Pauline Wenn was the hostess of the evening. She opened by stating the theme of the evening was an idea inspired by my own Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner and poetry events of bringing together Scottish and Chinese cultures, with a slant to Canadian adventures. Cric? Crac! has been going on for 20 years, and regularly features multicultural tales. I was very pleased that Mary Gavan and Pauline Wenn invited me to perform with them, and they had trouble containing their gushing enthusiasm.
Pauline explained that she was born in Scotland, and while living in Canada, she discovered that she needed to get in touch with her Scottish roots. Never having attended a Burns Dinner before, she decided to host her own - filling her living room with rented tables and chairs for 25 people. Reminded me of my own first Burns Supper where my friend Gloria Smyth filled her townhouse living room with rented chairs and tables for 16 people. Pauline shared her realization that in Scotland, only men had attended Burns suppers, because the women had stayed in the kitchen cooking the dinner. She explained that the "Toast to the Lassies" came about as a thank you to the ladies for cooking the dinner. ("The rebuttal by the Lassies" is usually quite sassy.)
Next came a story about a Chinese buddhist monastery in Northern Scotland was told by a father - son team. They followed up the story by performing a duet on guitar and violin. Then husband and wife duet on guitar and violin. This event evoked such a warm and folksy feeling, easily reminding me of my first Robbie Burns "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" dinner, where we invited our guests to each share a poem, song, or food dish for our event.
I am always amazed by what one learns about Burns, and the tale told by Mary Gavan was no exception. She asked the audience if they thought that Burns had been buried once, twice, thrice or four times. Then she told a true story that explained the circumstances of burial in poverty, burial in a grand mausoleum, burial by tape measure, and finally burial by pitch (don't ask).
Pauline introduced me as the final performance/story teller before the intermission. She encouraged me to tell the origins of Gung Haggis Fat Choy. I first explained about the tartan that I was wearing - the Ancient Fraser, also known as the Fraser of Lovat. And of course I had to explain how a University came to be named after Simon Fraser the explorer, and not the son of the Silver Fox, who had lost his head after the battle of Culloden for supporting the uprising of Bonnie Prince Charlie. ( I did admit to first learning about Prince Charles Edward from the back of a bottle of Drambuie). This was all my preamble to explain how a university built of pre-fabricated concrete was able to adopt the traditions of Scottish culture and the motto of the Fraser Clan
- Je Suis Prets (I am ready).
And then I told the story of the
origins of Toddish McWong, and the very first Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.
I finished by reading two poems that I wrote. The first was inspired after listening to the Rick Scott and Harry Wong childrens cd titled 5 Elements. It is called 12 Animals of the Zodiac, and explains how Buddha named the years of the Chinese Calendar. The second poem is titled "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" and was inspired during the creation of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy CBC television performance.
A very lovely and friendly intermission filled with lots of treats followed. Mary Gavan's special haggis pate was served with crackers. Their were fortune cookies, rum balls, oatmeal cakes, shortbread, and something like plum pudding - all served with Chinese tea!
Robin Seto began the second half by reading Paul Yee's book "Roses Singing on New Snow." Correction: Robin didn't read it.... she performed it! Brilliantly.... Paul would be proud.
It was a pleasure to reconnect with Robin. We had first met back in the mid-80's through a mutual friend, and hadn't seen each other since except recently bumping into her at the PNE. Robin shared that she had seen my pictures in the papers, had heard me on the radio, and had followed the development of Gung Haggis Fat Choy into a grand event. She too, comes from a long line of head tax payer descendants and spoke warmly of Gim Wong, who had served in the Canadian army with her father. It was very touching to hear Robin say that she is proud of me. Hopefully we will keep in touch and she can attend some of the future Gung Haggis Fat Choy events.
Next up was a man in a kilt. Ian (from Whistler) was born in Scotland, and he told a wonderful tale of how the kilt was invented, and how it involved an old woman named Agnes and three babies born at the same time - all with red hair, and each named Angus. But before he started, Ian told some rebuttals to the quesiton "What is worn beneath the kilt?"
"Nothing is worn beneath the kilt..... everything is in perfect working condition!"
This topic had been raised because at the end of my performance, I had been asked by a comely Asian-Canadian lass, "For the benefit of the lassies, what does a multicultural Asian Canadian man, like yourself, wear beneath the kilt?"
"The proper answer to your question, is that the knowledge of what is worn beneath my kilt is the sole privilege of my girlfriend."
The evening closed with a story about the Great Wall of China, told by Leilani. Leilani shared that she has Chinese, British and some German bloodlines. We had a nice chat that included her young son, and I invited them to some of the future Gung Haggis Fat Choy events and to meet our multi-racial writers of Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop and
Ricepaper magazine.
It was a fun evening. I will go again. I will recommend it to friends. Next month's Cric? Crac! will honour Black History Month.
Below are links to the cd created by the Vancouver Society of Storytelling. It's a very cool cd. My friends Yukiko Tosa (Children's librarian at Vancouver's Central Branch Library), Andre Thibault and Qiu Xia He (Silk Road Music) are all involved on the project.
