Currents A Ricepaper Anthology

Edited by Karla Comanda, Leila Lee and William Tham Published by the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop

RELEASE DATE September 22, 2017

978-1-7750-2300-5

Paperback $25.00 CAD
Ordering Information: Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. Orders by Canadian trade bookstores and wholesalers.

For more details, contact the publisher at info@ricepapermagazine.ca

Donate to the Currents Kickstarter here: 

SUBJECTS Canadian Literature — Asian Canadian author
DESCRIPTION When Ricepaper first began 20 years ago, its content was mainly focused on the experience of marginalized Asian communities in Canada. It still publishes with this mandate, but as time progressed, the magazine evolved along with its readership to become a forum for creative works, interviews, profiles and reviews of more contemporary Asian communities. Since becoming a strictly digital magazine in 2016, Ricepaper expanded the breadth of its content to include work from Asian writers both in Canada and abroad. In celebration of its first year online, this anthology is made up of poetry, fiction and nonfiction acquired during this time.
Be a part of a milestone in Asian Canadian literature by donating to the Kickstarter campaign set up to make Currents possible.
ABOUT THE EDITORS Karla Comanda is a Vancouver-based poet, translator, and creative writing MFA candiate at UBC. Leila Lee holds an honours BA and MA in Canadian history. William Tham’s first novel Kings of Petaling Street was published by Fixi London.
CONTRIBUTORS Aaron Tang, Aileen Santos, Anna Wang Yuan, Benjamin Hertwig, Carousel Calvo, Céline Chuang, Cheonhak Kwon, John Mokrynskyj, Hana Kim, Do Nguyen Mai, Dung Kai-cheung, Nick Stember, Hannah Polinski, Emi Kodama, Frances Du, Helen Tran, Jane Aiko Komori, Jasmine Gui, JF Garrard, Joanne Leow, Kawai Shen, Li Charmaine Anne, Linda Nguyen, Lisa Zhang, Mary Chen, Raine Ling, Stanford Cheung, Zeng Xiaowen, and Alison Bailey.

Donate to the Currents Kickstarter here: 

“In a political climate that continues to oppress people of colour, Currents reminds us that we are human, that we are different, and that we continue to survive. We curated 25 pieces, each reflecting a different fiber of the Asian identity. Their stories were written: now they need to be heard and read. We at Ricepaper have poured countless hours of love and labour to this project. But our passion can only take us so far. Supporting our Kickstarter campaign means making Currents a reality, a physical book in the reader’s hands.” — Karla Comanda, contributing editor for Currents

 

Internment Bus Tour, September 2017

Due to popular demand for the 75th anniversary, the Nikkei National Museum is pleased to announce another INTERNMENT BUS TOUR from September 11-15, 2017 (4 nights, 5 days).

On this tour you will visit WWII Japanese Canadian internment sites in beautiful British Columbia as well as some current Nikkei communities: Hastings Park, Tashme, Greenwood, Christina Lake, Lemon Creek, Popoff, Slocan, New Denver, Kaslo, Sandon, Rosebery, Kamloops and Lillooet. We visit towns and buildings that used to house internees as well as fields where shacks used to stand. We visit museums in New Denver, Kaslo and the new Tashme Museum which have unique displays of Japanese Canadian history. Knowledgeable museum staff and local historians are your guide. A handy guidebook with maps, pictures and facts will be provided. We will share stories and watch films on the bus to immerse you in Japanese Canadian history and culture for five days.

This 5-day bus tour departs and ends at Nikkei Centre in Burnaby, B.C. Canada.
Breakfast and dinner are buffet style. Lunch is either bento lunch box, paper bag lunch or buffet.

Most days we leave the hotel at 8am and arrive at the hotel at 6pm.
Cost $900 for NNMCC members or $950 for non-members per person based on double occupancy.  Single rooms are $1200 for NNMCC members or $1250 for non-members.
Accommodation, coach, breakfast (except first day), lunch, and dinner (except last day), and museum admission are included. Taxes included. Fees in Canadian dollars.
Accommodations are one night in Osoyoos, two nights in Nelson, and one night in Kamloops.

This tour will take place, but we are still under capacity. Some spots are available. Please apply as soon as possible.
Internment Bus Tour Application form
Internment Bus Tour Application form
See photos from 2017, 2015 and 2013.
For more information contact Nichola Ogiwara at jcnm[at]nikkeiplace.org | 604.777.7000 ext.109.

The West Coast Tagore Festival is an annual event in its fourth year. The Festival, held at the Richmond Cultural Center with generous support from the City of Richmond, brings creative works, philosophy, visions and ideals of Nobel-laureate poet and world cultural icon Rabindranath Tagore to culturally and ethnically diverse communities. Multicultural artists of different age-groups present his poetry, songs, dances, dramas, paintings, etc. not only in professional, colorful, vibrant and engaging ways but also making them readily appreciable and assimilable by audience of different backgrounds.

 

 

On the occasion of Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations, Le Centre culturel francophone de Vancouver is preparing a unique and avant-garde initiative entitled: Canada 150: Canada Goes Pacific. On July 21st, 22nd and 23rd, some forty artists working in different disciplines will gather around the various venues of Vancouver’s Granville Island, including the outdoor and indoor stages, public spaces, terrace bar, food trucks and the kids’ zone, to enjoy a series of free events.

Our programing gives priority to artists who build bridges between the French language and cultural heritage and the many different cultures found in the Asia-Pacific region.

More info at:

http://www.lecentreculturel.com/en/canada150-

 

Jeff Fuchs’ tea obsession was sparked when a casual date in Taiwan took him to an all night Chinese tea ceremony. He watched the sun come up, buzzing from all the liquid he had imbibed. “I thought what the hell is in this to create an alchemy of tremendous clarity, high beyond-words feeling, a social warmth towards people. I had to get into that world whatever it meant.”
Tea? We’re talking about tea? Jeff Fuchs, a native for Manotick, Ontario, was hooked: for the next decade ‘tea culture’ became his driving passion. It would take him to tea’s ground zero —China’s Yunnan Province, the origin of all tea on earth, and then on a quest to explore the daunting ‘Tea Horse Road’ a 5000km mule trail through the Himalayas where Pu’erh tea leaves travelled across ‘the roof of the world’ and down to the markets of India and Nepal.
Fuchs’ shared his adventures in his book The Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers and now it is told in a visually stunning feature-length documentary The Tea Explorer that premieres on CBC documentary Channel on Sunday, July 23 at 9PM ET (10:30PM NL) and is repeated at 12PM ET (01:30AM NL).
To begin his quest, Fuchs headed to the town of Menghai, epicenter of Yunnan’s tea culture. Surrounded by hundreds of acres of tea trees, some dating back 750 years – it was from here that tea would spread out across the world. Fuchs shares his knowledge and enthusiasm on a teascape tour: leaves harvested, fried and dried, prepared for market and then presented for drinking. And there is lots and lots of drinking.
In Yunnan, over a decade ago, Fuchs heard locals talk about a ‘Tea Horse Road.’ They said it was an almost mythical pathway that tea traders followed through the Himalayas ¬¬- a treacherous six month trek passing through nearly twenty-five distinct cultures speaking numerous dialects, before arriving at the trading centres of Bengal and Kathmandu. Tea trading on the Road ended in the 1950s after the Chinese invaded Tibet. A half century later Fuchs was determined to retrace the traders’ steps.
“I think the Tea Horse Road journey is one of the reasons why tea is the second-most consumed fluid on the planet,” Fuchs says. In this documentary, viewers join Fuchs as he travels the roadway with its challenging climbs, deep gorges, and awesome vistas. On the way Fuchs meets some of the surviving tea traders who recall their own journeys on the Tea Horse Road.
“I met Jeff through a friend who knows I love doing adventure documentaries,” says Andrew Gregg, who wrote, directed, produced and photographed The Tea Explorer. “It was a perfect story for me—a Canadian explorer who had retraced the old tea trade routes through the Himalayas. It then took me a year to get in shape to go along with Jeff through those mountains. Travelling with him makes you hyperaware that there are many ways to live your life. He’s the ultimate hardcore adventurer, but without a lot of fanfare. He goes there to bring the stories back so we can learn about a way of life that’s disappearing. It was a great experience to help him do that.”
In The Tea Explorer Jeff Fuchs shares his passion for tea and its history and takes viewers on a fascinating look at a culture that is virtually unknown outside of China—a culture that is vanishing because coffee is having a heyday, but Jeff Fuchs hopes that ‘tea culture’ will survive and flourish once more.

THE TEA EXPLORER is produced, directed, written and photographed by Andrew Gregg and edited by Geoff Matheson. documentary Channel, Production Executive is Jordana Ross and Senior Director is Bruce Cowley. Executive producer of THE TEA EXPLORER is Gordon Henderson.

THE TEA EXPLORER is produced by 90th Parallel Productions Ltd, in association with the documentary Channel and with the participation of the Canada Media Fund (CMF) – POV Fund, the Government of Canada – Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit Program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation – Tax Credit Program.

 

Chinatown History Windows

May, through to end of 2017

Large-format historical photos in storefront windows throughout Chinatown tell the story of this remarkable Vancouver neighbourhood for Canada 150.

Inquiries: http://historywindows.ccmms.ca/

The Henry Young Quartet will be playing at St. Stephens Church for Jazz Vespers, 4 pm -5 pm on Sunday June 25th.

St Stephens Church, 885 22nd St., W Vancouver.

A donation at the door will be appreciated!

The following Slideshow displays a selection of photos from the honourASIAN Gala, held at the Museum of Vancouver Sunday June 4, 2017

Photos by Owen Wong

All photos courtesy of Owen Wong