On the Road to Fame

How exciting!

Last month, in honour of Canada’s Asian Heritage Month, I organized an event and exhibit at the International Village (read about it here) which was simply a blast.  A girl never gets tired of playing dress up, and it was a really great feeling with all the support I got from locals, on both personal and organizational levels, who really did more than their part to help ensure that the show was a success.  Our centre court on the Day of Celebration was packed with people, and I also lost my special “event manager” chair because there weren’t any more seats!

And I even got to practice my improv skills when one of the performing groups cancelled that morning, and spent a good hour with my emcee introducing the various displays and vendors of the show 🙂

Even more exciting was when Emily Larson of LAT Multilingual Translation & Marketing contacted me because she thought the show was a great display of the diversity that we have in the mosaic cultural fabric of Canada.

Long story short, I’ve been featured!!!  Well, kind of, but it’s still very exciting!  Read Emily’s article on LAT’s blog here.

Asian Heritage Lessons

It’s been an interesting journey putting together the Asian Heritage Month Exhibition and Day of Celebration.

I learned a lot about the various Asian cultural groups that exist in Vancouver, and unearthed a surprising amount of historical tidbits about their history in Vancouver and Canada. And I was really gratified by the response that I’ve gotten from everyone, from the media sponsors I approached, the tenants and even just people who happened to pass by as I was setting up the various displays. So many people interrupted me in the middle of set up to ask about the event and the display, and it was so nice to be praised for planning the whole event.

What really amazed me was how many people stepped forward to offer to lend me genuine traditional outfits from their closet, so that their culture would be represented. They made it possible for me to go from only having one outfit per the top three Asian minority groups to being able to present twelve whole outfits. It really made me feel that the event was worth all the craziness and lack of sleep that I endured for the last three weeks. It was even kind of fun trying to wrestle the mannequins on stage in the middle of the mall, and trying to follow YouTube videos to put the outfit on correctly.

Looking forward to tomorrow, even if it does mean having to work on a Saturday!

Asian Heritage Month

Since 1993, the month of May has been celebrated as Asian Heritage Month in many regions of Canada, to commemorate the contributions that people of Asian descent has had in shaping and building the country.  In May of 2002, the government of Canada officially declared May as Asian Heritage Month in Canada.

I found that out last year.  In mid-May.  Oops.

So this year, International Village will be hosting its very first Asian Heritage Month Exhibition and Day of Celebration at 88 West Pender beginning May 1, 2013.

The Asian Heritage Month Exhibition and Day of Celebration will feature an exhibit of clay miniatures in the centre court throughout the month of May.  The miniatures reflect iconic Chinese food stalls and shops that have existed since the 1900s, and can still be found in a similar fashion in Chinatown today.  A select number of traditional outfits from various Asian cultures will also be displayed.

On May 11, 2013, International Village will also host a Day of Celebration from 12:00 – 5:00pm, featuring cultural performances from local groups.

This is my thanks to all the people of Asian descent for their contributions to the cultural landscape of Vancouver.  For you, I willingly spent my mornings sorting out logistics, nights squinting at Illustrator, weekends and afternoons building display cabinets and dressing up mannequins.

Drawn and put together by yours truly