenco.  Last night was the North American premiere of  Requiem Flamenco: In Praise of the Earth.  See  In praise of Paco Pena – Globe and Mail – 6 Apr 2007

For this weekend – two key intercultual performances to see – Uzume Taiko and Vancouver Opera's Touring ensemble Magic Flute.
    
Uzume Taiko is a Vancouver based musical group that performs Japanese Taiko drums but also makes contemporary Canadian music, sometimes with bagpipes!  Always a staple at the Powell Street Festival, Uzume Taiko never fails to delight.  They perform this weekend on April 6 and 7 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver.   Uzume Taiko is preparing for an upcoming tour to Germany.  check out this article about Uzume Taiko in Pacific Rim Magazine Online.

Earlier this year, Vancouver Opera opened their most expensive endeavor, a First Nations themed The Magic Flute performance of Mozart's masterpiece.  But last fall, the Vancouver Opera Touring Emsemble had already been taking a 45 minute adaptation to schools throughout BC.  Both productions successfully interwove First Nations stories and mythology into the story that was already heavily themed with magic and spiritual discovery, based on Free Mason philosophy which Mozart had learned.  Read my review GungHaggisFatChoy :: Vancouver Opera's Magic Flute: A journey …

“Two young people search for meaning in their
world and discover the value of family and community. Tamino, wanting
to prove his worthiness to his father, goes on a quest to recover a box
of shadows from the Wild Woman of the Woods. He meets the beautiful
Pamina who is on her own quest to find her family. Along the way,
they're helped by Gak the Raven, Gibuu the Wolf, and of course, one
magical flute.”

Magic Flute: Quest for the Box of Shadows performs at Firehall Arts Centre, 2pm,  Saturday April 7 & Sunday April 8. 
It is FREE – but you must reserve tickets by phoning Firehall Arts Centre 604-689-0926
280 East Cordova St.

Theatre Review: Twisting Fortunes is just like “real dating” – same challenges with dating Asians or Caucasians too!

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Theatre Review: Twisting Fortunes is just like “real dating”
– same challenges with dating Asians or Caucasians too!



Twisting Fortunes
February 6, 7, 8, 9,
8pm
Playwrights Theatre Centre (1398
Cartwright Street)
on Granville Island.
Tickets $10 at the door.

Whether
or not you have dated an Asian or a Caucasian, you will relate to this
play.  Playwrights Grace Chin and Charlie Cho, have created a
witty and sharply funny play about dating (or non-dating) in
Vancouver's cyber-café culture.  Filled with hip pop culture
references that clash with traditional dating expectations, Twisting Fortunes
explores the netherland of dating culture's “do's and don'ts” while
adding an inter-cultural spice with references and comparisons to
dating Asians and non-Asians. 

Gee… just like real life!  At least from an Asian-Canadian
perspective…  Growing up As-Can (that's Asian-Canadian) in a WC
(White-Canadian) dominated world, you really don't have many chances to
see people that look like yourself in plays, movies or theatre – except
in stereotypical roles.  Indeed, this is how writers Chin and Cho
felt, as they drew on their own life experiences and friendship, to
create a “MIV” (made in Vancouver) cultural theatre experience. 
Amazingly, it doesn't feel forced.  The main characters Ray Chow
and Jessie Leong, played by Zen Shane Lim and Grace Chin, just happen
to be both Chinese-Canadian… but that doesn't mean they don't date
Whites – they have.  They just weren't looking in particular to
date somebody Chinese either.

Sparks start to fly when Ray Chow,
a young reporter covering a flash mob, is soon asked by Jessie Leong
what happened.  After some light flirtatious banter they
whimiscally decide to meet the next day at a cafe, without exchanging
cards or phone numbers.  Echoing romantic comedies of the past,
“if it is meant to be, it is meant to be.”  And so begins a
journey of accidental meetings, flirtations with sexual tension.

Ray and Jessie get off to a rocky start, as Ray starts guessing that a
couple of smooching Asians in the café are Japanese… or American.  Jessie
challenges him on his stereotyping assumptions, to soon discover that
Ray isn't really comfortable in his As-Can skin:

“I grew up in this really White
community. I didn't really know any other Asian women but my mom and
sisters.  Sure, I went to Chinese school on Saturdays, but I just
thought Asian women were – nerdier.”

They also discuss they they don't date Asians, citing parental
expectations.  Jessie, who is in the film business as an
actor/writer, says:

“There was this Chinese guy I dated. He
was nice and all that, but his mom didn't like me. She wanted me to be
more “Chinese.” And he always caved in and took her side.

“My next boyfriend was – well, White, but it was a total suprise. I
mean, before then, I couldn't even imagine myself dating a White guy.

“Because I didn't think they'd be into me. And I couldn't imagine
dealing with all that White guy-ness. They smell different, right?”

Hmm… So much for the “nice Chinese girl” stereotype for Jessie –
especially when she says “by the way, I didn't notice a size
difference.”

Just two people talking, like in the movies Before Sunrise, and Before Sunset. 
And like the characters of Jesse and Celine, their conversations reveal
not only an attraction, but also their defensive personalities that
have prevented them from achieving any truly real happiness in their
lives.  We learn that Ray prefers not to “date” but rather to have
“friends.”  This helps keep Ray free from overly committing
himself to a relationship, whereas Jessie prefers “serial
monogamy.” 

I went to see Twisting Fortunes on Thursday night, and it is
surprisingly good.  The audience was mostly Asian but there were
also a number of mixed race couples too.  Almost immediately
during the intermission, people were talking about the first act and
it's statements about dating.

With
my friends, we immediately started comparing dating experiences with
both Chinese, Caucasian or other Asian dates.  True or False…
Asian males are
intimidated by Asian females… or Asians are more reserved in dating
behavoirs… Asians don't bring dates home to meet the parents. There
is/isn't any difference in size.

The
second half becomes darker, and more entangled.  The friendship
between Jessie and Ray alternates between going deeper, or more
estranged.  They are still trying to work out what they are doing,
not only in their own lives – but in relationships with others, and as friends to each other… or is it something more?

Many
people who have watched the ongoing theatre soap series “Sex in
Vancouver” put on by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre will be familiar
with actor Zen Shane Lim, who played Kevin in all the episodes except
the final one.  Kathy Leung who filmed the videos for “Sex in
Vancouver” is the director here, and is able to transform the small
black box theatre into a very flexible space – utilizing almost every
inch. 

A large video screen shows different scenes as the
characters move from street scene to cafe, from restaurant to
apartment, and from art gallery to street scene.  It is an
effective way of conveying moods and settings and is never intrusive,
but always suggesting.


Twisting Fortunes
is a welcome addition to the Asian Canadian arts community.  It
reflects accurately the social experiences of Asian Canadians without
being preachy or political.  The characters are well-crafted and
the audience quickly is drawn into their developing
non-relationship.  The sexual tension is playful and drawn out,
and reflective of deeper socio-cultural currents – hinted at but never
fully explored, nor does it need to be.  If you ever wondered what
when wrong in your ex-relationship with that Asian guy/girl – check out
this play and maybe you will find the reason.

Grace Chin and Kathy Leung are the hosts of Scripting Aloud, a monthly scriptreading and networking event for scriptwriters and actors, held at Our Town Café (245
E. Broadway, Vancouver, BC).
It was at these sessions that Twisting Fortunes was workshopped and
honed before being presented in it's finished form at the Playwright's
Theatre.

Twisting Fortunes opened earlier this week on
Tuesday, but by Thursday – the final Friday show was already sold
out.  With largely word of mouth, networking and some choice
interviews on CBC Radio and elsewhere, Twisting Fortunes seems to have
quickly found its audience.  Too bad it can't run for another
week.  Here's hoping for a remount soon… and maybe even a sequel.

Jan 15 – Sublime, entertaining, and full of surprises – Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night

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Sublime, entertaining, and full of surprises
– Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night


Thursday January 15th
7:30pm
Vancouver Public Library
Central Branch


Ariadne Sawyer and Todd Wong, hosts of the 4th Annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night – photo Stephen Mirowski

“Something
old, something new, something borrowed, something brewed,” is how I
always describe the GHFC World Poetry Night.  And then sometimes
we just make things up as we go along… that is how creativity
works.  What else could you expect when the host of Co-op Radio's
“Creativity Rocks” program Ariadne Sawyer gets together with Gung
Haggis Fat Choy creator Todd Wong?

A little bit of Scottish music on this side… a little bit of Chinese
poetry on that side… a little bit of Robbie Burns from Ian Mason, and
a strange hybrid Chinese/Scottish dragon dance to bagpipes in the
middle of the poetry readings.

But just prior to all the literary readings, I had to do a quick
interview with Erin Cebula of Global TV for her weekly feature “Global
Village.”  Erin asked me questions about the origin of Gung Haggis
Fat Choy dinner and how I came to create collaborative programs with
other community groups such as World Poetry Night, Vancouver Society of
Storytelling, and the SFU Recreation Department…. all to culminate
into an unofficial Gung Haggis Fat Choy festival of events.

And all too soon, we heard the bagpipes calling.  I had to go join
the evening's performers for our traditional piping in ceremony. 
Piper Joe McDonald led us into the room.  Ariadne, myself, Fiona,
Shelly, Leon and Ian.  It's always a nice way to set the tone,
after Barbara Edwards, VPL librarian welcomes the audience to the
Vancouver Public Library.

Ariadne led off the welcomes, thanking all the poets for coming, then
she read her opening poem.  I also read a poem titled “My
Ancestors are hanging” about encountering a picture of my great-great
grandfather's brother “Rev. Chan Sing Kai” hanging in an photograph
exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1986.  I had written it in
1986 for a Canadian Literature course.  People liked it…  I
will print it here later.



Multi-instrumentalist Joe McDonald – with his flute and keyboard – photo Stephen Mirowski

Joe McDonald was next, and he played an original song on his Chinese
flute and
sang the words acapella.   Joe is truly a multi-talented
performing artist.  Throughout the evening he performed bagpipes,
keyboards, flute and harmonica.

Scottish-born Chinese Canadian Fiona Tinwei Lam read some selections
from her collection Intimate Distances.  Some drew on memories of
the distant land that she left while still a child.  Another
focussed on an intercultural relationship.



Fiona Tinwei Lam reading from “Intimate Distances” – photo Stephen Mirowski

I next introduced Dr. Ian Mason of the Burns Club of Vancouver, by
recalling our conversation earlier in the day that while Chinese had
invented the Ancient World, it was the Scots who  invented the
Modern World.  Burns was a philosopher ahead of his time, and Ian
was able to expand on these thoughts, giving examples of the life of
Robbie Burns.  While Burns died at the young age of 37 (a
collective sigh was ushered by the audience), he wrote about the
injustices of the tax and voting systems of the day – which could have
been considered treasonous.  Ian ended by talking about and
reading from “A Man's A Man For All That,” which asks for equality for
individuals, especially in the sense of voting privileges.  How
fitting a talk for Martin Luther King Day.

Leon Yang spoke about some customs for Chinese New Year, and read poems
both in Chinese and English.  Unfortunately, I didn't hear much
because I was outside in the hall helping to ready the evening's
surprise.  I had gathered six paddlers from the Gung Haggis Fat
Choy dragon boat team and some volunteers from the audience to assemble
beneath a long bolt of purple tartan plaid.  I gave Steven Wong
the large Chinese Lion head mask, and we quickly created the very first
Gung Haggis Fat Choy “Dragon Dance team.”

I returned to the stage and explained the differences between Scottish
dragons and Chinese dragons.  While European dragons are evil and
need to be vanquished, as in the picture of St. George and the Dragon,
Asian dragons are good and benevolent.  Being born in the year of
the dragon is considered very fortunate.  I asked the audience who
was born in the year of the dragon, and some people put up their
hand.  Audience members were quick to name that the coming Chinese
New Year on February 18th, would be the Year of the Pig / Boar.

“But not the Year of the Hog,” I remarked… as audience members
laughed.  And with that, I signaled to bagpiper Joe McDonald, and
he walked in piping, followed by the “Dream Dragon” which pranced into
the room and cajoled with audience members.  I explained how it is
good luck on Chinese New Year Day, that a dragon or Lion comes to your
store and accepts a lettuce hung from a stick.  And that since the
audience members didn't come prepared with lettuce they could hold out
money for the dragon to accept.  hee hee….

Poet Shelly Haggard read a Robert Service poem, and read her own in the
style of Service, the legendary Scottish-born poet who came to Canada
and wrote the immortal “Shooting of Dan McGrew” and the “Cremation of
Sam Magee.”  Shelly also read some original poems including one
with a Chinese theme of bamboo.

Our evening came to a close with a final poem reading of my friend Jim
Wong-Chu's poem “Recipe for Tea” – which describes how Tea came to
Scotland from China.  It is a poem for two voices for which
Ariadne read the voice describing a Chinese tea ceremony, and I read
the voice of social commentary.  It was warmly recieved by the
audience.

We came to a close with a singing of “My Haggis Lies Over the Ocean,”
sung to the tune of “My Bonnie” and a group circle of “Auld Lang Syne”
with everybody crossing their arms together in true Scots
fashion.  A little bit of Scots in every Chinese-Canadian
performer, and a little bet of Chinese in every Scots-Canadian
performer.  That was Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night.


CBC's Dragon Boys… Body count and community impact

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CBC's Dragon Boys… Body count and community impact

Dragon Boys
was one of CBC's most hyped new shows for January 2007.  Because
it dealt with drugs, gang violence and prostitution in the Chinese
communities of Vancouver and Richmond, it broached sensitive
issues.  Cultural consultants were brought in, but did it help or
hinder the show?

Ricepaper
Magazine gives a behind the scenes look at the development of the
script with input from the Chinese-Canadian communities from Toronto
and Vancouver.  It also explains the development of the “community
consultants” roles that writer/editor Jim Wong-Chu and film maker
Colleen Leung took on.  Check out Crime and Controversy: The Story behind the Dragon Boy by Nancy Han.
 
My friend David Wong writes his critique: ‘Body parts in plastic bags’ + hongcouver = Dragon Boys for his blog Ugly Chinese Canadian. 
David gives an interesting view with regards to tying in the screen
violence to actual events that happened in Vancouver.

Here are my views that were originally written as a comment to his article:

It’s so easy to blame the dominant mainstream cultural stereotypes,
and the politically correct cultural consultants… The true fact is that
there are so few stories and characters that are Chinese-Canadian, that
anything that comes out goes under the microscope, gets anal-yzed like
pork entrails, and is criticized for generalizing/mis-representing the
community.

When Kwoi writes that Dragon Boys is like an Asian version of Fast
and Furious – we also have to look around and say “Where is the Asian
version of Corner Gas?” Look at all the shows about about white
mainstream society, and there is no possibility that you will assume
that Causcasians are obsessed with killing people (CSI, Bones, Cold Case,
Crossing Jordon), or crime (Sopranos, Vegas, Without a Trace, 24, NCIS,
Law & Order, Prison Break).

Did Ang Lee need cultural consultants when he directed “Brokeback Mountain” or “The Hulk?”

Dragon Boys really had nothing to do with Chinese Canadian history.
It was more about Chinese language immigrant issues. And it is rare to
find the recent immigrants concerned with Chinese Canadian
multigenerational history, or the multigenerational CBCers concerned
with new immigrant issues such as prostitution, gangs or crime – unless
it makes the entire “so-called Chinese community.”

It was interesting to see that the Dragon Boys had pretty blonde
girlfriends, that Asian brothers had conflicts,
Chinese people took advantage of society or even tried to fit in. Yes
the stereotypes of Asian gang members, prostitutes and drug dealers were
all there – BUT they were fully developed characters that you could
know, like and even (gasp!) care about – instead of secondary
superficial undeveloped characters. Is this progress?

Having been a consultant for the CBC performance special Gung Haggis
Fat Choy, and the upcoming CBC Generations documentary on Rev. Chan
family and descendants (Feb broadcast date?) – I can say that without
my insight and comments – things would get missed, be inaccurate, and
run the risk of steotypes and generalizations.

It’s great that White-Canadians like Ian Weir want to write stories
that involve the Chinese-Canadian community – but let’s also have more
Chinese-Canadians given the opportunity to tell their stories too! We
need a balance and we need a spectrum of stories and view points.

BTW – I saw “Little Mosque on the Prairie” last night – and I LOVED it!!!
Why can’t we have a story about Chinese-Canadians like that?

Vancouver Opera's Macbeth: Italian opera based on an English play about Scottish ambitions

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Vancouver Opera's Macbeth: Italian opera based on an English play about Scottish ambitions

Vancouver Opera – Macbeth

Queen Elizabeth Playhouse
Nov. 25, 28, 30 and Dec. 2 2006

It was a cold icy night, with snow all around.  I wore my wool kilt to the opera, to keep with the Scottish theme.  Ancient Fraser of Lovat tartan for me…  Saskatchewan tartan for my companion. Dressing up for the opera…

Macbeth is set in the Middle Ages10th Century – long before the
invention of the modern kilt.  The famous Shakespearean drama was
written in 1606.  In 1847, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi
abandoned his planned opera of King Lear, and wrote Macbeth to
celebrate his favorite poet.

Fast forward to November 2006, the debut of this
Scottish-English-Italian opera in multicultural Vancouver – long home
to early waves of Scottish, English and Italian immigrants.  This
city has long loved its opera.  This province and city was built
by Scottish pioneers, becoming home to many Scottish cultural
traditions including the BC Highland Games, world champion SFU Pipe Band and a great Shakespeare tradition of Bard on the Beach.

Macbeth certainly has all the elements for a good opera: drama, murder,
and love. It is perhaps one of Shakespeare's darkest and deepest
psychological dramas and goes far to provide wonderful scenes for an
opera.  The original libretto is amazingly loyal to Shakespeare's
original prose.  Anybody who remotely remembers studying Macbeth
at high school or university, or sitting through any of the numerous
theatrical production in Vancouver will marvel at what they still
remember.

Macbeth and his fellow general Banquo encounter witches in a
wood who foretell a future where Macbeth will be king, and Banquo the
father of kings.  This sets the world in motion for a man and his
wife who are impatient to be king, and insecure of holding that
position.  In a worldview similar to Chinese warlords of the 5th
Century's Warring States Period – Macbeth is prompted by his wife to
kill any threats to their ill-gotten throne.  It is all done in
the name to preseve power.

The scenes that follow showcase the singer's talents:  Greer
Grimsley has a wonderful strong voice that belies the tortured anguis
of Macbeth, guilty of his actions.  Jane Eaglen plays Lady
Macbeth, not as an evil woman but as a woman delighted to be on the
throne.  Lady Macbeth's famous sleepwalking scene with the famous
words “out, out damn spot” as she tries to wash the blood from her
hands, is tender and plaintive.

Burak Bilgili's Banquo has a strong presence both as a living Banquo
before his death, and even as he prowls the stage as a ghost. John
Bellemer is the young Macduff, who rallies and leads the villagers
against the tyranny of Macbeth.

The original three witches of Macbeth, have been turned into a
chorus
of about 30 or more. Costumed in red, blue or aquamarine, they move
about the stage as if they are some kind of spiritual consciousness –
neither here or there, as they disappear and appear on their whim, or
threatened by Macbeth.  A friend of mine who saw opening night's
performance, said that the chorus was wonderful.  Indeed, the
power of the voices and the movement on stage was almost
overwhelming. 

A particularly “bewitching” scene was the famous cauldron, where
Macbeth implores the witches to tell him what they know.  There is
no “physical” black caldron on stage.  Instead, there is a light
grey cloth light by red light inside, expanding and contracting with
human figures.  One by one, figures emerge from the centre to
speak to Macbeth.  Visually brilliant and theatrically amazing!

Verdi's score is not dark and pondering like many modern operas such as
the works of Janacek or Stravinsky.  It is still lyrical and
emotionally plaintive.  At times the singing was so beautiful, I
forgot to watch the surtitles above the stage.

This Macbeth is also a co-production with Edmonton Opera and
Portland Opera and features visual projections by Jerome Sirlin, who
designed the award-winning sets for Broadway’s Kiss of the Spider Woman. 
It makes sense that opera should now be going “hi-tech” with visual
projections.  Sirlin has creates a forest with tree leaves waving
in the breeze, as trunks descend from above.  The projection
changes, and the scene is now instantly a castle interior. 
Following Banquo's murder, the castle walls are tinged blood red for
emotional effect during Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene.  This
may have been a holographic first for Vancouver Opera, but Ballet BC
experimented with set projections for last year's

Rite of Spring which I reviewed.  Those scene projections were done by my friend Jaime Griffiths, a local graphic artist and dance collaborator.

Kilt watching at the opera?  I met one man wearing the St. Clair
tartan and one Opera Host wearing a Chinese jacket. Many people smiled
and acknowledged our kilts.  It reminded me of past opera where I
saw people donning cheong-sams and Chinese jackets for Turandot and
even kiminos for Madame Butterfly. 

Vancouver Opera: Can Cultures Merge? – Whenever did cultures stop merging?

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Vancouver Opera: Can Cultures Merge?
– Whenever did cultures stop merging?


NOVEMBER. 8, 7:30-9:30 PM
Opera Speaks @ VPL:  “Can Cultures Merge?”
Alice MacKay Room, Vancouver Public Library
A free public forum

Opera is an art form that has borrowed from many cultures near and
far.  There is a tradition of “East meets West,” demonstrated as Puccini's
Turandot is set in China, Bizet's The Pearl Fishers is set in Ceylon,
and Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah is set in Gaza.  And even
Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado alludes to “something Japanese” but
is really a parody of English custom and pretension.

It was only a matter of time that the Vancouver Opera should set one of
Europe's most famous operas smack dab in the middle of the Pacific
Northwest First Nations culture.

Last week, magnificently costumed opera singers performed two excerpts from Mozart's Magic Flute
opera, but they were dressed in Northwest coast First Nations
inspired designs.  The young male bird catcher character of
Papageno has now become himself a bird – a hummingbird to be
precise.  The Queen of the Night has become the mythic wild woman
of the woods – T'sonokwa.

Fantastic?  Definitely.  Absurd?  Maybe.  Cultural appropriation?  Debatable…

Chris Creighton Kelly, noted artist and cultural critic, moderated the discussion which featured panelists such as anthropologist Wade Davis, Magic Flute stage director Robert McQueen, First Nations writer and filmmaker Loretta Todd, and Marcia Crosby, professor of First Nations Studies at Malaspina University-College. 

The Vancouver Opera website states the questions:

Can artists find common ground through artistic endeavour?  When does
exploration of another culture become exploitation and appropriation?
When and how does mere ‘inclusion’ became true collaboration? This
forum will explore how creative artists and performers collaborate
across cultural lines, and what importance such collaboration may hold
for the future of humankind.

The evening began slowly as each of the panelists explored the reasons
and questions to why they were on the panel.  McQueen explained
how the Vancouver Opera set about to invite and find collaborating
First Nations artists to work with them in creating an “impossible
idea.”  By relocating the Magic Flute, which was originally set in
Egypt and full of Masonic ritual, to the Pacific Northwest – it had to
be adapted to fit First Nations culture and mythology.  First
Nations writer/filmmaker Loretta Todd and professor Marcia Crosby, felt
it was also necessary to address how culturally sensitive or
appropriate it was to adopt First Nations culture.  On the other
hand, they also pointed out that they didn't know that much about
opera, and neither admitted anthropologist Wade Davis. 

But did this matter?  If more people become interested in opera, or
become more interested in exploring First Nations culture and stories,
then this is a good thing.  Davis explained that our world is
losing cultures on an astonishing rate.  Cultural diversity is
important for us to see things and issues from different perspectives. There used to be 500 Aboriginal Nations in North America before the arrival of Europeans, many have disappeared or become assimilated.

Crosby asked the question “When did cultures stop merging, so that we
had to ask the question 'Can cultures merge?'” This raised an important
point, because I personally feel that culture is like a river.  We
don't see where it starts high in the mountains… and it never is the
same when we walk through it again (to paraphrase Plato or Heraclitus)
and it ends in the large globally shared oceans.

The evening really picked up when the audience challenged the panelists
with questions and statements.  Issues addressed were
appropriation of culture and also ethnic minority issues in a white
dominated culture.  Creighton-Kelly summed it up aptly when he
said we are just beginning to scratch the surface before he wrapped up
the evening.

I was one of the people who spoke to the panel, and I was surprised at the clapping for the recognition of the name “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” when Vancouver Opera marketing and development officer Doug Tuck introduced me to the audience as he handed me the microphone.  But then “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” is getting more well known as a blending of Scottish and Chinese traditions and cultures.

“I love what the Vancouver Opera is doing,” I stated to the audience,
and spoke of the impact that the Vancouver Opera touring production
“Naomi's Road” had on sharing the Japanese Canadian internment
experience with thousands of school children.  “It is a sharing of
Japanese Canadian culture with White mainstream culture, so yes…
cultures can merge. Author Joy Kogawa told me that in Tofino, people in
the audience were crying.  Japanese Canadians were very touched to
see their culture portrayed on stage.

“The real benefit is that we are talking together in forums like
this.  We can share and listen to each other's stories, and our
cultures are merging now.  And it will continue. 

“I really want to know how the school children across BC are receiving the touring version of Magic Flute today in the schools.”

Vancouver Opera general director James Wright responded by saying that
while it is still early, the students at the schools are responding well, and are
interested in learning about First Nations culture – some are not.  I expect that
many First Nations students will take pride in seeing their culture and traditions represented.  At the same time, I expect there to be critics
of cultural mis-appropriation.  In the end… discussion is
good.  Sharing is good.  More people witnessing and
experiencing these events and issues is good. And in the end, First Nations culture is recognized as an integral part of Vancouver and BC culture and history.

Next Opera Speaks is Wednesday Night at Vancouver Public Library.
 
Opera Speaks @ VPL: “Power and its Abuses”
A free public forum about Verdi's “McBeth”

CBC Radio’s Mark Forsythe
as he moderates a discussion about the nature of political power and
its abuse, in both Shakespeare’s day and in our contemporary society. 
Panelists include UBC global issues expert Michael Byers, SFU criminologist Ehor Boyanowski and SFU Shakespeare scholar Paul Budra.

November 15, 2006 7:30pm
Alice Mackay Room
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch

VAFF: Asian-Canadian or Canadian-Asian… and what about being mixed-race Canadian?

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VAFF: Asian-Canadian or Canadian-Asian… and what about being mixed-race Canadian?


Vancouver Asian Film Festival,
continues to celebrate it's 10th anniversary by asking provocative
questions about identity, and exploring the qualities of Asian-ness
through the eyes of immigrants or through multi-generational Canadians
of mixed races parentage.

Saturday morning's program, Canadian Asian vs. Asian Canadian: Politically Correct Labels, featured films
Canadian-Chinese by Felix Cheng, and Between: Living in the Hyphen by
Anne-Marie Nakagawa, plus a panel discussion featuring UBC English
Assistant Professor Glenn Deer, author/editor Alexis Kienlen, UBC
English instructor Chris Lee, and Georgia Straight editorial assistant
Craig Takeuchi.

The films each explored sensitive topics of identity. 
Canadian-Chinese explored the relationship of language to first and
second generation immigrants, as director Felix Cheng interviewed his
parents and friends about the process of learning to speak Chinese and
his resistance of it when he was younger.  Cheng said he did this
film as a project while attending Emily Carr Schol of Art and
Design.  His parents immigrated from Hong Kong, when Cheng was
still two years old, and didn't learn English fully because they were
focussed on providing for the family.  Felix says he basically
grew up with his older brother watching English television
programming. 

Through the interviews with his parents, it is apparent that they have
a different perspective of him growing up and not wanting to lear to
speak Chinese, then he does.  He is now questioning himself and
his identity, as he converses with a friend who came to Canada at age
six.  It is an intimate look at the schism between immigrant
parents and their children as they come to grips with the children
wanting to fit in more with Canadian society, at the risk of creating a
communication gap with their parents.  At one point, Cheng shows
moving pictures of his parents interacting and talking without sound,
highlighting the inability to understand the Chinese language…
imagining for the audience what it must be like to be unable at times
to communicate with his parents.

Ann-Marie Nakagawa has created a beautiful lush film about the personal
issues of growing up mixed race.  She spoke to the audience that
Canadian and Hollywood films have addressed mixed-race relationships
but never really about the children who grow up in such unions, and the
issues that they have to face, sometimes ostracized from one culture or
the other, or both.

Nakagawa found a variety of celtic-First Nations, Indo-German,
Carribean-Caucasian, African-Caucasian, Chinese-Irish-Scottish-Swedish
subjects for her interviews by word of mouth, she told the
audience. 

Poet Fred Wah, the poet / retired University of Calgary Engish professor is featured in Between: Living in the Hyphen, a National Film Board film.  He  speaks
about growing up mixed-race, and finding his own place in a Canada that
initially wanted to homogenize everybody into a White Anglo-Saxon
culture during the 1950's when he grew up.  Several other
interview subjects discuss growing up as products of racial hybridity,
and how they move between the ethnic cultures of either parent, as well
as mainstream White Canada. 

Nakagawa proves herself to be a gifted filmaker both in presentation
and subject material.  Over a period of three years, she got to
know the interview subjects to the point where they trusted her enough
to share intimate and personal stories of race and prejudice. 
Some feel they are as Canadian as can be, while others share that
because of the way they look, they will always be questioned as to
their ethnic origin, as the traditional stereotype “Canadian standard”
is white, blond with blue eyes.  Nakagawa plays this challenge to
great effect by utilizing the famous “I am Canadian” Molson beer
commercial rant, which featured a good looking caucasian male.

It is an interesting must-see film that seeks to legitimize mixed-race
as a valid cultural identity within the mosaic of Canadian
multiculturalism, while challenging the the pigeon-hole process of
ethnic labeling.

The following panel discussion was lively.  It included
perspectives that were  honest, academic, casual, immigrant
-based, multi-generational, and prarie-informed.  Each panelist
described themselves and their interests in relation to the themes of
identity and labeling.  Kienlen said she used the term mixed race,
because that is what she is.  While many of the Nakagawa's
subjects grew up as solitary mixed race individuals, she grew up with
her mother who is half-Chinese. 

Takeuchi says he describes himself as 4th generation Japanese Canadian,
because it is important to demonstrate the relationship to the
internment.   Lee said he felt he was the newcomer to the
group because his parents were immigrants, and because of that he
doesn't have all the familial history that the other panelists carry.

Festival founder and president Barb Lee shared she came up with the
theme of Asian Canadian vs Asian Canadian on a car trip in Eastern
United States with her sister.  They argued about the usage of the
word forms.  Her sister stated she was Canadian Asian because she
wanted to emphasize her Canadianess by putting Canadian before
Asian.  Glenn Deer pointed out that the word “Canadian” is really
a noun, denoting a country and a culture, so that Asian Canadian is the
more correct term.

Personally, I feel that both forms of usage are valid, but Asian
Canadian denotes a Canadian of Asian heritage, where Canadian Asian
will more likely describe an immigrant Asian who has come to
Canada.  Felix Cheng's film's subjects were Canadian Asians, born
in Hong Kong, who became naturalized Canadians.  Nakagawa's film
included Fred Wah a Canadian of diverse ethnic ancestry who can be
included in the group of Asian Canadians. 

Busy Weekend: Friday Night Canadian Club Gala, Saturday VAFF, Sat night Gonzo theatre

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Busy Weekend:  Friday Night Canadian Club Gala, Saturday VAFF, Sat night Gonzo theatre

This weekend was very busy.  Reviews of these events will be up as soon as I can.


Canadian Club Vancouver 100 year anniversary Gala was on Friday night, November
3rd.  I am a board member, and am enjoying the friendship and
networking of these wonderful people devoted to helping make Canada
proud and recognizing our achievements as a nation and as a
culture.  The event was at the Westin Bayshore, and featured a
keynote by Lt. Governor Iona Campagnolo, history of the Canadian Club,
dance demonstration from Dancesport BC, and the Dal Richards Orchestra.

It was a great fun evening that celebrated the history of the club, 100
years ago.  Of course it was great for networking… But the
surprise feature was the re-patriation of the Richardson bagpipes from
Scotland, organized by Canadian Club Vancouver past-president Andrew
Winstanley, with an introduction told by Patrick Reid.  MC was
club member Cam Cathcart, an ex-CBC news reporter/producer.


Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Saturday morning program featured films
Canadian-Chinese by Felix Cheng, and Between: Living in the Hyphen by
Anne-Marie Nakagawa, plus a panel discussion featuring UBC English
Assistant Professor Glenn Deer, author/editor Alexis Kienlen, UBC
English instructor Chris Lee, and Georgia Straight editorial assistant
Craig Takeuchi.

The films each explored sensitive topics of identity. 
Canadian-Chinese explored the relationship of language to first and
second generation immigrants, as director Felix Cheng interviewed his
parents and friends about the process of learning to speak Chinese and
his resistance of it when he was younger.

Poet Fred Wah, was featured in Between: Living in the Hyphen, speaking
about growing up mixed-race, and finding his own place in a Canada that
initially wanted to homogenize everybody into a White Anglo-Saxon
culture during the 1950's when he grew up.  Several other
interview subjects discuss growing up as products of racial hybridity,
and how they move between the ethnic cultures of either parent, as well
as mainstream White Canada.

Saturday Night, we went to see the theatre play Gonzo.  British
internees are housed in a Japanese prison of war camp in Shanghai,
China, and cared for a Japanese soldier named Gonzo.  Written and
directed by Gordon Pascoe, who grew up in the Ash prison of war camp in
Shanghai.  This play was based on his memories of actual
events. 

It is a lovely play that celebrates human kindness amongst the horrific
circumstances of WW2.  Pascoe finds a way to intertwine the
evacuation of Jews from Europe to China, the internment of
Japanese-Canadians in British Columbia, the pivotal war battles in
Africa, Europe and the Pacific into the tiny confines of a camp housing
British women and children.

Mina Shum at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival + Special filmmakers karaoke

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Mina Shum at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival

Mina Shum: A Writer’s Journey
Wed. Nov. 1st, 7:00 PM

It was an inquistive audience at the Mina Shum presentation for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. They had come a special event  Shum first showed a clip from her first film “Mom, Ramona and Me,” and talked about her experiences developing the films, and how the themes were developed for her subsequent films. 

She also showed clips from “Double Happiness” and “Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity which featured award winning actor Sandra Oh – currently part of the television acting ensemble of “Grey's Anatomy.  Shum explained her recipes for story arcs and feature films. 

“Present the main ideas and characters in the opening, so the audience has an idea where the film is going.  Create 5 to 6 segments that rise and fall, each with a climax.

Shum demonstrated how the characters created the story lines.  “For Double Happiness, we had the character Jade Li in the middle of the poster, with her boyfriend on one side, and her parents on the other. This summed up the movie.

“People are intested in cross-cultural stories… but that alone doesn't sell movies.  My movies are billed as romantic comedy.”

She also shared that this was her first big outing in a while, “I just had a baby seven weeks ago, so this is the first big event I've been out to.

Sharing her screenwriting tools and tips,
and using clips from her films, Shum will examine what it takes to turn
an idea into a successful screenplay.

Shum took a number of questions from the audience and gave good advice to people asking how to develop screen plays and how to get involved in the movie industry.


Todd Wong with film makers Julia Kwan and Ham Tran at VAFF Karaoke party – photo Ray Shum

At the conclusion of the event, the audience was invited to come to a party event at Hoko's Sushi on Powell Street.  At the restaurant I talked with VAFF executive director Peter Leung, who said “This is incredible!  People coming out on a Wednesday evening,” as we watched actors and directors and writers all performing karaoke, singing along and dancing together. 

“After the event ended for the Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon, we couldn't get them to leave the place.  They all kept wanting to talk.  This event tonight is a great ice-breaker.  So now, when they are on a panel discussion or see each other at the screening events, they can say 'I liked that song you sang, or that costume you had.'”

Costumes and songs?  There was an tickle trunk full of costumes and accessories that the VAFF crowd dressed up in, full of day-after-Halloween spirit.  Leung was wearing a McDonald's happy day apron going around asking people “Would you like fries with that.”  Videographer Kathy Leung was given long evening gloves to wear, then later was handed a crinoline style skirt to complete the elegant ensemble.  Actor Rick Tae had little cat ears on his head.  Director of the opening night film, Journey From the Fall, Ham was wearing a viking helmet with horns.  Julia Kwan (director of Eve and the Fire Horse) was wearing a jester hat.  I found a witch's hat and gown and pronounced myself a wizard.

Actor Taylaa Markwell won a prize for her duet with Rick Tae for “Summer Nights.” Lucas Walker sang a great version of Doobie Brothers' “Listen to the Music,” Ham and Julia were part of an ensemble singing Dan Hill's “Sometimes When We Touch.”  And me in my wizard/witch costume?  I sang Frank Sinatra's “Witchcraft.” 

It was a great event with lots of great food.  VAFF puts on some of the BEST parties!  Opening Night on Thursday followed by Opening Night reception for their 10th Anniversary! 

Flamenco at the Cafe de Chinitas: Inspired performance by Mozaico Flamenco and Orchid Ensemble

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Cafe de Chinitas: Inspired performance by Mozaico Flamenco and Orchid Ensemble


Cafe de Chinitas
October 28 at the Norman Rothstein
Theatre

Mozaico Flamenco Company
+ Orchid Ensemble

Spanish flamenco dancing and Chinese musicians and dancers of Chinese,
Filipino and Caucasian heritage? Throw in a Japanese born traditional
flamenco singer, and this must be multicultural Vancouver on a good day.

In
the mid-18th century, there actually existed a Flamenco
singer's coffee shop in the city of Malaga in southern Spain.  This
region of Andalucia had good commerce with the Orient (primarily from
the Phillipines) and many Asian women, known as “chinitas” would attend
the cafe.  Today in Madrid, you can go to a specific 2nd story
restaurant in a 19th Century building, eat good spanish food and watch
flamenco dancing as part of the city's vibrant night life.

But for one evening, the city of Vancouver did Madrid one step better.

318
people filled the Norman Rothstein Theatre at the Jewish Community
Centre. The curtains parted to reveal five beautiful women in flamenco
dresses sitting motionless on chairs, their heads held high as if
posing for fashion magazines.  Sensual tension was high, as sparse
musical notes came from a flamenco guitar.  A woman's voice cut the air
in spanish tongue. A man dressed in black, moved haltingly slow and
dramatic, his heels hitting the floor in stuttering bursts of sound.  A
chinese erhu played melodic lines.  Unseen hands beat rhythmic bursts
on a wooden box.  Graceful arms arched skyward like a bird of prey.  A
flash of movement, a spin, then stillness and sparse percussive rhythm
back to dynamic tension, as the women sit quietly, not having moved an
inch.

Welcome to Cafe de Chinatas a la Vancouver, courtesy of
Mozaico Flamenco and Vancouver's renowned Chinese and New Music
performers, the Orchid Ensemble.  It is a musical collaboration created
by producer project
director Kassandra and artistic director Oscar Nieto. Guest dancer
Pablo Pizano, provided an exciting male lead to the five company
dancers of Spanish, Mexican, English, Chinese and Filipino heritage. 
Flamenco guitarist Peter Mole, flamenco singer Keiko Ooka and flamenco
cellist Cyrena Huang provided dimension to the traditional and
innovative music of Orchid Ensemble's Lan Tung on erhu, Gelina Tang on
zheng and Jonathan Bernard on percussion.


The
musicians had been working with Flamenco Mozaico on a daily basis,
learning the form of flamenco music. Bernard told me that this was the
first time he had played
cajón
–
the flamenco box-drum.  For one segment in the first act, titled
“Levantica,” Lan Tung
improvises on erhu, matching the vocal stylings of Japanese born
Cantaora (flamenco singer), Keiko Ooka.  The erhu literally  sings from
her heart and the depths of Tung's soul.  This is not the traditional
Chinese music I ran away from whenever I heard it in Chinatown.

Each musical or dance number gave a different
dimension to this unique take on the “East Meets West” theme. “Cafe de
Chinatas” is an actual traditional song and poem written by Federico
Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) that is often performed by flamenco dancers. 
Kasandra followed with a colourful solo dance.  Her dazzling smile, subtlety and graceful flash contrasting with the seriousness and energetic tensionof guest dancer Pablo Pizano.

Chinese
traditional style music, with the dancers dressed in red-golden chinese
cheong-sam dresses with the thigh-high slits, opened the 2nd Act with
music composed by Vancouver composer Jin Zhang.  Artistic director
Oscar Nietor took his solo turn dressed in a Chinese outfit.  He looked
like a graceful old Chinese Tai-Chi master, but he floated across the
floor on his stuttering flamenco footwork, deceptively balancing the
yin and yang of movement and stillness, hard and soft, quiet and loud.

Winged
Horses of Heaven is a contemporary piece in the Orchid Ensemble
repetoire by Vancouver new music composer Moshe Demburg. All three
principal dancers, Nieto, Pizano and Kasandra took to the stage,
blending and contrasting their unique dance styles of flamenco.  It was
wonderful to see, like an exotic ballet of style and movement.  Bernard
played the marimbas, while Lan Tung's erhu sang high melodic lines
chasing the delicate plucking of Gelina Tang's zheng.

There was a good buzz in the city on the weekend about the latest offering from Mozaiko Flamenco.  Both
the Vancouver Sun and the Globe & Mail wrote preview features.  I
was warned by Orchid Ensemble leader and erhu player Lan Tung, that the
show would be sold out.  It was. I sat backstage in  the wings and had
an incredible “insider's view” of the show.

My familiarity with flamenco is limited to witnessing performances by flamenco guitarist legends Paco de Lucia and Paco Pena. 
They bring top notch dancers and singers who have grown up steeped in
Spanish flamenco culture with them on tour.  Cafe de Chinatas captured
the flavor of traditional flamenco and added some special flavours to
the mix.  They transported the audience to Spain, but also infused it
with Vancouver's intercultural fusion seasonings.  This show was
definitely special. Aspects of this show should definitely be included
for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic offerings.  Chinese flamenco dancers
with Orchid Ensemble… better in my books and more representative of
Vancouver than snow mobiler and hockey stick carrying skaters in the
closing Olympic ceremonies of Torino.