Category Archives: Vancouver Heritage and History

CHOW: From China to Canada – wins Gold Award from Cuisine Canada / UC Culinary Book Awards

Janice Chow – my wonderful artist/family historian / cook book cousin sends me this great news!

Hello Todd,

I'm happy to announce that CHOW received the gold award in the Cuisine Canada + University of Guelph's Culinary Book Awards,
Canadian Food Culture category…the category that celebrates books that “best illustrate Canada's rich culinary heritage and food culture.”

If you're in Vancouver on Sunday Sept. 24th, you can catch me at the Ricepaper magazine booth (2 – 6 pm) at Word On The Street,
Vancouver's Annual Book and Magazine Fair, on the street, Vancouver Public Library main branch.

If you're in Gibsons on Saturday Sept. 23rd, I'm reading at the first annual New Moon Festival of Asian Art and Culture.

All the best,
Janice

Sept 17: Terry Fox Run and Joy Kogawa House events

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Today – I just feel so proud to be a Canadian.

Terry Fox,
Simon Fraser University, Joy Kogawa, Obasan, Naomi's Road, CBC, Tommy
Douglas, Medicare, Burrowing Owl, Ecology Conservation, Order of
Canada – were the themes of the Day.

Terry Fox Run – in Richmond BC

This morning I spoke at the Terry Fox Run Richmond BC run site.
It was at Garry Point Park. 352 people showed up amidst the rainy
drizzle, but the mood was happy and cheerful. I invited
teenage runners Amber and Irene, to help me set up some tents for the run site.
John Young is the event organizer, and he introduced me to some of the
other platform party members that included Richmond city councillor Sue
Halsy Brant, and singer Jack McIntosh. We are piped to the
staging area by bagpiper Noel.

As a cancer survivor and member of Terry's Team, I serve as a living
example that cancer research has made a difference. I shared that
when I was diagnosed with a cancer tumor in 1989, the doctors only gave
me a 60% chance to survive. Because my condition was so serious,
they told me that without treatment I might last two weeks.

Glyn Davies is the media/communications coordinator for the Richmond
run site. And I shared a story about meeting his father Lorne
Davies while Lorne
was still athletic director at Simon Fraser University. In 1993,
Terry's younger brother Darrell asked me to help start a Terry Fox Run
at Simon
Fraser University – he told me “Remember what Terry said, 'It
just takes one person.' ” I went to see then Athletic Director Lorne
Davies who had known Terry Fox, at SFU, and tells a memorable story
about going to visit Terry at the hospital the night before his leg
amputation. I was wonderful to meet Mr. Lorne Davies, and to ask
him to help set up a Terry Fox Run for SFU.

I had to go back to
Darrell, and say “Sorry – but there won't be a Terry Fox Run this year
(due to logistics). But next year there will be… and there will
be a Terry Fox Day!” In 1994, there was indeed a Terry Fox
Run. And there was a trophy case that included Terry's favorite
SFU t-shirt from the 1000 Mile Club. And there was a presentation
of the 1994 Terry Fox Gold Medal recipient. The first Terry Fox
Day at SFU was attended by the Fox family. Then SFU basketball
coach Jay Triano, one of Terry's SFU friends, was also there.

I reminded the audience that this is an example of what one person can
do. Terry said “One person can make a difference.” On my Terry
Fox Gold Medal plaque, it quotes Terry saying, “Dreams are made if
people try.” I enjoyed sharing this story

It was a great day filled with a wonderful community feeling. I
gave “High Fives” as I passed Terry Fox Run participants, and met many
wonderful people and we took many pictures. I will write about
these experiences and stories in the next day or so, such as meeting
Eric and Matt – two young teens with the faces painted for Terry Fox
Day.

Kogawa House

The open house event at Joy Kogawa House went very well. Many
many people came to see the house, and to meet Joy Kogawa, buy copies
of her books and have Joy sign them. The Land Conservancy of BC did a wonderful job setting up displays about the history of the house, and the time line events about the Save Kogawa House campaign.

It has been great for the Kogawa House committee to work with
Heather Skydt and Tamsin Baker of TLC. Members of our Kogawa House
committee also attended to help host and volunteer: Ann-Marie Metten,
David Kogawa, Richard Hopkins, Jenni Kato, Joan Young, Sabine Harper
and myself.

As people walked up to the house, the first thing
they saw was that the white picket fence was decorated with pictures
and events highlighting the timeline to save the house from demolition,
starting from when the house was built in 1942, and when Joy's family
moved into the house.

A tent was set up in the front yard,
attended by TLC volunteers Jon and Janet, who gave people an
information sheet about the house, and recieved donations for the
restoration of the house. TLC also had another display with
newsclippins and pictures from events during the Save Kogawa House
campaign.

Volunteers greeted people as they entered the house,
and other volunteers stood throughout the house to help explain stories
of different rooms, as well as historic family items such as toy cars
belonging to Joy's brother Timothy, a calligraphy set used by Joy's
father, and wooden crates used by the family as they moved from the
internment camp in Slocan, BC, to Coaldale, Alberta.

And everybody wanted to say hello to Joy Kogawa.

There was a man who used to play with Joy as a child, before she moved
away – Ralph told me that his older brother was in one of the pictures
on display that featured Joy and her brother Timothy as children in
1940.

There was a woman who brought pictures of the house, during
the 1940's when her grandparents lived there, after her family moved
away. Both Joy and this woman were very moved by this meeting.

There was a woman Daisy Kong, who had taken pictures of Joy
at the Order of BC ceremony earlier this year in June, because Daisy's
brother Dr. Wallace Chung also recieved the Order of BC along with Joy,
in Victoria. Daisy was amazed when I told her that Dr. Wallace's
wife Dr. Madeline Chung was the doctor who delivered me as a baby.

Garry Geddes, current writer in residence at Vancouver Public Library, arrived to give Joy a hug.

Attending the event was also Jen Kato, on our Kogawa House committee,
and Jeff Chiba Stearns, who just won the Best Animated Short for the
Canadian Awards for Electronic Arts and Animation.

People bought Joy's books and asked her to sign them. My friend
Gail Thomson helped manage the booksales. Gail is a librarian at
Fraserview Branch in Vancouver, where Joy came to speak during the One
Book One Vancouver program.

We surprised
Joy with a special musical performance: Jessica Cheung (who played the
role of Naomi in the Naomi's Road Opera) sang “The Farewell Song” from
the Opera, I accompanied on accordion, Harry Aoki on double bass, and
Harry's friend Misako Watanabe on accoustic guitar. Joy was moved to
tears.

After the event, we had birthday cake to celebrate David Kogawa's
birthday. David is one of our wonderful Kogawa House committee
members, and Joy's ex-husband and friend.

CBC Generations

A CBC documentary film crew followed me around today,
because I am one of the subjects for a Generations program – which will
feature 120 years of the Rev. Chan Yu Tan family and descendants in
Canada.

This evening, CBC producer Halya
Kuchmij met with a few Rev. Chan descendants, and we watched a 10
minute segment that she produced/directed for A People's History of
Canada. And then we watched a 45 minute show Generations: 100 Years in
Saskatchewan – which featured the Hjertaas family.

Halya says
the Generations project with the Rev. Chan family is going to be
awesome. There are great people and topics for the show. Rev. Chan,
WW2 veterans who fought for Canada, then for the vote for Chinese
Canadians and head tax redress; Rhonda Larrabee – a First Nations
Indian Chief – who is a great grand daughter of Rev. Chan Yu Tan;
Janice Wong – an artist painter who wrote a book about food and family;
me; and 14 year old Tracy Hinder – the 1st BC CanSpell champion who
went to Washington DC for the Scripps Spelling Bee, and the CanSpell
national bee in Ottawa. Wow!

Google Alerts for Kogawa House September 14

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Google Alert for: kogawa house – September 14

Joy Kogawa and her childhood home

in the city UPCOMING EVENTS inthecity@westender.com

Vancouver Westender – BC, Canada
… Homecoming: The Save Kogawa House Committee and the Land
Conservancy host a fundraiser and the first public tour of the Joy Kogawa
House (1450 W. 64th) on …

Joy of history
Georgia Straight – Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada
… racial discrimination. The open house happens on Sunday
afternoon (September 17), with Kogawa herself in attendance to
sign books.

Name that important Canadian House: Kogawa House in Vancouver Sun today – Twice!

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Name that important Canadian House:
Kogawa House in Vancouver Sun today – Twice!

Last week Vancouver Sun's Shelley Fralic asked readers to send their
nominations for Canada's 25 Most Important houses. I quickly sent
in my nomination for Kogawa House. Here's what she wrote:

Todd Wong's nomination for the list is the modest 1915 South Vancouver childhood home of Canadian writer, Joy Kogawa.

In
1942, when Kogawa was six, she, her brother and her parents were turfed
from the house and sent to a Japanese internment camp in the B.C.
interior.

The house, later auctioned off by the government, was featured in
Kogawa's acclaimed autobiography Obasan, and was recently saved from
demolition after a national campaign by The Land Conservancy.

Check out this links:

Name that house the sequel
Vancouver Sun (subscription) – British Columbia, Canada
… In 1942, when Kogawa was six, she, her brother and her
parents were turfed from the house and sent to a Japanese internment
camp in the BC interior.

Author Joy Kogawa's childhood home to hold open house
Vancouver Sun (subscription) – British Columbia, Canada
As a young girl living in a Japanese internment camp in the Slocan Valley,
Joy Kogawa often dreamed of her family's former home in Marpole.
…

Meet James Johnstone: house geneaologist

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Meet James Johnstone: house geneaologist

I first met James Johnstone at the Chinese Canadian History Fair organized by the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, and held the Vancouver Museum. It was January 2005, and nobody expected that in one year's time Chinese Canadian pioneers who paid the head tax would be front page news.

James created a geneaology for Kogawa House at 1450 West 64th Ave. which he presented to me just before I walked into Vancouver City Council chambers on November 3rd to ask City Council to delay processing the demolition permet for the house. It was a fascinating look at immigration patterns for the Marpole neighborhood, by peeking at the list of inhabitants of one of the oldest homes still surviving in Marpole.

James sent me this update on his activities which include researching Chinese and Japanese homes in Vancouver:

As promised, here is an e-mail concerning my recent interview with Fanny Kiefer for the Studio 4 Show on Shaw Cable. The show aired on Monday, June 10th. I was interviewed for 30 minutes on my work as a house genealogist, talking about how the business started out as a hobby when I moved from an apartment in the West End to an old house in the East End (1036 Odlum Drive) in 1995.

Our conversation traced my move to the rowhouse in the 700-block of Hawks Avenue in 2000 and touched on a number of highlights out of the over 500 houses I have researched in Vancouver and New Westminster, including the Nora Hendrix House at 827 East Georgia, the Robert Blair house at 1550 Harwood, the Andrew E. Lees house at 909 Richards, and the Obasan (Joy Kogawa) House on West 64th.

As always, I am very interested in hearing from people who lived in the old East End Strathcona/Grandview Woodland) who may have photos of the old houses and the people who lived in them for a community history mapping website I am working on. In particular, I am looking for pictures of houses that have been demolished or streetscapes that have been lost, so that the lost parts of the neighbourhood (Hogan's Alley, Japantown, those blocks that were lost to recreate MacLean Park, etc.) can be recreated in virtual reality.

I am also wanting to hear from Chinese and Japanese families who lived in the neighbourhood during the times when the city directories failed to properly represent the Chinese and Japanese families who lived in the neighbourhood, labelling addresses, “Chinese” or “Japanese” for decades. I would love to be able to fill in as many blanks in the record as possible.

Thanks again.

James
www.homehistoryresearch.com

Storyscapes Chinatown: “Spiritual Kinship” – Todd Wong

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Storyscapes Chinatown: “Spiritual Kinship” – Todd Wong

Here is my contribution to Storyscapes Chinatown, bringing together
stories of interactions between First Nations and Chinese peoples in
Vancouver. I was very pleased to bring a Creation Story to tie in
the spiritual kinship between these two cultural groups. I have
always personally felt a spiritual bond to First Nations peoples…
especially since I have travelled to Nu-Chal-nuth territory in Kyuquot
Sound, Nootka territory in Clayquot Sound, Haida territory in Haida
Gwaii, Squamish and Musqueam territory throughout the Lower mainland
from Tsawassen to Lillo'wat and Okanagan Territory too.

This particular story about the Mongolian birth mark on First Nations people was told to me by an elderly First Nations man that I met at the mouth of the Capilano River in North Vancouver. My father and I went for a walk, and some First Nations people were fishing on the East side of the river. All the land here is land belonging to the Burrard First Nations. We had a good talk about fishing, then about being non-white, and giving appreciation to each other's culture. Then we talked about how both Chinese and First Nations babies both have the Mongolian birthmark when they are born. He shared this story with me.

There are many theories about how Asian peoples may have migrated
across the Bering Strait to North America across an “ice bridge.” One
of my favorite Creation stories about the First Nations people, is by
Bill Reid. It is how Raven found a clam. He opened it,
setting the first peoples free. There are many Creation stories,
and we need to respect all of them.

But we also know that there are aboriginal people in Siberia and also
in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska – who are family and travel across
the Bering Sea to visit each other. It is the same as aboriginal
people on Southern Vancouver Island who travel to North West Washington
across the Juan de Fuca Strait. They have been related and family
– since before Canada or the United States existed. What are
geographic borders but creations of human ideas?

Storyscapes Chinatown: “Know Where You Come From” – Rhonda Larrabee

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Storyscapes Chinatown: “Know Where You Come From” – Rhonda Larrabee

This is my cousin Rhonda Larrabee. Actually she is my mother’s cousin. I knew Grand Uncle Art since I was a child, but I never met Rhonda until we started preparing a family reunion in 1999 for the Rev. Chan Yu Tan descendants. Previously I had heard of Rhonda, and that she had created a family tree, as I had similarly done. It was inevitable that we should meet, and
instantly like each other tremendously.

Rhonda is incredible. She has singlehandedly resurrected the Qayqayt First Nations Band. When she first applied for her Indian status, she was denied and was told that the Qayqayt “didn’t exist anymore.” Disappointed, she was shocked because clearly she existed, and her brothers existed, and her mother’s siblings still existed. A few years later… she applied again and was granted status. She was told “I guess you want some land now too.”

Rhonda was the subject of the award winning National Film Board documentary “Tribe of One,” directed by Eunhee Cha. It is the story of Rhonda and how she discovered her First Nations heritage at the adult age of 24, and how she claimed it, and became elected band chief.
There are some pictures of family attending the “Three Chinese Pioneer Families” photo exhibit at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives in 2002.

I am proud of Rhonda… and she is proud of me. We enthusiastically support each other in our endeavors, and especially with the Rev. Chan Legacy Project, and family reunions.

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

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Storyscapes Chinatown premieres on Saturday

– check out my “Creation Story”

I am part of 23 story tellers gathered to share stories of interactions between Chinese and First Nations people in Vancouver.

Check out Storyscapes Chinatown exhibition during
the Chinese Cultural Centre's Arts and Cultural festival held on July
8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th. The exhibition will be in the courtyard of
the Centre (50 West Pender), as well as on the corner of Pender and
Carall. Please spread the word! An invitation to the exhibition will
follow next week.

My contribution is a Creation story that I learned in one of my many meetings with First Nations people. I have travelled up up and down both sides of Vancouver Island, from Kyuquot Sound to Alert Bay. I have also travelled to Haida Gwaii, Mount Currie, Tsawassen, and the Okanagan and and talked with many people about interactions between Chinese and First Nations peoples. My cousin Rhonda Larrabee, is Chief of Qayqayt First Nations (New Westminster) Band.

Storyscapes Chinatown is a partnership between
KAYA (Knowledgable Aboriginal Youth Association) and the City Of
Vancouver, working with the Musqueam Indian Band, Vancouver Chinatown
Revitalization Committee (VCRC) and diverse community reps.

I attended the March 11, 2005, Storyscapes story sharing which brought together members of the First Nations and Chinatown community.

I shared a creation story, about why First
Nations and Chinese peoples are born with blue spots on the
bottoms. It is called a Mongolian spot, or Mongolian Birthmark.
My story relates to how the two cultures believe that their real home
is the spirit world, and the physical world is full of lessons, and
hardships….

I introduced my story this way:

I was just
talking with Louis [Schmidt] (first nations WW2 veteran) – and unfortunately, it sounds like a lot of
the First Nations people and the Chinese people came together because
they sought refuge from white people. After the railway was built, a lot of Chinese people were taken in by First Nations villages. There was lots of
discrimination in those old days. And even today, I think it’s terrible that we come
together, sometimes, and we talk about white people.

But, you know, we
understand. And I think that’s part of it, that there’s a sense of
community and understanding. And just want to share some literary
references with you. In Sky Lee’s book, “Disappearing
Moon Café,” she wrote about a First Nations woman marrying a Chinese
man. Also in Naomi’s Road by Joy Kogawa – her children's version of her novel “Obasan.” There’s a story of a First Nations man named Roughlock Bill, who met the
Japanese people that were sent up to the Okanagan and “evacuated” away
from the coast.

Here is a version of my Creation Story:

As we know, a long time ago, in the First Nations culture, and that still continues today, there’s a sense of spirit an understanding that we actually belonged to Spirit. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience, rather than physical beings seeking a spiritual experience. In Chinese culture, …there are many heavens and many hells, and as we know through a lot of Buddhism, there is a lot of reincarnation. which is recognized in First Nations culture as well.

A Creation story is about how we come into being. How we were born from spirit and became physical. The physical world we are living in right now is where we do the learning for our spiritual development physical time being.

But it can be very challenging. There’s a lot of hardship in this physical world – lots of discrimination, a lot of racism. We know that if we wanted a nice perfect life we wouldn’t come into this physical world. We wouldn’t want to be born. We would want to stay in the spiritual world because this that is our true home. It is where we are most happy.

What we recognize as Asian and First Nations people that this is what we still have to come out, but to and it’s tough to be born come into this physical world. It is so tough that sometimes we have to be kicked out.

We have to get kicked out.

And that is a true story, because when you were born, if you were are Asian or First Nations, You you were born with have blue spots on your body. And This is a story about the creation story about the Mongolian birthmark. You find it on Asian children. You find it on First Nations children. But the true story of why we have blue spots, and that we recognize is that we come from the spiritual world and have to be kicked out in order to get born.

– Todd Wong

Announcement: Walk for Redress to Mark Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion on Canada Day:Still Humiliation Day Without Appropriate Redress to Head Tax Families

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MEDIA ADVISORY - June 29, 2006

Walk for Redress to Mark Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion on Canada Day:  
Still Humiliation Day Without Appropriate Redress to Head Tax Families

Vancouver, BC – The BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants 
will mark July 1 - Canada Day – with a Walk for Redress.  The Conservative 
government’s June 22 unilaterally imposed redress package ignored and rejected 
calls from head tax families for a just and honourable settlement. The BC 
Coalition calls on the federal government to commit to complete the two stage 
framework presented by redress groups to Canadian Heritage Minister and 
Beverley Oda and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Jason 
Kenney at a March 24, 2006 consultation in Toronto.   

Date:   Saturday, July 1, 2006 – Canada Day
Time:   11:00am call time – walk to begin shortly after
Place:  Courtyard in front of Sun Yat-Sen Gardens
        50 East Pender, Vancouver

The two stage framework calls for an apology and as well as urgent appropriate 
redress to surviving head tax payers and spouses. This was completed June 22, 
2006. The second step is appropriate redress to head tax families without 
surviving tax payer or spouse to be completed by July 1, 2007, the 60th 
anniversary of the Chinese receiving the federal vote and 100th of the Chinatown 
race riots in Vancouver.

The BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants are today’s 
Chinese Canadians. We are from different ages, from all walks of life, 
all having one thing in common. They or someone in their family paid the 
head tax.
 
We are neighbours, friends and family who have endured journeys of 
hardship, sacrifice and suffering due to the effects of more than six decades 
(62-years) of racial discrimination specifically targeted at the Chinese in 
Canada. We welcome all Canadians to join us in this quest for justice and honour 
for our Chinese adventurers and pioneers and their families. 

- 30-

Gung HAGGIS Fat Choy

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

Category Archives: Vancouver Heritage and History

Sept 17: Terry Fox Run and Joy Kogawa House events

Google Alerts for Kogawa House September 14

Name that important Canadian House: Kogawa House in Vancouver Sun today – Twice!

Meet James Johnstone: house geneaologist

Announcement: Walk for Redress to Mark Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion on Canada Day:Still Humiliation Day Without Appropriate Redress to Head Tax Families