The motley amalgamated crew in Kent WA for the Cornucopia Dragon Boat Festival. Proudly wearing Canadian RED, as we paddled in US waters. The team was drawn from Gung Haggis Fat Choy (8), 39th Brigade Army (3) , GVRD (5), VO2 Max (2), The Hex (1), Team Synergy (1) + two guests
Back half paddle, Front half wave to the crowd. Megan wave to the camera. Team veteran Gail tries to lead a paddle salute…
A nice group photo of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team at ADBF 2003. My but the green tartan sashes show up nicely with the read team shirts. A good group of paddlers with 16 rookies.
Here is the brand new Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team. Proudly wearing tartan sashes and rejoicing in new friendships. The team made it to the Rec D finals, finishing out of the medal round at ADBF 2003.
This is a Taiwanese Dragon Boat. This is the designated “flag
grabber” who has reached out too far. In this race – your
team must grab the flag to finish the race. This team did not
grag the flag.
Taiwanese Dragon Boats were donated to the City of Vancouver in
2004. The first Taiwanese Dragon Boat race took place 10 days
after the boats arrived on Sep 6, 2004. Olympic gold medalist
Lori Fung grabbed the first flag in a demonstration race.
A 2 day race event is being held Labour Dav Weekend Sept 4 & 5, 2004 – at the Plaza
of Nations, as part of the award winning Taiwanese Cultural Festival.
www.canadatcf.com for more information
Dr. Anthony Chan held a very lively and interesting discussion about his book Li Ka-Shing: Hong Kong's Elusive Billionaire at the Vancouver Public Library, Aug 27, 2004.
Chan told the story of how Li Ka-Shing truly rose from rags to riches, to become one of the most wealthy billionaires in the world, first developing plastic flowers and toothbrushes in the 1940's and 1950's to controlling many container ports in Mexico, Panama, and closer to home: having a 9% interest in CIBC beginning in 1973, and later developing the Concord Pacific Expo 86 site on Vancouver's False Creek waterfront.
Chan also addressed some of the issues behind:
1) The aborted bid by Li's son, Victor, to initially buy troubled Air Canada.
2) The influence of Chinese Culture on Vancouver and Canadian cultural and business society
3) The identity issues of Chinese Canadians, or if you prefer Canadian Chinese, as explored in his books Anna Mae Wong and Gold Mountain.
The event overall was of good quality. 50 people attended, including Dr. Edgar Wickberg, professor emeritus of UBC and current organizer of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society, Larry Wong – executive director of the Chinese Canadian War Memorial Museum, Howe Lee – president of the Army, Airforce, Navy, Pacific Unit Veterans, and my very own cousin Hayne Wai, formerly of Multiculturalism BC and who is now lecturing at UBC.
Pictures of the event were taken by me, and will be published in Rice Paper Magazine. www.ricepaperonline.com Canada's only nationally distributed magazine of Asian Canadian arts and culture. Hopefully I can post the pictures here too!
Dr. Anthony Chan reads from his book “Li-Ka Shing: Hong Kong's Elusive Billionaire.
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch
350 West Georgia Street,
7:30pm – FREE
The book examines the history and development of Hong Kong with the biography of Li-Ka Shing, a rags-to-riches success story.
Dr. Anthony Chan is an accomplished author and Associate Professor of Communications at University of Washington.
This event is part of VPL's “One Book One Vancouver” series – celebrating the 2004 choice “The Corporation” by UBC Professor Joel Bakan. OBOV events are designed to help make the book come alive for readers and to explore related topics
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/features/scots_advertising/
INDEPTH: SCOTS IN ADVERTISINGIn advertising, the Scots are hotBy Dan Brown, CBC News Online | July 15, 2004It's hard not to notice how many television commercials have Scottish characters in them these days. From the guy who gets perturbed at bar patrons who don't treat Keith's beer with respect to the impossibly small spokesman for Kellogg's to the tight-fisted uncle in the Money Mart spots, the Scots are currently the most overrepresented minority in TV advertising.
 Don't mistreat this beer or a surly Scot will yell at you (Photo Robin Rowland) |
It's hard not to notice these characters for one simple reason: they yell a lot. In fact, they behave exactly as non-Scottish people expect the Scottish to behave: they're quick to anger and slow to spend money. They're stereotypes, in other words.
I discovered this web site:
Brigadoonery Canada. A comic tribute to all things Scottish. http://www.durham.net/~neilmac/
Brigadoonery Canada presents new and improved. … Brigadoonery, noun: What often happens when people who were not born in Scotland pretend to be
Scottish anyway. …
They also show a picture of the webmaster at the annual dinner of the Scottish Chinese Canadian Club which claims to have invented Sweet and Sour
Haggis… in Toronto!!!
No date is given, but it sure wasn't taken at any of our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners which started in 1999 at the New Grandview Restaurant, outgrew to the Spicy Court, then outgrew again to the Flamingo Restaurant.
I think I am guilty of “brigadoonery” on many accounts:
1) wearing a kilt
2) reciting the poetry of Robbie Burns
3) playing Scottish Songs on my accordion
4) hosting Robbie Burns Dinners (at Chinese restaurants)
5) serving haggis at such dinners (with sweet & sour or plum sauce – or in “Haggis Wun-Tun)
6) pronouncin' me words wi' a Scots burr
7) posing with a claymore that has seen English blood on the Plains of Abraham and possibly Culloden
8) reading paperbacks with the word “Highland” in the title