Ho Tak Kee (何德記) Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen

This film is being screened at the Grunt Gallery's Mount Pleasant Community Screen. It is shown every weekend of May at this outdoor location.  People can enjoy this work, by walking or driving by the outdoor screen which is attached to the "Independent" building.

Ho Tak Kee 何德記

2022. Silent 5:53 minutes. Grunt Gallery Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen

By Leung Yiksea (Director) & Karin Lee (Producer)

Location: Intersection of Broadway & Kingsway, Vancouver, an outdoor screen on the east side of the Independent Building.

Ho Tak Kee is an assembly of fragmented memories and imagined conversations of a local wonton house that was lost to fire one Christmas day. This work is presented as one part fairy tale, one part cooking show and one part Cantonese school.

The title is borrowed from the once-bustling neighbourhood staple, Ho Tak Kee Wonton House. Many elements of this project were inspired by conversations with the Ho Tak Kee family and the artists in the area who frequented this eatery. This settler story is emblematic of many newcomer/family-run eateries.

The grunt gallery’s Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen, Broadway & Kingsway, is located on the site of the former Ho Tak Kee Wonton House.

(Artist Bio)
Leung Yiksea 梁亦詩

Leung Yiksea 梁亦詩 (pronounced leurn-yick-see) is a Canadian media artist whose work is informed by the people and settlers of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh lands (where Vancouver is located). Her family’s ancestral villages are located in 番禺 (punyu) and 新會 (sunwui) of southern China. The focus of her work centres on place-based stories and identity. Before becoming a parent to two incredible kids, she collaborated on intergenerational, multilingual, site-specific projects in Chinatown and Strathcona neighbourhoods. She co-directed Cedar and Bamboo (with filmmaker Kamala Todd), which has been shown nationally, internationally, and most recently as part of VIVO Media Arts’ thirstDays series and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s Imagining Fusang exhibition.

(Producer Bio)
Karin Lee 李嘉慈
karinlee.ca

Karin Lee 李嘉慈 is a Canadian media artist and filmmaker. Her critical voice and perspective touches on the past and the present, both local and international. An artist who constantly traverses new territory, Lee challenges film and media forms and addresses new audiences. Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, Karin’s films are influenced by her family who immigrated to Canada in the 1870’s, settling in Barkerville BC. Lee’s parents were activists who worked in the downtown eastside, with her father running a Chinese communist bookstore at 33 East Hastings from the mid-1960s to '80s. Her interest in Chinese Canadian identity, feminism and social justice activism informs her narrative films, experimental video, documentaries and original TV series she has written, directed and produced since 1991.

Congratulations to Barbara Lee for the ACWW Community Builders Award

We are pleased to announce Barbara Lee as 2022’s recipient of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop Community Builders Award. This award is given to an individual or organization that demonstrates commitment and devotion to racial equity and advocating inclusion for Asian Canadians. Barbara has been championing equity, diversity, inclusion, and better Asian representation in film for more than 25 years. During the pandemic, Barbara has been a strong and consistent voice against anti-Asian racism and advancing social justice, with initiatives such as the founding #Elimin8Hate, the racial equity audit of British Columbia’s Knowledge Network (KN), the Canadian Style Guide for Reporting on Asian Canadian Communities, bravely calling out the racial inequities of Canadian grant funding agencies, and her dedicated leadership of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival that continues highlighting Asian Canadian filmmakers with programming targeting discrimination.

Over the years, ACWW has honoured individuals, community organizations, and educational institutions that have made significant contributions to the community. Past recipients of the ACWW Community Builders Awards include Roy Mah, Wayson Choy, Paul Yee, Harvey Lowe, Roy Miki, Fred Wah, The Bulletin (National Association of Japanese Canadians), Joy Kogawa, Scott McIntyre Gim Wong, Evelyn Lau, Tradewind Books, and Brian Lam. Your tireless efforts and your dedication to our community are an inspiration to us all and very much exemplify the spirit of this award.

ACWW presented the award to Barbara on the opening night of LiterASIAN Festival on Saturday, May 7th. Thank you, Barbara, for all that you do in the community, and congratulations!

Remembering Joyce Lam

ACWW is deeply saddened by the passing of VACT founder Joyce Lam. Our founder Jim Wong-Chu, attended the first Asian Comedy Night put on by Joyce, and had even offered financial help. We thank Tom Chin for sharing this memory during his interview with CBC Radio, and are glad that many of VACT's productions became sell-outs. 

"Fresh Off the Press!" Book Signing Event on May 8th

Foo Hung Curios, is located next to the welcome lobby at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre.

This Asian Heritage Month, expand your bookshelf and your mind in the heart of Vancouver's Chinatown.

Drop by Foo Hung Curios on Sunday, May 8th (Mother's Day!) to welcome and meet three Chinese Canadian writers with books fresh off the press.

• 11am - 12pm: Wayne Ng - “Letters from Johnny”
• 12:30pm - 1:30pm: Jamie Chai Yun Liew - “Dandelion"
• 2pm - 3pm: Cheuk Kwan - “Have You Eaten Yet?”

This event is free, and registration is not required.

Presented in partnership between the Chinatown Storytelling Centre and the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop.

The Hong Kong and Taiwanese Diaspora in the Literary Imagination on May 19, 2022

Reading + Conversation

Thursday, 19 May 2022, 17:00–18:30 PDT
The Hong Kong and Taiwanese Diaspora in the Literary Imagination
Sam Cheuk and Julia Lin
Moderated by Allan Cho
via Zoom

A City Reassembled event
Registration required

The world of Hong Kong and Taiwanese literature is obviously not limited to literary works written in Chinese by writers living in Hong Kong or Taiwan. Not only is there a significant body of writings in English by authors (such as Xu Xi, Timothy Mo, Dorothy Tse, Tammy Ho, Nicholas Wong, Chih-Ying Lay, to name a few) based in Hong Kong or Taiwan, the coming of age of a new generation of Hong Kong-born and Taiwan-born Canadian writers, whose literary works often draw on their transnational experiences, has also added much richness to the literature of Hong Kong and Taiwan—not to mention that of Canada. Join us for a conversation with authors Sam Cheuk and Julia Lin, along with moderator Allan Cho, on their works and journeys.

SAM CHEUK is the Hong Kong-born Canadian author of Love Figures (2011), Deus et Machina (2017), and Postscripts from a City Burning (2021). He holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University and a BA in English literature from the University of Toronto. Sam is currently working on Marginalia, which examines the function, execution, and generative potential behind censorship. He lives in Vancouver.

JULIA LIN was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada (after having also lived in Vietnam) with her family when she was nine. She holds a MSc in Immunology from the University of Toronto and a post-graduate degree in computing education from the University of British Columbia. In addition to Miah (2012), the first Taiwanese-Canadian story collection, Julia is also the author of Shadows of the Crimson Sun: One Man’s Life in Manchuria, Taiwan, and North America (2017).

ALLAN CHO is a librarian, editor, and community organizer. He writes about libraries, publishing, and Asian Canadian/American culture. He is the Executive Director of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop.

This reading+conversation is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative, the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, and the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society explorASIAN Festival and is co-sponsored by: Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research, Centre for Migration Studies, Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies, Public Humanities Hub, and the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster.

Registration for: “The Hong Kong and Taiwanese Diaspora in the Literary Imagination”

Home, Heritage & Migration: a poetry workshop with Vancouver Poet Laureate, Fiona Tinwei Lam, May 1

May 1, 2022 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

REGISTER HERE

Join us and Vancouver Poet Laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam, on Sunday, May 1 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm as we launch our Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2022 Program.

Admission to the Garden is included in the ticket price.

Even before Confederation, people of Asian descent have lived and worked in Canada. Others arrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s, others in the decades after 1960, or more recently. How do we start to write evocative poems that can articulate our experience as Canadians of Asian descent, whether we or our ancestors were born here or elsewhere? After a brief discussion of some of the key components of effective poems and a discussion of a few examples of poems about identity and place, Fiona will lead participants through a writing exercise and writing prompts to help you draft poems of your own. Please bring a relevant photo or portable object to the session.

Bio: Vancouver’s 6th Poet Laureate, Fiona Tinwei Lam has published three collections of poetry and a children’s book. Her poems have been featured in Best Canadian Poetry, in the League of Canadian Poets’ Poem in Your Pocket program, and thrice with BC’s Poetry in Transit, as well as in award-winning poetry videos made in collaboration with filmmakers that have screened worldwide. She edited The Bright Well: Contemporary Canadian Poems about Facing Cancer, and co-edited two nonfiction anthologies, Double Lives: Writing & Motherhood and Love Me True: Writers on the Ins, Outs, Ups & Downs of Marriage. Shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Prize and other awards, her work has been included in over 40 anthologies. Please visit www.fionalam.net for more information.

$15 – $20 Reduced rate for Garden Members (Volunteers, Annual Pass Holders)