Category Archives: Vancouver Heritage and History

3 Chinese Canadian Pioneers pass on – including Victoria born Victoria Yip and Ying Hope – former Toronto city councillor

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The Chinese Canadian head tax campaign brought a lot of Chinese Canadian pioneers and pioneer descendants together with immigrants both recent and older.

I first met Victoria Yip, when she participated in the 1986 “Saltwater City exhibit” chaired by Paul Yee.  Victoria had loaned her Chinese costumes for display for the exhibit.  She also attended the 1996 Saltwater City planning committee reunion that I organized with David Wong.  Victoria Yip and my grand mother sat together. Everybody marveled that these two women could look so well at 85 and 86 years old.

The The Yip Sang Family is one of Canada’s most famous and well-known Chinese-Canadian families. There is a display of items featured at the “Generations to Generations” display at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives.  It was reading about the Yip family reunion that helped inspire me to create reunion dinners for the Rev. Chan Family in 1999 and 2000

Here’s a statement by CCNC

November 16, 2007

CCNC Statement On The Passing of Three Community Leaders

Toronto . CCNC National President Colleen Hua issued the following statement on the passing of Mr. James Marr, Mrs. Victoria Yip and Mr. Ying Hope:

“This week I learned of the passing of three community leaders: Mr. James Marr of Edmonton , Mrs. Victoria Yip of Ottawa and Mr. Ying Hope of Toronto . On behalf of the Chinese Canadian National Council and the Chinese Canadian community, I extend our sincere condolences to the families and friends of Mr. James Mah, Mrs. Victoria Yip and Mr. Ying Hope. These three individuals were leaders in the Chinese Canadian community and we are a stronger community and Canada is a better country because of their public and community service.”

“Mr. James Marr was one of the few living head tax payers to ride aboard the Redress Train to witness the June 22, 2006 Parliamentary apology in Ottawa . Mrs. Yip tirelessly served the community and was featured in books and TV documentaries on the few Canadian-born Chinese women who lived through the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act era. Mr. Ying Hope was born in Victoria and attended high school with (late) Douglas Jung, and later settled in Toronto where he was elected and re-elected on the School Board and City Council for more than two decades.”

“Our elderly pioneers are starting to pass away including the second generation sons and daughters. We recognize these three community leaders for their trail-blazing contributions in removing barriers for future generations. CCNC urges the Canadian Government to begin a genuine, inclusive and respectful reconciliation with our seniors who directly suffered from legislated racism and exclusion.”

Colleen Hua

National President

 

-30-

 

Some obituaries from media sources:

James Marr

MARR, James (MAH JIN YUET) September 14, 1911 – November 7, 2007 On November 7, 2007, James Marr of Edmonton passed away at the age of 96 years. He is survived by his sons, Tom and Dean; daughters, Ngan Tang Wong, Mae Mak, Lily (Thomas) Welsh, and Jeannie (William) Chow; 12 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; sister-in-law; as well as numerous nieces and nephews. James is also survived by his sister and her family; all of Hong Kong . He was predeceased by his wife; daughter; younger brother; and a great-granddaughter. A Funeral Service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, November 16, 2007 at the Howard & McBride Chapel of Chimes Funeral Home, 10179-108 Street, Edmonton . Interment to follow at Beechmount Cemetery . Howard & McBride Chapel of Chimes, (780) 422-1141

http://www.legacy.com/CAN-Edmonton/Obituaries.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=97953399

 

Victoria Yip

Victoria Yip (nee Lore) Loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother passed away peacefully at the age of 96 years on November 11, 2007 in Ottawa, Ontario. She was predeceased by her husband Quene (1994), who she faithfully supported during their 62 years of marriage. She was born in 1911 in Victoria, B.C, the first child of Chinese scholar Lore Neen and Chan Ling Ching. Her father instilled in her an appreciation of art, nature, beauty, and a love of learning. At the age of eleven, Victoria ‘s mother passed away, leaving her to care for three younger sisters (Louise, Mary, Helen) and two younger brothers (Martin, Abraham), while still attending Chinese school and English school. She later taught at Chinese school, while working to help support the family.

In 1935 she married Quene, 16th son of Chinese Canadian patriarch, Yip Sang, and over the years Victoria became a beloved member of this very large and well known Vancouver family. In 1942, Victoria and Quene left Vancouver with their young family and settled in Blubber Bay , a small coastal community on Texada Island , where Quene worked as a chemist. Over the next twenty-five years, while caring for three growing boys, Victoria actively participated in many community activities such as the PTA, recreation association, United Church , and bridge clubs. She also taught painting, brought in a Shakespearean play, and even produced and directed a play featuring local children.

She was renowned for her fabulous Chinese meals and made many lifelong friends on the island. Victoria welcomed and extended her hospitality to all those around her, regardless of whether they were blood relations or not. In 1967, Victoria and Quene moved back to Vancouver where she later worked as a buyer in Ming Wo Cookware. In 1980, she officially retire but continued to share her stories and experiences in the film Saltwater City and the book Voices of Chinese Canadian Women, as well as with Chinese Canadian historical writers like Paul Yee and Wayson Choy.

Two other artistic passions in her life were Chinese opera, which she attended in Victoria and Vancouver in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and oil painting, which she pursued in her fifties and sixties. In 2003, Victoria moved to the Amherst nursing home in Vancouver . Two years later, she moved to the Glebe Centre nursing home, and she spent her final days at the Ottawa General Hospital .

The family wishes to express their gratitude to the staff for their dedicated and compassionate care, and special thanks to her wonderful caregivers and especially to Carolina and Ann. Victoria will be lovingly remembered for her strength, generosity, kindness, love and devotion to her family and her many, many friends and relatives. She is survived by sister Louise, sons Rick (late Angeline), Randall (Brenda Austin) and Robert (Lisa), grandchildren Jill, Andrew, Karen, Jennifer (and partners), and Sophie, Melissa and Alison and also great grandchildren Benjamin, Andrew and Eveline.

Service and interment will be held Saturday, November 17, 10:30 am, at Forest Lawn cemetery, 3789 Royal Oak Avenue , Burnaby , BC . In Victoria ‘s memory, donations may be made to the charity of your choice.
Published in the Vancouver Sun and/or The Province from 11/15/2007 – 11/16/2007.

http://www.legacy.com/Can/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=98022703

 

Ying Hope

From Toronto Star:
Head-tax apology his crowning triumph TheStar.com – News – Head-tax apology his crowning triumph

Former city councillor was a family man who was immensely proud of his Chinese-Canadian heritage

November 14, 2007

Paola Loriggio
Staff Reporter

Ying L.K. Hope wasn’t the type to sit around and complain – he wanted to make change happen.

That’s why at age 40, Hope took on the rough-and-tumble world of Toronto politics, becoming the first Chinese-Canadian to serve on the Toronto school board, and later on the city and Metro councils.

“What he wanted to do was make life better for his family by improving the community around us,” recalled his son, Michael.

Hope died in his sleep Monday at Sunnybrook hospital. He was 84.

Born in Victoria , Hope studied math and engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle before moving to Toronto in 1948, where he ran a successful engineering consultancy.

He launched his political career in 1963 at the Toronto Board of Education. Six years later, he was elected as alderman and represented Ward 5 for eight terms, until the late ’80s.

Though he led a very public life, Hope remained a family man at heart. He spent as much time as he could with his children, taking them out to lunch every Sunday after church, Michael Hope said.

Hope “had the best old-fashioned values that you don’t see much of any more,” his son said.

He was also very proud of his Chinese-Canadian heritage, a pride he strove to instill in his children.

He used his political clout to demand a public apology from the Canadian government for the Chinese head tax, a discriminatory fee charged for each Chinese immigrant in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hope’s own grandparents were part of a wave of cheap labour imported from China to work on the railways and in mines, all of whom had to pay the notorious tax.

The government’s official apology last year was Hope’s crowning achievement, his son said.

Hope then seized the chance to fulfill another long-time dream. Along with a coalition of Chinese- Canadian groups, he helped chronicle the struggles of that community in an exhibit earlier this year.

Though out of politics for years, Hope worked until recent months as a civil engineer and real estate agent, a career he began at 70.

Relatives gathered yesterday at the family home in Toronto . Hope leaves behind his wife of 14 years, Audrey, and four children, Jim, Judy, Michael and Madeline, from his first marriage to Alice Hope.

The viewing is set for tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the York Cemetery chapel, 160 Beecroft Rd. A funeral will take place Friday at 1 p.m.

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/276238

 

 

Eating Stories with the Chinese Canadian Historical Society – book launch

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Tonight is the night I get to see my contributions in print for the book: Eating Stories A Chinese-Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck.

Brandy
will be on CBC Radio Friday morning with Rick Cluff, Morning Edition, at about
7:50AM.

Also some hot news from
Henry.  Jerry Kwok has done a
wonderful job with the 8 min. teaser film on the workshop. It's downloadable at
http://www.instrcc.ubc.ca/CCHS/CCHS_workshop.wmv .  

We are having an author's book launch tonight at the Rhizome Cafe on Broadway, before the official book launch at the Vancouver Museum Sunday Nov. 25th at the Vancouver Museum.

It was a wonderful pleasure to meet so many people interested in the writing process, and how to improve their own writing skills.  People were so interested in food, our workshop discussions often took forays into Chinese-Canadian history, memories of food and family, as well as cultural traditions and differences.

The first book, Tracing Roots, by the CCHS is especially memorable for me because my cousin Hayne Wai contributed stories about his mother and our uncles.  It was great to be able to take the book home as a gift to my parents, and show them the paragraphs featuring “Uncle James,” “Auntie Rose,” and my father  – “Uncle Bill” to my cousin or “Bok-Sook” (#8 Uncle).

Tonight all the writing workshop participants get to take home copies of the book.  I will get to show my parents my published contributions of photographs and paragraphs, which introduce the stories of how I developed my love for salmon, my creation of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and how our dragon boat team cooks up it's own haggis won ton.  This anthology features 2 current (Dan Seto and myself – Todd Wong) and two past paddlers (Grace Chow and Meena Wong) from the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.

Brandy
Lien-Worrall, our workshop leader and anthology editor, will be on CBC Radio Friday morning with Rick Cluff, Morning Edition, at about
7:50AM.

Also some hot news from
Henry.  Jerry Kwok has done a
wonderful job with the 8 min. teaser film on the workshop. It's downloadable at
http://www.instrcc.ubc.ca/CCHS/CCHS_workshop.wmv .  

FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  info@cchsbc.ca

http://www.cchsbc.ca

 

Meals and Memories Come
Alive in New Collection of Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Food and Family
Stories

Groundbreaking work
captures authors’ personal stories of family and community

 

VANCOUVER – The
Chinese Canadian Historical Society (CCHS) is pleased to announce the
publication of Eating Stories: A Chinese
Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck, edited by Brandy Liên Worrall and with
Foreword by Margaret Gallagher.

Following the
success of the first workshop and the resulting book publication, Finding Memories, Tracing Routes
(English and bilingual English-Chinese editions), CCHS held a second writing
workshop with the theme of “Food and Family”, which had nearly tripled in
size.  Twenty-three participants of
Chinese Canadian or Aboriginal backgrounds researched, discussed, and wrote
their memories of family gatherings, home cooking, restaurant outings, and
other stories cooked up by the smells, tastes, sounds, sights, and textures
that bring families and communities together. 
Together with their stories, 37 family recipes and over 170 images
complete the collection.  Additional
contributors include Imogene Lim, Lisa Moore, Janice Wong, and Henry Yu.

George
McWhirter, Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, says of this groundbreaking collection:
“I want one of those meals and to be in one of those families.  If I can’t be that in actuality, these
stories make me a guest of all, complete with recipes for me to try out on my
own, after.  These are more than
literate tellings of family food rituals and recipes; they are elegantly and
pungently related. . .In the process, these pieces become evocative literature
and unforgettable history.”

“This
collection is amazing in terms of the scope of experiences in these Canadian
communities, from the 1930s all the way to present day,” states editor and
workshop facilitator Brandy Liên Worrall. 
“Reading these stories is just like sitting in a Chinatown café eating
apple tarts in the 1960s or going to a barbecue at the reservation, catching
salmon and having a good time. This is really history you can eat.”

Writers include
Jacquie Adams, Jennifer Chan, Shirley Chan, Allan Cho, Grace Chow, Lilly Chow,
Betty Ho, George Jung, Jackie Lee-Son, Roy Mah, Gordy Mark, Amy Perrault, Dan
Seto, Bob Sung, Hayne Wai, Evelyn Wong, Larry Wong, Todd Wong, Harley A. Wylie,
May Yan-Mountain, Candace Yip, Gail Yip, and Ken Yip.  The Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC would like to
acknowledge the support from the Provincial Capital Commission for the
participation of two First Nations authors in the writing workshop.

An “authors
reception” will be held at Rhizome Café (317 East Broadway) on Thursday, November 22, 2007, at 7:00 PM.  This intimate event will have a short
presentation and author readings.  Media
interest in this event, including requests for interviews with the authors,
should be directed to Nancy Fong, nancy.wy.fong@gmail.com.  Media attendance to this event is by RSVP
only.

The “Eating
Stories: A Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck” book launch, hosted by
CBC’s Margaret Gallagher, will be held at the Vancouver Museum on Sunday, November 25, 2007, at 4:00 PM.  Authors will read from the book, as well as
answer questions from the audience.  In addition, New Voices: Chinese Canadian Narratives of
Post-1967 Diaspora, a post-secondary student-initiated anthology of
literary and artistic works by Chinese Canadians living in the Lower Mainland,
will be also launched that day. This book is now available at http://www.newvoicesproject.org/
.

Copies of Eating
Stories can be purchased at the authors reception and the launch.  For more information, bulk and educational
orders, and press kits, email nancy.wy.fong@gmail.com.  Copies may also be purchased online at http://www.lulu.com/cchsbc.  Proceeds go toward the “Edgar Wickberg
Scholarship for Chinese Canadian History.”

ABOUT the CHINESE CANADIAN
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

The
Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia (CCHSBC) is a broadly
based membership society with educational goals.  Our main objective is to bring out the untold history of ethnic
Chinese within the history of British Columbia.  We achieve this through sustained efforts at document
preservation, research, family and oral history promotion, public education
programmes, an active website, and many other initiatives.

MEDIA
CONTACT-ENGLISH AND CHINESE [interviews &
press kits]: nancy.wy.fong@gmail.com

Eating Stories, a Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck: book launch Nov 25th at Vancouver Museum

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Mayor Larry Campbell, Toddish McWong, Enid Campbell – photo Naoko Watanabe at the 2005 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.

Everybody loves stories about food.  Recipes or restaurants, people will reminisce over their favorite memories of food… how it was made… who made it… what their favorite dish is…

In January I took a writing workshop with the Chinese Historical Society of BC.  The theme was “Food and Family” and taught by Brandy Lien-Worrall. 

23
participants in a writing workshop wrote their memories of family
gatherings, home cooking, restaurant outings and other stories cooked
up by the smells, sounds, sights, and textures that bring families and
communities together.

The writers include myself – Todd Wong, the
creator of Gung Haggis Haggis Fat Choy, Dan Seto current Gung Haggis
dragonboat paddler, my cousin Hayne Wai – president of CCHS, + many friends such as: Meena Wong, George Jung and Gordie Mark – who were active during the Chinese head tax campaign, community activist Shirley Chan, Chinese-Canadian Military Museum curator Larry Wong and ex-Gung Haggis paddler Grace Chow and myself.

 

Dan Seto signing books at the CCHS 2006 book launch for Tracing Family Roots.
Dan Seto with noodles at Sha Lin Noodle House.

         

November, 25, Sunday, 4-6 PM. CCHS Book Launch,
Eating Stories, a Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck.

Vancouver Museum, 1110 Chestnut Street, Vancouver. 

CCHS is pleased to welcome everyone to the book launch for Eating
Stories: A Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal Potluck, edited by Brandy
Liên Worrall and with Foreword by Margaret Gallagher. Following the
success of the first workshop and the resulting book publication,
Finding Memories, Tracing Routes (English and bilingual English-Chinese
editions), CCHS held a second writing workshop with the theme of “Food
and Family.”

Twenty-three participants of Chinese Canadian or
Aboriginal backgrounds researched, discussed, and wrote their memories
of family gatherings, home cooking, restaurant outings, and other
stories cooked up by the smells, tastes, sounds, sights, and textures
that bring families and communities together. In addition to their
stories, there are 37 recipes and over 170 images. Writers include
Jacquie Adams, Jennifer Chan, Shirley Chan, Allan Cho, Grace Chow,
Lilly Chow, Betty Ho, George Jung, Jackie Lee-Son, Roy Mah, Gordy Mark,
Amy Perrault, Dan Seto, Bob Sung, Hayne Wai, Evelyn Wong, Larry Wong,
Todd Wong, Harley A. Wylie, May Yan-Mountain, Candace Yip, Gail Yip,
and Ken Yip. Additional contributors include Imogene Lim, Lisa Moore,
Janice Wong, and Henry Yu.  

Please join us for the official launch of this unique book and meet the authors! 

A Place of Compassion: Joy Kogawa's Dream Vancouver statement

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A Place of Compassion:
Joy Kogawa's Dream Vancouver statement


Joy Kogawa holds up her arms to embrace and support everything she loves in the world
– photo Todd Wong

Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan, has written A Place of Compassion for her submission  to the Dream Vancouver conference and website, organized by Think City. While Joy will not be attending the conference, I will be as one of the directors of the Joy Kogawa House Society. 

Dream Vancouver is an all-day conference which will take
participants from their dreams about Vancouver to a possible agenda for
change. The conference will be facilitated by Bliss Browne, internationally-renowned speaker and president of Imagine Chicago.  Former City of Vancouver Co-Director of Current Planning Larry Beasley is key note speaker. 
Ms. Browne will then facilitate a discussion-based session which will
take participants through a series of questions designed to bring them
to a collective vision of what the city could be. 

To attend you must register, click here.

Registration: 9:30 am – 10:00 am

Conference: 10:00 am – 3:30 pm

Reception: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Location: Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Avenue, Vancouver (at Oak Street).

– photo courtesy Joy Kogawa

Is Joy a Vancouver dreamer?  She was born in Vancouver in 1935.  During WW2 in 1942, when she was 6 years old, her family was removed from Vancouver and sent to internment camps for Japanese-Canadians.  She forever dreamed about returning to the the house in Vancouver's Marpole neighborhood, even after the Canadian government confiscated the property of the Japanese-Canadian internment victims, and resettled them to work as labourers on Alberta beet farms.  She lives mostly in Toronto but returns to Vancouver often, and has great hopes for Vancouver as a city, and as a cultural entity.

Joy Kogawa and her brother Rev. Timothy Nakayama, at the opening event for Obasan, the 2005 choice for One Book One Vancouver at the Vancouver Public Library – photo Todd Wong

Joy is acknowledged as one of Canada's most important writers in the 20th Century for her ground breaking novel Obasan – a story about the impact of the internment on the Japanese Canadian community.  Since May 2005, when I met Joy, at the first Obasan event for One Book, One Vancouver event at the Vancouver Public Library, our developing friendship was been a wild ride as I became a key player on the Save Kogawa House committee (See my articles on Joy Kogawa & Kogawa House).


I have witnessed Joy speak in numerous circumstances and she always seems to have an unwavering position that calls for peace and compassion in so many circumstances.  It embraces her anti-war stance, the Japanese-Canadian redress, South African apartheid, the Chinese-Canadian head tax issue, Japanese atrocities against China in WW2, the history of her ancestor's home of Okinawa, the naming of the 401 Burrard building after Howard Green.  Joy doesn't look to find blame for right or wrong, she looks to find resolution.

Joy
Kogawa and Todd Wong at the 2006 Canadian Club Vancouver's annual Order
of Canada / Flag Day luncheon.  Joy was key note speaker, and Todd was
one of the event organizers – photo Deb Martin

Vancouver has long had a reputation for a history with peace activism.  This is part of our social-cultural make up, and can be embodied through social policy initiatives.  Perhaps it has become such because so many people have come to Vancouver after leaving war, destruction, starvation, revolution, upheaval in their home lands.

Joy has given Dream Vancouver a very apt and fitting dream statement to find reconciliation and understanding “within and between the
faiths, between rich and poor, among immigrant groups, in established
neighbourhoods, in the Downtown Eastside, among those who are still
suffering from unresolved injustices of the near and distant past can
come to healing and hope and inner freedom.”

Joy
Kogawa and children from Tomsett Elementary School in Richmond.  After
seeing the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensembles production of “Naomi's
Road”, the children were inspired to helps save Kogawa House from
demolition.  Joy and the children stand in front of the house for their own private tour and reading event. – photo Joan Young

On November 10th, come to the 2nd open house event at Kogawa House.
Sunday, 3-5pm.  1450 West 64th Ave. (just East of Granville St.)
Admission is by donation.  Proceeds go to restoring historic Joy Kogawa House, now owned by The Land Conservancy of BC.

A Place of Compassion

Posted October 15th, 2007 in 

Joy Kogawa, poet and novelist: The
dream I have for this west-coast city on the edge of the peaceable
ocean is the dream I have for the world – a dream of peace. What better
time than this to abolish war as we face our common planetary fate?

We have choices – to continue blithely on our way, fighting and
devouring one another for the rest of our dwindling days, or we can
individually and collectively lay down our weapons and practice the
ways of truth and reconciliation, cooperation and peace.

In a city where east-west faces and races meet and mix, where
cultures both clash and blend, the ways of peace can be cultivated,
watered, nurtured and the seeds of that action can fly to the farthest
corners of our hearts and the world.

As a Japanese Canadian, I have welcomed conversations with two
granddaughters of Howard Green, the politician whose public words
against us during the Second World War were dreaded in our community.
If they can seek to make peace with us on behalf of the grandfather
they loved, ought we not to walk with them? What an opportunity for
peace making and for walking on.

And ought we not, as Canadian descendants from Japan, to stand with
those Canadian descendants of China, who seek a fulsome parliamentary
acknowledgment from the country of our ancestors for the horrors their
ancestors faced in the Rape of Nanking? Or is it our choice to turn
aside and say, “These are no concerns of ours.” I believe that the
morally appropriate action is to respond to those who suffer and who
call our names.

But it is not for me to say what is right for anyone else. We are
each required to struggle with our own conscience and to respond to the
many voices that call us.

Joy Kogawa House Society is now legal…. next step – restore the house

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Joy Kogawa House Society is now legal…. next step – restore the house

imageimageimageimage

It has now been just been over two years since we launched the drive to save historic Joy Kogawa House from demolition.  It was mid-September when a demolition permit inquiry was made, but by the end of the week, we had notified news media, and made announcements at the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop Community Dinner, Vancouver Arts Awards and Word On The Street book and magazine fair. 

It was an amazingly busy week for Joy, as she was feted by the One Book One Vancouver finale at Word On the Street, and received the community builder's award from the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop.  As well Vancouver Opera launched the premiere of “Naomi's Road” based on Joy's children's novel of the same name – a retelling of her famous novel Obasan.

Soon after in November, we held a special “Kogawa House Awareness
event” at the Vancouver Public Library where we presented the Vancouver
Opera Touring Ensemble's production of “Naomi's Road” in 2005.  In December, the Land Conservancy of BC became our partner in the struggle to save the house, and to lead our fundraising efforts.

By May 2006, the house had been paid in full by The Land Conservancy of BC, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief.  We celebrated in June when Joy received the Order of BC.

On Sep 15, 2006, we held the first public open house event. One of the first people through the door was a childhood friend of Joy and her brother Tim.  “We didn't know where you had gone,” said Ralph Steeves.  Tears were in everybody's eyes at witnessing this reunion of two friends, 63 years later.

Last month, Joy's brother, Rev. Timothy Nakayama, came to visit the house he had left at age 10 in 1942.  Timothy shared his recollections of the house and yard, as we try to determine ways to restore the house to its 1942 character when their family was forced to leave the house, and board a train taking them to internment camps near Slocan BC.

We will hold the next public open house event on November 10th.  Special guest speakers will be authors Ruth Ozeki and Shaena Lambert.  The theme is War and Remembrance.

The
Historic Joy Kogawa House Society is now incorporated with the BC
Registry of Societies, which means we’re now a legal entity that can
carry forward the purposes of the society:

Purposes

            The purposes of the Society shall be:

 

1.                  To
operate and preserve the former Joy Kogawa family home at 1450 West
64th Avenue in Vancouver as a heritage and cultural centre and as a
site of healing and reconciliation.

2.                  To
establish in the former Joy Kogawa family home a centre for writers in
which they can reflect on issues of conscience and reconciliation and
write about their own personal experiences or the experiences of
others, past or present.

3.                  To promote and negotiate the raising of funds for the pursuit of the Society’s purposes.

4.                  To
encourage in the former Joy Kogawa family home educational programming
along themes of social justice and social history, and to provide
docent services for such programming.

5.                  To advocate on behalf of the continuing operation of the house in the public interest consistent with the above purposes.

For contacts in Vancouver
Call Ann-Marie Metten or Todd Wong

The DUNSMUIRS – a theatrical telling of the enigmatic BC historical figure who employed Chinese labourers

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The DUNSMUIRS – a theatrical telling of the enigmatic BC historical figure who employed Chinese labourers


Todd Wong aka “Toddish McWong” stands in front or Craigdarroch Castle, the real castle imported stone by stone from Scotland, built by Robert Dunsmuir, BC's richest man, and 5th richest in North America. – photo Tracey Louie

 

The Dunsmuirs: Alone at the Edge

Oct 5 -20, 2007

Presentation House Theatre

333 Chesterfield Ave

North Vancouver, BC V7M 3G9

Rod Langley has written a play about Robert Dunsmuir and his family. Learn about The Dunsmuirs
who built Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, and how Robert Dunsmuir
became the 5th richest man in North America, on the backs of Asian coal
miners in Nanaimo/Cumberland.

Check out this play about Robert Dunsmuir, the BC Premier who spoke out against anti-Asian legislation… partly because he employed Japanese and Canadian coal miners at lower wages.

Earlier this year I visited Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, and talked with operations manager Yvonne Sharpe.  We discussed Dunsmuir's interactions with the Asian populations, and what a Gung Haggis Fat Choy event might look like… at Craigdarroch Castle.  That's why… I have to see this play!

Opening October 5
Sea Theatre Presents

The Dunsmuirs:

Alone at the Edge

By
Rod Langley. Directed by Bill Devine. Starring Duncan Fraser, Lee Van
Paassen, Daniel Arnold, Mike Wasko, Cat Main, and Wiliam Samples.
Lighting design: Michael Schaldemose, Set design: Gary and Lynda Chu,
Costumes: Sandy Buck, Sound Design: Paul Moniz De Sa, Stage Manager:
Colleen Totten.

The
play chronicles Robert Dunsmuir's rags to riches ascent and the
eventual price he pays for money and power. It focuses on the early
years when the family was clawing their way from mine workers to
owners. Dunsmuir's discovery of a vast coal deposit in Nanaimo, his
scramble to gain control over the Wellington Mine, and his scab labour
tactics, netted him a fortune in coal. His ascent, literally over the
dead bodies of his friends and supporters, brings this play to a
stunning climax.

“The story of the Dunsmuirs is a hell of a tale that's got everything:
ambition, greed, ruthlessness, scandal, danger and despair…the
writing is tight and lively.”

2 for 1 Tuesdays: Oct 9 $ 16

Tickets are $20 for Adults and $15 for Students/Seniors. October 4-20 at 8pm.

Click here to see an interview with some of the cast.

It's the 100th anniversary today of the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots

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It's the 100th anniversary today of the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots

It is known in Chinese-Canadian stories as “The Night the White Boys Played.” It was a time when anti-asian sentiment in Vancouver raised to a pitch that resulted in broken windows, smashed storefronts, and physical violence in Vancouver's Chinatown.  The angry mob also went to Japantown – but citizens there had heard about the attack on Chinatown and had prepared themselves as they repelled the invaders.

A lot has changed in Vancouver's last 100 years.  Many Asians and the Caucasians have met, fell in love and had babies.  In my family, the 7th generation of Rev. Chan Yu Tan is only 1/4 Chinese.  The family wing that married First Nations produced my mom's cousin Rhonda Larrabee, now Chief of the Qayqayt Band (New Westminster). 

Chinese and Japanese, First Nations and South Asians all have as much right to being Canadian as Irish, Scottish, French, English and Ukranians.  All have contributed many ways to help build this nations called Canada.  It was remarkable to watch the recent Generations documentary series on CBC Newsworld as 6 families from across Canada had their family stories told and intertwined with Canadian history.  I was involved with the episode The Chan Legacy which told the story of my great-great grandfather's 1896 arrival in Victoria BC, and how subsequent generations have contributed community service to Canada, and helped others integrate into Canadian society.

Check out the www.Anniversaries07.ca website

REFRACT: who we are
The Vancouver of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Anniversaries is a
Vancouver-based consortium of Asian-Canadian institutions and
organizations marking 2007 as an anniversary year in the search for
justice and a multicultural Canada.

RECORD: what we're about

1907, 1947, 1967, and 1997
represent watershed moments in the story of Asian migrants in Canada.
From the anti-Asian riots of 1907, to the hard-won franchise of �47 and
new immigration act of �67 through the handover of Hong Kong a decade
ago, Anniversaries is dedicated to claiming these transformative
markers of struggle and triumph.

RECONCILE: Join Anniversaries of Change …

In
2007 we invite you to join Anniversaries of Change as together we begin
writing the next chapter in the evolving story of Transpacific Canada.

Share the moment by coming to the Reconciliation Dinner on September 7 at Floata Restaurant, Vancouver

Check out all the media action the Anniversaries of Change got this
week! And listen to CBC's Early Edition this week (Tuesday and
Wednesday mornings) for more interviews.

The Georgia Straight
http://www.straight.com/article-107637/commemorating-a-race-riot

The Courier
http://www.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=27e737a2-acbb-4671-a6c1-5f39adaee1d8&k=77221

The Sun (and click on the link on the right under “Related Links” for a video of additional coverage)
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=ada365e9-fba9-427e-8829-3c860bca9a81&k=27005

Redress Express comes to Centre A – bringing art and examination about Canada's racist past

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Redress Express comes to Centre A – bringing art and examination about Canada's racist past

What is the Redress Express, and what does it have to do with racism?

2007 is a significant year for anniversaries in Asian-Canadian history:

1907 – 100 year anniversary of the Chinatown riots by the Anti-Asiatic League

1947 – the end of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the beginning of franchise rights including voting for Canadians of Chinese ancestry.

1957 – Canada's first Chinese-Canadian MP elected to Parliament – Douglas Jung

1967 – Changes in immigration law, making it more fair and accessible for Chinese immigrants.

1997 – Hong Kong turnover to China

1996 – 1st year anniversary of federal apology and promise of redress payments for the Chinese Head Tax.

Centre A, brings together an exciting program working with community groups and artists.  Here is what Ron Mah had to say about the weekend's events.

Redress Express Symposium ( 01 & 02 August )

– Sid Chow Tan  is now an “Artist” after his brief 5 minute talk & 10 minute video presentatsion of the journey of Head Tax Redress;  Hank Bull (curator plus) stated that “If Sid's  video isn't art, then I don't know what is!”

– Victor Wong had an excellent talk on Head Tax & Redress

  titled “True Grits, Kwan Gung and Luck: The Inside Stories of the Head Tax Redress Campaign”

– Many excellent national speakers of academia and the arts provided

  varied views from many perspectives providing an
interesting program.

– filming of the first day was done by both ACCESS, FEARLESS TV

  and also by the Symposium.

-Henry Yu, graciously, organized a delicious 10 course Retro period

 Chinese Canadian Restaurant Dinner.  Fortunately, I was sitting next to Henry and Karin Tam who were also at the same table.  They had both researched and provided  the chefs with the specific customized dishes that is not normally on their menus.  It was fun, filling and informative.

-Centre A is now transformed into a retro Chinese Canadian Restaurant for

 the next 5 weeks by Karen Tam but no food is served.  This is a must see

 free installation.

-Karin Lee's Friday evening outdoor showing at the Chinese Night  Market was just
starting and I saw myself for a brief second in the short produced by

 the women's dragon boat team Genesis.

-Sean & I networked and partied till  2am and 3am until  Karen Tam had to

 catch her 6am flight back home to Montreal.  The Saturday night party was

 great: lots of fun and jamming and all round opportunity for future collaboration with the whole group.

-Thanks to Alice Ming Wai Jim, Henry Yu and Victor Wong for making this happen for us.

from the Centre A website:

REDRESS EXPRESS

In conjunction with:
2007 Anniversaries of Change (http://www.anniversaries07.ca)
Powell Street Festival (August 4-5, 2007, http://powellstfestival.shinnova.com)
explorASIAN (Vancouver Asian Heritage Month, http://www.explorasian.org).

Patron: Anndraya T. Luui

EXHIBITION
Date: August 3 to September 1, 2007
Venue: Centre A, 2 West Hastings Street
Opening: Friday, August 3, 7pm, Centre A, 2 West Hastings Street

SYMPOSIUM
Date: August 2-3, 2007, 10am to 5pm
Location: Chinese Cultural Centre, 555 Columbia Street
Co-sponsors:
Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art
at the Department of Art History, Concordia University, the University
of British Columbia, and Emily Carr Institute for Art + Design + Media
(Click here to download the symposium program and abstracts)

Free admission

The
exhibition “REDRESS EXPRESS: Chinese Restaurants and the Head Tax Issue
in Canadian Art” features recent photography, video and installations
by five Chinese-Canadian artists: Gu Xiong (Vancouver), Shelly Low
(Montreal), Ho Tam (Victoria, BC), Karen Tam (Montreal), and Kira Wu
(Vancouver). It is held in conjunction with the two-day symposium
“REDRESS EXPRESS: Current Directions in Asian Canadian Art and Culture”
which brings together over twenty scholars, community activists,
cultural organizers, and artists from many disciplines to consider
current and future directions in Asian Canadian art and culture. The
REDRESS EXPRESS project is curated by Alice Ming Wai Jim and
accompanied by a colour catalogue with additional graphic illustrations
by Joanne Hui (Montreal).

As a whole, the REDRESS EXPRESS
project is an attempt to examine the current politics of
representation, redress and recognition in Canada as they relate to
art, activism, identity and geography. The call for redress has long
been the bookends for Asian Canadian critiques of Canada's racist past.
The recent victory of the redress campaign for surviving Chinese head
tax payers and their spouses and its inevitable effects on the current
politics of reparation and representation in this country, however,
presents another challenge: to ensure an ongoing, rigorous treatment
these issues demand in political, cultural and educational sectors.
With the host of 2007 anniversaries of historical dates significant to
Canadians and Asian Canadian communities in particular celebrated this
year, this provision of critical texts in contemporary discourse and
practice and the broadening of understanding to address cross-cultural
perspectives and realities remains imperative.

Dim Sum with Olivia Chow in Vancouver

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Dim Sum with Olivia Chow in Vancouver


Olivia Chow and Todd Wong (center) with Barry Morley (left) and Mary-Woo Sims (right) – photo Todd Wong Collection

Olivia Chow came to Vancouver, ditched husband Jack Layton, and attended Meena Wong's monthly Dim Sum networking lunch at Rich Ocean Restaurant.  Actually, Jack Layton attended the Pride brunch, as Jack and Olivia attend Pride parades across Canada.  Meena has known Layton and Chow from her time living in Toronto, and is now continuing to handle communications and community building in Vancouver's Chinese language community for the NDP.  I've known Meena since 2002, when soon after arriving in Vancouver, she came to help volunteer for Asian Heritage Month events organized by explorASIAN.


Meena Wong and Olivia Chow addressing 40 people at Rich Ocean restaurant on Saturday- photo Todd Wong

The crowds came out to welcome Olivia to Vancouver.  Libby Davies MP for Vancouver East, dropped in to say hello.  COPE organizer Mel Lehan and his wife attended. Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council was in town.  Sid Tan, Sean Gunn and Ron Mah of the Chinese Head Tax Families Society attended.  Even Faye Leung dropped in.  In all there were about 40 people.

I had a nice chat with Olivia.  Meena had seated us at the same table.  I knew she would be interested in hearing about the CBC documentary Generations: The Chan Legacy.  And she was also very interested to learn more about Gung Haggis Fat Choy – which she would love to attend, if and when I bring my Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner to Toronto.


Olivia joins Vancouver's head tax descendants for a picture: standing: ??, Mary, Ron Mah, Olivia Chow, Sid Tan, Faye Leung, Todd Wong; sitting: Sid Wong, Sean Gunn, Victor Wong (executive director of Chinese Canadian National Council) + head tax redress supporter  Mary-Woo Sims.

The federal NDP was the first national party to recognize the
importance of redress for Chinese Canadian head tax issue.  Olivia
recognized that it was Margaret Mitchell who first brought the issue to
Canadian Parliament in 1984.  Olivia also supported the calls for Chinese Head Tax redress, as head tax became an issue in the 2006 federal election.  She also supports and inclusive redress that would honour every head tax equally, not just for the surviving head tax payers and their spouses, but also the head tax certificates that were left in the hands of the daughters, sons and grandchildren when the original head tax payers couldn't live to see the federal apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Powell Street Festival 2007

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Powell St. Festival 2007 – Always lots to see and do!


Is this Todd Wong?  He's wearing a Gung Haggis Fat Choy shirt and he's
Chinese-looking…  I tlooks like he's hawking haggis won-ton…

Noooo!!!!  It's Todd's friend Walter Quan… and he is holding up his
famous sushi and won-ton cnadles that he sells at the Powell Street
Festival every year.

Lots to see and do at the Powell Street Festival. 
Great arts, entertainment, history and culture displays.  It integrates
traditional and contemporary Japanese-Canadian cultures with the
Downtown Eastside and the historic sites of Japantown.


Noisy ceremonial procession – Powell St. Festival 2007 – photo Todd Wong

Dancers resting – Powell Street Festival 2001 – photo Todd Wong

Octopus dumplings at Powell Street Festival – photo Todd Wong

Ricepaper magazine at Powell St. Festival – Elizabeth, ??, Don, Alex, and Chrystal – photo Todd Wong

Head Tax Families Society of Canada booth soliciting support and signatures – photo Todd Wong

Check out more photos on flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53803790@N00/sets/72157601264597982/