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Seattle's Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner will feature Lion Dance, Asian Youth Orchestra and Northwest Junior Pipe Band

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This year's Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner has sold out at over 300 people!
Bagpiper Joe McDonald and myself are going down to give the Seattle folks our double powered duet version of “The Haggis Rap.”  Apparently everybody loved the rap version of Robbie Burns' immortal poem “Address to a Haggis” that they were asking the organizers if I was going to be back.  Well, I am. And it's going to be even more powerful this year, especially since Joe and I performed it on Robbie Burns Day for CBC Newsworld on national television.

image

From the 2007 Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner:  Toddish McWong meets
Seattle “Gung Haggis” couple Rory Denovan and Becca Fong.  Rory is
Scottish-American and Becca is Chinese-American… and they are a
lovely couple! – photo courtesy of Becca Fong.

Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy II
SOLD OUT

Ocean City Restaurant Noodle Cafe

609 S. Weller St.

Seattle, WA 98104

Maps & directions

Sunday, February 24: 5-9 p.m.

The Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner is organized by Bill McFadden of the The Caledonian & St. Andrew's Society of Seattle.  Bill has now attended 2 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners in Vancouver.  He completely loves it.  This year we introduced him to the Vancouver crowd and they gave him a big ovation.  Read my article about last year's Seattle Gung Haggis dinner here: http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2007/2/25/2764365.html
 
The Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner is a fundraiser for the Seattle area Northwest Junior Pipe band who are raising funds in a bid to attend the World Championships in 2008.  Read about their experience at last year's Gung Haggis Fat Choy Seattle dinner on the
NWJPBlog…

It's going to be a crazy night with both the Northwest Junior Pipe Band performing AND the Washington Chinese Youth Orchestra.  Last year featured a young Chinese girl with her brother performing on their traditional Chinese instruments.  This year they are bringing the whole orchestra with them.

Lensey Namioka is a Seattle author, whose book I discovered at the Vancouver Public Library.  Half and Half is about a girl growing up with Scottish-Canadian grandparents in Vancouver, and a Chinese-American grandmother in Seattle.  Yup – this girl is Chinese-Scottish-Canadian-American, and she's going through an identity crisis.  I invited Lensey to the Vancouver Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in 2006, and in 2007 she was our featured author.

Half and Half

Featuring:


from Vancouver – Todd Wong & Joe McDonald

From Seattle


Red McWilliams, “America's Celt”

Master David Leong's Martial Arts & Lion
Dance School

Northwest Junior Pipe Band

Washington Chinese Youth Orchestra

Susan Burk

Don Scobie

Ben Rudd

Lensey Namioka

Melody Dance Group


Author Sharon Butala reads at Joy Kogawa House Friday Feb 22, and hosts writing workshop

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Sharon Butala is helping the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society with our goal to establish a writers in residence programs at the former childhood home of author Joy Kogawa. 

Tonight, Sharon Butala gives a 7:30pm reading at 1450 West 64th Ave.
On Saturday and Sunday, she conducts a writing workshop workshop about memoir writing.

This is the house that the then 6 year old Joy and her family left
behind their wonderful home in 1942, when they were sent to internment
camps because they were Japanese-Canadian.

A writing workshop and public reading with Sharon Butala

Writing the Memoir

Location: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver

Date:
Reading on Friday, February 22, 7:30 to 9 p.m.; writing workshop on
Saturday, February 23, and Sunday, February 24, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Cost: To be determined. Space is limited. To secure a seat, please register by emailing ametten at telus dot net.

Many
writers have demonstrated that even the most glamorous lives–of
celebrities, war heroes, or politicians–can make for dull reading. Yet
the most ordinary lives can make thrilling reading. How does the
storyteller capture the essence of the story and develop a reader's
interest? What are memoirs really about, and why write them? Through
discussion, question and answer, exercises, and examining successful
memoirs, this workshop will endeavour to answer such questions, as well
as to show how memoirs might be structured, and how a writer decides
what to put in and what to leave out. Memoirs are therapy for both
writer and reader, but they are also good stories: at their best, they
are art.

Sharon Butala is an award-winning author of both fiction
and non-fiction. Her memoir, The Perfection of the Morning, was a
Canadian bestseller and a finalist for the Governor General's Award. Ms
Butala has been called one of Canada's true visionaries. In 2002 she
was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Her newest work, The
Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Memory and Murder (HarperCollins
Canada), will be in bookstores in March.

Watch this website over the next few days for more information

Indo-Canadian fusion with Highland Dancing, Jazz music and Bhangra

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Tarun Nayar of Beats Without Borders occasionally sends me announcements of upcoming events and concerts.  Last night he and the group Delhi 2 Dublin performed at the CBC studios.  We met at the first Delhi 2 Dublin concert – back in March 2006 – see my review:
St. Paddy's Eve in Vancouver – What is a man in a kilt to do? –

Looks like a nice line up of South Asian music with some cross-cultural fusion.  Especially the Transfusion dance show where “Flamenco blurs into Kathak, and
Bhangra is intertwined with Celtic.”

I have seen Kiran Ahluwalia both performing traditional ghazal songs as well as her performance in the jazz opera Quebecite – written by Chinese-Afro-Canadian D.D. Jackson with lyrics by Afro-MicMac-Canadian George Eliot Clarke.

Kiran Ahluwalia
Saturday Feb 23, 8pm
Christ Church Cathedral (690 Burrard St)
Tickets: 604.872.5200 or http://www.ticketmaster.ca
 
Kiran
is great! Check her out if you can… From the organizers:  “Ahluwalia
sings original ghazals and Punjabi folk songs, backed by her five piece
ensemble; featuring tabla, harmonium, guitar, and bass. She is a multi
award- winning artist, known for her lush compositions, stellar voice
and captivating live performances.  Her most recent album, Wanderlust
(Times Square/Fusion3) is a strikingly beautiful work just nominated
for World Music Album of the Year at the 2008 Juno Awards.”

———————————————————————————————
Rez Abbasi's Bazaar

Sunday, Feb 24. 4:30pm
Performance Works (Granville Island)
FREE
From
the organizers: “This all-star band will delight fans of Shakti, Trilok
Gurtu, and other world-jazz fusion masters. New York-based guitarist
Rez Abbasi whose organic mix of jazz with elements of Indian classical
music creates a singular and distinctive sound leads the group. With
Juno Award winning vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia, Hammond B-3 organ player
Sam Barsh, and drummer Dan Weiss in tow this stimulating cultural
crossover is rhythmically captivating and utterly mesmerizing.”
———————————————————————————————
Transfusion
indian dance inter-relationships

Friday Feb 29 and Sat March 1, 8pm
Vancouver International Film Centre (1181 Seymour Street)
Tix 18$ from ticketmaster or at 604.280.4444

Co-presented
by the VIBC Society and the Cultural Olympiad, this unique event blends
contemporary and traditional folk dance styles spanning the
subcontinent of India and reaching as far West as the Latin world and
the Highlands of Scotland. Watch as Flamenco blurs into Kathak, and
Bhangra is intertwined with Celtic in this presentation of folk dances
from around the world. Bharatnatyam, Odissi, Afro-contemporary,
Chinese, Balinese, Flamenco, Kathak, Bhangra, Breakdance, Celtic – all
re-interpreted with a heavy dose of multimedia. With dancers Sitara
Thobani, Chengxin Wei, Stu Iguidez, Raakhi Sinha, and many many more.
This is gonna be hot!!!!

———————————————————————————————
Bhangra Love
the City of Bhangra dance party

Thursday March 6, 9pm
The Red Room (398 Richards)
Tix 10$ @ the door

The
BWB crew's biggest annual party, and the kick off to the VIBC festival.
Killer acts including DJ Sandeep Kumar from LA, live bhangra from the
city's hottest bhangra band, En Karma, and a special dance performance
pitting bhangra dancers vs street dancers. More fun times at the red
room! This party will sell out, so come nice and early…

———————————————————————————————
City of Bhangra

For more info about this awesome stretch of events check http://www.vibc.org/cityofbhangra

Gung Haggis dragon boat team team hits the water with a Global TV cameraman filming them to celebrate BC's cultural diversity

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We had a great practice in the sunshine today with a full 22 paddler boat and a Global TV camerman!

It was the first practice of the year, and all paddlers were enthusiastic veterans who braved the chilly February sunshine.  We were even filmed by a Global TV camerman.  Maybe it's like a dragon boat version of ground hog day…. if we can see our shadow we will have have great season of fun and medals.

It's the earliest time we've ever been out on the water.  Last year we started on the first Sunday in March with only 8 paddlers in the rain who went out in Marathon canoes.  This year it was 24 team members. 

Even the media attention has come early.  Last April, a the ADBF sprint regatta, it was a ZDF German Public television crew filming us for a travelogue documentary titled Toronto to Vancouver.  We are featured near the end of the show.  Check out:
http://wstreaming.zdf.de/zdf/veryhigh/071219_toronto_vancouver.asx
go to 54 minute mark of the 58 minute documentary to find the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.

Attending our first practice were:
returning Gung Haggis paddlers Wendy, Tzhe, Keng & Gerard, Georgia,
Julie, Ashleigh, Steven Wong & Jane, Stephen Mirowski, Joe, Emma,
Leanne, Daming, and myself…  + Lena who joined us in Oct + Raphael,
Adam & Nicole from the UA team (who had joined us for Lotus and Ft.
Langley Races) + 5 paddlers from CC Dragons Don & Paulette, Gail,
Marg, and Debbie = 24 people on the water – Wow!

We were enthusiastically enjoying the sunshine, and happy to be out paddling, stretching our muscles!

We are grateful to the CC Dragons paddlers
who are joining us, and bringing lots of experience from years of
competitive, and Rec A/B racing.  Thank you to the Gung Haggis paddlers
for making them feel welcome.  We will be inclusive, sharing
leadership, wisdom, experience, enthusiasm and lots of fun, food and
drink.

The Global TV cameraman came out
to shoot some shots of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team and to
interview Todd for a story about “The Best of BC”.  Cultural diversity
is the topic, and Todd and the Gung Haggis dragon boat team will
represent it to Global TV veiwers for the story celebrating BC's 150th
Anniversary.

From Global TV producer/reporter Elaine Yong:

We
did a poll asking people what they thought were the things that made BC
a world-class place, and people/culture/diversity was one of the top 10
responses.  To illustrate some of BC's amazing culture and diversity, I
thought you would be a great person to profile.  But of course, we need
some viz of you doing something, and since we missed the dinner, the
dragon boating would be great, as well as another example of cultural
diversity.  The story is scheduled to air Feb 26 or 27,

Today was a great start
to a new Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat season.  We plan to have two
teams where new paddlers can learn from veteran paddlers, and our best
paddlers can race to their potential. 

Please remember to dress warmly,
with polypropelene underwear that will wick moisture away, windbreakers
to cut the wind chill, and bring water – as we still loose moisture
through our breath.  It's important to stay warm and hydrated – even
more so, as we are just getting started again in cold weather and many
of us have not been exercising for awhile.

Two teams for 2008 will be GREAT!
Two boats can race together on Sunday afternoon practices
Tuesday
and Wednesday 6pm practices will evolve as either advanced paddler or
technique/beginner practices… or dependent upon which night people
can attend. 

We are building flexibility into our practice schedule.
People could also paddle on one day, and help coach or steer on another day or more.

If new people would like to join they can contact me at:
gunghaggis at yahoo dot ca

or phone Todd Wong
h: 604-987-7124
c: 778-846-7090

Up the Yangtze movie showing at the Ridge – director Yung Chang in attendance

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This is the film getting lots of rave reviews for it's documentation of the building of the 
Three Gorges Dam, and deplacement of tens of thousands of people.



Click here for the official website

I almost had a chance to dragon boat down the river in 2002, as several teams were taking 
part in a 35 km rally.

If you have ever travelled in the American Southwest, and seen the man-made Hoover Dam 
and the man made Lake Mead which devasted the Glen Canyon, and countless Anasazi 
archeological sites, you might start to have an idea of what the 3 Gorges Dam project has 
caused... but on a much more massive scale.  

Now add that Canada's Export Development Corporation has funded millions of dollars 
to this devastation and wonder if the human displacement and loss of land and archeological
sites was worth it... 

Up the Yangtze
Ridge Theatre

Showtimes for the week of Feb 15 to 21

              Daily at: 
              2:30, 7:00, 9:00 
              no 2:30 show Wed Feb 20

              Director Yung Chang 
              will be at the following screenings to 
              answer questions from the audience.

              Friday Feb 15, 7:00 & 9:00
              Saturday Feb 16, 2:30 - 7:00 & 9:00
              Sunday Feb 17, 2:30 - 7:00 & 9:00


http://www.festivalcinemas.ca/movies/up-the-yangtze.htm 

- please go see
http://www.uptheyangtze.com/
http://www.givemeaning.com/project/yufam

Eric on the Road podcast with Gung Haggis Fat Choy – hitting US pod cast waves

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Back in January, Todd Wong was interviewed by Eric Model for “Conversations on the Road.”  Model describes his  show as “journeys into the offbeat, off the beaten path, overlooked and the forgotten.”

“And today most appropriately takes us into the category of offbeat.  And today's journey we go to Vancouver and we are discussing and event called 'Gung Haggis Fat Choy.'”

It's a very interesting 21 minute and 38 second pod cast with a stimulating conversation about the origins of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, early Chinese and Scottish pioneers in the late 1800's, racism, cultural traditions, inter-racial marriage, and the Canadian explorer Simon Fraser who was actually born in Vermont.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Gung Haggis Fat Choy – A Unique Scottish-Chinese Cultural Celebration

Posted by: emodel // Category: Uncategorized // 8:15 am

Gung
Haggis Fat Choy is a cultural event originating from Vancouver, BC. The
name Gung Haggis Fat Choy is a combination wordplay on Scottish and
Chinese words: haggis is a traditional Scottish food and Gung Hay Fat
Choy/Kung Hei Fat Choi s a traditional Cantonese greeting (in Mandarin
it is pronounced Gong Xi Fa Cai) used during Chinese New Year. The
event originated to mark the timely coincidence of the Scottish
cultural celebration of Robert Burns Day (January 25) with the Chinese
New Year, but has come to represent a celebration of combining cultures
in untraditional ways.

In Vancouver, the event is characterized by music, poetry, and other
performances around the city, culminating in a large banquet and party.
This unique event has also inspired both a television performance
special titled Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
Canadian Games, organized by the Recreation Department at Simon Fraser
University.

In this conversation, we speak with event founder and spearhead Todd
Wong. He tells us how it got started, and what it has come to represent
around Vancouver and far beyond. 

icon for podpress  Gung Haggis Fat Choy [21:38m]:  Download

Gung Haggis Fat Choy goes Seattle…. “one of the strangest things borrowed from north of the border”

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North Seattle Herald-Outlook has written a story about the upcoming 2nd coming of Toddish McWong to Seattle.  Last year we staged a Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner on Chinese New Year Day in Seattle.  It was a benefit for the Pacific North West Junior Pipe Band. 

Check out my blog report from Gung Haggis Seattle 2007

Gung Haggis Fat Choy!
Feb. 24 event to mark Chinese New Year, Scottish Burns Night

 By Elizabeth Mortenson

01/31/2008

■ Joe MacDonald celebrates multiculturalism by donning a Chinese lion-head mask and Scottish kilt for Gung Haggis Fat Choy. photo/Jaime Griffiths
¡ Joe MacDonald celebrates multiculturalism by donning a Chinese lion-head mask and Scottish kilt for Gung Haggis Fat
Choy. photo/Jaime Griffiths

America
has imported its fair share of entertaining goods from Canada,
including, but not limited to Celine Dion, hockey and Crown Royal
whisky.

However, it's possible the strangest thing borrowed
from our neighbors lately is Gung Haggis Fat Choy, the Scottish/Chinese
celebration being put on by The Caledonian & St. Andrew's Society
of Seattle on Feb. 24.

And if you're thinking to yourself, 'That sounds like a bizarre combination,' you're not alone.

“It's
weird – it's totally weird,” said creator Todd Wong. Started by Wong as
a dinner between friends to celebrate the Chinese New Year and the
Scots' Burns Night, the event is now a 400-seat extravaganza in
Vancouver, B.C., entering its 10th year.

After a decade and repeated exposure to this odd idea through the media, this cross-cultural
experiment has gained some acceptance.

A CROSS-CULTURAL CELEBRATION

In
1998, Wong, a Chinese Canadian, was planning a celebratory dinner for
the Chinese New Year. Burns Night happened to fall only two days away
from the new year, so he merged them. With this unusual but interesting
choice, he became “Toddish McWong.”

Burns Night is a
traditional holiday in Scotland held to honor the poet and national
icon Robert Burns, the man who wrote the ubiquitous-on-New-Year's-Eve
“Auld Lang Syne.” Celebrated every Jan. 25, the night assumed to be his
birthday, Scots hold suppers where people eat, honor his life and read
poetry.

The festivals are held around the world, but the haggis-dim sum derivation is McWong's particular hybrid.

Everything
from the food to the dress is an intermixing of the two cultures – even
the name of the festival. During the Chinese New Year people often say
“Gung Hei Fat Choy” to each other, which translates roughly from
Cantonese (a Chinese dialect) into English as “Congratulations and be
prosperous.

“Haggis
is the national dish of Scotland and a perennial favorite at Burns
Suppers. “It's like a giant hot dog. It's sheep stomach filled with
chopped-up liver, kidneys, spices, oatmeal, and then you boil it,”
described Diana Smith, entertainment director for the St. Andrew's
Society. She added that it was like a “meat pudding” – probably one of
the nicer things it's been called.

So “Hei” was replaced with “Haggis,” and Gung Haggis Fat Choy came into being.

“I think the Scottish people come to eat the Chinese food, and the Chinese people come for the bagpipes,” Wong said.

SPREADING THE WORD

The
idea of holding a Gung Haggis Fat Choy event in Seattle was Bill
McFadden's, president of the local Caledonian Society in 2007.

According to Smith, their Seattle celebration last year had few Chinese people in attendance. Wong estimates there were four
Scots to each Chinese person in attendance in Vancouver.

This
disparity could be due to the fact that these events are sponsored by
Caledonian Societies, whose purpose is to promote Scottish awareness,
are subsequently predominately Scottish in membership. However, all are
welcome and invited to attend.

“This year we're trying to get
the word out; I've contacted the Asian publications, so we're hoping to
have more of the Chinese element…. We'll see what happens,” Smith
said.

At this year's celebration in Seattle, the Washington
Chinese Youth Orchestra and Northwest Junior Pipe Band will perform for
the anticipated 200 to 250 guests (150 people attended last year's
event). Wong, himself, will be there to emcee the event. “It's gonna be
a blast,” he said.

GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY
Sunday, Feb. 24, 5-9 p.m.
Ocean City Restaurant
609 S. Weller St., Chinatown
Tickets $35
Diana Smith, 523-2618

Tailor Made: CBC TV documentary highlights Modernize Tailors' 80 year history in Vancouver Chinatown

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TAILOR MADE: Chinatown's Last Tailors
CBC Newsworld
Tuesday February 12th
7pm/10pm   EST & PST

Modernize Tailors began in 1913 when their father opened the store.  Brothers Bill and Jack took it over in 1953.  It's now 2007, and Bill's younger brother Milton wants to help brothers Bill and Jack retire gracefully by turning the tailor shop into a “living museum” and “hobby shop,” and move into the restored building and original site of their father's tailorshop. But will they pass the historic tailor shop on to an fashion journalist apprentice or the hot shot tailor at Holt Renfrew?

This is the story behind Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors, directed by Len Lee and Marsha Newbery, and produced by Marsha Newbery

This was a wonderful documentary that was more concerned with the present day human story of finding a successor for Modernize Tailors, rather than retelling the history of Chinatown and how the Wong Brothers Bill and Jack turned to their father's tailor shop after they were told there would be no jobs for them because they were Chinese, even though they had just graduated with UBC engineering degrees in 1946.  In following the two different successor storylines, the viewer learns an appreciation for what Bill and Jack Wong created with Modernize Tailors, and why it has a special place not only in Chinatown history, but also Vancouver history.  We learn that it once was Vancouver's busiest and largest tailor shop, employing up to 20 people and operating 7 days a week.

You really got to know a sense of Bill Wong, tailor.  He is such as nice down to earth person.  He genuinely was interested in apprentice JJ Lee, and the hot shot tailor David.  But now Bill is 85 years old.  There are other concerns in his life such as his wife and garden. It is shared that wife Zoe is in the beginning stages of Alzheimers disease, and there is a touching scene of them walking hand in hand in Queen Elizabeth Park near their home.  And then there are the many children and grandchildren that we are never introduced to.

There are even some celebrity appearances!  Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan comes into the shop to visit and says that he wants to be able to brag that he has a Modernize Tailors suit.  There is a picture of Sean Connery who was a customer, as well as a thank you note from Gordon Lightfoot.  At one time, Modernize Tailors was “the tailor shop” to go to in Vancouver – especially when the zoot suits were in fashion!  Nowadays they just make zoot suits for the theatre and film companies.

But the best celebrity appearance is their baby brother Milton Wong.  Bill shares that Milton was named to the Order of Canada and chancellor at Simon Fraser University.  The narrator says that Milton is a well-known investor and philanthropist who has bought the historic Chinese Freemasons building and restored it as a senior's residence.  It was also the early site of Modernize Tailors from for fifty years from 1936 to 1976.  Milton has created a smaller storefront for Modernize Tailors to “retire” into, as a kind of living museum and hobby shop, because elder brothers Bill and Jack aren't ready to quit tailoring yet.

Tailor Made was filmed over a 1 1/2 year period from 2006 to 2007.  Bill
Wong's son Steven is on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team so we
heard about some of the story ideas and filming events, such as “the
move.”  From time to time I pop into Modernize Tailors, so I also
bumped into the film makers and Wong family members.  At one point the
film crew was asking about having the 85 year old Bill Wong paddle on
our dragon boat team, because he had done so as part of “The Wong Way”
family dragonboat team in 2004 and 2005.

Bill Wong attended this year's Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, and his son Steven is a paddler on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  It's nice to get to know Bill over the past few years, as our family's have many connections.

It was nice to see my uncle Laddie in the show, since he is one of the tailors employed by Bill and Jack.  And I saw my Auntie Verna, when there was a food celebration with the Wong families in the store.

My cousin Joe Wai made a brief appearance as “the architect” of the restored heritage building, that Bill Wong's younger brother Milton has bought to house the “living museum” of the working tailor shop.

Over the past 3 years there have been 4 documentaries about Vancouver Chinatown families and individuals: Mary Lee Chan: Taking On City Hall, I Am the Canadian Delegate (the Douglas Jung Story), Generations: The Chan Legacy and now Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors.  I am proud to know descendants from each of the families documented, and especially that there are descendants from each family paddling on our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team!

Bill Wong & Wong Family 2005 Carving dragon headphoto Todd Wong

Here's a picture of tailor-turned-woodcarver Bill Wong working on a dragon boat head with the youngest generation of Wongs.  Both the Wong Way and Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat teams took part in an experimental workshop to carve wooden dragon boat heads in the spring of 2005.

“The Quickie” is very Vancouver play about diversity and expectations in relationships

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We saw Grace Chin's new play “The Quickie” on Friday night.  Two words quickly came to mind – “Very Vancouver.”
Two people drag their friends to a Speed Dating event, meet new people, have a follow-up date, then let the sparks and fur fly when they ask their friends to tag along on a double date.

It is a witty comedy play that had the audience talking about it during the intermission, and even making the “awwww” sound when one of the characters was rejected. 

Playwright Grace has captured the diversity of even the Vancouver's Asian population, incorporating Maylaysian Chinese, Korean, South Asian and Cantonese Chinese origins, as well as Irish-Italian, and Hong Kong origins.  Accents blend into the action, and you don't notice them as none of the four lead performers speak with accents.

Inter-ethnic dating is a topic discussion.  Do we or don't we?  It was funny, because my girlfriend and I were sitting with friends, and we were both inter-ethnic couples.  So very Vancouver, in Canada's capital of inter-ethnic relationships.

Check out http://www.scriptingaloud.ca/quickie/

More later….

Georgia Straight pokes fun at “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” becoming a icon of cultural diversity

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Gung Haggis Word Play

After 10 years of walking around in a kilt, saying that Gung Haggis Fat Choy speaks to the post-multicultural intersection of Scottish-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian pioneer history in BC, people are bound to take a few fun pokes.  After the initial “shock”, “Wow – that's cool”, and “Are you for real?” – people settle down and look at how the simple transformation of words and phrases, can transform how we think about objects, traditions, society and even our selves.

There was one mandarin speaker who approached our wood carving tent at
the 2005 SeaVancouver tent, where members of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dragon boat team were carving a wooden dragon boat head, as part of a
demonstration.  He insisted that we should be selling haggis, because
he thought that our banner “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” was a
food stand.

Some Chinese mandarin speakers dont' quite get the play on the words, because the cantonese Gung Hay Fat Choy / Kung Hei Fat Choi phrase in Mandarin is Gong Xi Fa Cai.  I once had a heck of a time, trying to explain that to somebody who was writing the Wikipedia entry.  Haggis probably untranslatable in any language.   It just goes to show that words, their arrangments and their meanings, can all have a diversity to whomever writes or reads them.

Craig Takeuchi knows all about the racial stereotypes Canadian born Asians have faced growing up in Canada, He is 4th generation Canadian of Japanese descent and has written an interesting story below, playing on the word playing of Gung HAGGIS FAt Choy.

February 7, 2008

How to make Chinese New Year more diversity sensitive

By Craig Takeuchi

Since
we pride ourselves on diversity sensitivity in Vancouver with our
multicultural composition and acceptance of various minority,
lifestyle, and social groups, Chinese New Year should be no exception.

A good example is Gung Haggis Fat Choy,
which caters to the Scottish, Chinese, and
Scottish-Chinese-Canadians-who-like-to-wear-kilts-in-the-freezing-winter
communities.

To make the occasion more inclusive, here are a few
suggestions of appropriate celebratory expressions for people of
different social groups.

vegetarians: Gung Hay Bok Choy

dieters: Gung Hay Skinny Choy

health food eaters: Gung Hay Flax Chow

overeaters: Gung Ho Fat Boy

crazy cat ladies: Gung Ho Cat Choy

rednecks: Dung Hay Farm Choy

cheeky gay men: Hung Gay Fag Choy

Guidos: Go Away Fat Chance 

Irritable Bowel Syndrome patients: Gung Hay Fart Choy

people with rotting body parts: Gangrene Hay Fat Choy

movie buffs: Chow Yun Fat Choy

drunken male university students: Gung Hey Frat Boy

hip-hoppers: Gang Hay Phat Choy

untalented entertainers: Gong Show Fat Choy