This is a poem I wrote last
year while we were doing development for the CBC tv special “Gung
Haggis Fat Choy.”  It wasn’t used in the special, but I have read
it at poetry readings, last year’s dinner, and I will read it today at
Simon Fraser University for the opening of the SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy
“Canadian Games.”

 

Gung Haggis Fat Choy

 

By Todd Wong

 

What is Gung Haggis Fat Choy?

 

It is the inter-section of Chinese and Scottish cultures.

In a new land,

In a new voice,

In a new vision.

It is Gung Hay Fat Choy;

the traditional Chinese New Year greeting meaning “Longevity and Fortune.”

It is Robbie Burns Day;

the celebration of the Scottish poet Robbie Burns, and all things Scottish…

including the national dish of haggis:

Oatmeal and sheep organs mixed together and cooked in the stomach of a sheep

Just like some perverse mix of multi-culturalism.

Re-constructed

Re-constituted

Re-gurgitated

 

Gung Haggis Fat Choy!

 

The Chinese called this land Gum San (Gold Mountain)

And the Scots gave it the name of Nova Scotia

Westerners became Easterners

The Far East becomes the Far West

 

Gung Haggis Fat Choy!

 

It is the play on words.

It is the play on cultures

It is the play of time and place.

It is simply the play of Canadians…

 

Gung Haggis Fat Choy!

 

Something Old

Something New

Something Borrowed

Something B-r-e-w-e-d…

 

Gung Haggis Fat Choy!

 

It’s quirky

It’s surprising

It’s enlightening

And arising…

Gung Haggis Fat Choy!

 

Ó 2003 Todd Wong