Screening Conversation of Boundary 也斯：東西 on May 8, 7.00pm

Tuesday, 8 May 2018, 7 pm (doors open @ 6:30 pm)
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
578 Carrall Street, Vancouver
Free and open to the public
English/Chinese subtitles (138 mins | 2015 | Trailer)

A City Inscribed event. Registration is required.

In 2009, when the idea of producing a documentary first emerged, Ye Si 也斯 (pen name of Leung Ping-kwan 梁秉鈞, 1949–2013) offered this suggestion: “If you want to understand me, you should get acquainted with my friends. You will find part of me in each of them.” And thus began an exploration—through the eyes of academics, writers, artists, fashion designers, food connoisseurs, as well as Ye Si’s family—of an extraordinary literary life, a journey that was intricately linked to the cosmopolitanism that was, and is, Hong Kong.

Dr. WONG King Fai is an award-winning film director, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the director of 1918 and Boundary, which document, respectively, the literary lives of Liu Yichang (1918–) and Ye Si (1949–2013), two of the most-celebrated writers of Hong Kong. Dr. Wong’s screenplay for the film Life without Principle (2011) has garnered a number of prestigious awards, including the Best Original Screenplay (the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards), the Best Screenwriter (Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards), and the Best Screenwriter (Chinese Film Media Awards). Dr. Wong has published two collections of short stories and is Chief Editor of the series “Literature and Cinema” (Hong Kong University Press). Dr. Wong has been named the 2018 Best Artist (Arts Criticism) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

This community screening is organized by UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative and co-sponsored by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Chinese Canadian Writers’ Association, Vancouver Hong Kong Forum Society, Youth Collaborative for Chinatown, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Ricepaper Magazine, LiterASIAN Festival, explorASIAN/VAHMS, PCHC–MoM Society, and Institute for Transpacific Cultural Research (SFU).

ACWW is proud to Support 1967/1997: Reflections on Hong Kong Literature and Cinema

Saturday, 12 May 2018, 2 pm
Centre A
268 Keefer St., Vancouver
Free and open to the public
(Program in Cantonese)

A City Inscribed event. Registration is required.

How has the literature and cinema of Hong Kong responded to major transformations? In particular, how have the upheavals associated with the 1967 riots and the 1997 handover been marked by the literary and the visual? Come join Dr. Mary Shuk-Han Wong of Lingnan University and award-winning director Dr. Wong King Fai for a conversation about the past and present of Hong Kong literature and cinema.

Dr. Mary Shuk-Han WONG is an associate professor in the Department of Chinese at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. She has published widely on film and literature. She is the author of Feminine Writing: Cinema, Literature and Everyday Live (2014) and Hong Kong Cinema: Writer, Literature and Cinema (2013). Major edited works include the “Hong Kong Literature and Culture of the 1950s” series (2013) and the “Hong Kong Literature and Culture of the 1960s” series (2018). She is also a novelist and essayist. Major creative works include Against the Grain (2017), From Kafka (2015), and an award-winning collection of short stories, Surviving Central (2013). She is also the co-producer of the documentaries 1918 (2015) and Boundary (2015). An edited anthology, Hong Kong 1960s, is scheduled to appear in June 2018.

Dr. WONG King Fai is an award-winning film director, screenwriter, and novelist. He is the director of 1918 and Boundary, which document, respectively, the literary lives of Liu Yichang (1918–) and Ye Si (1949–2013), two of the most-celebrated writers of Hong Kong. Dr. Wong’s screenplay for the film Life without Principle (2011) has garnered a number of prestigious awards, including the Best Original Screenplay (the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards), the Best Screenwriter (Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards), and the Best Screenwriter (Chinese Film Media Awards). Dr. Wong has published two collections of short stories and is Chief Editor of the series “Literature and Cinema” (Hong Kong University Press). Dr. Wong has been named the 2018 Best Artist (Arts Criticism) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

Chinatown Ghosts: The Poems and Photographs of Jim Wong-Chu

Jim Wong-Chu is a legend in the Asian Canadian writing community. As founder of the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop (and its magazine Ricepaper), he constantly encouraged and inspired writers across the country to get their work published and acknowledged, from Paul Yee and Evelyn Lau to Madeleine Thien and Catherine Hernandez. When Jim passed away in 2017, at the age of sixty-eight, he left not only a void in the Asian Canadian writing and publishing community but also a legacy of his own work that was never fully recognized.

When it first appeared in 1986, Chinatown Ghosts was the first Chinese Canadian poetry book ever published; the poems spoke eloquently to the Chinese Canadian experience, both historical and present day. Out of print for some twenty-five years, this new edition includes Jim's striking and evocative photographs of Vancouver's Chinatown, revealing the soul of a place and a community that is threatened by gentrification and displacement.

The book also contains numerous tributes to Jim from some of Canada’s finest Asian-Canadian writers and editors, including Allan Cho, Glenn Deer, Catherine Hernandez, SKY Lee, Fred Wah, Terry Watada, Rita Wong, and Paul Yee.  Chinatown Ghosts is a moving and stirring tribute to a poet, a photographer, and a community.

"I see the poems of Chinatown Ghosts not just as snapshots of a time and place gone by but as a necessary and panoramic part of Jim’s struggle to envision a world that acknowledges difference." --Fred Wah, from his essay in the book

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Chinatown Ghosts: The Poems and Photographs of Jim Wong-Chu will be launched at LiterASIAN 2018, as part of the opening event.

You Are Invited: NINE DRAGONS Book Launch

Jovanni Sy, Artistic Director, Gateway Theatre Kevin Williams, President, Talonbooks Allan Cho, Festival Director, LiterASIAN Festival Invite you to celebrate the publishing of Nine Dragons  by Jovanni Sy BOOK LAUNCH Tuesday, April 17, 7pm Gateway Theatre, 2nd Floor Lobby FREE event before the performance of Nine DragonsLight refreshments will be served. Cash bar.

Be among the first to buy a copy of the book and get it signed by playwright Jovanni Sy! $15 (25% off) for ticket holders to the April 17, 8pm performance ofNine Dragons $20 regular price  Jovanni will talk about the play, and Allan will highlight some of the Featured Authors at the upcoming 2018 LiterASIAN Festival.

Faye Leung's new book "The Hat Lady Sings! The Faye & Dean Chun Kwong Leung Story"

Faye Leung is a third-generation born Canadian Chinese who was raised in the Chinatowns of Victoria and Vancouver.   As a cultural pioneer, Faye’s life bridged the best of the Chinese and Caucasian worlds and her life’s work enhanced and enriched both worlds for future generations. Faye and Dean her husband never charged any money for their public or private service, as they considered it an honour to freely give of themselves.

Faye’s lifetime achievements have been groundbreaking for women and ethnic minorities yet they have gone largely unnoticed. Faye fought for decades since her youth against discrimination and restrictions for equality for Asians. She helped local Asians and immigrants find their rightful place in business, community and society thus improving their livelihoods. The Chinese bestowed upon her the title of Ambassador-at-Large for the Chinese. Her decades in business bridged and pioneered the economic and social gaps and hosted, assisted, cultivated and fostered an understanding between Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Far East resulting in billions of dollars of investment for all Canadians to reap the benefits.

Faye & Dean were role models and mentors who were respectfully appreciated for their sacrifices that made it possible for Chinese to live a better and good life in Canada where once they were severely restricted and discriminated against. They were the first Chinese businessman and the first Chinese businesswoman who made it all possible especially Faye as back then women were never allowed. Faye never thought of herself as a woman nor felt restricted as a woman in all of her business dealings she just carried on and got the job done. These are two proud Canadian leaders who have helped give Chinese the freedom, privileges and prestige which generations of Chinese-Canadians enjoy today.

Due Date: September 2018
Warfleet Press
400 pp, Hard Cover
$34.95

Workshop with CE Gatchalian: Consultation and Protocol: Writing About Others

We're all encouraged to "write about what we know" - and we're also encouraged, as writers, to stretch and engage our imaginations.

So what happens when the desire hits us to write about a community that we are not personally a part of, or about an experience that we haven't personally gone through? Should we simply abandon the project, or is there a middle ground wherein we can exercise our right to free expression while following protocols of respect and deference?

Current Kogawa House Writer-in-Residence C.E. (Chris) Gatchalian will lead discussions on these questions in two one-hour workshops. The first workshop will be a discussion led by Chris on the above issues; in the second workshop, participants will be free to share and receive feedback on works-in-progress, if they choose.

Workshop 1: Sunday, March 18, 1 pm
Workshop 2: Sunday, March 25, 1 pm

About CE Gatchalian
The author of five books, Filipino-Canadian author C. E. Gatchalian was born, raised and based on the unceded traditional lands of the Coast Salish People (Vancouver). His plays, which include Falling In Time, Broken, Motifs & Repetitions and People Like Vince, have appeared on stages nationally and internationally, as well as on radio and television. The winner of two Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards and a two-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, he was the 2013 recipient of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize, awarded annually by The Writers' Trust of Canada to a Canadian LGBT author of merit. He is currently Writer-in-Residence at Kogawa House, where he is working on a non-fiction manuscript.

Link to register