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Weekend update: Silk Road Music at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Gardens

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It
was a busy weekend with PNE, dragon boat racing at the Taiwanese
Cultural Festival, but we did manage to go to the Enchanted Evenings
music concert at  Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Classical Gardens in Vancouver's Historic Chinatown.

Silk Road Music ensemble was featured for the last performance of the summer long music series.  It is led by my friend Qiu Xia He who
helped create this wonderful jewel of a cultural series.  I first
got to know Qiu Xia and her husband Andre Thibault when they were
featured in the CBC television performance special Gung Haggi Fat Choy,
and they later performed with me at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners
and First Night performances.

It was a wonderful performance that
also featured their friend Celso Machado, himself a virtuoso guitarist
and percussionist.  Qiu Xia, told the audience that she wanted to
change the lineup for this year's concert and highlight some of the
music that she and Andre are doing to feature the pipa (chinese lute)
in more adventurous musical settings.

Here is the set list with descriptions from the program:

Han Ya Xi Shui (traditional)
Traditional Chinese Pipa solo.  A Piece that reflects the beauty
of a Chinese garden.  A lonesome duck contemplating and enjoying
the solitude of the water.
Fire! Fire! Fire! (Qiu Xia He)
A composition that captures the flamboyance of the Chinese Pipa and
Flamenco guitar rushing through a chain of flamboyant emotions.
Entre Lagose montanhas (Celso Machado)
A new composition that combines the Pipa with Brazilian guitar. 
Celso is an important influence to Qiu Xia's music.  His
creativity has helped shape a very exciting sound to the Pipa repetoire.
Lakota's Lament/ Junky Reel (Andre Thibault & Qiu Xia He)
Two pieces composed for the new show “China Speaks your Language” which
will be premiered this fall.  Some believe, long before Columbus
discovered North America, the Chinese Junks led by Admiral Zheng He reached this continent around 1421, The song illustrates the meeting between First Nations peoples and Chinese sailors.




Andre sent me this short note:



Hi Todd.
Thanks for coming to our show. We played mostly new works and very
complex at that so we are happy it went as well as it did,it was
fabulous to have Celso on board also.


Taiwanese Cultural Festival & Dragon Boat Races – Cheer the Gung Haggis Fat Choy team!

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Hi everybody...

Come cheer the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team
at the Taiwanese Cultural Festival and Dragon Boat Races!

Gung Haggis dragon boat team  is meeting at Plaza of Nations
9am

Tacoma's Destiny Dragons will arrive soon, and we also
want to secure a spot for their tent too!

Bob, Dave and myself will meet there earlier to set up
the tent - some extra help will be appreciated. 8:45?

Dave - park your car with the tent underneath Plaza of
Nations - we'll designated your Blazer as the team
car.

PARKING:
pay parking at Plaza of Nations probably $12 for the
day.  also around BC Place - but it can be expensive

FREE parking... along Expo/Pacific Blvd - Carrall St
in Chinatown underneath the overpass - along Quebec
St. and FREE Parking with Shuttle at City lot at
Ontario and 1st Ave. (what we used for Dragon Zone
practices)

or... just take the SKYTRAIN to STADIUM station.

ARRIVAL:
Team arrival 9am
Festival opens at 10am

You should have no problem getting on site at 8am.
Later, and they will stop you unless you have your
pass.  Tell them you are meeting your team and you
have to race right away!!!!

Our tent will be set up in the West area of Plaza of
Nations - just south of Pier Restaurant (former
Mavericks - former Unicorn) - it is immediately West
of the Loggers Dock.

FOOD:
Please bring lots of water for yourself, and a little
bit of extra snack food to share.  It will be an
informal buffet as we have usually done.  I think this
will work best without having to do too much planning.

There are food stalls available - but they usually
have long line-ups.  But it's still good and
adventurous.  T&T market is usually pretty good and a
short walk as well.  My usual race day food intake is
juice smoothies, granola bars, lots of bananas and
other fruit.

RACES:
Please expect to be on race site 9am to 5pm each day.
We will adjust the times as we need to.  There are
many fun races throughout the day, as I have entered
our team in the NOGARD, Blindfold, Barrel and Slalom
Races.

RACE PASSES:
I have them...
red wristbands... they get you in.  you need them to
paddle.
I have extra day passes for your friends and family.
We are asking for a $5 donation for the team - if they
have kids... or are students... make a discount.

PARTY TICKETS for The Roxy
Doors Open 7pm

I have them... 
available on site for the Weekend.
$5 - for tix: includes admission, free drink
$10 all the above + cowbody hat (limited supply)

Todd
604-240-7090

Ukranian Canadians get Redress Justice: Chinese Canadians next? Toronto Star article

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For those who might not have access
to the Toronto Star this is an excellent article that Avvy wrote and appeared August 24, 2005 in the Star.
 
When will
Chinese Canadians get justice?
Surely it's
time Ottawa put to rest shame of head tax and compensated victims, says
Avvy Go
 
Aug..
24, 2005 marked a significant day for the Ukrainian Canadian community.

On that day the government of Canada officially
acknowledged that Ukrainian Canadians were unjustly interned and were deprived
of their civil rights during World War I.
Calling it a “dark chapter” of our history, Prime Minister
Paul Martin announced a $2.5 million fund for commemorative plaques and
educational tools to remind Canadians of our not-so-pristine past. Ukrainian
Canadians are not alone when it comes to Canada's historical record of
mistreatment of minorities.

Most Canadians are familiar with the shameful manner in
which Japanese Canadians were treated as “enemy aliens” during World War II,
when thousands upon thousands of Japanese Canadians were sent into internment
camps and stripped of their properties, their rights and dignity. Perhaps less
well known, are the cases of internment of German and Italian Canadians, also
during wartime.
If these gross injustices could somehow be “excused” by
the war, the same does not apply to the case of Chinese Canadians.

Canada welcomed Chinese when the country needed their
labour to build the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and more than 10,000 Chinese
immigrants were brought in between 1881 and 1885 for that purpose. But as soon
as the last spike was driven in, the Canadian government imposed a $50 head tax
on all Chinese immigrants, which was increased to $500 in 1904.

The head tax was replaced in 1923 with the Chinese
Exclusion Act that barred all but a handful of Chinese immigrants to Canada. In
total, Canada collected more than $23 million from 81,000 or so Chinese
immigrants.

Shack Jang Mack was among those who had paid the head tax.
At the tender age of 13, Mack left China in 1922 to embark on his trip to
Canada. He spent his first six weeks here in a dark cell inside the Canada
Customs Detention Building, where Chinese detainees were given a slice of bread
every day.

Mack was released only after paying the $500 Head Tax. The
fact that Mack's father was among the pioneers who worked on the CPR did not
exempt him from the racist tax.
Mack returned to China to marry his wife in 1928. But he
could not bring her to Canada due to the Exclusion Act.

He would visit her in China after he had saved enough
money to pay for his journey but he had to return to Canada within two years or
pay another head tax. After 22 years of separation, Mack was finally reunited
with his wife in 1950, three years after the exclusion act was
repealed.

Mack was among a group of surviving head-tax payers and
widows who, for the past 20 years, have been seeking redress for their
sufferings as a result of legislated racism.

In 2000, Mack sued the Canadian government. While finding
that Ottawa had a moral obligation to redress its “reprehensible” past, an
Ontario court nevertheless ruled there was no legal ground for the case to go
forward.

Mack died in March 2003, a month before the Supreme Court
of Canada turned down his appeal.

As the number of surviving head-tax payers continues to
shrink, Ottawa continues to ignore their plea for justice.
If we compensate the Chinese, says the government, it
would set an unwelcome precedent and lead to a “floodgate” of claims. But the
“floodgate” argument is becoming weaker every day as Canada continues to redress
almost every other single case of historical injustice.

After the Japanese Canadians, the Marine merchants, the
First Nations Veterans, and now the Ukrainian Canadians, Chinese Canadians are
quickly becoming the last group of victims who have yet to receive any
acknowledgement from their government for their role in building this country
and the “thanks” they got in return.

A symbolic return of $23 million will help redress one of
the last remaining unresolved “dark chapters” of our history. Is that really too
much to ask?

BBQ evening at The Vancouver Aquarium: my girlfriend takes me for a “date”

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Imagine having the Vancouver Aquarium all to yourselves…
Imagine having a nice quiet after-hours dinner at the Aquarium with
only the company of beluga whales (known as “the canaries of the
sea”)… and your loved one.
Imagine a warm summer night with only the sound of dolphins, and the lapping of waves…

Well… close, but not quite…
It rained most of the day, and by the evening very light rain drops
intermittently fell.  About sixty people were there for the
Aquarium program called Twilight Tuesdays – probably due to the rain…
Music could be heard in the distance, well rather loudly if you stood
at the Aquarium entrance, as Blue Rodeo was playing the first of two
concerts at Malkin Bowl.

But it was a wonderful date!
We saw the new Pacific Whitesided Dolphin named “Laverne”
on loan from Sea World San Antonio.  We saw our favorites – the
sea otters.  Butterflies were abundant in the Amazon Gallery, and
we saw not two – but three sloths!  And one was actively eating
from its feeder!  Very rare for a visit indeed…

It is an absolute must-do if you have visitors in town next
summer.  Only $12.45 if you are a member, $29.95 for non-members
which includes aquarium admission.  Prices cheaper for students,
seniors, youth and children.

A choice of chicken, beef or veggie burger.  Salad buffet options
included Mixed Greens, Caesar, Potato and Oriental Noodles.  We
both chose chicken burgers and added healthy doses of bbq sauce and
mayonaise…. and of course tried each of the salads.  A drink of
beer or wine was included.  Pretty good for $12.45 if you are
already a member.

Special romantic note:  our first date was at the aquarium in
2003, and our 1st year anniversary date was also celebrated at the
aquarium with a gift membership for my girlfriend.  If you live in
the Vancouver area, I heartily recommend a membership and aquarium
lunch or dinner dates at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Gung Haggis paddlers win Gold medal with Concorde Pacific Flying Dragons in San Francisco

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Gung Haggis paddlers win Gold medal with Concorde Pacific Flying Dragons in San Francisco

Congratulations to Dan Seto, Pam Huey and Kristine
Shum – who all went down to San Francisco and are
coming back with Gold Medals in the Rec divsion.  It
was a tight race with only 29/100ths second behind
them for silver medal and 42/100ths second behind them
for bronze medal.

The team raced 4 races each on Saturday.  2 mixed
races, + visiting team + Men's and Women's races – but
only 2 X on Sunday for Mixed Semi-final + medal round
finals.  Flying Dragons combined with Calgary Paddling Club for Men's and Women's races.

This weekend:
Taiwanese Dragon Boat Races
Sunday Night Dragon Boat Rodeo Party @ The Roxy!!!

Cheers, Todd

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below is Kristine's report:

Hi Todd and Bob.  Great news…we won gold in REC A

Division.  We were behind, but caught up at the

halfway mark and surged ahead of CCSF near the end.



1. Concord Pacific Flyer Dragons – 2:24:28
2. CCSF 1 (City College of San Fran) – 2:24:57

3. Castaways (Portland) – 2:25:10



4. Vancity Thunder – 2:28:05

5. Extreme Currents (Kamloops) – 2:28:24

6  Killer Guppies Blue (LA) – 2:36:02 (I think.

Couldn't quite read my writing on a serviette.)



Didn't do so well in the Men's, Women's and Visiting

Team Cup race — in tough against Roli and Subaru.



For results, visit

http://sfdragonboat.com

Sunday dragon boat practice: Gung Haggis meets the Pirates

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We had a nice interesting practice on Sunday…

6 Gung Haggis paddlers + drummer Deb & Coach Bob (Peggy, Natalie, Naoko, Ernest, Daming and me)

+ 13 Chilliwack paddlers (The Pirates dragon boat team)

+ 6 Kung Fu club first time paddlers

+ 2 flag grabbers 13 & 14 years old.

Many of our Gung Haggis paddlers were on vacation in San Francisco,
Penticton, England, France and elsewhere… so we invited some paddler
friends from Chilliwack to join us.  But we had too many for one
boat – so we went out in two!

Coach Bob took the Chilliwack
paddlers in a teak and Taiwanese boat to teach them
what
is expected next week.  And… he taught them some of our race
strategies… naughty Bob!  We will have to discipline him later…

We took out the new paddlers for some practice to
teach them to paddle.  We wouldn't normally add first time
paddlers to a team one week before the race, but they are trained
atheletes and in good shape… plus, I have always wanted to have some
paddlers who knew how to perform a Lion Dance or a Dragon Dance!

The two boats met up together towards the end of the practice and
we exchanged some paddlers to even out the two teams – then we did two
races grabbing for the flag – very exciting.  The kids were
GREAT as flag grabbers…   Very enthusiastic, very agile,
very fearless… very LIGHT!

For the first race – our boat took the lead early and sustained it to
the flag.  But our steersperson, Coach Bob, steered away from the
flag to let the other team grab it as they followed in our wake. 
Naughty Bob!  But he figured since we won the race, grabbing the
flag was the consolation prize. 

We proposed a second race, and allowed the Pirates team to choose
anybody from our boat to join their team.  They could have chosen
any number of strong male paddlers including myself – but
Nooooo…..  they made a strategic choice to disrupt our chi, and
they chose our lead stroke Natalie.  No problem, our second seat
moved into the 1st seat, and we won another race.  And this time
Steerer Bob redeemed himself and let our 14 year old flag grabber do
his job.  Very happy he was too, waving the flag in the air!

Then we went to our favorite Sunday afternoon restaurant, Carlos and
Bud's for $2.49 drink and appetizer specials.  So sad to here that
they are closing in 3 weeks to make room for yet another hi-rise condo
in Yaletown.  Aren't there enough down there yet?

Heart Beat opens up new possibilities for Chinese Drumming, Dance and Music

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Heart Beat opens up new possibilities for Chinese Drumming, Dance and Music


Heartbeat  is the 4th and lastest “action-musical” from producer Dr. Dennis Law at the Centre in Vancouver For Performing Arts. 
The story is basically a drum and dance fantasy structured loosely on
the premise that a young girl named Jade has a dream in which the god
of dragons leads her through the history of drums in China.

Again, I was amazed at the sheer spectacle of this show combining
Chinese acrobatics, dance, music and martial arts.  With the
recent accessibility of Chinese artists and performers, Dr. Law is able
to bring together top Chinese talents and push them in directions never
before created. Several times my mouth dropped open at the sheer
acrobatic abilities of the dancers and what they were able to
accomplish.

The show is also a showcase for the many different dance styles and
drum styles throughout China's four thousand year history through the
Bronze Age, and the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. 
Drumming styles on stage include Tibetan drums,  hanging drums,
long drum dance, and eight-cornered drums.  Dances include fan
dance, hair dance, Dragon dance,  Monkey King and White-Boned
Goddess, and martial arts dances.

The live percussionists are a show unto themselves. Set up on each
corner are huge drums, bells and chimes.  In the open orchestra
pit are 4 drummers, magnificient to watch.  All these percussion
is balanced by the lyrical instruments of flute, roan (chinese guitar)
and chinese zither.  Anybody remotely interested in drums should
see this show!

Everytime I have gone to see one of the action-musicals, I have
learned more about Chinese culture.  I remarked to my companions
that I grew up disdaining Chinese culture, as my 5 -generational family
had been subject  to racial discrimination and we wanted to
assimilate into Canadian culture.  Our Canadian society, and
indeed our global culture is still very much euro-centric and ignorant
of the riches that Chinese culture and history have contributed –
witness the debate about the Chinese navigator on www.1421.com

Here are HEARTBEAT video clips for you to watch as well
http://www.heartbeatshow.com/video.htm

Definitely go see the show….

Thursdays in August with Karen Lee-Morlang at the Silk Purse in West Vancouver

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My friend Karen Lee-Morlang, pianist/singer is artist-in-residence for
the Silk Purse Arts Centre in West Vancouver. For the month of August
she lined up some great performers.

Check out the remaining performances:

August 25th 10:30am

EMBRACEABLE YOU
an evening of fun songs by Cole Porter, Ivor Novelo, George Gershwin,
Noel Coward and Stephen Foster – featuring baritone Joel Klein

September 1st, 7:30pm
NO SHIT SHIRLEYS
Seven sassy women brought together by their love of soulful singing,
good wine and laughter.  The Shirleys sing a cappella versions of
whatever moves them, from Graham Central Station to Afro-Cuban Orisha
songs to Native American lullabies – featuring Y. Blum, S. Fletcher, K.
Lee-Morlang, Karla Mundy, Keona Mundy, D. Pemberton, N. Rendell.

Below is a picture of me with the No Shit Shirleys at a fundraiser event at the W.I.S.E. Hall where we both performed in June.

Enchanted Evenings at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Gardens: Music concerts

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Check out these special concerts at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Classical Gardens in Vancouver's Historic Chinatown.

The Enchanted Evenings concert series was originally created by my friend Qiu Xia He of the Silk Road Music
ensemble.  July 29th featured Qiu Xia's other group Joutou – which
blends together music and style from Quebec, China, Ireland and South
America.

And I can proudly say that my cousin, architect Joe Y. Wai was one of the main architects designing the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens.  I absolutely love the gardens, and each year I take my dragon boat team there for a tour and tai chi lesson.

Check out these very special remaining concerts!

August 26 – Sawagi Taiko
Canada's first all-women, all Asian taiko drumming
group strives to encourage cultural connections among different
Asian Canadian communities and explores members’ ancestral
legacies. The instrument originates in China but the artistic
form comes from rural communities of Japan.

Sept. 2 – Silk Road
An award winning ensemble that takes Chinese music
in daring new directions, incorporating jazz improvisation,
Latin rhythms, French Canadian folk elements and Celtic strains.
These world musicians are Qiu Xia He (pipa), Zhi Min Yu (ruan),
Feng Jun Wang (vocals), Willy Miles (bass and vocals) and
Andre Thibault (guitar, oud, percussion). They will present
new works from a CD being compiled and due to be released
soon.

Sunday Gung Haggis Dragonboat team practice

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We've moved our dragonboat practice to 12 noon for Sunday, August
21.  This is to accomodate a Sunday afternoon bbq/picnic following
practice as one of our paddlers Ashleigh is moving to Montreal for a
year-long job placement.

We meet 12 noon at DBA/MATCON docks – 215 West 1st Ave. @ Cook St. – just West of Columbia St.  Park on 1st.

Our dragon boat practices are lots of fun – good combination of
experience and rookie enthusiasm.  Bring a dish to share for the
picnic afterwards.

You can reach me on my cell phone
604-240-7090
Todd Wong