Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2010

Patricia Lim — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:38:20 +0000

Photo by: Gillian Lo

Gung Haggis Fat Choy, the annual Robbie Burns Day and Chinese New Year celebration, held by Toddish McWong, was intercultural goodness. Pipers were piping, dancers were dancing, volunteers were hawking raffle tickets, both Chinese & Scottish men galore were showing off their legs in kilts, and haggis wonton was eaten. Floata Restaurant was packed with over 400 very happy guests.

Gung Haggis Pipe & Drum Band (Photo by: Gillian Lo)

Larissa Lai, who has been featured in Ricepaper (13.4 Alter Ego issue), recited several of her poems from Automaton Biographies to much applause, while a mysterious Bearded Lady went around the tables and shushed, so that Larissa could be heard. In addition, the evening featured: a theatrical performance by playwright and actor Marcus Youssef accompanied by writer and comedian Charles Demers; an instrumental trio, featuring Lan Tung (erhu), Ron Samworth (electric guitar) and Neelamjit Dhillon (tabla drums); highland dancing by two cute kids (Aidan and Alex Huang) and a multicultural pipe band which weaved in and out of the crowd near the middle and the end of the night. Toddish McWong and Joe McDonald performed a Gung Haggis rap, which was unable to be deciphered even with the assistance of the lyrics written up in the program.

Ricepapers on display (Photo by: Gillian Lo)

Hawking issues and books at the Ricepaper booth (Photo by: Gillian Lo)

Ricepaper had a display table at the dinner, where we displayed our wares and wares of beautiful back issues. I trained volunteers on what to say in answer to the infamous FAQ: “Is Ricepaper actually made out of ricepaper?” The answer that the volunteer should politely provide: “No.”

Haggis siu mai (Photo by: Gillian Lo)

Ricepaper volunteer table (Photo by: Gillian Lo)

As one young Ricepaper volunteer, Ben, noted–and I’m paraphrasing a little here: “By volunteering with Ricepaper, you can have fun and learn while at the same time have the opportunity to go to great cultural events like these!” Young Ben is right. Volunteering with Ricepaper is fun! (I will unabashedly admit that this is the point where the blog takes its turn from event recap to volunteer recruitment.) Ricepaper is a big supporter and attender of community events like Gung Haggis Fat Choy, but as a non-profit organization, we’re more dependent than most on the much appreciated efforts of our volunteers.

If you’d like to volunteer with Ricepaper on a one-time or regular basis, go to our volunteers page for more details.

Help out at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner!

Patricia Lim — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:00:59 +0000

Photo: Courtesy of Gung Haggis Fat Choy

Ricepaper is looking for volunteers to help out 5pm January 31, Sunday, at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner at Floata Restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Gung Haggis Fat Choy fuses Robbie Burns Day with Chinese Year to create a fusion-y goo of intercultural goodness.

There’ll be haggis-filled wonton. Hobnobbing with participants and guests such as CBC News anchor Gloria Macarenko, Rita Wong, Adrienne Wong, Toddish McWong, and other people in the local Vancouver arts and culture scene. Plenty of bagpiping. And yes, you heard me right, haggis-filled wonton.

Those are my selling points and I’m sticking to them. Please email info[at]ricepapermagazine.ca if you’d like to help out.

Also, a fair share of men wearing kilts.

For more information, go to Gung Haggis Fat Choy

Ricepaper Magazine » volunteers

Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2010

Help out at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner!