Category Archives: Multicultural events

Performers for Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2006

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PERFORMERS FOR GUNG HAGGIS FAT CHOY 2006



Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns
What: Gung Haggis Fat Choy:
          Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns
          Chinese New Year Dinner
When: 6pm, January 22, 2006,

            Sunday  Reception at 5:30pm
Where: Floata Restaurant

             #400 – 180 Keefer St.

             Vancouver Chinatown
Tickets: Firehall Arts Centre

              604-689-0926


Advance Premium price (until January 9):
$60 single / $600 per table.  Includes wine and Ricepaper Magazine subscription


Advance Regular price (until Januray 9): $50 single / $500 per table – includes Ricepaper Magazine subscription


After January 9th – Premium price $70 each / Regular price $60
each.  Children 13 and under 50% off (no Ricepaper subscription).


Hosted by Todd Wong and Prem Gill (City TV's multicultural director and host of Colour TV)

I
can proudly say the our special performing guests are all my
friends.  I have scouted and reviewed their performances and they
are all deemed Gung Haggis Fat Choy worthy.  We are honoured by
their participation:

Rick Scott & Harry Wong

creators of “5 Elements” children's cd and show – featured at Vancouver International Children's Festival in 2004

“Harry
Goh Goh” (Harry Big Brother) is the affectionate term that Harry is
know as on his “Bean Town” chinese languarge children's television show
that is broadcast around the world.  He is the “Raffi of Hong
Kong” and Rick Scott and I watched children at Vancouver Children's Festival line up to meet “Harry Goh Goh” after their joint show.  “He's their hero,” Rick told me. 

No
slouch in the performing deparment himself, Rick Scott has thrilled
children's audiences everywhere – especially with his fan favorite Rap
song tribute to Mozard. “Yo Mo!” (Come on Amadeus, Whatcha gonna play
us?”  Scott has also thrilled adult audiences for decades
as 1/3 of the accoustic folk trio Pied Pumkin with Shari Ulrich and Joe
Mok (whose father is Chinese – making the Pumkin 1/6 Chinese??)


Joy Kogawa O.C.

Award winning author and poet, of Obasan (Vancouver Public Library's
2005 choice for One Book One Vancouver) and Naomi's Road (Vancouver
Opera's production for Opera in the Schools)

Joy
has become a truly blessed friend, as we have come together by crisis.
I first met her back in 1986 at Expo 86's Folk Life Pavillion where she
read from her newly written book Obasan. I was stunned by the beauty of her words, that always stayed with me.

In my support of Obasan as the OBOV selection and in joining the Save Kogwa House
committee – we know regularly chat and share the ups and downs of the
campaign from the tree planting at City Hall to the performances of
Vancouver Opera's “Naomi's Road.”  She teaches me about
forgiveness, healing and about the Japanese Canadian redress movement.

Joe McDonald & Brave Waves

Bagpiper, band leader, combining traditional scots, gaelic, celtic and
Canadian songs with Asian and South Asian music and instruments.

Joe
has become a great friend and Gung Haggis regular stalwart.  I
first met him in January 2001 and he first performed when GHFC dinner
was only 100 strong. He participates in the GHFC World Poetry Night and
the gives priority to the GHFC dinner.  He has travelled often to
China and Japan as part of Canadian “multicultural arts groups” and
this summer he performed at the Expo in Japan.  He plays at South
Asian weddings, and Chinese Spring Festival events.

La La

Exciting blend of contemporary soul and hip hop music with Asian roots and traditional Canadian songs.
I
first saw LaLa perform “Auld Lang Syne” in the CBC tv special Gung
HAggis Fat Choy… she was selected as the “Chinese element” for the
last segment of the tv special and has performed many years with Joe
McDonald, singing at weddings, services etc.  When we first met,
we got along famously.  La La has a great voice suited for
traditional, hip hop or blues music.  It is rich and
soulful.  Last year, we performed together for First Night
Vancouver, and our friendly chemistry really put “The Haggis Rap” over
the top.  I still cannot believe 500 people punching air and
singing “As langs my arm!”


Sean Gunn

Singer /Songwriter – Head Tax Redress activist and composer of “The Head Tax Blues”
Sean's
poetry is included in the first anthology of Chinese Canadian prose and
poetry titled “Many Mouthed Birds.”  He even invited me to play
accordion with me one summer at the Powell St. Festival.  His
song, the Head Tax Blues, is a rallying call for redress of the
racially discriminating head tax and exclusion act, suffered by Chinese
immigrants to Canada from 1885 to 1947.  It has been performed at
GHFC dinners in 2000, 2001, 2003.  The song is featured in the
Karen Cho NFB documentary “In the Shadow of Gold Mountain,” a moving
story about the Chinese Canadian pioneers and the redress campaign for
an apology and reparation.


Jeff Chiba Stearns

Classical Animator – creator of award winning animated film “What Are You Anyways?”

I
met Jeff this past summer in the Vancouver Public Library promenade for
the Japanese Canadian community fair.  I was taken immediately by
his drawings of his animated film “What Are You Anyways?” that
described his adventures growing up Half-Japanese in a BC interior
town.  Right then, I invited Jeff to be a performer for
GHFC.  He is the first filmaker we have featured.

The Shirleys

Seven sassy soulful females singing accapella songs of protest and lullabyes.

I
first met the Shirleys at a fundraiser event last year for then city
councillor Ellen Woodsworth.  I was amazed by the groovy chemistry
that this acappella group radiated.  I have known one of the
group's leaders Karen Lee-Morlang for a few years, as Karen organizes
monthly music programs at the Vancouver Public Library.  The
Shirleys sing lullabyes, they sing protest songs, they sing songs from
around the world.  They are hip, they are happening, and they give
real good group hugs.  You better believe it.

 

Chun-Yi: The Legend of Kung Fu

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Chun-Yi

Chun Yi: The Legend of Kung Fu
January 4 –
11, 2006
Vancouver's
Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Imagine
what would happen if kung fu experts learned to dance, and Chinese
classical dancers choreographed martial arts, and some chinese gymnasts
were given Cirque du Soleil equipment and special effects, and
everything came together to create a multi-discplinary show.  In
this case, the result is based on the story of Chun-Yi “The Pure One,”
about a young boy who becomes a Shaolin Temple Monk.

Sixty-five kung fu practitioners, dancers and acrobats
from 13 provinces of China, perform in telling the story about how the
young man must got through personal challenges of temptation that
threaten his abilitiy to master the Kung Fu discipline. But in the end
all is well.  As the chinese proverb says, each journey begins
with a single step, the process is always more important that the
result.

And what a beautiful process this work of gorgeous sets and spectacular
stage effects is!  Combined with traditional martial arts
movements with
evocative dance, ballet and flying acrobatics.

I watched this exciting show with two viewpoints.  With one eye I
marvelled at the abilities of the performers, the inventive use of sets
and the unfolding of the story.  With the other eye I saw my
memories of learning about martial arts as a youth, as well as a youth
growing up in Canada with very few possible role models of being Asian.

But
somewhere in my memories were recollections of tacky Chinese theatre,
cantonese and martial arts displays.  Chun Yi: The Legend of Kung
Fu leaves all those old memories at home, and can easily be said to be
on the same professional levels as many Broadway shows or operas. 
The scale is huge, with moving sets that create the illusion of palaces
and dream sequences.  While some of the acting and dancing appears
to be overwrought and simplistic, it is also highly stylistic too.

The
young Chun Yi, does a pas de deux dance with his mother, as she
prepares to leave him at the Monastery to learn Kung Fu.  The
young boy is reluctant and runs back repeatedly after his mother. 
Two young boys from the monastery come up and persuade Chun Yi to stay
and play with them, as they perform their own jumps and kicks, that
captures the newcomer's attention.

And
so it was in the audience.  During intermission, I talked with
friends in the audience who were amazed at the acrobatic feats, as well
as the Kung Fu fighting.  They had never before seen Cantonese
opera with its many gymnastic routines, or the Action-Musicals put on
by Dennis Law at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, such as
Terracotta Warriors, Heartbeat or Heaven and Earth.  And so my
cultural thoughts wondered at the possibilities that when China starts
allowing more of its martial artists, ballet dancers and artistic
directors, will we see an artistic revolution in the arts, as more and
more ideas are exchanged?  Could a traditional western opera be
staged with kung fu battles, Chinese gynmastics and dance.

“We are creating something new in Beijing. We're creating something new
for China and the world!” says Cao Xiaoning, president of China Heaven Creation, the company behind creating this production in anticipation of cultural preparations for the 2008 Olympics, which will also include Martial Arts as an Olympic event.

While
the story is not completely literal, and the “dream” sequences where
Chun-Yi was tempted by a beautiful woman, it is easy to understand the
plot development.

By
seeing more productions like this in Vancouver, we can find artistic
and enjoyable ways to learn about one of the world's more interesting
and oldest cultures and traditional arts.  I know that I am
learning about more Chinese culture.

more later….


To view an 8-minute promo video: Click here.

SFU Scots Chair V: Ron MacLeod update for Friday January 6 – Harry McGrath had an ale with Tom Devine in Glasgow

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SFU Scots Chair V:  Ron MacLeod update for Friday January 6 
- Harry McGrath had an ale with Tom Devine in Glasgow

Greetings. Harry McGrath had an ale with Tom Devine in Glasgow over the 
holiday season and reported that Devine is a most interesting and 
convivial individual. Regards, the other Ron

Here is some background information:
Professor Tom Devine is Glucksman Professor of Irish and Scottish 
Studies and Director of the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies at 
Aberdeen University. He is the pre-eminent authority on the history of 
modern Scotland and his seminal work The Scottish Nation became an 
international bestseller when it was published in 1999.

Professor Devine is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an 
Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the British 
Academy. In 2000 he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal by the Queen, 
Scotland�s highest academic accolade and he was recognized in the 2005 
New Year�s Honours List with an OBE �For Services to Scottish History�.
This is by way of reminding you about the Devine lectures at SFU on 

January 19th:
WHAT: "'Death' and Reinvention of Scotland"
WHERE: SFU History Department, Burnaby Campus, Academic Quadrangle,  
Sixth Floor.
WHEN: Thursday, January 19, 2006 at 11.30 A.M.
OTHER: No need for pre-registration, all welcome.

WHAT: "Scotland in 1773: The Dynamics of Emigration"
WHERE: SFU  Harbour Centre
WHEN: Thursday, January 19, 2006 at  8:00 P.M.
OTHER: To register call 604-291-5100. This lecture will be followed by 
a reception.

On other subjects:

WHAT: VANCOUVER POLICE PIPE BAND 
BURNS SUPPER AND DANCE Entertainment 
by THE VANCOUIVER POLICE PIPE BAND 
& TARTAN PRIDE HIGHLAND DANCE TEAM
WHERE: Engineers Hall, 4333 Ledger Avenue, Burnaby
WHEN: SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2006
TIME: Cocktails -- 6:00 P.M. Dinner -- 7:30 pm
OTHER: Tickets $45.00. Available from band members or by phoning 
604-576-1619

THE GAELIC SOCIETY is presenting a concert that will feature the 
younger generation. Highlighting the evening will be the Fraser River 
Fiddlers. Other entertainers will also be presenting during the 
evening.
WHERE: The Scottish Cultural Centre, 8886 Hudson, Vancouver, B.C.
WHEN: 8 P.M. Saturday, February 4th
CONTACT: Morag Black at 604-939-3963, or, email garryblack@telus.net
OTHER: Expect the usual tasty goodies and liquid refreshments.

SFU Scots Chair V: Ron MacLeod update for January 4 – Hijinks, events for fun and games

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SFU Scots Chair V:  
Ron MacLeod update for January 4
 - Hijinks, events for fun and games

Greetings, some notices about fun and games. Regards, the other Ron

1. Courtesy Jeff Pope: Please share with others.

WHAT: The First Annual Dentry's Kilted Fun Run
WHEN: 10 A.M. Sun Jan 22ND
WHERE: Dentry�s Pub, 4450 West 10Th Ave at Sasamat (before UBC)
COST: There is no entry fee.
PRIZE: Each participant who completes the 5Km (or 3 we haven�t decided 
yet) will receive a Pint of Guinness for their efforts.
OTHER: A kilt of sort is mandatory - it could even be in the form of a 
table cloth (Good Lord), if necessary. This is a fun run -  not a race to 
be followed by much revellery afterwards.
CONTACTS: Phil Dentry(publican) 604-224-3434
Jeff Pope at jjlpope@shaw.ca

2. Courtesy Michael Martin:

WHAT: MASTERS OF SCOTTISH ARTS CONCERT 
- A Virtuoso Evening of Celtic 
Music and Dance featuring internationally renowned Pipers, Fiddlers, 
drummers and dancers.
WHEN: FRIDAY Feb 3, 2006�
 at 7:30 PM
WHERE: Benaroya Hall, S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium
3RD Ave. & University St., Seattle, Washington
COST:  $20.00 to $30.00 US through www.Ticketmaster.com
CONTACT: Michael Martin at MichaelM@sidlon.com
WEBSITE: www.masterofscottisharts.org
OTHER: the sponsor is a non-profit organization that supports a Winter 
School of Piping that features teachers of  renown: for example, 
Canadian pipers Jack Lee and  Bruce Gandy and Canadian drummer Reid 
Maxwell are among several international artists.

3. Courtesy Todd Wong:
Gung Haggis Fat Choy is sponsoring two upcoming events:

WHAT: Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night:
An evening of Scottish-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian traditional 
and contemporary poetry - when Robbie Burns Day and Chinese New Year 
collide!
WHEN: January 16th, 7:30 to� :
WHERE: At  the  Vancouver Public Library, Alice MacKay Room

Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner
WHAT: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner
WHEN: January 22nd 6:00 � 10:00 PM
WHERE: At the  Floata Restaurant, #400 - 180 Keefer St. Vancouver 
Chinatown.

CONTACT: Todd Wong at gunghaggis@yahoo.ca






Mother Tongue TV documentary series launches in Vancouver at Channel M

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Mother Tongue TV documentary series launches in Vancouver at Channel M

My friend Susan Poizner is a television director/producer
who has succeeded with her goal of creating a series about the roles of
women from different ethnic groups across Canada.

The Vancouver launch of Mother Tongue happens 7:30pm on Thursday, January 12th at the Vancouver
Museum.

The launch
will show two segments:  one about my
Vancouverite Mary Lee Chan who was
born in Canada, sent
back to China
as a child, then she returned in 1947 to forge a life for herself and her
family;

2nd segment features Japanese Canadian  Kimiko Murakami who was
interned for 8 years in BC. 

The showing will be followed by a Q&A
session with Susan Poizner, Mary Kitagawa,
granddaughter of Kimiko Murakami, and me.
 
Channel M  has bought the series and will begin airing the series from
Jan. 15, 2006, Sundays at 10 pm. 
 
Go to the website below to learn about the 13 Canadian ethnic women whose
personal stories are told through the producer and director Susan
Poizner.  www.mothertongue.ca

communities

Acadian

 

 

 

Upcoming Gung Haggis Poetry and Janice Wong's CHOW at the library

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Upcoming Gung Haggis Poetry and Janice Wong's CHOW at the Vancouver Public library

January 16th

Gung Haggis Fat Choy World Poetry Night
7:30pm

Vancouver Public Library

Alice Mackay Room

hosted by Toddish McWong, Ariadne Sawyer and Alejandro Mujica-Olea

– poetry and music and dance from Old Scotland and Old China to
contemporary Scottish-Chinese-Canadians including: Fiona Lam, Joe
McDonald, Alexis Keinlen, and dancers!!!!



January 18th

Janice Wong & CHOW

From China to Canada: Memories of Food and Family
Author Janice Wong has a Power Point demonstration + a panel discussion with:
historian Larry Wong, (Chinese Canadian Historical Society)
culture fusionist Todd Wong (Gung Haggis Fat Choy)


Takao Tanabe, one of Canada's greatest artists, on display now at Centre A in Vancouver

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Takao Tanabe, one of Canada's greatest artists, on display now at Centre A in Vancouver


FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE

 

Centre A presents

 

 

TAKAO
TANABE

 

Banners & Banner Paintings 1969
– 1973

 

EXHIBITION: January 7 – February 18,
2006

 

RECEPTION: Sunday, January 29, 2-5
pm

 

Free parking lot at 23 West
Pender

 

Exhibition Sponsor: Anndraya T.
Luui

 

Centre A is honoured to host a solo
exhibition by one of Canada’s greatest artists, Takao
Tanabe. The exhibition features a series of over 30 banners and banner
paintings. These dramatic works make full use of Centre A’s high ceiling and
open space. The exhibition coincides with Tanabe’s career retrospective, opening
at the Vancouver
Art Gallery on January 21. Centre A will host
a public reception with the artist in attendance on Sunday afternoon, January
29, to coincide with Chinatown celebrations of
the Year of the Dog.

 

Tanabe’s banners maintain a strong
contemporary edge even after thirty years. He started making them in the late
1960s, a time of great change in the arts, when painting seems literally to be
leaping off the wall. Commissions to produce banners for public spaces in
Regina and Winnipeg inspired him to explore other
applications of the form. Some were painted on canvas, while others were made in
collaboration with a commercial flag maker in New York. These works on nylon are translucent
and in some cases over 16 feet long. Seen from behind they look like stained
glass windows.

 

Born in Seal Cove, a fishing village
near Prince Rupert,
BC, Takao Tanabe has been a leader
in Canadian art for half a century. He represented Canada at the
Sao Biennale of 1953 and has been going strong ever since. He is a master
painter whose astonishing career includes a wide range of styles. For many years
he was Head of the Art Program at the Banff School of Fine Arts, where he
influenced many younger artists. He is a recipient of the Governor General’s
Award and the Order of Canada. His work is represented by the Equinox Gallery
where it will be featured in an exhibition opening on February
15.

 

Centre A is pleased to be mounting
this exhibition in cooperation the Vancouver Art
Gallery, continuing a
tradition of collaboration between the two
organizations.

 

We are extremely grateful to the
President of Centre A’s Board of Directors, Anndraya T. Luui, for her generous
sponsorship of this exhibition.

 

Centre A acknowledges the generous
support of patrons, sponsors, members, partners, private foundations, and
government funding agencies, including the Canada Council for the Arts, the
British Columbia Arts Council, and the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural
Affairs.

 

Centre A

Vancouver International Centre for
Contemporary Asian Art

2 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC,
Canada, V6B 1G6

t. 604-683-8326; f.
604-683-8632

centrea@centrea.org;  www.centrea.org

Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday,
11am-6pm




Happy Hogmanay – listening to BBC Radio Scotland Live!

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Happy Hogmanay – listening to BBC Radio Scotland Live!



It's almost midnight in Scotland.

I am listening live to BBC Radio Scotland, as they count down the minutes.



15
minutes ago when I tuned in, they were playing Elvis Presley, followed
by Dolly Parton's “9 to 5″…. then there was Tom Jones…



Now they are going live to Edinburgh….

A pipe major plays the bagpipes.

There is a countdown…. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

Then everybody sings a song – what is it??

It's not Auld Lang Syne!?!?!

It's some song about Happy New Year!



The hosts come back and ramble on like New Year's hosts do…

They pop a champagne cork.

Now I hear accordion music… sounds like a polka – no it's not.

It's some song about Caledonia…

I've never heard it before.

“Come in, come in…here's my hand…”

Oh – it's Andy Stewart… whoever he is…



Now they thank Radio Scotland listeners from around the world.

Oh-
here's a song I recognize.  “I Would Walk 500 Miles” by the
Proclaimers.  This reminds me of the 2003 GHFC dinner when my
musician buddies Pat Coventon and pd wohl played their own version with
a “Eat Haggis” bridge, and words about Toddish McWong.



Happy New Year everybody!!!!

The Tyee: Article on Mixed Marriage aka inter-racial marriage by Amy Chow

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The Tyee: Article on Mixed Marriage aka inter-racial marriage by Amy Chow

Amy Chow has written an article called The Face of Asian Mixed Marriage in BC
 http://thetyee.ca/Life/2005/12/27/MixedMarriageBC/
for The Tyee.ca

She tells the story of a nice Canadian boy eloping with a nice Canadian
girl because his mother, has always wanted him to marry a girl that
would be “more appropriate” for him and the family. It's a familiar
story – not a new story… but one that most Canadians could related to
and share.
In this case, the boy is of Jewish ancestry and the girl is of Chinese
ancestry.

I grew up in Vancouver, first meeting people from mixed marriages in
the early sixties when I was a child. “Chinnie” was somebody who always
was hanging out at my great-grandma's house – one of her best friends.
She was white. I have recently bumped into her daughter Evelyn. It's
great that we have shared history of our elders.

Mixed race marriages is common place on both sides of my family. On my
mother's side, there has been a mixed race marriage in every generation
since our elder Rev. Chan Yu Tan arrived in Canada in 1896. There was
his son Luke, who became an actor in Hollywood. There were his
grandsons Henry and Art. Incidently it was Art who married a First
Nations woman, and their daughter Rhonda has become the elected band
chief for the Qayqayt Nation (New Westminster), that she singlehandedly
resurrected.

My mother's youngest brother married a woman of Scottish-English
background, steeped in Ontario Canadian heritage. 9 of my 12 cousins on
my mom's side have married caucasians + my brother. And on my father's
side, 6 of my 9 cousins married caucasians.

I was the only person out of my maternal cousins that married somebody
of Chinese Canadian descent. It should have worked out… our
grandparents had known each other, as had our parents, our aunts and
uncles, our cousins, and even their children…. but it was not to be.
No regrets.

And today, I am spending my 2nd Christmas with my Canadian girlfriend
of British ancestry, and her parents. I haven't seen another Asian
since I left the Kelowna airport two days ago. There haven't been any
racial clashes. We talk about the issues that I am involved in such as
the Save Kogawa House campaign and the Chinese Canadian head tax – even
with their caucasian friends.

We listened to my friends Joy Kogawa and Ann-Marie Metten on CBC radio
yesterday, and we read in the newspaper about my friends Bill Chu and
Gabriel Yiu and Thekla Lit who helped organize a Boxing Day press
conference on Head Tax redress. And these are just Canadian issues. And
the 3 dogs love all the hugs they can get. Race isn't an issue for them.


Todd out walking with dogs in Kalamalka Lake Provincial Park.

“Have a multi-cultural Christmas” – Vancouver Sun's Douglas Todd vs Todd Wong's experiences

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“Have a multi-cultural Christmas” – Vancouver Sun's Douglas Todd vs Todd Wong's experiences

Douglas Todd looks at the students and celebrations of Sir Richard
McBride elementary school in Vancouver.  He compares present day
activities and student ethnicity to when he attended in the early
1960s.  DT is a thoughtful writer and he explores the issues of
religious holidays, political correctness, inclusion, school 
cultural programming, and what the children really want and think.

Of special note, DT writes that more schools are celebrating Chinese
New Year, or rather the more exclusive term “Lunar New Year,” as an
inclusive event that often celebrates all ethnic cultures.  I have
certainly found this to be true, especially when I was invited early this year
to bring my Scottish-Chinese fusion of “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” to
Westridge Elementary School in Burnaby. 
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog
/_archives/2005/2/5/303618.html

Check out DT's feature article titled
A Multicultural Christmas:
Sir Richard McBride students balance ethnicity with new traditions
Vancouver Sun – Dec 24th page C1

Personally, when I grew up at Vancouver's Laura Secord elementary school
in the from 1965 to 1973 – I thought I was already experiencing
multiculturalism by going to school with mostly white students. 
Okay… there were a few students of Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Dutch,
Portuguese…etc heritage there too.  By 1973, the Chinese
proportion grew significantly, and in my grade 7 class there were 6
other Wongs in the class, including the teacher.

I had started noticing more ESL immigrants of Chinese ancestry around
1970.  This was the effect of changed immigration laws in 1967,
that now allowed independant Chinese immigrants, no longer only
sponsored by relatives to come to Canada.  You see, even though
the Chinese Exclusion Act was removed in 1947, only very limited
immigration was allowed for family members only.

My experiences of Christmas growing up, involved dinners with sticky
rice, turkey, cranberry sauce, stir-fried vegetables – always a
combination of Chinese and Canadian food.  When we visited 
my father's side of the family – there were more Chinese speakers, as
his mother spoke almost exclusively Chinese, and his eldest sister had
been raised in China – despite having been born in Canada. I referred
to my mother's side of the family as our “English side” because the
family had been in Canada longer since the arrival of my grandmother's
grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan in 1896.  Even my great-grandmother
Kate Chan was fluent in english.  So… even in my family we were
multicultural… I guess.

Last year I visited my girlfriend's parents in Vernon, and we attended
Christmas dinner at a friend of theirs.  I was the only, non-Asian
attending, of the 10 guests.  It was my first ethnically “white”
Christmas dinner.  We ate turkey with cranberry sauce, potatoes,
salad… just like my own family dinners.  I felt comfortable with
the company, because of shared language and values.  Nobody asked
how I was enjoying the new “cultural experience” because they just
assumed I was “Canadian”, knowing that I considered myself a 5th
generation Vancouverite.  The cultural differences and
conversations were more concerned with the differences between
Vancouver and Vernon. Big City culture versus Small City culture.

Culture and “multiculturalism” is relative.  Especially if it is married into the family.