Nitaro Hamaguchi was born on March 18, 1879 in Kumamoto, Japan. His family was very poor and starving. As the eldest son, his duty was to look after his parents and siblings. He had heard that Canada was a wild, … more »
There’s a map of the Philippines that hangs across my bed in a gilded bronze frame. It’s from a 1935 Rand McNally World Atlas. I paid $400 for it ten years ago at an antique shop in Toronto because the … more »
“I don’t want to say ‘hi’ to people at school,” I said. “What if they don’t say ‘hi’ back to me?”
“Well, when we do nice things, we should do them without expecting anything in return,” said Auntie Guan, looking … more »
The Burnaby Art Gallery’s exhibition of Anna Wong: A Traveller on Two Roads is a refreshing approach to the Asian Canadian narrative. As the first major retrospective of Canadian artist and master printmaker, Anna Wong (1930-2013), it is long overdue … more »
Remember the “Comfort Women”
I was 15 and living in Vancouver when I first learned about the ‘comfort women’, a terrible euphemism for tens of thousands of young women sexually enslaved by the Japanese military. My mother had read about … more »
Summer rain dripped down, thinning the air. Although it was a warm day, the fried Chinese cruller dipped in hot soy milk made for a refreshing breakfast. The soup dumplings and hot tea were another welcome and complementary pairing. We … more »
There’s lots to do in Vancouver’s Chinatown, from street mahjong to Cantonese lessons and checking out the public spaces. Read on for ways to one enjoy of the oldest cultural heritage sites of Vancouver this summer and fall.
Don’t get
… more »I didn’t know I was Japanese Canadian until almost four years ago. I was twenty. Growing up, I never blended the two words into a single neat term that hinted at my family’s history. As a kid, I probably described … more »
It’s been almost ten years now since my grandmother died. My grandfather came to live with us later that year, and spent the whole time fighting with my dad. I didn’t speak to him while he was there – I … more »
Tamagawa Kanjin. This was my father’s name. He told me that Tamagawa is Japanese for marble river. Such a conflicted meaning–marble does not flow. Other translations, jewel river and bullet river, are just as poetic and unclear. But … more »