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Didja see us on CBC Newsworld? Live National TV? from the ADBF site? didja? didja?

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CBC Newsworld had a television crew at the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival
site early on Saturday morning. They interviewed me, Todd Wong, the
Chieftain of Clan Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.

I was also able to introduce our team sponsors, Bear Kilts, represented
by Bear's wife Peggy sporting a lovely Fraser Hunting Tartan, and The
Roxy Nightclub, represent by Tanya Romanuk who brought The Roxy
baseball hats for us to wear in the rain.
It was a fun but challenging interview. Our team stood behind me and
cheered when I acknowledged them, they raised their paddles… we
showed some of the paddle designs… Marlene animated our big yellow
Chinese dragon hand puppet nicknamed “Gum San” (gold mountain).

Challenging because it was hard to hear Andrew the interviewer through
the ear phone… and I didn't have anybody to talk to visually…
except looking at the camera.
Host Andrew asked us how the team came to celebrate both Scottish and
Chinese cultures.
“Why not” I think I answered… our origins stem to the occasional
conjunction and/or overlap of Robbie Burns Day (Jan 25) and Chinese New
Year (late January to early February). Saying the words “Gung Haggis
Fat Choy” was just a natural thing to say when I was asked to don a
kilt and help out at the SFU Robbie Burns celebrations…

I am very grateful that we have a team that appreciates the humour of
my multicultural vision. They are enjoying my “rap version” of Robbie
Burns' “Ode to a Haggis.” as I tend to burst out in spontaneous poetry
on the dragon boat or in our martialling line-up. All good fun. And
that's what we do!
My mother taped the show. Yea Mom! Gee… I could have said “Happy
Father's Day Dad!”
Mom's critique was that the interview went “okay..” She's seen me give
a great interview with Peter Mansbridge for CBC's The National… but
live on location is much more challenging.

Hilary Walker, CBC producer in Toronto, said we were “AWESOME!” “Thanks
Hilary,” and she's probably going to read this article as she really
enjoyed how up to date we have been blogging our dragon boat activities
at the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival – of course including our media
interviews….

Gung Haggis dragon boat team: next race is 8:44 am… Rec D Semi

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Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team had a very exciting day today.
We started our day with team chieftain and organizer Todd Wong being
interviewed on CBC Newsworld at 8:45 am. The team stood behind Todd,
and cheered when he prompted them, raised their paddles when he asked
them, and every body flashed great smiles and radiated fun.

Todd was also able to show off the fine kilts that he, and paddler
Peggy Watkins were wearing. Peggy's husband Terry “Bear” Varga, is the
owner and kiltmaker of Bear Kilts – the team supplier and sponsor.
Peggy wore the Fraser Hunting Tartan (or “sport” tartan as Todd is wont
to call it) and Toddish McWong was sporting the Maple Leaf Tartan.
As well, Todd introduce Tanya Romanuk, the team's sponsor
representative for The Roxy Nightclub in Vancouver. Tanya has arrange
fundraiser dances for the team, and brought down “The Roxy” baseball
caps for the team to wear, sometimes in the rain that fell on Saturday.

Our morning was exciting… Coach Bob (or War Chief, as Todd was
calling him) initially called in sick, as he was feeling under the
weather. But he did appear before we headed off to the martialling
area. In the last two weeks we had added 4 paddlers from the Fraser
Valley Dragon Boat Club. This gave us 3 spare paddlers for the weekend.
The team easily had enough depth to deal with the situation with Coach
Bob Brinson unable to steer. Todd stepped into the steers position, and
the spare paddlers stepped in to take their place on the boat.

The first race was at 10:12am, and although Gung Haggis was seeded 4th,
we ended up in 7th place in a very exciting finish as the 8th place
team crept up on them at the very end. Or as Bob would, say… the
other team was steady, and we fell back…
Our second race was at 2:39pm, and we were much more relaxed an
comfortable in the 6-16 boat, and it felt like it. The boat surged
better in time. But it was not enough to place higher than 8th. So the
team ended up going to Rec D.
Our first race on Sunday is:
8:44am – the first Rec D/E heat.
We are seeded in lane 4 – so we are the second seed, after lane 5.
Team – please meet at the tent by 7:30am. We will need to be in the
martialing area by 8am.
Drink lots of water, and get lots of rest.

To make the Rec D medal final – we need to finish 1st or 2nd…
otherwise it is consolation round.
I am exceptionally pleased with the team bonding that has developed on
the team. People are light hearted, yet good hearted. New paddler
Marlene feels welcome, as do the 4 paddlers from Chilliwack. Manfred,
Ian and Karmen each coach teams in their own right, and Todd has
integrated them into being contributing members of the team, as Karmen
has also led a warm-up and Manfred steered the 2nd race. They all give
good constructive feedback and it is encouraged. It really sounds like
the start of a beautiful friendship…. one that goes back to 2002,
when Todd first asked members of the Chilliwack based Trojan Warriors
to join a men's and women's team that he organized for the ADBF
specialty races. Manfred, Ian and Karmen were each on that men's team,
and they have always rememberd the enthusiasm and friendliness that
Todd extended to them.

Looking forward to the races tomorrow… and a good dragon boat
after-paddling party at The Roxy in the evening. We will run a raffle
draw as a fundraiser for the team… Oh yeah – it's country music night
at The Roxy on Sundays… Yee-Haw!

CBC Newsworld to interview Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team and founder Todd Wong

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It's a go!

CBC Newsworld wants to interview Todd Wong and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dragon boat team for live television across Canad, from the Alcan
Dragon Boat Festival in Vancouver BC.  Set your clocks and vcr's
for 8:45am PST and 11:45am EST.

The interview will take place in front of the Science World or rather the Telus Sphere… on the Alcan Dragon Boat site.

Apparently CBC Newsworld wants us to wear our kilts, bring our decorated paddles, and our yellow Chinese dragon hand puppet.

Then we will quickly get ready for our race in heat #13 scheduled for
10:12am.  We will be in the martialling area at 9:30am. 
After our first race, we will debrief then head over to the Dr. Sun Yat
Sen Park for a Tai Chi lesson before breaking for lunch.

Our 2nd race will most likely be in heat #32, #34 or #36 scheduled for somewhere between 2pm and 2:40pm.

We had a great team dinner tonight at the Flamingo on Fraser St. – site
of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners in 2003 and 2004.  We had two
tables of paddlers with special friends Suzi and Matt from
Portland.  My friend Suzi is on the Wasabi Women Team Huge team
that has gone to the World Championship's in Philadelphia 2001, and the
World Club Crew Championships in Capetown South Africa in 2004

She could really see that our Gung Haggis Fat Choy team is really
bonding this year, as we did an appreciation circle complimenting each
paddler on what they bring to the team.  At the end of the dinner,
we watched the Thalassa dragonboat documentary that was filmed last
year and featured our team and the False Creek Women's team. 

“Very inspiring,” said some of the paddlers. “Now we're really hyped up for the races!”

Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team dinner… paddlers and friends only…

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Hi everybody

Sorry about the late restaurant switches…

Trying to make sure I have a restaurant close to the ADBF site +
have video available. We will show dragon boat VIDEOS! the dragonboat
French TV documentary + CBC TV special Gung Haggis Fat Choy!

Thank you for being patient.

We will go to:

Flamingo Restaurant – 3469 Fraser Street, Vancouver Phone: 604.877.1231. Cross streets are 19th & 20th Ave.

good vegetarian dishes + good peking duck.

Here is a map:

http://ca.maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=3469+Fraser+St.&csz=vancouver+BC&country=ca&new=1&name=&qty=

For Gung Haggis Fat Choy paddlers.

I will have team shirts available for everybody!

For TDBA paddlers… we can order some of your favorite foods and
set up a Peking duck dinner for about $10 to $12 CDN each – very
reasonable.

I use the restaurant often – most recently for a St. Paddy's Day
dinner party to thank the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner volunteers and
performers.

I will also post on the web page www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com

And… I promise… a present for every paddler who shows up for dinner! Okay… bribery sometimes works…

Flamingo has a good Peking Duck dinner special for 5 people, and
they helped me create a very nice deep fried haggis won ton in 2004.

Cheers/Slainte

Todd

604-240-7090

Vincent Lo and his dragon boat on page B1 of Vancouver Sun June 17

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Vincent Lo is the creator of Six-Sixteen fibreglass dragon boats in
Vancouver.  He is an incredible guy.  He was a paddler on the
legendary False Creek Men's team in the mid-80's.  Then he got
this idea!  Build a better dragon boat!  Six-Sixteens are probably the most copied boat in North America.  Such is the vision and success of Vincent Lo.

Oh… did I mention that he has been a manager of the World Famous False Creek Women's Team?

Here's a link to a 2001 story in the Vancouver Courier about Vincent.

“The Wong Way” dragon boat team makes the front page banner of the Vancouver Sun

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That multi-generational family dragon boat team “Paddlin' The Wong Way”
had their picture featured in the banner on the front page of the
Vancouver Sun, Thursday June 16.

The Wong Family is an important family in the Vancouver Chinatown
community.  Modernize Tailors is a Chinatown landmark.  83 year old
tailor, Bill Wong is the patriarch.  His younger paddling brother
Milton Wong helped start dragon boating in Vancouver in 1986. 
Milton is also a Canadian cultural icon recieving both the Order of BC,
and the Order of Canada.

The Wong Way coach, Peter Wong, “Uncle” Bill's son, also chair of the
Alcan Dragon Boat Festival. Both Peter and Milton have been key figures
in the devleopment of the Lotus Sports Club in Burnaby.  And now
they are extending their passion for dragon boats to the rest of the
family members.

My family has known the Wongs for generations… in fact my uncle
“Laddie” Tak worked at Modernize Tailors for many many years… and Milton Wong was the best man at my Aunt Sylvia's wedding!

Here's the short blurb from page C23 of the Vancouver Sun:

Back for its second year, this unique
family team has build momentum and is keener than ever.  Paddlin'
the Wong Way is made up of three generations of Wongs ranging in ages
from 18 to 83.  Word of the fun made its way around the family
circle and even more relations have requested a seat on the boat. 
A cousin from L.A. had his first paddling lesson in the hot tub last
month, a Calgary relative who's been in Longdon is making a special
trip and another will jet in from Germany.  Coach Peter is
sticking to his guns – no squabbling or you get a time out.

Below are pictures of Bill Wong and grandchildren, Stephen Wong and his niece Karen Jang carving (or sawing!) a
dragon boat head at the Round house Community Centre in February – see
the “finished product” beside the “Gung Haggis dragon boat head and
tail” this weekend at the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival in the Alcan
Dragon's Den – photos Todd Wong


Gim Wong: 2002 Burnaby Now interview

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Here's an interview with Gim Wong back from 2002.
Click here for the Gim Wong Ride for Redress updates on this webpage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Head tax took its toll on Chinese veterans


By Julie MacLellan,reporter, Nov 6 2002


Tears glint in Gim Wong's eyes as he dons the wool coat he wore nearly 60 years ago.
The coat belongs to the uniform that marks him as what he is: a loyal Canadian.
It wasn't so very long ago that his government saw things differently.


For Wong, who'll be 80 in two months, the Chinese
head tax and the Exclusion Act aren't just a nearly forgotten chapter
in Canadian history books. They're part of his past, part of his
family's story.

Wong was born in Vancouver's Chinatown.
His parents both came from China: his father in 1906 at the age of 15,
his mother in about 1921.

She made it into the country in a brief
window of time in which men could send home for brides, after the First
World War and before the Exclusion Act that prohibited Chinese
immigration starting in 1923. NEXT

http://saltwatercity.bc.ca/ccmgimw02.htm

Are we the dragon boat team with the most multicultural spirit? Chinese & Scottish? and more? You bet

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Alcan Dragon Boat Festival

To Whom It May Concern:

Re: David Lam Multicultural Award

Google the words “dragon boat” and “multiculturalism” and the 1st entry is Gung Haggis Fat Choy.

Ask anybody on the street to tell you about “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” and
they will pause, smile, then say: 1) It’s that Robbie Burns Chinese New
Year Dinner in Vancouver; 2) it’s that CBC TV special that mixes Scots
and Chinese music; 3) Wasn’t that the dragon boat float in the St.
Patrick’s Day parade?; 4) I heard about Gung Haggis Fat Choy on the CBC
radio; 5) Isn’t it that crazy Dragon-cart race up at Simon Fraser
University? 6) It’s that guy Toddish McWong, who invented “haggis
won-ton!”

Indeed Gung Haggis Fat Choy is known across Canada, and all around the
world.  CBC Radio’s Shelagh Rogers co-hosted the our infamous
Robbie Burns Chinese New Year fundraiser dinner, that has now grown to
600 people.  People in China, Scotland, California and New Jersey
have all posted links to www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com – our website that
highlights our favorite cultural fusion events.  This crazy boat
of Canadians is led by the Gung Haggis of Clan Gung Haggis – otherwise
known as “Toddish McWong.”  This team for the past 3 years has
embraced Canada’s Scottish and Chinese heritage, based on the unlikely
but coincidental conjunction of Robbie Burns Day on January 25th and
Chinese New Year (late January/early February).

But it is with humour that we celebrate Canada’s cultural diversity.
Vancouver Museum Curator Joan Siedl says, “I think you’ve identified
Vancouver’s “two solitudes.”  But in reality we celebrate
everything in-between and everything beyond.  Our team’s members
claim birthright from all around the world.  Russian, Japanese,
African, and even mixtures of ancestries.  This is very “Gung
Haggis.”

The first time a dragon boat was featured in a Vancouver parade, was at
the inaugural St. Patrick’s Day parade in 2004.  The Gung Haggis
Fat Choy entry was especially solicited by the Celtic Fest organizers
to bring their special multicultural energy to the parade.  We
were asked to return and for 2005 we featured City Councilor Ellen
Woodsworth on the drum and CBC radio host Margaret Gallagher who is
Chi-rish (Chinese and Irish), with a paddle.

Last year, Gung Haggis Fat Choy was the dragon boat team chosen to
represent multiculturalism in the television documentary series
“Thalassa” filmed by France 5, public television, at the 2004 ADBF. The
team was used to demonstrate how  ethnicities from around the
world, live, work and paddle together as one community, as one team, in
the very multicultural city of Vancouver. The Director and producer
Anne Gourmand felt this was important to show not only France, but to
francophone communities all around the world.

Our logo features a chinese dragon wearing a Scottish tam hat. 
Our team uniform features Chinese “lucky coin” designs.  Every
member of the team wears a cloth swath of the “Fraser Hunting tartan”
and some of our members will even be wearing kilts!  We are
inclusive and welcome everybody and anybody to our team.

Please consider the Gung Haggis Fat Choy to be the 2005 recipient for
the Hon. David C. Lam Award, for all the continual multicultural
ambassadorship this team has done all around the world.

for articles on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team:see http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/29/1847817.html


Peace and Blessings,

Todd Wong,
Coach and Founder of Gung Haggis Fat Choy

604-987-7124
gunghaggis@yahoo.ca
www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com

Dragon Boat with Community Spirit? We've got it! Gung Haggis! Gung-ho!

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Alcan Dragon Boat Festival

To Whom It May Concern:

Re: Alcan Community Spirit Award

Google the words “Vancouver”, “dragon boat team”, and “community” and the 1st entry is Gung Haggis Fat Choy.  

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is very active in Vancouver’s
community. Our Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner “Gung Haggis Fat
Choy” which our team is named after, is considered one of Vancouver’s
annual cultural highlights.  We share our proceeds with Asian
Canadian Writers’ Workshop and Rice Paper Magazine, helping to promote
Canada’s rich and important Asian Canadian heritage.  This is a
dinner that creates and shares community spirit, and is inclusive for
all who attend.  People walk out of our dinners with big smiles on
their faces, and say “This is so Canadian,” and “I have to tell all my
friends.”

The spin-offs from our cultural fusion dinner have included the CBC
Television performance special also titled “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” as
well as the Simon Fraser University “Gung Haggis Fat Choy Canadian
Games” for which our coaches Todd Wong and Bob Brinson conceived of and
created the world’s first “dragon carts” to simulate a dragon boat race
on land.

Everybody attending Vancouver’s 1st and 2nd St. Patrick’s Day Parade
can tell you how surprised they were to see a dragon boat float rolling
down Granville St. Invited to bring our multicultural energy to the
inaugural parade in 2004, we are now a featured attraction, and were
written about on the front page of the first edition of the Metro –
Vancouver’s first of the new free daily newspapers, as our special
guests Vancouver City Councilor Ellen Woodsworth and CBC radio host
Margaret Gallagher were interviewed.

People walking into the Roundhouse Community Centre in February, saw
dragon boat heads being carved from cedar wood.  Yes, Gung Haggis
Fat Choy was there, carving away, ensuring a community presence and
informing onlookers about the importance of multiculturalism and our
love for dragon boating.  We will also be carving dragon boat
heads and tails at the inaugural SeaVancouver Festival this coming July.

The Gung Haggis Fat Choy team and its members have made contributions
to many dragon boat events and international teams as well.  Our
coaches Todd Wong and Bob Brinson were two of the founding organizers
of the Vancouver International Taiwanese Dragon Boat Race, and worked
in close coordination with the Taiwanese Cultural Festival.  We
participated in the World’s first dragon boat barrel races in Seattle,
with the Tacoma Dragon Boat Association, and helped to develop dragon
boat barrel races as part of  the Vancouver Taiwanese DB races. We
have also worked behind the scenes to not only help supply prizes for
the other teams’ events, but we have contributed coaching many other
local teams as well.

We have many dragon boat friends outside the Vancouver community. 
Over the past few years we have contributed to and formed teams with,
and taken in paddlers for our races from Fraser Valley Dragon Boat
Association, Tacoma Dragon Boat Association, Dieselfish from San
Francisco, Wasabi Paddling Club in Portland, and the Fort Langley Canoe
Club.

And just a two weeks ago, we helped take three boats full of high
school students from North Vancouver and Quebec City on a dragon boat
program in False Creek, and accompanied them to lunch in Chinatown.

Last year, Gung Haggis Fat Choy was the dragon boat team chosen to
demonstrate the spirit of  multiculturalism in the television
documentary series “Thalassa” filmed by France 5, public television, at
the 2004 ADBF.  The Director and producer Anne Gourmand felt this
was important to show not only France, but to francophone communities
all around the world.

What is our community spirit?  We share our love of dragon boating
and multiculturalism openly and freely with not only other dragon
boaters, but also with the community of Vancouver, and Canada. 
But the “Gung Haggis spirit” is about cultural fusion and humour, and
iit is this “spirit” that is spreading not only all across Vancouver to
Simon Fraser University and the CBC, but also all across Canada, and
the world.

Please consider the Gung Haggis Fat Choy team to be the 2005 recipient
for the Alcan Community Spirit Award, for all the sharing and community
activities that this team and its leaders willingly demonstrate for all
communities, all across Canada and the world.

Peace and Blessings,

Todd Wong,
Coach and Founder of Gung Haggis Fat Choy
604-987-7124
gunghaggis@yahoo.ca
www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com

East Meets West themes in literature: Half and Half

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I work in a library…
I am a board member for Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop
I have always been attracted to books with Asian North American themes or by Asian North American authors.

Here is what caught my attention in the past month:

HALF AND HALF
by Lensey Namioka

A children's novel about a young girl growing up in Seattle WA with
both Scottish and Chinese parentage. Her Scottish-Canadian grandparents
travel from Vancouver BC, with their Scottish Highland Dancing troupe
for the Seattle Folklife Festival. Her Chinese grandmother wants her to
be a nice Chinese Girl. Her red-haired brother wants nothing to do with
the kilt that his grandfather has given him – he just wants to do his
martial arts demo at Folk-life. How to walk the line between cultural
identity, family obligations and following your heart's desires.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I think I will invite Lensey Namioka to the next Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.

WHITE TIGRESS
by Jade Lee

A romance paperback set in Shanghai 1897. An English Woman sails to the
Orient to meet her fiance, but is drugged, kidnapped and sold to a
brothel. She is next sold to a Chinese man, who seeks to balance his
overactive Yang, by developing her Yin. A peek into the secret
practices of Chinese Sexual Arts, and the Tao of Love. The dynamic
tension arises from culture clashes, a perception that the other race
is barbaric, and that the secret to Tantic and Taoist love practices is
to not waste the Yang seed.

This is the first time I have ever heard of the secret practices of
Dragon/Tigress practices, or of seeking Imortality by Yin and Yang
blending.

From the author's bio:

Children of mixed races have their
own set of rules. As the daughter of a Shanghai native and a staunch
Indiana Hoosier, Jade Lee struggled to find her own identity somewhere
between America and China. Her search took her to Regency England,
where the formality of culture hid a secret sensuality that fascinated
her. But Devil's Bargain was just the beginning –  that same
search adds a mystical element in her Tigress series. In those books,
Jade delves into the hidden sensuality of the Dragon/Tigress sect in
pre-revolutionary China.


At home, her husband and two
daughters try to ignore her stacks of Zen sexual texts. Instead, they
brag about her award-winning humour pseudonym, Katheine Greyle.

This book was very interesting… Now I have a way to blend my Chinese
“Tao of Love” books with the Scottish Highlander Romance paperbacks…
And I thought Mr. Willougby in Diana Galbadon's “Outlander” series was
the only Chinese character in romance fiction. Silly me.