But most important of all, the performers are people that I have met through my intercultural travels and adventures.  I select performers that inspire and astound me, and whom I admire.  I select performers who are enthusiastic and appreciate what Gung Haggis Fat Choy is about.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy is a dinner like no other. 
Jam-packed with cross-cultural references to the Scottish and Chinese
pioneer history of British Columbia, it feeds its audience a
cultural-fusion cuisine of deep-fried haggis wun tun and lettuce wrap
in a 10 course Chinese banquet.  It looks forward to the future of
Chinese-Scottish-Canadian mixed DNA, and present-time Hapa-Canadian
culture of mixed ethnicity.

12th Annual Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner

January 25th, 2009
5:00 reception
6:00 dinner
9:30pm After Party Chinese New Years Eve Countdown.
Floata Seafood Restaurant
#400 – 180 Keefer St.
Vancouver Chinatown.

PERFORMERS for 2009:

Silk Road Music Ensemble
was featured in the 2004 CBC television performance special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.” Principals Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault have traveled around the world and bring their worldly perspectives back to Canada to share.  They will be bringing percussionists with them for their 2009 performance.  Check out Qiu Xia's project for the Cultural Olympiad on Feb. 1st in Vancouver's Chinatown.


Opera Soprano Heather Pawsey + guests
Heather grew up on the Canadian prairies wearing tartans as part of her Scottish-Canadian heritage.  Today she sings in many different languages including Mandarin Chinese and Cree.  Recently she was involved in the Brief Encounters project that paired her with a very non-opera performing project.  Heather merged their musical creativities with a little bit Chinese and a little bit Scottish, which she wants to bring to Gung Haggis Fat Choy

Gung Haggis Fat Choy Pipe Band
Bob Wilkins wanted to create a new pipe band that acknowledged and drew on BC's Scottish and Chinese Canadian history.  He asked me if we could work together and create something special.  We are imagining Scottish bagpipes and Chinese drums with Lion dancers… We don't quite know what is going to happen – but the sound of 10 bagpipers at the restaurant with drums should be wonderful!


Robbie Burns Chinese clapper tale by Dr. Jan Walls
Dr. Jan Walls is an expert in Chinese history and language.  He missed our 2004 Gung Haggis Dinner because of a “command performance” invitation by Yo-Yo Ma at the Peabody Essex Museum in Boston.  Jan was a smash hit at our 2005 dinner, and this time he's going to do something special for Robbie's 250th birthday!


Joe McDonald “rapping bagpiper”
Joe has brought his special musical talents to Gung Haggis Fat Choy for every dinner since 2001.  We have performed on CBC Newsworld and The National together.  Joe's band Brave Waves was featured in the CBC television performance special Gung Haggis Fat Choy.  One of our most requested performances is our “Gung Haggis Rap” – our take on Burns' immortal Address to a Haggis – which is going to be featured in a BBC Radio Scotland special radio show for Burns' 250th.

Rita Wong
Rita's book of poetry “Forage” won the 2008 BC Book Awards Dorothy Livesay Prize for Poetry.  Like Burns, she has a keen eye for social justice and equalization of the sexes.  She is Assistant Professor in Critical and Cultural Studies for Emily Carr University  of Art and Design.
Her work investigates the relationships between decolonization, social
justice, ecology, and contemporary poetics.

Dr. Leith Davis
Leith is an expert in Burns, and has just been interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland for their 250th Anniversary Burns radio special.  She is also the director for the Scottish Studies Program at Simon Fraser University.  She has heard much about Gung Haggis Fat Choy and looks forward to her first Gung Haggis experience.  Boy… will she be surprised!

lots of special guests

a Gung Hagigs dragon dance

special celtic musicians

lots of Robert Burns poetry

lots of surprises
more to be announced