The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team will be featured on French TV program – “France Trois.” A production team is coming to Vancouver to film the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival and I have been selected as one of the “personalities” to tell the story of dragon boats through my personal involvement in the dragon boat community and the team's emphasis on multiculturalism.

“France Trois” is described as sort of a Knowledge Network type of program that focuses on humans relationship with the sea… hence the dragon boat connection.  Another featured personality will be Vincent Lo – the creator of Six-Sixteen fibreglass dragon boats and former coach of the Worlds medal winning champions, the False Creek Women's Team – now coached by Andrea Dillon.

This is a great opportunity to share our love for dragon boating and our understanding of Canadian multiculturalism to the WORLD, as France Trois is broadcast all around the world. The researcher Odette Brassard will come out to our next Sunday's practice to meet the team and scout the location.

She was very pleased when I told her that so many of our paddlers were born outside of Canada, such as England, Scotland, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Russia, Poland, Puerto Rico.  She laughed when I told her we have a Chinese person born in Scotland – we also have a Caucasian Canadian who's mother was born in China!

Odette also loved the idea that this team goes every year to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden for a tour to learn about Chinese Philosophy and Tai Chi. She especially loved that the team has a Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner fundraiser in January that combines cultures and makes up our own unique Canadian fusion culture.  She says that it is something that France is struggling to learn about, and we discussed how Canada can set examples as role models especially in a post-colonial world.