Chinese New Year and the Robbie Burns Day: Gung Haggis dinner brings cultures together
Chinese tradition met Scottish pride at the 15th annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy, a mix between the Chinese New Year and the Robbie Burns Day holiday on Sunday.
Several of the 275 guests, and host Todd Wong, described the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner at Floata Restaurant in Chinatown on Sunday night as “so Vancouver”.
Asians, Canadians, Scottish and everything in between filled the dining room for the multicultural extravaganza featuring bagpipes, literary readings, lion dancing, and a nine-course traditional Chinese New Year meal featuring, naturally, haggis (in both traditional and wonton form).
“This is one of the few events where Canada’s past – where we came from and where we’re going is really so explicitly collided,” said co-host Tetsuro Shigematsu, dressed in a top hat and kilt.
“I really do often tell my friends who are considering coming that this is one of the most unique events on the cultural calendar.”
Unique barely describes the cultural fusion dinner created by Wong, who assumes the guise of Toddish McWong for the evening, to celebrate two pioneers that shaped the province and the country.
“We give substance -- we don’t just pay lip service to multiculturalism,” said Wong, a fifth-generation Chinese Canadian. “You see the musicians, the performers and the food, and everything flows so naturally.”
The idea was born when Wong was still a student at Simon Fraser University in the early 1990s and, as part of his duties as a campus guide, was asked to carry the claymore (sword) in the Robbie Burns (Scottish poet and writer) Day celebration. Since then, he has championed all things Scottish and even joined a Celtic band called the Black Bear Rebels who performed that evening.
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