The line up of performers for the 2005 Gung Haggis Fat Choy:
Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner is really taking
shape.
Co-hosts: Todd Wong, Shelagh Rogers & Tom Chin
Performers: Fred Wah, Joe McDonald & Brave Waves, Heather
Pawsey, Karen Wong & Zhongxi Yu (Dragon River Shadow Puppet
Theatre), LaLa, Vincent and Cameron Collins, Dr. Jan Walls, Veera devi
Khare.
First to be confirmed were co-hosts Shelagh Rogers and Tom Chin.
I appeared on Shelagh's CBC Radio show “Sounds Like Canada” back in
January of 2003. We struck up a wondeful rapport, and the Sounds
Like Canada crew invited me to be one of the presenters at a special
reception welcoming the show's move to Vancouver. It was at this
event in September 2003, that haggis wun-tun moved from an idea to a
reality. It was part of the welcome gift I presented to
Shelagh representing the 7 generations of my Chinese Candian roots,
that included lo-bak-gow (turnip cake) that my great grandmother would
make, apple tarts my father would buy in Chinatown, and haggis wun-tun
to represent the racially and culturally integrated 6th and 7th
generations.
Tom Chin is somebody I know from Vancouver Asian
Canadian Theatre. The first time I saw him on television, he was
wearing a costume that was left side Chinese jacket and right side
Canadian lumberjack. He was telling jokes and stories about
growing up half Chinese and half Canadian. I thought “Right
on!” Over the years, we have become friends, and I have seen him
perform at Asian Comedy Night, as well as host other VACT events.
Knowing his wacky sense of humour, I can only fear what will
happen when we actually write something together or perform on a stage
at the same time… oops this may actually happen on January
30th. Last September in 2004, I invited Tom to bring VACT to
Plaza of Nations and become play by play announcers for the Vancouver
International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race. The group was very well
recieved and brought much laughter and merriment to the activity.
Joe McDonald & Brave Waves. Joe has
performed bagpipes for Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners since 2001.
He has seen the dinner grow from 100 to 550 served last year. He
has performed with me on both CBC Radio's national programs “The Round
Up” and “Sounds Like Canada,” as well as CBC TV's “The National,” and
the 2004 TV Special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.” Tabla player
Nealamjit Dhillon also first performed at the 100 seater restaurant and
along with Joe, has seen us outgrow 3 previous restaurants – New
Grandview Szechwan, Spicy Court and Flamingo, as we move to
Floata. Nealamjit is just back from tabla studies in
India. Chris Trinidad (bass) has also performed with the group and
is part of the Brave Waves trio that performed for their latest cd
“Havens of Light.”
more to come…