Here's an article on my friend Sid Tan from the pages of the West Ender newspaper in Vancouver BC.

Thursday, March 10, 2005
Urban Legends

full image Long-time Eastside activist Sid Tan took his grandfather's advice to heart. Sid Tan, on head tax and being a good-time man Who: Sid Tan What: President of the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians Roots: Born in China, Tan came to Canada as a 'paper son' – under falsified papers that showed him to be the son of his grandparents. Tan and his family were affected and separated by exclusionary government policy which was in place as recently as 60 years ago. Today, Tan works as a social activist, fighting for an official apology from the Canadian government, which would include a redress of the $500 'Head Tax' once charged on Chinese immigrants. In brief: “I'm from East Van, formerly out of Saskatchewan. I'm a good-time man. That's why I'm known around the world. I'm a Gold Mountain dragon and a Rocky Mountain warrior. The other day, my friends and I had a contest to see who could eat a live rat the fastest, and I won. I've got steel wires for guts, concrete in my bones and fire in my blood. I've been called a Navajo, I've been called Juan from Mexico, I've been called Carlos the Filipino, but my favourite is still 'Good Time Joe.' I can cook better, eat faster, love longer, yell louder, shout and act dumber than anybody I know, with the exception of my Uncle Bing. There's not a woman alive that can't make a fool out of me, that's how tough I am.” Knowing his roots: “To live is hope. In the great scheme of things, I have two kids, they're both full-grown. My son's a lawyer in Sydney, Australia, and my daughter's a professional poker player. I'm a grandfather. So what are you going to do? I have to try to make a better world. That's hope. I get pensive, but you get to choose, and I choose to participate. I choose to participate because my grandfather didn't have the chance to participate when he was my age, because he was a second-class citizen. It was not until 1947 that he could actually vote as a Chinese-Canadian. He always impressed on me the importance of that.” Go left, young man: “Even as a kid, I was pretty politicized. One of the first battles I fought in and won was Medicare in 1962. I mean, who would have thought we'd ever have that? When I was a kid, somebody threw a rock at me and I was blinded in one of my eyes and I had to go to University Hospital in North Battleford. I seem to recall that it was $1,300 that my grandfather had to pay. I remember I had to write out the cheque for him, and that was a tremendous amount of money, that was all his savings. You never forget that.” Some things never change: “I graduated from the University of Calgary with an arts degree, and that and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee. I was supposed to be a lawyer, but I got busted. I was named after a lawyer, actually, a man called Sidney Waterman… my grandfather, knowing a bunch of important people, and wanting to bring us kids over, knew that this man was responsible for helping make that happen, so he decided to honour him.” Some things never change, part II: “This is my claim to fame in my hometown: I was the first person busted for hash possession…. We were at the University of Calgary, and we had this massive amount of hash and we brought it back to Battleford. Big mistake…. We got busted, and I had to spend a night in jail and think I had to pay a $500 fine, and I think my tuition for school was only $300, so it was a lot. These are things you look back on and, they weren't funny at the time, but you look back and you see that it's kind of funny, and this is the way heaven's meant it to be – just like my grandfather getting his citizenship in 1947 and the Communist Revolution happening in China in 1949. Some things are meant to happen.” Present-day upstanding citizen: “I think in regard to recovering the head tax there's no use negotiating numbers until the government decided to come to the table to negotiate. I've talked to the survivors – and remember, we're talking about a handful of people. There's only three head-taxpayers that I know of in Canada, and I've been working on this 20 years. There's some spouses, women that were separated from their husbands during exclusion from 1923-1947. I believe that they should get some sort of individual recognition and compensation. As for the descendants, the sons and daughters, they can decide what they want, but I think that many of them would be happy with some sort of larger community redress.” Correcting the future: “What we're having trouble with is the recognition. They haven't apologized or anything, they're just throwing money out there and letting us fight for it…. How come the Japanese have received redress? The head tax and exclusion is more current. I don't care about compensation; I'm going after the principle of the tax refund. I believe the 81,000 people who paid the head tax should be commemorated. Because a hundred years from now, their descendants will be claiming, like Americans do with their ancestors who came on the Mayflower: 'My ancestors paid the head tax, and my ancestors got justice.'” Remembering the past: “Both my grandparents are buried in Battleford, Saskatchewan. I don't really have any loyalty or patriotism to the old country. I was born there but I've never been back… I'm a proud Canadian. One of the reasons I do this is because I'm interested in the story. I don't care about the money, I don't care about the compensation. I want to put the story right. That's what I feel I have to do, as a Canadian.” International wisdom: “This is my grandfather's, but I'll put it in a more literary way: when you exercise your muscles, you build your body; when you exercise your brain, you strengthen your mind; and when you exercise your rights, you reveal your soul.” Copyright 2005 westender

Harry Aoki presents First Friday Forum
7:30pm - 9:30pm
Friday, March 04, 2005
Nikkei Heritage Centre  
Kingsway and Sperling,
Burnaby

Harry Aoki & Guests perform a blend of musical, 
cultural and intellectual fusion and forum.  
The theme is in support of Chinese Canadian Redress. 
Update on the campaign by Sid Tan, representative 
of the Chinese Canadian National Council’s campaign 
for Head Tax redress. 

This March 4th show features The Running Dog Lackeys.  
Expect Sean Gunn to perform and sing his song 
“Head Tax Blues” featured in the Karen Cho film 
“In the Shadow of Gold Mountain.

I think this will be especially poignant, as Harry 
himself was interned during WW2 as a Canadian born 
of Japanese heritage, as his family’s home was 
confiscated and they were shipped out of Vancouver.  
Harry loves ethno-fusion music and how cultures share 
and evolve.  He created an album titled Haida Dawn, and 
was a music coordinator for the Edmonton Commonwealth Games.
  
This concert is suitable for all ages.
Admission is free -  Donations are appreciated.

Come see my poetic friends Fiona Tinwei Lam and Kuldip Gill face-off in a poetry slam against other poets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PLAYING HARD*
CBC RADIO ANNOUNCES THE FOURTH ANNUAL NATIONAL POETRY FACE-OFF EVENT IN VANCOUVER
FEBRUARY 21 AT 8 PM AT CAFÉ DEUX SOLEILS

Poetic punches will fly during CBC Radio's fourth annual POETRY FACE-OFF.
This popular Canada-wide competition brings together 65 primed poets in 13 cities stretching from Vancouver to St. John's.

From January to March, five poets in each locale will face off before a
live audience and deliver their words on this year's theme –
“Play”.  The  poets are commissioned by CBC producers to
reflect local voices.  At each poetry event, the spectators vote
for a favourite, and the winner goes on to compete in the national
final on CBC Radio.

Vancouver's finest poets go word-to-word  Monday  February 21
at 8 pm at the Café Deux Soleils, 2096 Commercial Drive.  
Margaret Gallagher of CBC Radio's The Early Edition hosts as
poets  Barbara Adler,  Fiona Tinwei
Lam, Kuldip Gill, C.R. Avery and Ms. Spelt present their work. 
The audience chooses the winner.  Admission is $5 and is part of
the regular Monday night Vancouver poetry slam with slam master Graham
Olds.  The Face-Off will
be broadcast February 26 on CBC Radio One's North by Northwest between
8:30 and 9 am.

April is National Poetry Month, so the final round of this poetic
competition will air April 4 to 7 on CBC Radio One's The
Roundup.   Listeners across the country will have a chance to
hear all of the 13 finalists
and then vote for their favourite performance by calling a
toll-free  telephone number (to be announced) or by logging onto
our website. The grand  champion will be announced on April 14 on
The Roundup.

CBC TV's Artspots will create short films of poems by some of the regional winners.

From its inception four years ago, CBC Radio's POETRY FACE-OFF has been
a cross-country event. This year, face-offs are being held in
Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto,
Montreal,
Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, St. John's and Yellowknife.

Listeners are invited to visit www.cbc.ca/poetryfaceoff for detailed
information about each of the local poetry face-offs. The site will
include interviews with participants as the events unfold.

-30-

For further information, contact:
Joan Athey, CBC Communications
604-662-6605    joan_athey@cbc.ca

Joy Kogawa's Obasan is the perfect nomination choice for One Book One Vancouver 2005 program at VPL

Wayson Choy's “Jade Peony” was the introductory choice for the
inaugural One Book One Vancouver program by the Vancouver Public
Library in 2002.  OBOV was an exciting book club for the entire
city.  Based on similar programs in other cities, library patrons
were all invited to read “Jade Peony” and programs featuring Wayson
Choy and related issues and authors were created such as “Dim Sum with
Wayson Choy”, a film showing of “Unfolding the Butterfuly” – a
documentary about Wayson, readings by noted Chinese-Canadian authors
Paul Yee, SKY Lee and Jim Wong Chu, walking tours in Vancouver's
Chinatown where the book was set.  I was a member of the inaugural
committee that helped develop programming.

For 2005, I have nominated Joy Kogawa's Obasan, because I believe it
is the best choice for a book “All Vancouverites should read.”

Joy
is a novelist born and raised in Vancouver that has recieved the
Order of Canada and had November 7th pronounced “National Joy Kogawa
Day.” And Obasan is widely considered to be one of Canada's most
important and influential works ever created.

I present to you 20 reasons that create a “ready-made” One Book One Vancouver program – that no other possible choice can touch.

1.
“Obasan, a novel that I believe is the most important literary work of
the past 30 years for understanding Canadian history.  – Roy Miki
– SFU University Professor and 2003 Governor General's Award Winner for
Poetry.

2. 11th most influential novel – named by Quill & Quire.

3. Partially set in Vancouver.

4. Vancouver born and raised author.

5. Joy named Order of Canada in 1986.

6.
Obasan is studied in universities and colleges – It is this important
that literary critiques about the book itself are published.

7. “An old jewel” – forgotten by many readers, unknown to many people – definitely a book Vancouverites MUST read!!!

8.
Vancouver Opera is doing a touring production of “Naomi's Road” – her
children's story to debut in September/October – perfect for Word on
the Street cross-over.

9. New edition of Naomi's Road is re-published set for book launch in May 2005.

10. Movement to save the Kogawa Homestead http://kogawa.homestead.com/

11. Book is historically relevant as it helped to launch and support the Japanese redress movement.

12. Timely with growing support of Chinese head-tax redress movement.

13.
Vancouver Opera just did Madama Butterfly and created a whole list of
Japanese Community events and links that VPL could tap into. kind of a
“One Book One Opera” type program.

14. Asian Heritage Month
coincides with One Book One Vancouver launch and Central Library's 10th
Anniversary celebrations.  Ideal cross-over for Joy Kogawa
appearances.

15. Strong Asian-Canadian and Japanese Canadian
community festivals and events already in place to support it eg. Asian
Heritage Month, and Powell Street Festival.

16. Asian Canadian
Writers' Workshop will be doing a Community Builder's dinner to honour
Joy Kogawa (post-poned since November 2004 -possibly reset for May).

17. Lots of Japanese-Canadian authors to support a related author program eg. Roy Miki, Hiromi Goto, Harry Aoki, David Suzuki

18.
Obasan is available in paperback and easily accessible to millions
of readers throughout Vancouver, Canada and the world.

19. Nikkei Heritage Centre and Museum – Vancouver Museum possible tie-ins.

20. Joy will be accessible to Vancouver based programs, as she will be featured by Vancouver Opera and other programs. 

Please consider Joy Kogawa's Obasan for OBOV 2005.
Contact Vancouver Public Library at www.vpl.ca

Send a letter to
Jane White
One Book One Vancouver Committee
Vancouver Public Library
350 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 6B1

The weather was wonderfully sunny and clear to celebrate the Year of
the Rooster in Chinatown.  It was perfect to allow all the
performers to strut their stuff, fluff their feathers, dance their
steps – and the Lion dancers, the Chinese fan dancers, the martial
artists, and the Brazillian dancers all did just that! Fantastic. 
This was the first time in many years that I attended the annual
Chinatown parade – and it was the biggest I had ever seen.  The
parade began at the Millenium Gate and proceeded up Pender St. to Gore
– turning south to Keefer, then proceeding back to Carrall St. where
the performers ended up in the courtyard of the Chinese Cultural Centre.

I saw Brazillian dancers, Martial artists, chinese fan dancers, Lion
Dancers, lots of dragons, the Carnaval Band, the Dragon Boat
Association even put a teak dragon boat on a trailer and decorated
it.  It was led by my friend and dragon boat coaching cohort Bob
Brinson.  Earlier on Saturday he phoned me and asked where he
could buy chinese drums.  Upon my advice, he went to Dragon
Martial Arts on Pender Street and purchased two smaller sized drums to
create a “drum set” for the dragon boat.  Very unique – very
outside the box!  Way to go Bob!

After watching the parade, my girlfriend and I went to Tinsel Town for
some food and to check out what was going on there.  It was the
busiest I had ever seen Tinsel Town.  Lots of booths set up like a
bazzaar.  We ate chinese combination plates, then watched the show
below from the 2nd floor.  It was then that I was approached by a
family that had attended last year's Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner at
Flamingo restaurant, but couldn't attend this year's dinner at
Floata.  They asked questions about this year's dinner, detailing
how much they enjoyed the 2004 dinner.  It is always great to
recieve such enthusiastic feedback about the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
dinners.

Deb and I next wandered past the booths in Tinsel town exploring all
the Chinese New Year specials.  I bought some Karaoke
DVD's…  “Karaoke! exclaimed Deb.  You're going to do
Karaoke?”  “Yes, I smiled – perfect for our dragon boat team
parties and the the Gung Haggis Fat Choy volunteer appreciation party
coming up.”

We wandered up Keefer St. to Main St.  Lion dancers and
firecrackers were still in action, visiting all the stores in
Chinatown, accepting offerings of lettuce and li-see (lucky money red
envelopes).  We went to Bamboo Villiage to purchase a bamboo tea
kettle handle for  her tea pot.  I checked out all the Lion
head masks.  The proprietor's recognized me because I was wearing
the chinese jacket I had purchased from them in Sept 2003.  “We
are the only ones who sell that style,” they proudly exclaimed.

More lions were dancing, and we saw a young lion climb up the door
frame to grab a lettuce and li-see hung from a string from the 3rd
floor office of the Chinese Benevolent Association – one of the key
associations in the development of Chinatown.  Next we stopped in
at Chinese Zodiac Souvenirs – operated by my friend Martin – born and
raised in Xian – the ancient capital of China.  “Business is very
good today – Very busy” smiled Martin.  He is a gracious man –
well spoken in his quiet english.  Further down the street, the
Lion Dancers were recieving the offerings at Jack Chow insurance,
housed in the skinniest building in the world, at the corner of Pender
and Carrall St.  Jack was dressed in a red Chinese jacket, taking
pictures from inside his building – that is only about 4 feet wide.
Very exciting – I took a picture.

Pictures will be developed soon, and posted…