Gung Haggis Fat Choy will have a float entry in the 1st annual Vancouver St. Patrick's Day Parade.  March 13, Saturday, 11am to 1pm. on Downtown Granville St. from Hastings to Drake St.

The Celtic Heritage Society really wanted an entry from Gung Haggis, and executive member Neville kept after me.  The parade is inclusive to all celtic traditions and also extended to multicultural organizations – so I guess that is where Gung Haggis Fat Choy fits in.

I have some great unique ideas for a parade float that will be revealed in the coming weeks.  I have to confirm sponsorships and commitments from other organizations.  But so far, piper Joe McDonald is committed as is Gung Haggis dragon boat co-coach Bob Brinson.

The parade is sponsored and organized by the Celtic Heritage Society and is part of Celtic Fest celebrations in Vancouver.  There are lots of pipe bands entering, lots of organizations coming from Victoria, the Fraser Valley and the Sunshine Coast… however there is a shortage of floats.  maybe this will pick up in the coming years.

But Gung Haggis Fat Choy will have a float.  And it will be unlike any float created in Vancouver before.  It will bend notions and stereotypes of multiculturalism and the St. Patrick's Day Theme… ideas are secret for now.

If you would like to be involved as a volunteer or join our dragon boat team – please e-mail me at gunghaggis@yahoo.com

Cheers, Todd

For the first time ever, I was a guest at a Robbie Burns
Dinner.  It was a private Burns Dinner for the Burns Club of
Vancouver held Monday Feb 16th at the Terminal City Club in downtown
Vancouver.  I was the guest of club president Robert Barr.

This was very unusual for me, because up to now the only Burns
Dinners I have ever attended were the ones that I have organized: The
first being the now famous living room dinner of 16, back in
1998, where we first combined a Robbie Burns Dinner with Chinese
influences, and the latter being the many subsequent fundraiser dinners
in restaurants.

It was a by-invitation only sit down dinner in one of
Vancouver's oldest private clubs, hosted and organized by a
relatively new club to Vancouver.  The Burns Club of Vancouver is
an all-male congregation only organized about 23 years ago, based on a
debating club actually founded by Burns on November 11, 1780. 
This historic club was named “Bachelors Club, Tarbolton,” as all
the founding members were from Tarbolton Parish.  See http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/BachelorsClubTarbolton.70.shtml

The Burns Club of Vancouver bases itself upon the rules of the
Tarbolton Bachelor's Club of which the 10th rule is the most important:

“Every man proper for a member of this Society, must have a
frank, honest, open heart; above anything dirty or mean; and must be a
professed lover of one or more of the female sex. No haughty,
self-conceited person, who looks upon himself as superior to the rest
of the Club, and especially no mean spirited, worldly mortal, whose
only will is to heap up money shall upon any pretence whatever be
admitted.”

There were between 40 and 50 gentlemen all dressed in jackets –
about half with kilts, while some wore tartaned slacks. 
Unfortunately the piper was a no-show, so one of the members played the
piano, as the haggis was carried in preceded by two club members
carrying swords.

It brought back memories of my very first Robbie Burns experience
from 1993, when I helped the Robbie Burns celebrations at Simon Fraser
University.  I carried the SFU claymore (Scottish broadsword) that
had been donated by Lord Lovatt, Chieftain of the Fraser Clan in
Scotland.  I followed the piper, and a history student named Karen
carried the haggis behind me.

All told, it was a proper Burns Supper consisting of a
wonderful Roast Beef, servied with tatties (potatoes) with a good
dollop of horse radish and a very tasty haggis.  Dinner was
followed by the traditional toast to the lassies, readings of Burns
poetry and songs, a Burns eulogy, and speech about the Tarbolton
Bachelor's Club.

After singing two verses of Auld Lange Syne to close the formal part
of the dinner, a singalong around the piano was held while others had
drinks and conversed in good topics.

Obviously, the recent successes of both the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dinners and CBC television special were good topics and I was in
demand for conversation.  Don McTavish came up to me and said he
had attended the 2003 Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and lauded it as one of the
best Burns dinners he had ever attended.  He especially enjoyed
the singers that performed. 

Harry McGrath, the coordinator of the SFU Scottish Studies Program
was also at the dinner.  He told me that all his relatives in
Scotland were asking him about this “crazy Chinese Robbie Burns dinner
in Vancouver.”  Apparently Gung Haggis Fat Choy was all over the
news in Scotland too, especially after Amy Carmichael's piece ran on
Canadian Press and Associated Press as Ms. Carmichael had quoted Harry
as saying, “I think it's wonderful, this Sino-caledonian fusion,” after
describing how I had brought my accordion to a Burns Club meetin and
played celtic songs and described Gung Haggis Fat Choy.

The Plum Tree
by Mitch Miyagawa
Directed by Adrienne Wong
February 6 – 28, 2004, Opens Feb 11

please see www.firehallartscentre.ca

Adrienne Wong co-hosted 2004's Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners on both Jan 24 & Jan 25.  She is a wonderful actor, writer, stage manager and a director!

In 2003, Adrienne performed the title role for Firehall's production of David Henry Hwang's “Golden Child.”  She also wrote and performed the CBC radio play “Married by China.”  This was a spoof on “Married by America” and was performed live at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch.

The delightful and affable Ms. Wong was also the premier “flag grabber” for the Gung Haggis dragon boat team in the inaugural Taiwanese Dragon Boat race in Vancouver, held Sep 6th on False Creek Waters.

Please attend The Plum Tree – and share more of Adrienne's theatrical and performing magic!

Both Sunday and Saturday dinners for Gung Haggis Fat Choy were incredible. Lots of positive comments. People who saw the CBC tv special also raved. 3 Nights of Gung Haggis. We had a rave comment from a Seattlite who watched the show and is asking for copies. I have passed on the message to CBC Regional Director Rae Hull. If you want to see the show re-run, or want to give compliments – please call CBC television in Vancouver. If you post comments on this web blog – I will forward them to CBC.

I will post a review of the Sunday show here later, as I am still very fatigued. But I am still hearing great kudos for our 3 wonderful co-hosts Adrienne Wong, Margaret Gallagher and Heather Pawsey, as well as Sound Engineer Noah Drew and Associate Producer Jim Wong-chu.

If you would like to see more of Heather – She will be performing the principal role in the Burnaby Lyric Opera production “The Elixir of Love” which opens Feb. 14 at the Shadbolt Centre and is also on Feb. 19 and 21 at 8:00 p.m. and Feb. 16 & 18 at 2:00.

Adrienne Wong is directing The Plum Tree at the Firehall Theatre – details tba.

And check out the production of “Sex in Vancouver: Chapter 2 (Other Women)” by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, opening on January 28th at the Roundhouse in Vancouver. We saw Chapter 1 and it was a lot of fun. For more information. Check the website for Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, otherwise known as VACT.