The 2nd Annual National Asian Heritage Month Symposium is fast approaching and there is so much happening! Are you of Asian descent living in Canada working in the arts and/or culture sector; using Asian arts, culture or heritage forms, techniques of philosophy in your work; a supporter of greater diversity and inclusion in arts and culture within Canada/Turtle Island; someone willing to create momentum, visibility or action towards the symposium goals; someone who wants to bring more depth to the conversation so that we can be constructively critical in our actions and words towards decolonization?
The Symposium agenda is jam-packed with presentations, discussions, trainings, networking opportunities, and working groups. You can find the full agenda here, and as VAHMS is acting as the Vancouver Satellite organization, there are a few presentations and working groups that we are producing.
VAHMS will be hosting one working group zoom session On September 12th at 10:00AM PST. We will be discussing three topics as well as any other subjects that the participants wish to bring up.
Pro-active steps to combat Anti-Asian racism and support Black Lives Matter: breaking systemic norms that support discrimination
2. Increasing visibility and opportunities for artists through residencies, provincial exchanges, tour development and national collaboration
3. Connecting across the sectors: creating a plan for Asian Canadian arts, culture and heritage to be more visible in education, health, technology and other sectors
*Create CONNECTION that is meaningful for festivals, organizations and artists to either unite around common goals or to have better insight on their difference;
*Motivate ACTION on a national, local and individual scale to enrich the reach, scope and depth of arts and culture of Asian Canadian artist and cultural workers;
*Build MOMENTUM beyond the dates of the symposium to encourage continuity of discovery, experimentation and innovation in order to move forward without getting stuck;
*Develop SOLIDARITY within our own communities and outside to support each other in the building of a National Network and for those who wish to continue to grow deeper in their own circles.
We make efforts to decolonize models of gathering, consultation and action and consider differences across region, scale, generation, discipline, career level, privilege, professional definition and other challenges to engagement. We will be including online (in both official languages) and in person events in satellite locations across the country.
These events will include presentations, discussions, training, networking, action plan creation, national collaboration, working groups, First Nations, Inuit and Metis solidarity
SYMPOSIUM EVENTS SERIES WEEK 2 Getting on the same page to create action at the 2nd National Asian Heritage Month Symposium
Connection – Action – Momentum – SolidarityStrengthening Asian Canadian Arts, Culture and Heritage
The 2nd National Asian Heritage Month Symposium, kicked off with a pre-symposium event series with some interesting conversation, debate and new connections made. In the interest of getting stuff done, we continue to have these critical conversations to consensus on common goals and challenges in advance.
We hope to: equitize engagement; encourage actions during the symposium rather than “preaching to the converted” have better understanding of differing perspectives and options; and engage with greater confidence after having met some of the participants prior to the event.
Each session needs to be registered for separately on Evenbrite and are no charge. The links are below with the description and will also be shared on the Facebook event. Pre-symposium online events will be held in English with French translation chat offered. These events will not be recorded in order to maintain privacy for those participating.
Tuesday, August 18: Cultural Appreciation vs Cultural Appropriation: Solidarity with First Nations, Inuit and Metis 7:30-9:00 PM EST This discussions centre on what we are doing to decolonize our own artistic practices so that we can be in better solidarity with First Nations, Metis and Inuit. We will create a manifesto of commitments that we will enact during the symposium in an effort to be in better solidarity. We will also explore questions on the ethics of celebrating Asian Heritage Month when there are many injustices that exist for the first caretakers of Turtle Island. Register here
Thursday, August 20: Resources and Tools: A cultural translation 1:00-2:30 PM EST We have been amassing resources, tools and partner service organizations regarding touring, collaboration, residencies, organizational development and accessibility. We want to know from you what would be the best way to have the tools available to you to increase accessibility? What are you missing? What do you need? What resources do you have that you can offer to our living documentation? How do you want to connect and collaborate? This is an effort to create new models that would be more appropriate to the needs of our community. Register here
A career in journalism is not for the faint-hearted…but then, it never has been! Amidst the COV-ID pandemic and among a constantly changing media landscape of “fake news” (and Facebook’s recent detection of this), the 24-hour news cycle and social media panics, it’s no wonder that the public continues to want to hear from reliable voices and sources. This is particularly important in Asia’s thriving Hong Kong and Beijing cultural hubs, where two of our panelists live and work in the epicentre of global news; and also in the USA and Vancouver, where our other two panelists work in senior roles with two of the country’s most prestigious and well-respected newspapers.
Join moderator Kathryn Gretsinger (Associate Professor of Teaching, UBC Graduate School of Journalism) and panelists Sherisse Pham (Reporter at CNN Hong Kong), Nathan Vanderklippe(Reporter at Globe & Mail Beijing), Emily Rauhala (Staff Writer, Washington Post) and Joanna Chiu (Senior Journalist at Toronto Star), for what will be an intense dive into working as a journalist today, what’s involved in uncovering a story, and any particular additional challenges of the Asian media landscape. They’ll also delve into the best ways to set yourself “apart from the pack” if you are planning a international journalism career of your own.
Key Takeaways:
Career highlights in Asia
Current job prospects in the media landscape
Asian competencies in the field of political, cultural or language aspect
Difference in journalism between Canada or Broader North America, and Asian regions
Moderator:
Kathryn Gretsinger, Associate Professor of Teaching, UBC Graduate School of Journalism
Kathryn is an associate professor of teaching at the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media. She is a long time public broadcaster at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with a record of creating award-winning work at the local and national level in Canada. Kathryn is also a Killam Teaching Prize winner and she was named as one of North America’s top innovative journalism educators in 2018.
Sherisse is a tech and business reporter for CNN Business and CNN International in Hong Kong. She is a recipient of the Royal Television Society’s breaking news award for CNN team coverage of the storming of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council by protesters. Prior to Hong Kong, she was based in Washington, D.C., where she was a general assignment weekend correspondent and digital producer. She also worked as a correspondent in London with CNN International, covering the Syrian refugee crisis and other regional stories in Europe. She was also part of a CNN team that received the Edward R. Murrow award for social media coverage of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. She holds degrees from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a BA (English Lit and Commerce) from the University of British Columbia.
Nathan is the Globe and Mail’s Asia correspondent based in Beijing. His reporting takes him across Asia, as he covers political developments, social trends, international affairs, refugee crises, and natural disasters. He has served multiple terms on the board of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, including as its president. Prior to joining the Globe in 2009, he was a print and television correspondent in Western Canada based in Calgary, Vancouver and Yellowknife. He has covered Canada’s energy industry, aboriginal issues and Canada’s north.
Emily covers foreign affairs for the Washington Post. In a decade of reporting from East and Southeast Asia, she covered China’s rise on the world stage and its authoritarian turn at home. In 2017, she shared an Overseas Press Club award for a series about the Internet in China. Her work has also been recognised by the Human Rights Press Awards, the Society of Publishers in Asia and the International China Journalists Association. She is a graduate of Queen’s University, the University of Toronto and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Joanna is a journalist for the Toronto Star, Canada’s highest-circulation newspaper, and has previously served as bureau chief and managing editor of the Star Vancouver. Her specialty is in China-Canada relations as well as topics related to race and inequality. Joanna was previously based for seven years in China as a foreign correspondent. She reported for Agence France Presse (AFP), covering Chinese politics, legal affairs and human rights issues for one of the world’s biggest news operations. She has also served as China and Mongolia correspondent for the top German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur, and in Hong Kong, she reported for the South China Morning Post, The Economist and The Associated Press. She is the founder and chair of NüVoices, a non-profit editorial collective which publishes and celebrates the work of women and minorities working on China topics. She also received her undergraduate degree in Honours History from the University of British Columbia.
If you’re like us, the recent situation may have you turning your kitchen upside down to replicate some of your favourite dishes. Perhaps you can’t visit your favourite restaurant as often as you did in the past. Or you may have unearthed prized family recipes to satisfy a longing for that familiar taste. So you’ve been cooking up a storm! And we’re guessing your smartphone is bursting with snaps of your creations that you’re dying to share with the rest of the world! And why not? Food is best enjoyed when shared.
Because of this we’re starting #YummiestAsianFood.
We’d like to make space in our social media channels for some of your best Pan-Asian food creations. Send us a really cool photo of an Pan-Asian dish you made and include a short description. Tell us something interesting about the dish! What is it called? Is it something that means a lot to you? It may be something comforting (we could all use that right now). Is it something that reminds you of some crazy, fun and therefore unforgettable event? Or does the dish remind you of someone? Tell us! If you’d like to share the recipe to the rest of our followers, write it in there, too! Who knows? We may turn this into a book someday and your contributions may be part of it.
Here’s how to do it:
1) Simply send us a photo of an Asian dish you made while sheltering-in-place.
2) Include a short description, no more than 200 words. Don’t forget to include your FB or Insta or Twitter accounts.
4) And stay tuned to explorASIAN.org on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see whether we’ve selected your entry for the week!
It’s that easy!
Send us your Pan-Asian food creations, and we’ll fill our streams with appetizing images and increase awareness about the deliciously diverse cuisines from Asia!
SUBMISSIONS:
Submitted by Jasper Sloan Yip:
These days, I try to visit my parents once a week, usually in the evenings at the end of my workday. They have a porch large enough for many people to sit comfortably while still maintaining a safe distance. Yesterday I happened to visit as my father was cooking, and since I had yet to eat, I stayed for an impromptu meal. Sometimes you don’t realize you miss something until it returns to you. This was true for me last night as I tucked into my dinner.
When I was growing up,My father did most of the cooking at our home, and that meant eating a lot of Chinese food. He is a natural cook, and as such, he has no need for recipes. I have become much the same in my own cooking, and can trace this facet of my practice, among many others, back to him. The downside is that I have tried many times to recreate his food without success. His fried rice, in particular, has frustrated me for years. He has walked me through it at least twice, which is the closest I will ever come to getting a recipe, and still it never quite turns out. I suppose food is like that. Perhaps his food is irreplicable not for any lack of recipe or technique, but because what I’m actually trying to replicate is the memory of my father’s cooking and the experience of being with my family in our kitchen, rather than the food itself.
Last night, my father prepared braised short ribs in black bean sauce, fried tofu with gai lan, and beef with snow peas and water chestnuts. I didn’t ask him for a recipe, I just enjoyed the meal with my family. #YummiestAsianFood
Submitted by Leticia Sanchez:
My dear next-door neighbors, a very friendly Filipino family, enjoy gathering with friends and sharing their stories about the beautiful places in the Philippines. Of course, food is at the center of all the conversations. As for me, our friendship of around fourteen years is always a pleasurable learning experience and one that involves the discovery of authentic Filipino cuisine. You could say that living in Vancouver, you can have delicious Filipino food any time, but nothing compares with their homemade meals.
When it comes to their cooking, I cannot decide who cooks the best because while Cora is great in the kitchen, her husband is a very good cook when barbequed meat is the main dish for dinner. His fish, steak, and chicken are always marinated with his favourite Filipino spices which give the meat an exquisite flavour and tenderness. Cora prefers to cook curries with vegetables and meat, delicious pastries, seafood and noodles, and a soup I still have not been able to exactly know what it is made of. I must say though, that I am the luckiest neighbour, because sometimes Cora knocks at my door with a delicious meal on her hands and a big smile.
This week Cora surprised me with some Filipino style braised chicken marinated in soy sauce, citrus juice, brown sugar, fresh garlic, and secret spices. The other dish is what Cora cooks on regular days, a chicken afritada or afritadang manok, which is a Filipino chicken stew with potatoes, carrots, tomato sauce, green peas, onion, garlic, sugar, and a dash of curry powder. A simple dish, but perfect when eaten warm and with white rice. All these years, I still haven’t mastered Filipino cooking, but thanks to my neighbours, I get to enjoy Filipino food once in a while.
Submitted by Jing Palad:
I’ve moved around a lot and I’ve mastered a few tricks to instantly feel at home in a new city or country. One of my favourites is cooking Sinigang, a Filipino favourite. The smell of its steamy sour soup along with the taste of Bagoong with hot chilli pepper takes me right back to when my mom first taught me to make this dish. It’s almost like the culinary version of a warm, happy hug ?
This recipe comes from our friend Cosmo Kwan, who has shared his recipe for Sticky Rice Wrapped with Bamboo Leaves (Joong in Cantonese) or (Zongzi in Mandarin).
The main ingredients are: Bamboo leaves, glutinous rice (sweet rice), Chinese sausage, peanuts (optional), lean pork, Chinese mushrooms (shiitake), salted egg, shallots, mung beans (optional).
The Joong dish is very meaningful and brings back memories and warmth from happy times. I grew up learning how to prepare this dish from watching my maternal grandma (Paw Paw) from the age of 7 years old onward. I enjoyed the traditional festival for making these Joong yearly. It was not easy to prepare this dish. It was lot of work to prep and it takes a long time. It was pretty much a whole entire day for completing this, not including the pre-preparations the day before. Whenever I make this special dish, I think of how much I miss my grandma, so much, which has been over 37 years ago.
Submitted by Winnie L. Cheung:
Have fun making your own Cong You Bing!
My first taste of this traditional Shanghai breakfast item was on my way to grade school on a blustery winter day. Our school was situated halfway up a mountain on a steep slope in Hong Kong. On one of those unusually cold mornings when every step forward was a struggle (because the wind was blowing hard from the mountain), we had to turn our backs to walk backwards up the slope against the unrelenting gusts. My companion suggested we take a little detour to check out a corner store selling Shanghai style breakfast: hot soy milk and all kinds of piping hot pastries and sticky rice rolls. The chef was just churning out these savoury pancakes cut out into big triangles from a big flat round plate. We each had a big wedge of this piping hot pizza-size flat bread called Shanghai Cong You Bing. It was divinely chewy, flaky, and heavenly with lots of spring onion. And it was filling too! It warmed both my body and soul. I felt fortified for the struggle uphill, and started my day at school with a sense of gratitude.
When I grew up and started to seek out all the culinary delights from around the world, I would always try out different kinds of flat bread and pancakes on the menus. Nothing beats the folksy type of simple Cong You Bing that I was introduced to half a century ago. During COVID-19 isolation, like most people I spend more time in the kitchen. After experimenting with the dough and different recipes, I finally hit it right. Here’s the magic of turning the simple dough into the heavenly Cong You Bing that I can’t get from the restaurants:
Mix flour with water and knead. Rest dough for 20 minutes. Roll it out into a circular piece, spray it with oil and sprinkle it with salt and plenty of spring onion (chopped). Roll it into a tube and twist it like a snail. Rest for 20 minutes and flatten it into a thick cake. Add oil to the pan, brown both sides and cover it until done. There are lots of variations between steps, but you’ll experiment until you get the texture and taste you prefer. That’s the magic which one has to discover by trying. Have fun making your own Cong You Bing!
Submitted by Yvette Alegre:
As a predominantly Catholic nation, Lent (and the Easter to follow) is a very important season in the Philippine calendar. In its observance, many Filipinos will abstain from meat every Friday (at the minimum) during the 40-day Lent.
It wouldn’t be a surprise (or actually, one would expect!) to see a bowl of mongo soup paired with salty fish on the dinner table during Friday Lent. And of course – the white rice! (To the uninitiated, the dish is similar to split pea soup paired with salty sausage or ham.)
The simplicity and humility of the dish (read: cheap) is said to reflect the spirit of sacrifice that goes with the season. Lent or not, this dish combo is a staple on the Filipino table. And it doesn’t have to be on a Friday!
Submitted by Hye Ri Kim:
As a child, I vividly remember the smell of rice cooking from the rice cooker and fish being fried on a pan. That smell used to wake me up every morning. My mom made tasty ban-chans (side dishes), a bowl of soup, a bowl of rice, and pan-fried fish. Back then, I complained how I wanted fried eggs or sausages instead of fish. Thinking back on it, I now realize that I was actually lucky to have such variety for breakfast.
These days, I get up from hearing my alarm buzzing in my ears instead of smelling pleasant cooking smell. I really miss my mom’s food and now I 100% appreciate her effort to feed her family by getting up so early and putting the time into our meals.
Submitted by Ingrid Campillo:
Hello from Mexico, the land of the taco. I am a Mexican Mom who loves to share time with my son while preparing food. Through the years, cooking has been a great way to share time with him, and experiment with different food preparation. Since Kung Fu Panda was released, my son, just a kid then, wanted to have dumplings every day, but dumplings in Mexico have a different taste, let’s say that they are dumplings with a taco flare. On the other hand, Asian restaurants are not very common in our city, so we decided to follow more authentic recipes from this unifying family dish. At first, we started watching tons of videos in languages that of course, we didn’t understand, but we were able to sort of follow the steps. I must say, it was not only complicated, but extremely difficult to get the ingredients, the dough texture, the shapes, and not to mention, the many times the little pouches broke apart while we were trying to keep the filling in them. Three years later, my son and I have found that preparing dumplings is our most bonding time in the kitchen because we get to spend about three hours making them from scratch, chatting about life while making the discs, shaping the little pouches, and of course, keeping an eye on the steamer until they are perfectly cooked. While we have sort of mastered preparing some fillings and shapes, we haven’t quite learned when to stop devouring them, but hey, this seems like an excellent excuse to prepare more dumplings over and over again. Overall, it has been such a great experience learning how these yummy dumplings are made from scratch, as well as how important this dish is to unify family and friends. We hope, you too, will enjoy the smell and flavour of fresh dumplings while bonding with someone you care about.
Submitted by Judy Lam Maxwell:
Soba and udon with spicy cilantro-pea pesto
This was originally a Parsley-Pea Pesto recipe and I wanted to make it Asian so I used cilantro, peas, and Thai chilis and instead of regular pasta I opted for 2 kinds of common Japanese noodles: Soba and Udon. It has lots of garlic, spice, and is a bit sweet from the peas. I like to cook something different everyday and cooking is my creative outlet.
@chinatownjudy / @HistoricalChinatownTours
Submitted by Ha Cheung:
Chinese rice noodles filled with shrimp/prawns
This is a common dish at Yum Cha. My partner bought me a special steamer online for making rice rolls/noodles. I made the noodles from scratch and filled the rice rolls with prawns, baby Shiitake mushrooms, green onions, and cilantro.The rice rolls are gluten-free, so this can be appealing to everyone.
Other possible fillings are:
sliced BBQ pork or beef
all seafood (prawns, scallops, fish)
all vegetables
Submitted by Leticia Sanchez:
Who Doesn’t Love Butter Chicken?
Butter Chicken has humble origins. It was born in Delhi, Capital of India in the 1950’s. Its story starts in a sweet shop in Peshawar, India called Mukhey da Dhaba, owned by an elderly man called Mokha Singh. As Mokha Singh got older, he decided to sell his shop to one of his employees, Kundan Lal Gujral, who renamed it as Moti Mahal Restaurant. While Kundan Lal Gujral worked at the sweet shop he learned many different recipes from Mokha Singh, and was the inventor of the Tandoor Chicken, another delicate Indian dish that I love. In his restaurant, Gujral observed that his Tandoori Chicken hanging above the tandoor all-day would tend to dry out if it was not sold, so he and his cooks started experimenting with different ways to keep the chicken moist. They tried with different marinades and finally Gujral came up with the genius idea of creating a basic gravy with tomatoes, butter, cream, and some spices to immerse the Tandoori Chicken pieces in, helping them retain moisture. The combination of ingredients gave birth to the Murgh Makhani, the dish we now call, Butter Chicken.
Kundan Lal Gujral moved his Moti Mahal restaurant to Delhi, with its Butter Chicken and Tandoori Chicken on its menu. The small restaurant grew fast and quickly. Now, almost 70 years later, Gujral has a successful chain of restaurants managed by his grandson, Monish, and Butter Chicken has become the most popular dish from India, and a very well known one in the world. Its delicious flavour comes from the unique blend of spices. In the original recipe, the chicken will marinate for hours in a mixture of yogurt, garlic, coriander, garam marsala, ginger, cumin, and other spices, then cooked and simmered in a mild curry sauce rich with butter and tomato.
Today, you will find Butter Chicken tacos, pizzas, rolls, burgers, etc., as well as different styles that adapt to the demand, but the evolution of Butter Chicken does not lack authenticity, as its basic ingredients remain at the core of the dish. In fact, the different varieties of Butter Chicken recipes are like the experiments that the Gujral and the cooks of Moti Mahal made. They did not have an idea of what the result will be, but they tried with what they had at hand.
It is said, that often, the best things in life are discovered by accident. I am no inventor of new dishes, but here is my experiment with Butter Chicken. The result? Much better than buying it from the frozen food section in the supermarket while waiting to gather again in an authentic Indian restaurant.
Submitted by Judy Lam Maxwell:
A healthy Asian salad for dinner with mixed greens, purple cabbage, a mix of beans, cilantro, daikon radish sprouts, marinated lotus roots, baby cucumber, shiso, hard-cooked egg drizzled with homemade chili oil, and a mirin-soy-toasted sesame seed oil dressing. Fresh, organic, local, and delicious! Have a great weekend!
City Opera Vancouver is seeking Asian-Canadian singers for their new opera CHINATOWN, a new chamber opera in development by librettist Madeleine Thien with Paul Yee, Taishanese co-writer, and composer Alice Ping Yee Ho. It is scheduled to run five nights at the 668-seat Vancouver Playhouse in early September 2021. CHINATOWN is a Western opera, with significant elements sung in the Hoisan/Toisan dialect of south China, and with a fusion orchestra of Western and traditional Chinese instruments. It runs approximately two hours, including intermission.
It is a story of six Chinese Canadians and their families, set in Vancouver’s Chinatown neighbourhood. It is centred in 1961, but pivots in time across several decades. CHINATOWN is City Opera’s fifth commission in nine years.
They will accept online materials only. Video submissions may be up to ten minutes in length, with minimal editing. We request two works of contrasting character. As part of the video portfolio material sung in English, and Hoisan/Toisan or Cantonese, is most welcome. High- resolution image and audio quality is strongly recommended. Resumés may include up to three professional references. Please indicate if you are a member of CAE or a comparable organization.
ROUND ONE DEADLINE: 10 September, 2020
PLEASE SUBMIT PORTFOLIO TO: Clara Wieck, Auditions Manager auditions@cityoperavancouver.com
All materials received will be acknowledged.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Dr Charles Barber, Artistic Director info@cityoperavancouver.com
Calling all Asian Canadian Artists! Our partners Festival Accès Asie are launching an important new initiative and we need your input to take the it to the next level.
The goal is to create a new national digital strategy to benefit Asian Canadian artists to increase your visibility, help you connect with other artists and make it easy for producers and promoters to diversify their programming.
But how should we go about this? That’s where you come in.
This project is for you, so we’d invite you to get in on the ground floor. We want to hear from you to ensure the National Digital Strategy will reflect your needs and ideas.
The first step? Tell us who you are and what you need by participating in a Canada-wide survey of Asian Canadian artists between now and July 26th
Are you a producer, promoter, arts professional or cultural worker? We want to learn from you as well! Tell us what we need to do to make it easy for you to discover and connect with the fabulous talent that’s out there.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is pleased to announce the official opening of Luminous Garden, the third art exhibition organized and presented by Lam Wong during his year-long artist residency at the Garden and also one of this year’s Interconnected exhibitions.
The exhibition features a collection of garden photography by Glenn Lewis and Lam Wong, coupled with ceramic tea ware by Lewis, a Canadian cross-disciplinary contemporary artist, recipient of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts in 2017.
“Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is thrilled to welcome back our artist in residence Lam Wong for his third show Luminous Garden, in collaboration with renowned artist Glenn Lewis. This exhibition celebrates the spiritual oasis that a garden creates, and at a time when our lives are more stressful than ever, we are honoured to be able to share this sense of peace and tranquillity with our visitors, partners, and community.” explains Martha Nelson, Marketing and Visitor Experience Manager at the Garden.
For many years Glenn Lewis has traveled all over the world to photograph gardens. His interest in different traditions of these sanctuaries’ design, gates, pathways, entrances and motifs infuse and inspires his ceramic work, forming a dialogue between his pottery and his photography. Lam Wong has similarly long explored and photographed the phenomenon of “dancing light” in both gardens and natural settings. Wong has sought to express the communion of peaceful mind and subtly shimmering sunlight – an experience of illuminated refection expressed in the single Japanese word Komorebi ????.
“Luminous Garden investigates the concept of the garden as a sanctuary for spiritual growth: a place to connect to nature and arouse enlightenment through contemplation and meditation.” adds visual artist and curator Lam Wong.
Luminous Garden exhibit is opened Wednesday to Sunday, from 11am to 4pm.
Our second VAHMSconnections event is happening on July 30th via Zoom and features presenter Dr. Niall Christie and VAHMS director Shahid Abrar-ul-Hassan as moderator.
This presentation explores some of the contributions that Muslim communities made to the culture of medieval Asia. The presentation is guided by the travel record of Muhammad ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller who between 1325-1349 visited Muslim communities located as far east as China, as far south as India and south-east Asia, and as far north as Central Asia.
Presenter: Dr. Niall Christie
Dr. Niall Christie is Chair of the Department of History, Latin and Political Science at Langara College, Vancouver and is an Adjunct Professor in Medieval Studies at the University of Victoria. He received his PhD in Islamic History from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Since 2012 he has been an Instructor in History at Langara College, teaching courses on the history of Europe and the Muslim world. Dr. Christie is the author of numerous articles and two books: The Book of the Jihad of Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami (d. 1106): Text, Translation and Commentary (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015); and Muslims and Crusaders: Christianity’s Wars in the Middle East, 1095-1382, from the Islamic Sources (second edition; Abingdon: Routledge, 2020).
Moderator: Shahid Abrar-ul-Hassan
Shahid has been working as a language educator and researcher in multiple roles. He currently works as a professor of language education in Vancouver, BC. He has previously taught at the University of British Columbia and the University of the Fraser Valley. He also serves as a subject expert with BC Ministry of Advanced Education. Moreover, he is an affiliate faculty at public universities in China and the USA. He has also performed several key leadership roles with international professional associations of English language educators in the USA and Korea. He was honored with an Alumni Achievement Award by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA, USA, his alma mater.
This year, LiterASIAN’s theme is “Quiet No More“. They have an incredible line up of authors with a full schedule of events. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, LiterASIAN 2020 is going virtual! With much gratitude, our festival is located on the unceded Coast Salish Territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh, and Squamish people.
Claim your ticket by clicking the desired event below. Please click on the event you wish to attend in the schedule below and you will be re-directed to its specific Eventbrite page.You will also find more detailed information on each event in their individual pages.
2020 SCHEDULE
LiterAsian 2020 – “Quiet No More” August 15 to August 30, 2020
“Creators Against Hate” Saturday, August 15th, 1.00pm – 2:00pm Shon Wong Moderated by Vincent Ternida
“Postcards from the In-Between” Sunday, August 16, 1.00pm – 3.30pm Anosh Irani, Fiona Tinwei Lam, Kevin Kapenda, Rachel D’Sa, Carlo Javier, & Nathalie De Los Santos Moderated by Julia Lin
The Vancouver Asian Film Festival’s annual short film-making competition is back for its 15th year supporting, fostering and showcasing emerging Asian and mixed Asian filmmakers! The Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon (MAMM) offers a platform for filmmakers to showcase their talents to both moviegoers and potential distributors alike.
The competition lasts for 3 weeks wherein contestants use this time to produce their short films.
Free online registration and information for MAMM15 can be found at http://vaff.org/mamm15/ . Registration is open until July 15, 2020. The 3-week film production / post-production runs from July 25 until Aug 15.
What’s New This Year?
In spite of the unprecedented changes and challenges we have to face due to CoVid-19, we did not want to cancel the competition this year, and therefore necessary changes need to be made to ensure the safety, and fun, for all participants.
This year only, Registration and Pitch Submission is FREE OF CHARGE!
There will only be a 5 minute Shorts category.
Top 10 Teams will be selected for competition.
More awards will be given out for more categories.
There will be a maximum number of 6 members in each Team on set, to include all cast & crew.
Film Production must follow WorkSafeBC health & safety protocols strictly, and each Team must come up with their own COVID-19 Safety Plan for their teams with the help of the MAMM Producing team.
You must incorporate how you respond to the Creative Element – “What’s your 20?” into your video pitch.
Because we know it will be a lot harder and take longer to make a film with social distancing in place, this year’s competition will not be 10 days. You will have three weeks to make and deliver your film. The production period commences from the start of the MAMMentorship program on July 25 and films must be delivered by the Final Film submission deadline on Aug 15.
The MAMMentorship program will be held in the form of Webinars.
MAMM15 is going NATIONWIDE! Any resident of Canada can lead a Team to enter from anywhere in the country.
MAMM 15 Prizes and Promotion
The perks of being selected for one of the top 10 competing teams include exclusive mentorship, marketing opportunities, prizes and special screenings. Specifically:
1. MAMMentorship program:
one-on-one mentorship with selected teams and industry professionals, with special focus on screenwriting.
group workshops via Zoom.
2. Digital promotion for the selected teams on social media and PR opportunities.
3. Cash prizes and industry in-kind prizes will be awarded for the following adjudicated categories.
Best Short Film Award | Best Director Award | Best Performance Award | Best Screenwriting Award
4. In-kind prizes are given to the audience voted People’s Choice Award winners.
People’s Choice Award: Best Overall Short | People’s’ Choice Award: Best Performance
All the aforementioned winners will be announced and awarded at the MAMM premiere and awards presentation Event on August 29, 2020, and will be showcased at the 24th Annual Vancouver Asian Film Festival, November 5-8, 2020.
Distribution for the winning shorts may be available through VAFF media partners.
