Dragon Boat West

Gung Haggis dragon boat team on FRENCH TV 5 - this weekend Fri/Sat/Sun filmed at ADBF June 2004

Hi Friends,

TV5 - cable 59
Friday 10 december 19:30,
Saturday 11 December 13:00,
Sunday 12 December 01:00

Thalassa is a travelogue program created by French Public Television, France 3. In June 2004, they came to Vancouver to film 3 segments: Sointula, Utopian Island; Sea Village; and Alcan Dragon Boat Festival - which also features footage of Andrea Dillon and the False Creek Women's Team.

Todd Wong and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team were featured in the segment about dragon boat racing, and how Vancouver bridges the cultures between its Chinese population and heritage with its white mainstream society.

Thalassa [url]http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.thalassa.france3.fr/thalassa_emission.php3?id_rubrique=27&prev=/[/url] writes (with further translation from Todd):

"In Vancouver there are two juxtaposed cities. Far from the skycrapers of the white city, The Chinese district asserts itself to the colours and the ideograms. The largest Asian community of Canada came east (across the Pacific) to settle. For hundreds of years, Vancouver has been the natural door of the American continent. A hundred years of immigration, of cheap hand labour, but also of intolerance and of ethnic tensions.

"To reconcile the two communities of Vancouver, a festival was born in 1986. The races of dragon boats inspired of a Chinese tradition, as an honour to summer and the harvests. 90,000 witnesses. 178 professional teams, come from the whole world to help build bridges between cultures, the event lasts all the weekend. For the multiracial team of Todd Wong, the festival is an occasion to dialogue. For the False Creek Women's team of Vancouver, champions of the world, it's the competition which counts above all..."

We filmed footage on the boat [url]http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2004/6/17/91001.html[/url]

I also did some extra filming with Thalassa in Chinatown [url]http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2004/6/19/91432.html[/url]


Gung Haggis Fat Choy for 2005 - Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner January 30th, Floata Restaurant in Vancouver Chinatown.  Look also for Gung Haggis Fat Choy at First Night Vancouver, December 31, 2004.  [url=http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com]www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com[/url]