Robbie Burns Day in Vancouver…
I answered a phone call from Toronto, where somebody wants to engage my
Gung Haggis Fat Choy presenting/consulting skills and help develop a project that will remain secret
for now.  I spend lots of time on the computer and on the
telephone.

I go to work at the library… and I wear my kilt, at the request of my
co-workers.  People like it, they recognize it is Robbie Burns
Day.  After work, I rehearse with LaLa on a special surprise piece that will
twist people's minds about a specific Robbie Burns Day tradition. 
People who witnessed our 10pm show for First Night Vancouver all got
the sneak preview and enjoyed it immensely.

Bob Brinson reports that the Dragon Boat go-carts he is making for the
SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy “Canadian Games” are now finished… except
the seats.  Bob is also coaches with me for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  We will inspect in the morning and figure out how to
make “paddling” work as a propelling device.

I go to Doolin's Irish Pub, where all the waitresses wear plaid. 
The manager has ordered 15 kilts for the waiters now from Bear Kilts
-the maker of my Maple Leaf Tartan.  Doolin's is now the site of Kilt Night – the 1st Saturday of each month.  Bear, Raphael and I
brainstorm ideas for a Scottish Highland Games type event for July
7th.  City TV arrives at Doolin's and films people having a toast
for Robbie Burns and the Address to the Haggis – They even have a
haggis there…


Bear says that he will donate a Bear kilt
for the raffle at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner on January
30th.  Great!  Come to the dinner, buy raffle tickets and win
a great looking kilt, in the tartan of your choice, upon availability.

A pretty woman wearing a kilt taps me on the shoulder and says,
“Hey, we are the only Asians here who are
wearing kilts!”  Karen says she is half Chinese and half Swedish,
with a
lovely tartan, she loves the idea of Gung Haggis Fat Choy and is
excited by the 12 course dinner with haggis and all the
performers.  I will post our picture when Bear sends it to
me.  I meet the promotions manager for Doolin's, Ms. Christine
Fan,
who tells us she is Malaysian-Vietnamese-Chinese, and gives us all a
round of Scotch to toast a Happy Robbie Burns Day.  You can't beat
it – it's a wonderful informal Rabbie Burns Nicht!  Next kilt night is at Doolin's, February 5th.  The 1st
Saturday of each month.

– For immediate release –
January 25th, 2005
Vancouver BC

Haggis Lettuce Wrap and Dragonboat Go-Carts celebrate Gung Haggis Fat Choy in 2005

Haggis lettuce wrap and dragon boat go-carts are the birthday presents
to Robbie Burns created by Todd Wong to celebrate Robbie Burns Day (Jan
25) and Chinese New Year (Feb 9). What would Burns think? Would he roll
over in his grave if he knew that an annual dinner that pays tribute to
his birthday had been taken over by heathen Chinese?

Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong’s Robbie Burns Chinese New Year
Dinner has now inspired both the Leo Award nominated CBC television
special titled “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” to be re-broadcast on February
9th, and the SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy “Canadian Games” an intramural
event that brings together the large SFU Asian population with SFU’s
Scottish heritage on January 28th.

“Burns would approve,” say numerous people including Robert Barr,
president of the Burns Club of Vancouver and Harry McGrath, coordinator
of SFU Centre for Scottish Studies. “It’s really good.,” said McGrath
of the Haggis Wun Tun that Wong presented him with last year, “I would
have eaten half the bunch if nobody else was standing there.”

Todd Wong aka “Toddish McWong” is actually the 5th generation
descendent of Rev. Chan Yu Tan, one of Vancouver’s first Chinese
ministers, arriving in 1896. Each generation has married non-Chinese.
Many have married Scots descendents and the 6th and 7th generation is
now only ¼ Chinese. First Nations Chief Rhonda Larrabee, is a Rev. Chan
great granddaughter and brings her family to her “cousin’s” annual
dinner to celebrate her diverse heritage and that of her children. This
dinner is also the result of asking “How do we create an inclusive
celebration for our families of mixed and cultural diversity?”

“You have identified Vancouver’s two solitudes,” Joan Seidl, Vancouver
Museum History Curator. McWong blends together traditions, poetry, song
and costume in this unique and quirky dinner event that has grown from
a private party of sixteen to an incredible event expecting up to 600
people at Floata Restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown – the largest
Chinese restaurant in North America.

Vancouver's Mayor Larry Campbell is attending as a special guest, but
will he will his formal kilt or his Chinese outfit? Rumour has it that
MLA's Jenny Kwan and Joy McPhail are swapping costumes.

Shelagh Rogers, host of CBC Radio's “Sounds Like Canada”and comedian
Tom Chin of Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre will co-host with
Wong.  Performers include a Chinese bagpiper and two opera
singers, Fred Wah winner of the Governor General's Award for Poetry and

Joe McDonald & Brave Waves, musical fusion band.

Opera Soprano Heather Pawsey, will perform songs in Mandarin and
Gaelic, Dr. Jan Walls performs his clapper tales, Karen Wong &
Zhongxi Wu perform with celtic musician friends Alex Chisolm &
Carmen Rosen. Theatre.
LaLa is a contemporary East-West hip hop artist. Veera devi Khare is a
cSouth Asian lassically trained Soprano crossover singer. Vincent and
Cameron Collins, are the incredible high-stepping Highland Dancing
brothers that have won awards everywhere they go. Cameron this year
alone, won the US Western Open, Canadian Western Open, and BC Closed
Championships.

January 30th, 2005, Sunday

Floata Restaurant, #400, 180 Keefer St., Vancouver's Chinatown.

Show starts at 6pm, doors open at 5:15

For Tickets contact Firehall Arts Centre Box Office: 604-689-0926  $60 adult, $55 student, $45 children 12 & under.

For more information contact Todd Wong 604-987-7124

The Vancouver Public Library has created a very nice web page with
links to topic about Chinese New Year, Chinese Zodiac, and an upcoming
Chinese New Year celebration on January 29th.  Check out the
Multilingual department Chinese New Year web page.

Here is a brief look! Happy Chinese New Year! The origin of the Lunar New Year Festival can be traced back thousands of years, involving a series of colorful legends and traditions. One of the most famous legends is Nian, an extremely cruel and ferocious beast that the ancients believed would devour people on New Year's Eve. To keep Nian away, red-paper couplets are pasted on doors, torches are lit, and firecrackers are set off throughout the night because Nian is said to fear the color red, the light of fire, and loud noises.

Even though Lunar New Year celebrations generally last for only several
days, starting on New Year's Eve, the festival itself is actually about
three weeks long. It begins on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth
lunar month, the day, it is believed, when various gods ascend to
heaven to pay their respects and report on household affairs to the
Jade Emperor, the supreme Taoist deity. There are a lot of rituals and
costumes for this special festival.

People are always asking what is the dress code
for Gung Haggis Fat Choy? 
The best answer is ethnic
eclectic.  We encourage kilts, tartans, cheongsams and Chinese
jackets, and whatever gets your fancy!  This really is a fun
dinner. Some people wear formal kilts and cheongsams, the long Chinese
dress – and they look fantastic.  Some people wear a short tartan
skirt mixed with a Chinese top, or a business suit with a tartan tie,
some people wear a sari, some people wear casual – and it's all
good.  But nobody yet has come wearing a tuxedo or lederhosen.

Now I have my very own kilt made by Terry “Bear” Varga, owner of Bear Kilts. 
“Bear” as he is known was the first casual tartan kilt maker
around. 
He points out that Utili-kilts does not come in tartan.  Bear is
my
newest kilt mentor, after Angus Mackenzie.  The least expensive
kilt
made by Bear Kilts is a poly-viscous kilt for about $135, and they will
range to as fancy as you need it such as a heavy weight wrap
wool.  Needless to say, Bear has made a number of kilts for high
school graduation ceremonies.

Bear Kilts has graciously donated a “made to order kilt”
to the Gung Haggis Fat Choy prize raffle.  It will be a $300 made
to order kilt – dependent upon in-stock material of tartan.  “I've
never had a gift certificate for a kilt go unredeemed,” Bear told me on
Robbie Burns Day when he made the offer.  So if you thought you
couldn't afford a kilt, just buy $20 worth or raffle tickets for a good
chance to win a great kilt.

Bear Kilts is also a sponsor for
the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragonboat team.  We hope to integrate
Bear's bunch of braw' boys into the team's engine room and promote Bear
Kilts wherever we go paddling..  What better way to stand out in a
dragon boat crowd, then to do so wearin' a kilt?

I am wearing a polyviscous Maple Leaf tartan,
in the above left side photos. This is designed to be light for summer
wear, since I plan to wear it during Dragon Boat competitions. 
The synthetic material is easy to wash – perfect for mixing with salt
water.  For the top right I am wearing an Ancient Fraser or Fraser
of Lovat – as it was the very first kilt
I ever wore in 1993 from Simon Fraser University.  In the bottom
right I am wearing a Royal Stewart that was used for the filming of the
“dressing up” scenes in the CBC television special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.”
It had been a long afternoon, and I decided to create some
cross-costume dressing fusion by borrowing the Lion head mask and
adding it to my Scottish costume.  The result?  People loved
the photograph – taken by my friend Don Montgomery.

The very first Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in 1998 was a house party. And since “I dinna hav a kilt,” for
my tartan I wore a Canadian lumberjack Mackincaw shirt tied around my
waist backwards.  It looked very good considering the
circumstances.  My buddy Craig and I were the only fellows wearing
“kilts” for that first house party of 16 people.  Only the hired
bagpiper had a real kilt.

I do not recommend wearing only a Lumberjack shirt tied backwards
around your waist for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.  Mayor
Larry Campbell will probably arrive wearing his dress kilt, as will a
number of other gentlemen and wannabe-Scots.

Chinese-Celtic fusion with Wong, Wu, Chisolm & Rosen for Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2005

Karen Wong & Zhongxi Wu are bringing their friends
Alex Chisolm & Carmen Rosen to Gung Haggis Fat Choy for an exciting musical adventure. Karen
and Zhongxi are the creators of Dragon
River Shadow Puppet Theatre. 
I first met them when they performed at the 2002 Vancouver Storytelling
Festival, and I liked them immediately as both performers and
people.  Zhongxi next crossed my path when he walked into a dinner
I was MC for in May… except I didn't recognize him wearing a kilt and
carrying bagpipes!

Karen and Zhongxi became became Gung Haggis-ified when they performed
with me for First
Night Vancouver on Dec. 31, 2004 for 2 packed and enthusiastic shows.  Karen
was born in Montreal and raised in North Vancouver, she plays the sheng
– a unique 2000 year old 13 reed wind blown organ made of bamboo pipes.  Zhongxi
aka “Jonesey”, born in Harbin, China, plays the suona – a loud reed flute, and
two years ago, he took up BAGPIPES! 

Alex Chisolm plays in the same pipe band with Zhongxi – and  he
also plays mandolin.  The two men have become great friends and
play music together often. His partner Carmen Rosen is an accomplished  artist and singer.  She is also founder of performance artists Mortal Coil and involved with the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival. I think it will say that when Wong, Wu, Chisolm and Rosen get together… anything can happen!

If anybody wishes to join Barb, Bill Stillwell of marginalia.org, myself, and some CBC people at our “bloggers” table at GungHaggisFatChoy, please let me know by Thursday at 8p.m by email to roland AT rolandtanglao.com or by calling me at 604 729 7924 if you already have your tickets. If you DON'T have a ticket yet, please mention you want to sit at the “bloggers table” when you order (please order before 8pm. on Thursday) your tickets through the Firehall Centre at 604-689-0926.

By the way, well over 400 tickets have been sold, so it's going to big and I am sure it's going to be great! See you on Sunday!