Category Archives: Multicultural events

Interviews, Kogawa House, Gung Haggis Fat Choy taste testing, Bryan Adams

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Wednesday prior to Gung Haggis Fat Choy

Busy busy days leading up to Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner event
now.  CBC Radio Freestyle called in the morning to find out more
about the dinner and to set up an interview for Friday morning to be
broadcast on Friday afternoon, January 20th.

The Courier newspaper phoned me, asking me questions about the status
of Kogawa House, and how the fund raising was going.  Still slow
on the major fronts, but The Land Conservancy is setting up some
displays in major book stores throughout Vancouver.  The Gung
Haggis Fat Choy dinner is donating partial proceeds to Kogawa House,
because “it is so dear to my heart,” and I have now set up Joy Kogawa
to be keynote speaker at the “Order of Canada/Maple Leaf” luncheon for
the Canadian Club.

I attended a meeting with new Vancouver City Councilor Kim Capri,
regarding status of Kogawa House.  She gave us some great contacts
and idea, as well as a donation.  While at City Hall, Ann-Marie
Metten and I bumped into Councillors Raymond Louie and David Cadman,
who had both voted to support Kogawa House back on Nov. 3. 
Raymond is coming to the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, so we gave him
his tickets, as well as dropping off tickets for Councillor Elizabeth
Ball, Suzanne Anton, BC Lee, Heather Deal, George Chow and Mayor Sam
Sullivan.

Chuck Lew, the organizer of the Chinatown Lions Club, phoned me back to
tell me that their annual “Haggis Night dinner” is on Thursday January
26th.  It's at the Floata I think.

We had taste-testing at the Floata Restaurant for the Gung Haggis Fat
Choy dinner tonight.  Attending was Roland Tanglao of
www.vaneats.com, chef Stephen Wong, dragon boat team members Dave
Samis, Daming and Deb Martin.  CBC radio reporter Margaret
Gallagher also dropped in to pick up some haggis won ton to use in an
on-air segment of “What's going on” and to give away 2 tickets for Gung
Haggis Fat Choy on 690 to Go!  More on our taste testing
tomorrow.

While at the Floata Restaurant, Mayor Sam Sullivan phoned me to check
on his part in the dinner.  Sam loves Chinese culture, and he
informs me that he has selected a short Tang dynasty poem to read in
Cantonese.  We have a short chat about how when he was in Grade 9
at Vancouver Technical Highschool, I was there in grade 8.  I tell
him we have a table of '77 and '78 Van Tech grades attending.  Sam
also gives me the lowdown on what is required to get him and his
wheelchair onstage at the Floata Restaurant.  We will need a
ramp.  Vancouver Mayors get invited many times a month to attend
events at Floata, especially as Chinese New Year approaches.  We
need a ramp.

Then we headed over to the Vancouver Public library, for a reading by Janice Wong, author of Chow from China to Canada: Tales of Food and Family.  Janice does a great presentation using a lap top
computer to do a slide show of family pictures, describing family
history and her father's restaurants in Prince Albert, SK.
Chef /food columnist Stephen Wong, Historian Larry Wong and myself join
Janice for a panel discussion about food, Chinatown restaurants,
Chinese Canadian history, and family.  I tell the story about how
I invented haggis won ton for a CBC Radio reception welcoming Shelagh
Rogers and Sounds Like Canada to Vancouver.  Stephen talks about
the origins of Chinese dumplings.  Larry talks about apple tarts
from the old Chinese restaurants.  Roland Tanglao of www.vaneats.com  posted Stephen Wong's Chinese restaurant picks

Then at 9pm, I am off to the Bryan Adams
concert.  Great concert.  Almost everybody is singing along
to every song.  The energy is high.  There is an octogenarian
couple sitting on the aisle seats on our row.  They are mouthing
the words to “Cuts Like a Knife” – hmmm I wonder if they are Bryan's
parents or relatives.  Adams finishes his first encore, then comes
back for a second encore with only an accoustic guitar.  He plays
about 5 songs unplugged.  What a great way to conclude a
concert.  Everybody is singing along to Heaven, Best of Me. All
for One, Room Service, Straight From the Heart.

CHOW + Wong X 4 = Chef Stephen wong joins panel discussion on CHOW at VPL

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CHOW + Wong X 4 = Chef Stephen wong joins panel discussion on CHOW at VPL

Wong,
Wong, Wong and Wong: Not a secret Hong Kong Triad but a Vancouver food
and history Quartet (we sound very dangerous, don't you think?)

Chef
Stephen Wong has now been added to the panel discussion on Chinese
food, life and restaurants for Janice Wong's presentation of CHOW From
China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family.

7:30pm
January 18th, 2006
Vancouver Public Library
Alice Mackay Room
Free
Janice
will make a slide show presentation about her 4 generation family
history, and her father's restaurant in Saskatchewan.  I am
Janice's 2nd cousin – once removed, so I am 5th generation.  Maybe
I will bring the Rev. Chan Legacy photo display, so we can see the 6th
and 7th generations too!

Janice
found an image of a very secretive, dangerous Bela Lugosi…(love the
cauldron and the extremely long chopsticks).  This is a
publicity poster from one of Great-Uncle Luke's films that Janice is
including in her presentation so she can read the little bit about the
preacher's son who made his way to Hollywood acting in films such as
The Good Earth, and starring in “The Mysterious Mr. Wong.”


Stephen Wong
is a Hong Kong-born chef, restaurant consultant, writer and food
ambassador. He contributes to the Vancouver Sun as well as national and
international food periodicals and books. Since 1978 Stephen's
groundbreaking ideas and creative influence have enhanced the
reputations of many B.C. restaurants. He is in demand as a guest chef
in the U.S., Japan, China and across Canada.


Larry Wong is the president of
the Chinese Canadian Historical Society, and the executive director of
the Chinese Canadian Military Museum.  He is also a childhood
friend of author Wayson Choy, and Larry was on the inaugural One Book
One Vancouver committee. Larry was born in Vancouver's Chinatown where
he spent his first 25 years. He is a retired federal civil servant and
has always had a keen interest in Chinese Canadian history. He has been
published in the Vancouver Sun, The Beaver magazine, the British
Columbia History magazine and is presently working on a series of
stories about growing up in Chinatown.


Todd Wong is perhaps best known
as the media mogul behind Gung Haggis Fat Choy. The yearly CNY/Robbie
Burns Day dinner is Todd's creation.  Todd loves Chinese Canadian
history and culture, and when he was invited to present a welcome gift
to Shelagh Rogers and the Sounds Like Canada CBC Radio program crew….
Todd invented haggis won ton!

Janice Wong is an award winning
Vancouver visual artist.Her most recent exhibition was held in Split,
Croatia in September, 2005.  Her long fascination with her rich
multigenerational Canadian family history inspired her to write
CHOW.  Since its publication, Janice has been a much in demand
author for local and national radio and tv media including CBC's Sounds
Like Canada, North by Northwest and Pacific Palate, City TV's City
Cooks, Toronto's Breakfast TV, Shaw Studio 4, and print media including
The Richmond Review, The Georgia Strait, New Brunswick Reader, Rice
Paper Magazine

Roy Miki: “Dead Reckoning” Talk and reading at Centre A

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Roy
Miki

Dead
Reckoning
Talk
and Reading

Sat.
Jan. 21- 8 pm
@
Centre
A
2
West Hastings

image
Roy
Miki,
has been a key figure in the articulation of race and identity politics
of the past three decades in Canada and
beyond. His activist work has taken many forms, beginning with the
Japanese Canadian Redress movement of the 1980s, documented in Justice
in Our Time (co-authored with Cassandra Kobayashi, Talonbooks 1991) and
Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice (Raincoast 2004).
He was also the founding editor of two majorVancouver
literary journals, Line (1983-89) and its successor West Coast Line; and
Chair of the organizing committee for the highly influential Writing
Thru Race conference held in Vancouverin
1994. He has published three poetry collections: Saving Face (Turnstone
1991), Random Access File (Red Deer College Press 1995) and Surrender
(Mercury Press 2001), which won the Governor General's Award. His
critical essays have been collected in Broken Entries: Race,
Subjectivity Writing and he has edited numerous books, including Pacific
Windows: Collected Poems of Roy K. Kiyooka (Talonbooks 1997), which won
the 1997 Poetry Award from the Association of Asian American Studies,
and more recently, Meanwhile: The Critical Writings of bpNichol
(Talonbooks 2002).

Review: Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night – Jan 16

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Review: Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night

Once
a year, the World Poetry Reading Series at the Vancouver Public Library
colludes and collides with the alignment of Chinese New Year and Robbie
Burns Day, and is marked by the appearance of Toddish McWong.  This
intersection is called Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night.

Ariadne
Sawyer and Alejandro Olea-Mujica are great friends to work with, as we
built a program to entertain our audience as well as inform them about
Chinese and Scottish traditions while serving up new Canadian writers,
proud of their Scottish and Chinese ancestral roots.  Following an
introduction by Vancouver Public Library Community Programs Librarian
Barbara Edwards, piper Joe McDonald led a parade of the performers into
the Alice Mackay Room, around the back, up the side and across the
front.  The original tune was appropriately titled “Gung Haggis Fat
Choy.”

Joe MacDonald, Ariadne
Sawyer, Alejandro Mujica-Olea, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Ian Mason of the Burns
Club of Vancouver – photo Deb Martin.

Introductions and welcomes were made by Todd Wong,
Ariadne Sawyer and Alejandro Olea-Mujica, who while acknowledging the
importance recognizing the multicultural holidays of Robbie Burns Day
and the Asian Lunar New Year, also recognized Martin Luther King Jr.
Day in the United States, and that Chile (Alejandro's home country from
which he was forced to flee in exhile during the Pinochet regime) just
elected a female president, to nice applause in the audience.

Starting
off the musical and poetical program were Todd Wong and Joe McDonald,
singing Loch Lomand.  Unfortunately while they both knew the same
chorus – they had different versions of the verses in their head.  But
it set a friendly tone for the evening, as the singalong words of
“You'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road,” set the stage
for Dr. Ian Mason, president of the Burns Club of Vancouver.  Mason
gave a wee eulogy about the works and life of Burns, and gave good
examples of his work. 

A Chinese fan dance was next on the menu as Yan Yan walked out in her
flowing costume and fan, set to contemporary Chinese music.  It was a
wonderful demonstration of how cultural dance traditions could be
merged with contemporary music.

Ariadne
next read a ballad set to guitar music, “The Ballad of Gung Haggis Fat
Choy”, which described how we mix all the cultures together, like
making a stew or dinner banquet.  Ariadne first created this work last
year, and it was so well recieved it was requested for this year.

Fiona
Tinwei Lam, is a Scottish born lass of Chinese descent who came to
Canada at age 4.  She read from her book “Intimate Distances” which had
been a finalist for the 2004 Vancouver Book Prize, and picked
selections that related to cross-cultural dating and relationships…
and food!

A Mongolian dance was the final performance for the
first half.  Bright costumes and movements simulated Mongols riding on
horseback.  This was followed by a short
intermission, where many people checked out books and cds for sale by
the performers.


Joe McDonald and Todd Wong, leading a singalong…. – photo Deb Martin.

Joe McDonald gently played the tune “My Bonnie
Lies Over the Ocean”, bringing back the audience to their seats. Todd
introduced his children's poem-song about immigrants coming to Canada
titled “My Haggis Lies Over the Ocean, My Chow Mein Lies Over the
Sea.”  Smiles rose on many faces as they all joined in for the chorus. 
Todd explainined that he had been inspired to write songs and poems for
children by performers Rick Scott and Harry Wong who were going to be
featured artists at the upcoming Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns
Chinese New Year dinner.  To close off my time on the stage, I informed
the audience that it was an amazing coincidence that on Thursday night,
the library would be hosting a tribute to the 250th Anniversary of
Mozart's birtdahy.  Rick Scott's most requested song is his “Yo! Mo!
Concerto” where he does a rap tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  I
next did my own rap tribute to Robbie Burns with his poem “To a Haggis.”

Ariadne
next introduced James Mullin, who read several of his poems which
created lovely peace imagery of wonderment.  Mullin is the book manager
of Tanglewood Books, and hedraws on his Celtic heritage.



Alexis Kienlen reading her poetry – Alejandro and Ariadne listen intently – photo Deb Martin.

I
introduced Alexis Kienlen by asking if anybody had read Saturday's
edition of the Vancouver Sun, as I pointed out Alexis' guest turn at
writing “Bedside Table.”  Kienlen took to the stage and read several of
her poems.  She shared with the audience that she had lived in many
parts of the world, including Mongolia, and the performance by the
dancers had coincidently coincided with some poems about her Mongolian
experienes she had chosen for the evening.  Kienlen also shared her
thoughts about growing up multi-racial in Canada, describing herself as
1/4 Chinese and 1/4 Scottish, with some french and english. Her poetry
was inciteful and very much appreciated by the audience.

Closing
off the program, the Chinese Dancers performed a final dance, Joe
McDonald and Todd Wong led a gentle rendition of “Scotland the Brave”
then Joe asked the audience to all stand and make a great circle
holding hands for the singing of Auld Lang Syne.  Yes, it sounds
hokey… but people loved it.  We could look at the smiles on
everybody's faces, with our arms crossed together.
The gang:  front row: Ian Mason, Shirley Sue-A-Quan, Yan Yan, Angela

back row: Joe McDonald, Alejandro
Mujica-Olea, Alexis Kienlen, Ariadne Sawyer, James Mullin, Fiona Tinwei
Lam – photo Deb Martin.

Haggis and Chopsticks: Vancouver Storytelling Society features a Chinese-Scottish-Canadian theme

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Haggis and Chopsticks: Vancouver Storytelling Society features a Chinese-Scottish-Canadian theme

Haggis and Chopsticks?
I have tried it.  It's best
mixed with rice in a bowl…  Bring the bowl to your mouth, and
scoop it in using the chopsticks.

No!  Not the food – the storytelling event!

Cric? Crac! is a non-profit organisation, dedicated
to the promotion of multicultural storytelling and run by volunteers from the
Vancouver Society of Storytelling enjoying their love of story and
song.

Vancouver Storytelling Society presented an
evening of Chinese and Scottish storytellers on January 15th, 2005. Jan. 15, 7:30 pm, Hodson Manor (1254 W. 7th).

Fifty people filled the room, until there was standing room only. 
Usually 30 people attend.  Expectations and excitement were high.

Pauline Wenn was the hostess of the
evening.  She opened by stating the theme of the evening was an
idea inspired by my own Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner and poetry
events of bringing together Scottish and Chinese cultures, with a slant
to Canadian adventures.  Cric? Crac! has been going on for 20
years,
and regularly features multicultural tales. 
I was very pleased that Mary Gavan and Pauline Wenn invited me to
perform with them, and they had trouble containing their gushing
enthusiasm.

Pauline explained that she was born in Scotland, and while living in
Canada, she discovered that she needed to get in touch with her
Scottish roots.  Never having attended a Burns Dinner before, she
decided to host her own – filling her living room with rented tables
and chairs for 25 people.  Reminded me of my own first Burns
Supper where my friend Gloria Smyth filled her townhouse living room
with rented chairs and tables for 16 people.  Pauline shared her
realization that in Scotland, only men had attended Burns suppers,
because the women had stayed in the kitchen cooking the dinner. 
She explained that the “Toast to the Lassies” came about as a thank you
to the ladies for cooking the dinner.  (“The rebuttal by the
Lassies” is usually quite sassy.)

Next came a story about a Chinese buddhist monastery in Northern
Scotland was told by a father and  son team, Wing Siu Wong with young son Andy.
They followed up the
story by performing a duet on guitar and violin.  Then wife
Barbara joined in for a duet on guitar and violin.  This event
evoked such a warm and
folksy feeling, easily reminding me of my first Robbie Burns “Gung
Haggis Fat Choy” dinner, where we invited our guests to each share a
poem, song, or food dish for our event.

I am always amazed by what one learns about Burns, and the tale told by
Mary Gavan was no exception.  She told a very good story about
Burns posthumous adventures (don't ask).  It's a great story…
and really reveals much about the life of Burns.



Pauline Wenn with Toddish McWong at Cric? Crac!:  Haggis and Chopsticks story telling evening – photo Deb Martin.

Pauline introduced me as the final performance/story teller before the
intermission.  She encouraged me to tell the origins of Gung
Haggis Fat Choy.  I first explained about the tartan that I was
wearing – the Ancient Fraser, also known as the Fraser of Lovat. 
And of course I had to explain how a University came to be named after
Simon Fraser the explorer, and not the son of the Silver Fox, who had
lost his head after the battle of Culloden for supporting the uprising
of Bonnie Prince Charlie.  ( I did admit to first learning about
Prince Charles Edward from the back of a bottle of Drambuie). 
This was all my preamble to explain how a university built of
pre-fabricated concrete was able to adopt the traditions of Scottish
culture and the motto of the Fraser Clan – Je Suis Prets (I am ready).

And then I told the story of the origins of Toddish McWong, and the very first Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.

I finished by reading two poems that I wrote.  The first was
inspired after listening to the Rick Scott and Harry Wong childrens cd
titled 5 Elements.  It is called 12 Animals of the Zodiac, and
explains how Buddha named the years of the Chinese Calendar.  The
second poem is titled “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” and was inspired during
the creation of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy CBC television performance.

A very lovely and friendly intermission filled with lots of treats
followed.  Mary Gavan's special haggis pate was served with
crackers.  Their were fortune cookies, rum balls, oatmeal cakes,
shortbread, and something like plum pudding – all served with Chinese
tea!

Robin Seto began the second half by reading Paul Yee's book “Roses
Singing on New Snow.”  Correction:  Robin didn't read it….
she performed it!  Brilliantly….  Paul would be proud. 

It was a pleasure to reconnect with Robin.  We had first met back
in the mid-80's through a mutual friend, and hadn't seen each other
since except recently bumping into her at the PNE.  Robin shared
that she had seen my pictures in the papers, had heard me on the radio,
and had followed the development of Gung Haggis Fat Choy into a grand
event.  She too, comes from a long line of head tax payer
descendants and spoke warmly of Gim Wong, who had served in the
Canadian army with her father.  It was very touching to hear Robin
say that she is proud of me.  Hopefully we will keep in touch and
she can attend some of the future Gung Haggis Fat Choy events.

Next up was a man in a kilt.  Ian  Cook (from Whistler) was born in
Scotland, and he told a wonderful tale of how the kilt was invented,
and how it involved an old woman named Agnes and three babies born at
the same time – all with red hair, and each named Angus.  But
before he started, Ian told some rebuttals to the quesiton “What is
worn beneath the kilt?”

“Nothing is worn beneath the kilt…..  everything is in perfect working condition!”

This topic had been raised because at the end of my performance, I had
been asked by a comely Asian-Canadian lass, “For the benefit of the
lassies, what does a multicultural Asian Canadian man, like yourself,
wear beneath the kilt?”

“The proper answer to your question, is that the knowledge of what
is worn beneath my kilt is the sole privilege of my girlfriend.”

The evening closed with a story about the Great Wall of China, told by
Leilani Harmon, who shared that she has Chinese, British and some
German bloodlines.  We had a nice chat that included her young
son, and I invited them to some of the future Gung Haggis Fat Choy
events and to meet our multi-racial writers of Asian Canadian Writers'
Workshop and Ricepaper magazine.

It was a fun evening.  I will go again. I will recommend it to
friends.  Next month's Cric? Crac! will honour Black History Month.

Below are links to the cd created by
the Vancouver Society of Storytelling.  It's a very cool cd. 
My friends Yukiko Tosa (Children's librarian at Vancouver's Central Branch Library), Andre Thibault and Qiu Xia He (Silk Road Music) are all involved on the project.

How Music
Came to the World
and Other Stories

This Millennium
Project of Britannia World Music and the Vancouver Society of Storytelling
is a three CD set with 12 traditional and original stories about
musical instruments from around the world, including China, Japan,
India, Vietnam, Ireland, France, Canada, U.S., Andes, Mexico, North
Africa and the Ivory Coast. Local storytellers and world music artists
bring the stories to life. A feature is the enhanced disk with text,
photographs and video clips showing the instruments in performance.
The disk runs on both IBM and Mac and requires QuickTime 4.0 or
higher. Order the CD set for $22 through Lesson
Aids.

Listen to
samples from several stories on this CD:
The
Clay Flute (Nan Gregory & Andre Thibault)
The
Magic Fiddle (Yvon Chartrand & Sheila Allan)
The Drums of Noto Hanto (Yukiko
Tosa & Uzume Taiko)

Click
here to view video from the CD

 

Saturday afternoon in Kitsilano – Oh the people you meet!

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It's Saturday in Kitsilano – Oh the people you meet!


Kitsilano is a great neighborhood.  Filled with low income basement suites, students, expensive waterfront homes. 
I went for a walk on Saturday afternoon with my girlfriend to pick up a
birthday cake for my father.  Little did I know it would be such
an adventure.

On a short walk we bumped into Liberal candidate Stephen Owen the
imcumbent MP for Vancouver Quadra. Owen is mainstreeting, along with
his wife and extended family including his cousin former Mayor Phillip
Owen.  I ask two women what he is minister for, and his wife
correctly tells me he is Minister for Western
Economic Diversification and Minister of State (Sport).  She
introduces me to her husband Stephen, and I invite him to attend Gung Haggis Fat Choy,
my Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.  Owen is in good spirits,
he has heard of the event and he spontaneously these words fall from
his tongue:

Wee, sleekit, cowrin', tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

With this year's Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner falling on
Election Eve, it may be doubtful that many federal candidates may
attend.  But Stephen Owen doesn't say no. 

Former Mayor Philip Owen greets me as well and says he remembers
meeting me.  I am sure it was at a Terry Fox Run where we both
were speakers.  Of course I tell him that Mayor Sam Sullivan will
be at this year's GHFC dinner and last year then Mayor Larry Campbell
was our special guest.

Down the street we drop by Tanglewood Books.  Inside working
behind the cash register is James Mullin.  My girlfriend asks
James if he is all ready for Monday night for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy
World Poetry Night.  “Oh my God, yes!” says James who says he
might have to borrow a kilt because he doesn't own one.

We find that the Notte's Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionary
is closed for annual holidays.  Too bad.  So sad.  My
father will not get his favorite cake – The Mexican Hat cake.  My
2 1/2 year old nephew will not get a marzipan animal.  He really
loved the marzipan alligator I gave him in September for my mother's
birthday.
http://www.tradewindbooks.com/tradewindbooks/new/bamboo.html

Vancouver Kidsbooks is one of my favorite places in Vancouver.  I
could spend hours hanging out in this Vancouver cultural institution
created by Phyllis Whitney.  I searched for Paul Yee's
book Struggle and Hope: The Story of Chinese Canadians, which I have
been recommending to people to show/give to anybody that opposes
redress for Chinese Canadian head tax/exclusion issues.  But it is
now out of print.  I read through Paul's new book Bamboo, and vow to purchase it the next time I attend a book signing with him.  I purchase two copies of Half and Half by Lensey Namioka
about a family that is half Scottish and half Chinese.  (Trivia:
way around 1984 I silk screened t-shirts for Phyllis when she first
opened her store.)

I bump into Shirley Chan
at Safeway, where we go to shop for a birthday cake.  Shirley
married a Scottish Canadian descendant, and her daughter has attended
Gung Haggis Fat Choy wearing a Chinese top, a mini-kilt and loves the
image.  I gave Shirley a copy of Half and Half as a spontaneous
gift.  We talk about Joy Kogawa
appearing at the upcoming Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, and she tells me
she had recently purchased Naomi's Road and was shocked to hear about
the potetial demolition of Kogawa House, Joy's childhood home.  Funny to bump into Shirley after only seeing her two days before at the launch for Mother Tongue,
Susan Poizner's new television documentary series about women who have
made a difference in their many ethnic communities.  It was
Shirley's mother, Mary Lee Chan, who had helped lead the protest
opposition to destroying Chinatown with a freeway.  Shirley
herself, ran as a Liberal candidate in the last election, and had been
Mike Harcourt's personal assistant while he had been Mayor at City
Hall.  Hopefully we will see Shirley at Gung Haggis Fat Choy.

Alexis Kienlen in the Vancouver Sun: Bedside Table + Readings

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Alexis Kienlen in the Vancouver Sun: Bedside Table + Readings


Alexis Kienlen was featured at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry reading, Jan 16 2006. – photo Todd Wong.


Alexis Kienlen is featured in Bedside Table column for Saturday's
(January 14) Vancouver Sun (page G2).  It is a regular colunm
featuring literary types describing their reading habits.

“I'm a voracious reader who tends to whip through about three books
every 10 days,” she introduces herself.  “I devour novels,
non-fiction and young-adult literature.  Like every passionate
reader, I'm looking for things that speak to me and my experiences.”

Kienlen lists as her recent read interests” “In Praise of Slow: How a
Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed,” by Canadian
journalist Carl Honore; and young adult novel “Girls For Breakfast” by
David Yoo.

“As the literary editor of Ricepaper magazine, I read a lot of books
about Asian Canadians and Asian identity,” says Kienlen who points out
that a friend recommended the David Yoo book.  “It's the story of
Nick Park, who is unfortunate enough to be the only Asian of his age in
a sall Connecticut town.”

“The humour in the book helps raise issues about male/female
relationships and identity issues.  At times, I cringed and became
frustrated with Nick's utter foolishness, but ultimately I found the
character to be a believable depiction of a rather perverted teenage
boy.”

Kienlen is also listed on page C2 for Readings in the Books section.

Alexis is one of our featured poets for Gung Haggis Fat Choy World
Poetry Night, along with Fiona Lam, James Mullin, Burns Club of
Vancouver, bagpiper Joe McDonald, and Yan Yan with Chinese
dancers.  This event takes place Monday, January 16th, at the
Central Branch Vancouver Public Library.  7:30pm

Last year's GHFC WP night featured Governor General Award winner Fred
Wah, whom Alexis really related to.  Wah read his poems about
growing up 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Scots-Irish and 1/2 Swedish, on the
Canadian prairies.  Kienlen describes her self as multi-racial
with 1/8 Chinese and 1/8 Scots heritage mixed with German and other
cultural ethnicities.  In my books, Alexis is 100% Canadian, and I
was really happy to include her for the GHFC WP evening.

Janice Wong's Book CHOW at Vancouver Public Library January 18th + Panel Discussion

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Janice Wong's Book CHOW at Vancouver Public Library January 18th + Panel Discussion

Wednesday January 18
7:30 pm
Free
Event
Peter Kaye Room, Lower Level
Central Library
350 West Georgia Street

Janice Wong presents her book, Chow from China to Canada: Tales of Food and Family.
A collection of over 50 traditional Chinese village dishes, it contains
early photographs, immigration documents, 1940s restaurant menus and
handwritten recipes from some of Canada's first ethnic restaurants.

Janice
Wong, a Vancouver-based artist and daughter of a Chinese restaurateur,
has assembled her father's recipes and her family's history in this
unique cookbook;

Panel Discussion on Chinese food and Chinese Restaurants:
Janice is joined by by: 

Larry
Wong of the Chinese Canadian Historical Society
Todd Wong of the creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy
Stephen Wong, celebrity chef

Here is the inside story on the event

Janice is my 2nd cousin-once-removed.
We are descendants of Rev. Chan Yu Tan, who arrived in Canada in 1891.
  And I only met her earlier this year when she announced that her
book was coming out.  We immediately bonded, and I have enjoyed
helping her promote her book.  We did a panel discussion together
with Larry Wong at the West Vancouver Library and had so much fun, we
decided to do it for Vancouver.

Welcome to the Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night – January 16th at Vancouver Public Library

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Welcome to the Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night –

image

  Joe McDonald Bagpiper – Todd Wong Accordion – photo Jamie Griffiths


January 16th, 7:30pm
Vancouver Public Library
Central Branch
Alice Mckay Room

Co-produced byWorld Poetry Reading Series, Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and Vancouver Public Library



Hosts are: Todd Wong, creator of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and the team of Ariadne
Sawyer and Alejandro Mujica-Olea – hosts and creators of World Poetry
Reading Series at VPL, and the World Poetry program on Co-op Radio.

Q: When Chinese New Year meets Robbie Burns Day…  what happens?

Q: When Scottish poets meet Chinese poets… what happens?



A: They write poetry… and they have babies called Canadians!


Enjoy our 3rd annual event combining poetry, music and now…. dance!

A litte bit of China + a little bit of Scotland = Canada

The Burns Club makes its first appearance for Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night.
Fiona Tinwei Lam is a Chinese Canadian poet born in Scotland – Her
first poetry collection Intimate Distances was nominated for 2004
Vancouver Book Award.
Bagpiper Joe McDonald, born in Canada, is a singer/songwriter and leader of bands Brave Waves and The Mad Celts.
Alexis Keinlen is a multi-racial writer (including equal parts Chinese and Scottish), and also is Literary Editor for Ricepaper Magazine.


The evening starts with
welcomes… then goes back in time to recognize Robbie Burns and
Chinese dancing….  We progress to contemporary Scots with Joe
McDonald (born in Canada) and Fiona Tinwei Lam (born in Scotland).




The singalong Loch Lomand calls people back to the room.  We introduce
contemporary Canadian poets James Mullin, Todd Wong and Alexis Keinlen
– progressing from Scottish-Canadian to 5th Gen Chinese Canadian to
multi-gen, multi-racial.  We finish with a dance, a song, and Auld Lang
Syne.



It will be a fairly quick moving show with quick turnarounds – We have lots of performers for our GHFC WPRS – variety show!


 Agenda for GHFC and WPRS.   Jan. 16th.  

1.       Opening Welcome from Library.
2.       Entrance with bagpipes – follow piper Joe McDonald
3.    Welcome by Todd Wong.
4.       Welcome by Ariadne and Alejandro.
5.       Singalong: Scotland the Brave
6.        Poem by Ariadne with guitarist Sigit Murdawa.
7.        Dance 1. Yan Yan and friends.
8.       
 Poet 1, Burns Club.
9.      
Music: Joe McDonald (song)
10.    Poet 2. Fiona Lam
11.    Dance 2. Yan Yan and friends.
12.    Intermission

14.   Singalong:
Loch Lomand (You take the high road)
15.    Burns Club 2
16.    Poet 3 James Mullin.
17.   Music:  Todd Wong – “My haggis lies over the
ocean”
18.   Poet 4 Alexis Keinlen
19.   Dance 3. Yan Yan and friends.
20.    Music and end joined circle dance.
21.   Singalong : Auld Lang Syne