Category Archives: Multicultural events

Letter from Rev. Tim Nakayama, Joy Kogawa's brother re: Origins of the Nakayama name

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Rev. Tim Nakayama and author Joy Kogawa – brother and sister

Dear Todd,

 
Thank you for posting those photos of us on your website.  That was fairly quick!
 
David Kogawa, who took the trouble to come down from Surrey to
Seattle to pick me up and bring me back home so that I could attend the
inaugural for OBOV on May 24, sent me  the web-page reference – http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/26/888280.html 
 
You made a common mistake that occasionally befalls my family name
by calling it “Nakamura” which would mean 'middle village'.  Actually,
it is “Nakayama” which means 'middle mountain'.   I sometimes tell
people that my name has “four aces” to ease the spelling, etc. 
 
I was a theological student at ATC, the Anglican Theological
College of B.C. (that was associated with Union College of the United
Church of Canada), and these institutions became the Vancouver School
of Theology.  When ATC still existed when I was in Vancouver from 1950
to 1965, I was associated with the Good Sheperd Chinese Anglican
Mission in Chinatown (I think it was on Keefer Street).  I went there
for “field work”, and later  was involved in the re-establishing of the
Japanese Anglican work as the people returned from the East when we
were allowed back into the so-called “protected area”. 
 
While at Good Shepherd, I received the kindly care of the Rev.
Andrew Lam, and his wife Leatrice, and the parishioners of the Chinese
Mission.  The people took the Japanese ideographs of my name, and read
them in Cantonese, and they remembered and called me, “Chung Saan Jun”
(my phonetic rendition of what I remember hearing rhem say) – of
'middle mountain truth' (Nakayama Makoto). 

The Japanese reading of the
ideographs in “on” reading is “Chu San Shin” or Chuzan Shin”, and in
“kun” reading – which is the poly-syllabic original rendition, it comes
out as “Naka/yama/Makoto”.  Well, the Chinese members associated
“middle mountain” and 'truth” with Sun Yat Sen!  Perhaps you can
decipher the connection of meanings and such an association!  Anyway,
with these associations it was considerably easier to remember my name
in that fashion, than with Na/ka/ya/ma/Ma/ko/to  so many meaningless,
cumbersome syllables, but “Chung Saan Jun” was much easier!

 
Best wishes and kindest regards,
 
Tim

The Rev. Timothy M. Nakayama, Priest, retired
Diocese of Olympia + The Episcopal Church USA
1991-2000 Missionary, Okinawa & Aomori, Japan
1966-1991 Rector, St. Peter's, Seattle
1956-1966 Diocese of Calgary, Canada

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello Tim,



I am sorry for the misspelling,
somehow Nakamura got stuck in my brain, not to be confused with a
childhood friend named Nakashima, nor the girl I had a crush on in
Grade 7, then after I moved away after Grade 8, we met after Grade 12,
and finally had a real date – her name was Fujiwara.



I will correct on the website, and
with your permission I will put your reply letter onto the website as I
think it is very interesting.



Diocese of Olympia eh? Former
Governor Gary Locke is a distant relative. His cousin Paul Locke in
Seattle married my Grandmother's cousin Carol. Ever since I was a baby,
we would visit Auntie Carol and Uncle Paul in Seattle once a year. I
don't see them as often anymore, but we do keep in touch.



Now that I have your e-mail, I can
send you the photos as files. I will send them to Roy Miki too. I have
a lot of respect for Roy, and think he does wonderful work.



Peace & Blessings, Todd

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

Hi Todd,
 
Thanks for your message.  In my initial message I made an error! 
The time I was in Vancouver was from 1950 to 1956 (not until 1965 –
juxtaposition of two numbers!) 
 
You have my permission if what I wrote might be 'interesting'.  I
think it is more interesting that you mention our former Governor, Gary
Locke as your relative!  and you mentioned it because I cited the name
of our diocese.  Our “Diocese of Olympia” of the Episcopal Church, USA,
betrays the fact that it was established before Seattle was much of a
place.  The diocese celebrated it's 150th anniversary last year.   The
local church headquarters has been in Seattle, years before I ever came
here.  Olympia was more significant in the early days.
 
Likewise, the 'Diocese of New Westminster' of the Anglican Church
of Canada was begun before Vancouver was very important, and the
Cathedral was located in New Westminster at the beginning.  Christ
Church Cathedral, at Georgia and Burrard, and the diocesan office is 
in downtown Vancouver.
 

I have known about Roy Miki for many years, and I met him, I
believe, in 1995, at my Dad's funeral.  But on May 24th it was our
first face to face conversation.  Also, so near and so far —I hadn't
seen my sister, Joy, for the last 10 years!  We had been in Japan for
almost 10 years, and came back to Seattle 5 years ago.  But her
peripatetic life, and my laid back state, now in retirement, our paths
have sometimes been close, but they didn't cross – until Wednesday
night and OBOV !

 
Delighted to note your signing off with “Peace & Blessings”. 
As it happens I also very often write that before I close with my name!
 
Tim.

ExplorWORD May 28th, at Our Town Cafe – featuring Joy Kogawa

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l-r Rev. Tim Nakayama, Prof. Roy Miki, Joy Kogawa, ACWW vp Todd Wong

Joy Kogawa was the featured author at ExplorWORD at Our Town cafe, for May 28th.
I MCed the event which featured writers Michelle Wong, Jessica Gin-Jade, Alexis Keinlein and Mishtu Bannerjee.

It was organized by Jim Wong-Chu for the explorASIAN festival, and co-sponsored by Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop and RicePaper Magazine.
Sid Tan of Saltwater City TV, was there to film the evening, which will be broadcast next week hopefully on Shaw Cable.

It was a wonderful reading that featured the insightful writings of
young up and coming writers, and closed with the wise reflections of a
well-respected and honoured literary force. Joy Kogawa used her time to
talk about the recent protests by Chinese descendents in regards to the
selective historial perspective of the Japanese government ommiting WW2
atrocities against China.

Joy told the story of peaceful small island situated between China and
Japan where when China visited, they claimed ownership, and when Japan
visited they claimed ownership. And how the island played host to one
of WW2's bloodiest land battles where the peaceful inhabitants were
almost wiped out. It was the story of Okinawa. On the 50th anniversary
of the Battle of Okinawa, the natives named each of the citizens who
had died, and included the names of Japanese and American soldiers…
honouring every human being that died, in an act of tremendous grace
and forgiveness.
Joy revealed that her ex-husband David Kogawa came from Okinawa, and so
their children are descendents of Okinawan heritage.

Joy closed her time with a reading of a poem “Oh Canada”, from her
novel Obasan. It is a beautiful poem acknowledging the bittersweet
qualities that make up the roots of Canada – both in its physical
environment and the qualities of its people. It's context is that it is
set during the time of internment of Japanese Canadians during WW2.

After Joy's reading, I shared with the Our Town audience, my
conversation with Richard Hopkins, following Joy's reading at the
Vancouver Public Library's One Book One Vancouver
event featuring Joy on May 24th. I had told Richard that Joy inspires
us all to be better Canadians. Richard had corrected me and said that
Joy inspires us all to be better human beings.
In closing, I encouraged everybody to attend the One Book One Vancouver
readings throughout the summer that would be built around the novel
Obasan, and that would continue right to Word On The Street in
September.

I encouraged people to support the drive to save the Kogawa homestead
in Vancouver's Marpole neighborhood, that had been taken from the
Kogawa family during WW2. I recounted that at the VPL reading, I had
asked Joy to name some of her favorite Asian Canadian writers, she had
said “We all love Wayson Choy.”

“But tonight, and for this summer,” I said, “We all love Joy Kogawa.”
pictures of this event by Jim Wong-Chu to follow…. stay tuned….

Joy Kogawa's novel Obasan is the book for all of Vancouver to read

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Joy Kogawa sharing her happiness with the audience that her novel “Obasan” at the premiere event for One Book One Vancouver – photo Todd Wong

A very HAPPY Joy Kogawa shared her pleasure with the audience at the opening event for One Book One Vancouver
at VPL's Central Branch on Tuesday, May 24th.  Obasan is the
novel written about a young girl's journey through the Japanese
Canadian internment camps of WW2, when the Canadian government branded
all Canadians of Japanese descent as aliens, in its misguided efforts
to ensure homeland security.

The title, Obasan, actually means “aunt” in Japanese, and it is to her
aunt that the young character Naomi looks up to.  Obasan is
considered one of the most important Canadin books of the last 30
years, according to Prof. Roy Miki, who along with Kogawa and his
brother Art, worked to secure redress for Japanese Canadians from the
Canadian government.

“I am very happy today,” said Kogawa, as she tried to describe what it
meant to her to have Obasan chosen as the book all Vancouverites should
read.  Kogawa described her conversation earlier in the day with
her friend fellow author Alice Munro who had recieved the Terasen Life
Time Achievment award as part of the VPL Central Library's 10th
Anniverasay celebrations.  “It just keeps getting better and
better, she told me – the recognition and awards.  I guess I will
have to accept it,” Kogawa smiled.


Kogawa said that when she first heard about the Redress settlement from
the Canadian government, she was very happy.  “But it was over so
quickly – the moment passed.  I'm going to savour this one.” 
Throughout the summer, VPL will hold many events based on the themes of
Obasan.  One Book One Vancouver is described as a book club for
the entire city.  The closing event will be at Word On the Street
Festival September 25th.

Kogawa answered many questions after her all too brief talk.  When
I asked her which Asian Canadian writers that she liked personally she
said, “Oh, there are so many now.  When Roy and I started there
weren't very many…. of course we all love Wayson Choy.” she said.

When asked what was happening with the Kogawa homestead
in Vancouver's Marpole neighborhood, Joy replied: “When we rediscovered
it was still there, Tim and I tried to buy it but we didn't have enough
money, so I let the idea go.  When Roy Miki organized the reading
at the house, it was very special.  I was very excited to see the
cheerry tree again.”  Then Joy held up a little plastic bag and
said “
Seeds from the cherry tree,” as she smiled broadly.

Joy speaks very clearly, patiently and perceptively.  She shares
with the audience that Obasan was also just chosen for the One Book
program in Medicine Hat.  She answers questions about what it was
like living in internment camps, as she describes that some readers
have felt that the condtions were so inconcievable that it must have
been fiction.  Joy counted the members of her family, plus her
father's friends that all lived in a chicken coop filled with fleas and
chicken smell. 

“12 of us… after she names each person.”

At the end of the evening many people thank Joy for such an inspiring
talk.  She shared her buddhist philosophy of “letting go” when
asked about dealing with the pain and suffering.  She shared her
perception of American Christians creating a Christian bomb that landed
on the most important Christian Cathedral in Japan. 

“Joy Kogawa teaches us to be better Canadians,” I shared with Richard
Hopkins, professor at the University of BC Library School. 
Richard smiled and said succintly, “Joy Kogawa teaches us to be better
human beings.”

The next Joy Kogawa events are:
Thursday night at the Vancouver Museum for a sampling of the songs from
Vancouver Opera's forthcoming production of Naomi's Road, based on Joy
Kogawa's children's book.

Saturday night at Our Town Cafe for a sampling of Asian Canadian
writers featuring Kogawa, Alexis Keinlein and Gleen Deer. organized by Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop.


Joy Kogawa signing books
with Janice Douglas (VPL Director of Community Programs) and Paul
Whitney (VPL City Librarian) – photo Todd Wong

Joy Kogawa signs a book for VPL Board Member Chrissy George – photo Todd Wong

Relaxing after the reading: Rev. Tim Nakamura (Joy's brother), Prof. Roy Miki, Joy Kogawa, and Todd Wong – photo by David Kogawa

Cross-cultural wedding in Canada – Celebrating our shared heritage.

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Weddings… great places for cultural traditions to mix and match, as
more and more Canadians of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds
decide to tie the knot.

I attended a wedding reception for the son of one of my older cousins, Joe Wai, the architect of so many buildings in Vancouver's Chinatown and around this city.  Joe recently designed the Millenium Gate,
and previously designed the Chinatown Parkade, the Chinese Cultural
Centre Museum and Archives, as well as being one of the architects of
the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens. 
I have always counted Joe as one of my early role models for his vast
amount of community work, and ability to blend East and West together.

His son Jonathan had just gotten married.  I had never before met
the bride.  But when I walked into the Fortune Garden
Restaurant at
1475 West Broadway St. this past Saturday, I immediately identified her. 
She was standing, radiantly beautiful, wearing an intricately
embroidered antique Chinese jacket, and skirt emblazoned with dragons and phoenix
in stunning relief.  Calm and serene, she had presence and
dignity.  I was to discover later that the jacket and skirt had originally
belonged to my Auntie Rose and Aunt Lannie and had been given to one of my cousin's
wives recently.  They were loaned to the bride for this very special
occasion. Definitely now a museum-quality piece in all the good ways!

The bride was also wearing, which was to be revealed later, a red
Chinese cheong-sam – the traditional Chinese wedding dress.  Cheongsam
means “long dress.” It is floor length but with a slit on the side up
to the thigh, and it features a mandarin collar. It was featured in the
Spider Man movie worn by actress Kirsten Dunst.
 
What is amazing is that the bride,
is Caucasian, and the groom is Eurasian.  I learned many things
about Lisa Sowden the bride.  She is an actor
and she speaks more Cantonese than my younger cousin Jonathan, who is
now developing his law career.  Our families have always been
ethnically and culturally diverse.  Inter-racial marriage has
generally long been accepted on both sides of my family.  On my
father's side, 6 of my 9 cousins including Joe married
non-Asians.  On my mother's side, 10 of my married cousins
including my brother chose non-asians.

For me, the small Chinese banquet reception (50 guests) seemed so
Canadian. 
More than half of the guests were caucasian, and we dined
on shark's fin soup, prawns, rock cod, crab and lobster, chinese
mushrooms, duck, chicken.  It was truly a grand wedding
banquet. Such gourmet delicacies are usually only ordered for
weddings.  Long Life noodles and Happy Marriage fried race
finished off the meal with Red Bean soup dessert.  As many of the
guests were not familiar with the significance of the menu items. 
My cousin Hayne Wai and I explained things such as the importance of
the head and tail being included in the fish and chicken dishes, to
signify wholeness.  The chinese pronounciation of Fish (Yee) is
similar to coin, the mushroom caps are uncut like large coins. 
The noodles are long to encourage long life. 

I got up briefly to talk with the bride and groom, and imagine my
surprise when I returned to my seat to find the cooked chicken head on
my plate.  Immediately I told the chinese wedding tradition about
putting the chicken head on a string and dangling it in front of the
bridal couple with the instructions to kiss it to bring good
luck.  Of course the person with the string pulls it up at the
last minute, initiating the couple in a kiss.  I think it worked
better in the days of arranged marriages when the couple didn't know
each other, and probably were no strangers to kissing each other.

At our table, I sat next to Lisa's friends Maria
(another actor) and her boyfriend Darren who not too familiar with
Chinese cuisine.  On my other side, Carole jumped right into each
of the dinner courses and enjoyed it tremendously.  While Carole
has a
French-Canadian background, it is her sister Tina, that married Joe's
younger brother Wayne, so… Carole is familiar around many of the
family's Chinese-Canadian activities and dinners.

At the evening's close, I gave a special bottle of Pinot Blanc Special
Late Harvest (-13) desert wine to the bride and groom.  It is Red Rooster Winery's “-13” or Minus Thirteen, created to celebrate the Year of the Rooster. 
It even has Chinese characters on the label, which is what initially
drew my attention tot he bottle.  Checking their website, I was
surprised to discover an Asian-Canadian winemaker, Richard Kanazawa. Of course I chose this bottle to celebrate the year they got married – Year of the Rooster. 

What does it mean for a Canadian couple of diverse cultural background
getting married in the Year of the Rooster and the Astrological sign of
Gemini?  Many things to many people!  And that's the great
thing about being Canadian, or to quote Bob and Doug Mackenzie, “Beauty, eh?”

Meet “Chairman George Sapounidis” a Greek Canadian statistician who is a pop star in China, singing in Mandarin Chinese

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George Sapounidis is a VERY interesting man.

I first heard
about him when Moyra Rodger featured him in the CBC TV Gung Haggis Fat
Choy performance special.  Then I finally met him when he came to
Vancouver for a show earlier this year – click here for the funny story of how we met.


George now has a TV special of his own on CTV May 28th.  He invites everybody to watch 'Chairman
George' and buy the CD  'George from Athens to Beijing'

Enjoy the show Saturday
May 28  7pm on CTV in CANADA .  Thanks for your
help .  
George Sapounidis ,
Canada

www.chairmangeorge.com

———————————————————

TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY MOVIE

CHAIRMAN GEORGE – QUEST FOR THE TORCH

How a Greek-Canadian
government statistician reinvented himself as a rising Chinese pop star with dreams of bringing a message of
unity to the Olympic Games.

CTV
NATIONAL BROADCAST in CANADA
SATURDAY MAY
28   7-8 PM

Directed by Daniel Cross ,
Produced by
EyeSteelFilm
in association with CTV, BBC and TV2 Denmark

New CD Soundtrack:  'George
from Athens to Beijing'
(16 chinese and greek songs plus 5 voicebites from
documentary)

Visit        www.chairmangeorge.com  to buy the CD

Or contact   george_sapounidis@hotmail.com  with CD
orders.

For more info about the film:
———————————————————

Have an Asian Heritage Month Long Weekend – Check out these events around town and at the Children's Fesitval

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There are many many things to do on a rainy wet Vancouver weekend…
including celebrating the rain at the Children's Festival by wearing
your “welly's” and carrying your “brella.”

Check out the many events at explorASIAN
festival celebrating Asian Heritage Month.

National Acrobats of Taiwan
Vancouver International Children's Festival
Sunday 12:00 pm

Monday 3:00 pm
Vanier Park, Vancouver

BC BUDS: A SPRING ARTS FAIR
Lots of FREE events all weekend!
THE FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE
280 East Cordova Street, Vancouver

SENSES
ongoing until June…
The Centre for Performing Arts, 777 Homer, Vancouver
see my opening night review

Past ExplorAsians, Present Explorations
Chinese Canadian Genealogy
Saturday
9:30 am to 4pm
Vancouver Public Library – Alma van Dusen Room

Harry Wong
Vancouver International Children's Festival
Saturday 11am
Sunday 3pm
Vanier Park, Vancouver
I met Harry last year when he did his 5 Elements show with Rick Scott – Wonderful performance!

Drookpa: A Celebration of Mongolian and Tibetan Culture
Saturday 1:00 pm
Roundhouse Community Centre (181 Mews, Vancouver)

explorWORD – Reading Series

Featuring Lydia
Kwa, Sook Kong, Fiona Lam, Chris Gatchalian, Rita Wong, Rupinder Sohal
Saturday 7:00 pm
Our Town Café (96 Kingsway, Vancouver)

One World Taiko
Saturday
8:00 pm
Vancouver East Cultural Centre

– featuring my friends Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault from Silk Road Music

Vancouver International Children's Festival
Sunday 12 pm
Vanier Park, Vancouver

Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre

Dazzling Maori dance from ambassadors of the South Pacific.
Vancouver International Children's Festival
Saturday 11am
Sunday 4pm
Monday 11am
Vanier Park, Vancouver

Joy Kogawa readings for May 24th and May 28th in Vancouver

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Joy Kogawa at VPL May 24th

for One Book, One Vancouver premiere event

Here are details from the Vancouver Public Library website about the One Book One Vancouver program featuring Joy Kogawa.

Joy will also do a reading for Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop
May 28 7:00 pm

explorWORD – Reading Series

Our Town Café 96 Kingsway, Vancouver

Featuring Mishtu Banerjee, Joy Kogawa, Hanako Masutani, Alexis Kienlen, Glenn Deer

Obasan is a powerful and moving story of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, told through the
eyes of a child, Naomi. Surrounded by hardship and pain, Naomi is protected by the resolute endurance of her aunt,
Obasan, and the silence of those around her. Only after Naomi grows up does she return to question that haunting silence.

Until
September, Vancouver Public Library is presenting a variety of special
events, author readings, and discussions to bring the book alive and to
explore its many ideas. Please see our One Book Upcoming Events page for details.

 

 

 

 

 

Premiere Author Reading with

Joy Kogawa

Tuesday, May 24

7:30 p.m.

Central Library (350 W. Georgia St.)

Alice MacKay Room (Lower Level)

(part of our special Library Square at 10 celebration!)