Category Archives: Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy

Gung Haggis Fat Seattle V – a great success in new venue

Gung Haggis Fat Choy Seattle V was amazing!

Feb 20th @ China Harbour Restaurant
Lake Union
Seattle Washington

IMG_0106 by Toddish McWong

The Seattle version of Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner has an edgy feel, which pushes the boundaries of both traditional Robbie Burns and Chinese New Year dinners.  Scotland's favorite son Robbie Burns is compared to China's most famous poet Lao Tzu.

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Children of all ages enjoy this multicultural, intercultural event, which has featured the Washington Chinese Youth Ensemble in past years, and was a fundraiser this year for the North West Junior Pipe Band.

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A young drummer keeps up with the older drummers around him.  This cultural fusion event opened with the North West Junior Pipe Band.

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Pipe Major gives signals to the band, and demonstrates good poise.
  The band is a mix of male and female, older and younger, and often comes up to Vancouver area, to compete at the BC Highland Games in Coquitlam.

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The dance floor was soon invaded by 6 Chinese lions – two were lion cubs.

Belltown Marshall Arts

Bell Town Martial Arts is led by Sifu David Leung, who once studied with Bruce Lee.

The haggis, with sweet & sour sauce & plum suace.
Haggis is served out of their casings… and heated in aluminum
casserole plates.  But thankfully, a traditional haggis in it's casing
was used for my Address To The Haggis.

Jamie Foster
Jamie Foster sings the Burns song, “Ae Fond Kiss”, then helped lead a singalong of Loch Lomand, with musicians Todd Wong on accordion, Red McWilliams on guitar and Susan Burke on fiddle.

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Todd Wong and Red McWilliams, hosting and singing + comic relief.  We led an interesting diversion of kilt tartan identification.

IMG_0125 by Toddish McWong
Lauren Black, premier Highland Dancer, from Toronto.  What was she doing in Seattle?  She specifically came out to perform at the Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner because her mother is 2nd generation Chinese-Canadian, and her Scottish-Canadian father plays bagpipes, and it was a good excuse to come visit relatives.  Last year she found out some of her friends, who live in Seattle had danced, and she decided she wanted to, too!

IMG_0108 by Toddish McWong

Rock & Roll bagpipes from Don Scobie's band “Nae Regrets”

IMG_0144 by Toddish McWong
Todd Wong presents a kilt wearing Quatchi to Gung Haggis Seattle organizer Bill McFadden.

IMG_0142 by Toddish McWong

Seattle Met magazine discovers Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in Seattle!

Seattle Met magazine features a story
about Toddish McWong
and Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner in Seattle!

Check out this story in the Seattle Met magazine, about Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner history, Toddish McWong origins and the upcoming Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner in Seattle.

http://www.seattlemet.com/arts-and-entertainment/category/special-events/articles/gung-haggis-fat-choy-0211/



Adventures in Multiculturalism

A Vancouverite brings his Chinese and Scottish mash-up to Rain City.

By Hilary Meyerson

Seattlemetmcwongf

Illustration:
Meg Hunt

WHAT DO ROBERT BURNS,
haggis, lion dancers, and the Chinese New Year have in common? That
would be Toddish McWong, aka Todd Wong, a fifth-generation Chinese
Canadian. Wong created Gung Haggis Fat Choy, a Scottish and Chinese
cross-cultural holiday that has spread from Canada to China and
Scotland, and earned him an introduction to the Scottish First Minister.
In 1993, as a student at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia,
Wong was asked to slip on a kilt and help out with a campus Robert Burns
supper, a nod to the eighteenth-century Scottish poet.

Wong took a shine to the poetry recitations—including Burns’s
“Address to a Haggis”—but not to the music (bagpipes) or the food
(haggis: sheep innards minced with oatmeal and simmered in the animal’s
stomach). He donned the tartan, but complemented his costume with
elements of the Lunar Chinese New Year—he covered his face with a lion
mask and carried Chinese food instead of haggis. “I thought, This is a
really interesting way to look at multiculturalism—to flip stereotypes.
So I called myself Toddish McWong.”

He hosted the first public Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in Vancouver,
BC, in 1999, celebrating Scottish and Chinese cultures. And people from
all over the region have flocked to it, including Bill McFadden of
Seattle’s Caledonian and St. Andrew’s Society (he’s Clan MacLaren).
McFadden convinced Wong to bring the event to Western Washington in
2007. Since then hundreds of Seattleites have showed up to devour
deep-fried haggis wontons, sing along to “My Haggis-Chow Mein Lies Over
the Ocean,” and hear McWong perform his “Address to a Haggis” rap,
surely the way the Scottish bard intended.

Thanks for reading!

Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy V – February 20, 2011

Seattle celebrates
5th Anniversary of
Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner


My parents tell me that I first visited Seattle, Washington, when I was a year old.  We would drive south from Vancouver BC, in Canada, cross the international border at the 49th Parallel, and visit both family and friends in Seattle.

In the 1980's I would drive down on my own to visit with friends, see concerts, and go skiing.  In the 2000's I would travel to Seattle for dragon boat racing.  From 2007 to 2011, I now cross the border wearing a kilt to emcee the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Seattle Dinner event.



Bagpiper Don Scobie, Todd Wong (me), event producer Bill McFadden, and young bagpiper – all playing with a kilted Quatchi Olympic mascot.

The Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner is different but similar to the Vancouver Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner.  Bill McFadden organizes the dinner food, and the entertainment.  The food is simpler than what we have at Vancouver's Floata Restaurant, and the entertainment is more traditional – both Chinese and Scottish.  But I am still the emcee, and I bring in the poetry, some of the Vancouver elements, and of course my characteristic “Toddish McWong” energy!!!! to perform my rapping version of the famous Robbie Burns poem “Address to the Haggis”.  And there are always lots of surprises.  Last year, I challenged an member of the audience to a hockey shoot-out, to avenge that day's preliminary Olympic hockey game loss by Canada to the USA.  But because I forgot to bring a puck – we used the Olympic mascot wannabe – Muk Muk as a puck!

Seattle's Gung Haggis Fat Choy V
February 20, 2011 5-9 pm

8 course dinner with haggis, great entertainment, and too much fun!

China
Harbor Restaurant
2040 Westlake Ave N.
Seattle, WA

$35 per person – Tickets now available
 Reservations required
Seating limited to 360

Additional details available at: www.gunghaggisfatchoy-seattle.com

Entertainment includes:

Belltown Martial Arts Lion Dance Troop with Master David Leong ,

Red McWilliams, Scottish Troubadour

Susan Burke, Cape
Breton Fiddler 

Piper Don Scobie & Nae Regrets, 

Northwest Junior Pipeband*
with Director,
Kevin Auld,

Lauren Black** Premier Level Highland Dancer
from Ontario, Canada

This
year's event will be a fund raiser to help send the NWJPB to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow Scotland, August 2011.

Organizer Bill McFadden writes a Special Note:

Lauren Black and her family will be joining us
this year, all the way from Ontario.  Lauren's mother is second
generation
Chinese.  Her father is a “recreational”
piper of Scottish ancestry.  Her grandfather served with a kilted
regiment, The Toronto Scottish, during the
war.  Lauren is “Gung Haggis Fat Choy”! 
Her photo will grace the cover of this year's program.

Beautiful new location on Lake Union:

China
Harbor Restaurant
2040 Westlake Ave N.
Seattle, WA

$35 per person –  Reservations required

Additional details available at:  www.gunghaggisfatchoy-seattle.com 

or email
Bill McFadden at
bill@gunghaggisfatchoy-seattle.com

For
tickets, please send a check made out to
“Gung Haggis Fat Choy”
for $35 per ticket (or $350 for a table
of 10) to:


Last year, the Asian Youth Orchestra, under Director Warren Chang performed.


The Kenmore & Distric Pipe Band performed traditional Scottish pipe songs.

Please click here to view photos in our Gallery from the '07 event in Seattle.

Please click here for a sample of “Toddish McWong's” Haggis Rap!

Please click here for additional information on Todd Wong's annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy held in Vancouver, BC.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy SEATTLE!!! Feb 21, 2010

Gung Haggis Fat Choy in the USA

Sunday, February 21st 2010    5-9pm
Ocean City Restaurant
609 S. Weller St.
Seattle Chinatown, WA

Ticket Price US$35
Reservations
required


Scottish Troubadour Red McWilliamsBelltown Martial Arts Lion Dance Troop 
Master, David Leong
 

Pipers Don Scobie & Paul Vegers
Drummers Thane Mitchell & Steven Wheel


Kenmore and District Pipeband 
Pipe Major, Jim McGillivray

The Asian Youth Orchestra 
Director, Warren Chang

Scottish Highland Fiddler Susan Burke  with Bill Boyd


Here's the information from the Caledonians Website

Gung Haggis Fat Choy!  Huh?!  In 2007 Bill
McFadden, President of the Caledonian & St. Andrew's
Society, introduced Todd Wong's  trademarked production of “Gung Haggis
Fat Choy” to Seattle.  Billed as “A Celebration of Chinese New Year and
Robert Burns' Dinner”, the laughter-filled evening included haggis, a
delicious Chinese dinner, Pipes & Drums (traditional and fusion
style), sing-alongs (including “When Asian/Scottish Eyes are Smiling”
and “My Haggis/Chow Mein Lies Over the Ocean”), Poems, The Address tae
the Haggis (delivered in rap to an enthusiastic and responsive crowd)
and Auld Lang Syne sung in both Mandarin Chinese and English.  

For February 21st, 2010
BIll has worked out improvements, and Gung Haggis Fat
Choy IV will be the best year!  We will celebrated the
251st Birthday of Robert Burns and Chinese Lunar New Year Year of the
Tiger with an 8 Course Chinese Dinner, Haggis, Raffle/Door Prize, and
musical entertainment featuring: Emcee “Toddish McWong” and
his inimitable “Address tae the Haggis Rap”, “Red” McWilliams, Sifu
David F. Leong's Belltown Martial Arts,  Kenmore & District Pipe
Band, Piper Don Scobie and Asian Youth Orchestra – Warren Chang, Director

     
  Toddish
McWong's
2010 Gung Haggis Fat Choy IV (Seattle style)
Produced by Bill McFadden

The fourth
annual event has been scheduled for
Sunday, February 21st 2010    5-9pm
Ocean City Restaurant
609 S. Weller St.
Seattle, WA

Ticket Price US$35
Reservations
required

For tickets and additional information
please contact
Bill McFadden
(206) 364-6025
bill@gunghaggisfatchoy-seattle.com

Please click here to go to the gunghaggisfatchoy-seattle.com web site.

ToddishMcWong.jpg


Todd
Wong (aka “Toddish McWong”) of Vancouver, B.C., creator of Gung Haggis
Fat Choy.  Recognized in the Scottish Parliament's exhibition:  “This
is Who We Are:  Scots in Canada”.  Photo taken in Edinburgh, October of
2009.

Please click here to view photos in our Gallery from the '07 event in Seattle.

Please click here for a sample of “Toddish McWong's” Haggis Rap!

Please click here for additional information on Todd Wong's annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy held in Vancouver, BC.

 Contact Info for some of our past,
present, and future Featured Entertainers:
 

Todd “Toddish McWong” Wong
 
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/

Red McWilliams, “America's
Celt”
http://home.flash.net/~celtsong/

Master
David Leong's
Martial Arts & Lion Dance
School
http://www.belltownmartialarts.com

Kenmore & District Pipe Band
http://www.kdpipeband.com

Karen Shelton Highland Dancers
sheltonhighlanddancers.com

  Washington Chinese Youth Orchestra, Director Warren Chang via chinamusic@comcast.net
 
Don Scobiehttp://www.bagpiperdon.com 


Melody Dance Group
Melody
Xie, Director
http://www.melodyinstitute.org 

Northwest Junior
Pipe Band
http://www.nwjpb.org

Ben
Rudd 
Lensey Namiokahttp://www.lensey.com 

Susan Burk http://susanburkeonline.com


Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy, Sunday February 15th.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy III in Seattle Washington: 200 strong and amazing!

2009_Gung_Haggis_Seattle 059 by you.

Todd Wong and Joe McDonald (centre), went down to Seattle on February 15th, to
take their manic Gung Haggis Rap south of the Canadian border. Here they stand with Red McWilliams (left) and Don Scobie (right), following an exciting Seattle program of Chinese lion dances, Scottish bagpipes, Chinese dancers, Highland dancers, and the Asian Youth Orchesta. – photo Deb Martin.

It was 5pm at Ocean City Restaurant in Seattle's International District, the day after Valentine's Day.  Where were you?  Todd Wong, Joe McDonald and Deb Martin, were still driving to Seattle after a 2 hour delay at the US Border.  They arrived about 6pm, as the Kenmore & District Pipe Band has just followed David Leong's Bellwon Martial Arts Lion dancers.

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Joe McDonald raps the Address to the Haggis, “An' legs and arms and heads will sned like taps of thrissle”, while Bill McFadden and Todd Wong look on – photo Deb Martin.

Bill McFadden, producer of Gung Haggis Fat Choy III in Seattle, set up a program that really featured Seattle's youth, by featuring the Melody Chinese dance Group, Karen Shelton Highland Dancers, and the Asian Youth Orchestra.

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Melody Dance Troupe, performs a fan dance – photo Todd Wong

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Young dancers performs the sword dance – photo T. Wong

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The Highland Fling – photo T. Wong

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Asian Youth Orchestra peforms drums – photo T. Wong

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After Emily's performance drew standing ovations, Todd Wong exclaimed “That song's not Chinese!” as Emily smiled.  “That song was Czardas, a Romanian song… I play that on my accordion.  What a wonderful display of technique by Emily!”

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Young Chinese drummers raise their arms in excitement at the end of their performance! – photo Todd Wong

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The Kenmore & District Pipe Band played to bring a rousing finale! photo Todd Wong

Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy II, sells out and sets new standards!

Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner was very cool – CRAZY – CHAOTIC but cool.

We arrived in Seattle's Chinatown, to see men in kilts walking towards a common direction.

We
saw a large poster on a street corner with the image of a Chinese Lion
Dance Mask headed kilt wearing figure.  Beside the words “Direct from
Vancouver – Toddish McWong!”

Gung Haggis Fat Choy II
Sunday, February 24: 5-9 p.m.

Ocean City Restaurant Noodle Cafe

609 S. Weller St.

Seattle, WA 98104

The evening opened with 5 Lion Dancers on the dance floor and stage, with drummers up on the stage.  I haven't yet had a lion dance featured at the Vancouver Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, so this was soooo impressive.  18 people altogether

Next, the Washington Chinese Youth Orchestra took over the dance floor while I did the MC thing and welcomed people to the event.  They played a few songs, on Chinese dulcimers, Chinese zithers, and then a song on drums. 15 people altogether

Bagpipes were heard as the Northwest Junior Pipe Band came marching in.  Bagpipes blaring and drums banging – in perfect tune and rhythm.  About 16 altogether.

Amazing entertainment from:

Red McWilliams, “America's Celt”
Master David Leong's Martial Arts & Lion Dance School
Northwest Junior Pipe Band
Washington Chinese Youth Orchestra
Susan Burk – Cape Breton style fiddler
Don Scobie – Bag Pipes & Bodran
Ben Rudd – Jimbe drum
Lensey Namioka – author of “Half and Half”
Melody Dance Group – Chinese dancing

+ MC Toddish McWong and Joe McDonald/flute/bagpipes/singing

More later….

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

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

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

Seattle Gung Haggis Fat Choy II
SOLD OUT

Ocean City Restaurant Noodle Cafe

609 S. Weller St.

Seattle, WA 98104

Maps & directions

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

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

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

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

Half and Half

Featuring:


from Vancouver – Todd Wong & Joe McDonald

From Seattle


Red McWilliams, “America's Celt”

Master David Leong's Martial Arts & Lion
Dance School

Northwest Junior Pipe Band

Washington Chinese Youth Orchestra

Susan Burk

Don Scobie

Ben Rudd

Lensey Namioka

Melody Dance Group


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

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

Check out my blog report from Gung Haggis Seattle 2007

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

 By Elizabeth Mortenson

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

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

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

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

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

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

A CROSS-CULTURAL CELEBRATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SPREADING THE WORD

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

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

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

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

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

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