Vancouver
Chinatown New Year Parade
Spring
Banquet and Scholarship Awards
Celebrating
Fred and Clara First Anniversary in Seattle
Vancouver
Chinese Community Rallies Against Japan
Vancouver
holds End of Year 2005 Youth potluck dinner
The Vancouver Chinatown New Year Parade was held on a cool but
sunny Sunday on February 13, 2005.
Our colourful Lion Dance team attracted the attention of a roving CTV
(Channel 9) TV crew even before we left our Society House on Georgia
Street. They interviewed our lead dancer Hinson before following us to
the parade starting point at the Millennium Gate.
Besides the lion dance team led by Sifu Fan, the Yee Fung Toy of
Vancouver parade team consisted of Canada Chairman Mr. Kan Yu,
Vancouver Chairman Mr. Jim Yee, several of their Board members and
Advisors.
For the first time, we also had 4 special guests from the Seattle Yee
Family Association join
us: Fred Yee and Clara Cheung, and Lan and Tony Ching.
The parade started at noon. The parade around Pender Street,
Gore Street, Keefer
Street, then back to where we started, took more than an hour to
complete. We then swung by the offices of a local TV station located in
Chinatown, Channel M, for a prearranged interview and lion dance
performance that
was videotaped for later broadcast.
Before returning to the Society House for a well-earned rest and a
buffet lunch, our lion
dance team turned to the 100-block Keefer Street to perform in front
of retail and business storefronts, "devouring" green lettuce and
collecting red packets of donations.
This year money collected by all participating lion dance teams were
donated to
the
Red Cross Tsunami Relief fund.
For a report and pictures from our Seattle guests at the
Parade, visit the Seattle webpage.
For extensive photo coverage of other Parade participants,
visit David
Wong's webpage, and photos
at flickr.com.
Spring
Banquet and Scholarship Awards
Scholarship awards for the academic year 2004 were presented
during the Spring Banquet. For details visit the Canada webpage.
For a report and pictures from our Seattle guests at the
Spring Banquet, visit the Seattle webpage.
Celebrating Fred and Clara
First
Anniversary in Seattle
On a sunny Saturday, April 9, eight of us (Mr. and Mrs. Jim
Yee, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Yee, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Yee, and Mr. and Mrs.
Wing Yee) rented a mini-van and drove down to Seattle for the day to
celebrate the first wedding anniversary of Fred Yee (a founding member
of the World Yee Web Committee) and Clara Cheung.
We breezed through customs at the Peace Arch border crossing
at 9:00 AM, and arrived at the Jumbo Chinese Restaurant at 11:00. There
were over 300 hundred other friends and relatives, some from as far as
Australia, Toronto, and various parts of the US. Mr. Sam Wan, a long
time friend of both Fred and Clara, and current CEO of the Kin
On Health
Care Center, delivered the main speech that described how Fred and
Clara
met and quickly developed a relationship based on common interests in
community involvement and table tennis. They were married on April 9,
2004 in Las Vegas.
The buffet lunch tables were laid out with 2 whole roast pigs,
as well as huge portions of Chinese dishes. During lunch we were
entertained by an excellent selection of Karaoke love songs that added
to the ambience of this happy occasion. After cutting and sharing the
anniversary cake, the couple posed for photos with us and other guest
groups.
We left at about 2:30, and headed to the nearby Chinatown and
International district for a drive by tour. The next destination was
Lynnwood for some shopping at the Alderwood Mall area.
At about 4:45, we headed for home, arriving at Blaine at 6:15.
Everyone else also seemed to want to get home at this time, and we
ended up waiting for an hour to get through Canadian customs.
We all enjoyed helping Fred and Clara celebrate their
anniversary. Best wishes to the couple for many more anniversaries!
View
photos taken by Clara's daughter berobero (Veronica Ho).
Vancouver Chinese
Community Rallies
Against Japan
Former City Councilor Don Lee (left) with Yee Fung Toy members at rally
Canada Yee Chairman Kan Yu and Vancouver Yee Chairman Jim Yee
were among the
leaders of the Vancouver Chinese Community present in a rally at the
Chinese Cultural Centre courtyard on May 4 at 10:00 AM organized by the
Chinese Benevolent Association to demand a public apology from Japan
for war crimes. There were over 500 protesters, with many elderly
Chinese who witnessed the Japanese invasion and occupation of their
villages as children, and one Dutch-Canadian, Marius van
Dijkvanhooten (pictured on the left), who was 11 when he was tortured
by the Japanese and sent
to
a concentration camp in Java, Indonesia (more details in a report
from Agence France-Presse - I was nearby and overheard part of his
interview with the reporter). He wore a T-shirt and carried a placard
that read "Japan Pay Your Debts" in English as well as in Chinese and
Japanese.
Other placards
asked Japan to redress "Comfort Women", WWII atrocities to POWs in Hong
Kong and elsewhere, use of germ warfare, and whitewashing of war
aggressions in current school textbooks.
Mr. George Chow, Chairman of CBA and Ms. Thekla Lit of ALPHA explained
to the rally that without a public acknowledgement of war atrocities
enacted by the Japanese National Diet (parliament), Japan should not be
granted a seat on the United Nations Security Council. We should all
pressure the Canadian government to take a stand to vote against this
bid from Japan until such a public apology is issued. Expressions of
regret from Japanese individuals, no matter how high ranking, can never
replace a resolution from the Japanese National Diet.
For pictures taken by David Wong at the Vancouver rally and
march, see photos
at flickr.com. For pictures from demonstrations in Hong Kong,
Beijing, and other locations, see worldwide rallies.
For a report from the Vancouver Sun, see below:
War activities protested
Joel Baglole
Vancouver Sun
May 5, 2005
VANCOUVER - Tensions between China and Japan spilled into
Vancouver's streets Wednesday as more than 500 people marched on the
city's Japanese consulate to demand that Japan's government apologize
for its military actions in Asia during the Second World War.
Waving signs and chanting "shame" and "down with Japanese
militarism," throngs of primarily older men and women of Chinese
descent walked west from Millennium Gate to the consulate at 1177 West
Hastings.
The peaceful demonstration was staged to protest several
issues, including the revision of a Japanese history textbook used in
that country's schools. The Chinese claim the revised textbook omits
references to military actions Japan took across Asia from 1931 to
1945, when the country was a colonial power.
The protesters were also voicing anger over the fact that
Japan's government has never formally apologized in its Parliament for
the actions it committed during the Second World War. Because of this,
the protesters said, they oppose Japan's bid to win a permanent seat on
the United Nations Security Council.
"Japan doesn't want to apologize to the victims of World War
II," said Sunny Xu, 56, a computer programmer from Anhui province in
central China who has lived in Vancouver since 1995. "So many people
died during the war, and the Japanese government denies that history.
The Japanese government must apologize for its actions," added Xu.
The Japanese consulate last week issued warnings about the
protest to Japanese-Canadians and Japanese tourists, asking them to be
mindful of the demonstration.
Japan's militarism during the Second World War has been a
contentious issue in Asia for years, particularly for China, which
claims that millions of Chinese were killed by Japanese soldiers during
the war in what is often called the Asian holocaust.
The recently revised history textbook prompted the governments
of China and South Korea to publicly criticize Japan's government,
saying the textbook revisions amount to a whitewashing of Second World
War atrocities. In recent weeks, thousands of protesters in China
demonstrated against Japan. During one demonstration, more than 10,000
protesters pelted the Japanese consulate in Shanghai with bottles and
rocks.
Wednesday's Vancouver protest coincided with the anniversary
of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, a historic day of protests held in
Beijing that are believed to have sparked modern Chinese nationalism.
"We are doing this to bring the issue to a head," said George
Chow, 55, an engineer from Canton.
Once at the Japanese consulate, Chow -- an organizer of the
Vancouver demonstration -- presented a list of demands to consul
officials. The demands included a request for a public apology in
Japan's parliament and by Japan's prime minister, a law mandating that
textbooks in Japan reflect history, and that all denials of the Asian
holocaust be outlawed.
Chow later told the assembled crowd he was disappointed
Japan's consul general, Toshiyuki Taga, did not meet him in person to
receive the demands.
The Japanese consulate issued a statement Wednesday that said
it would forward the protesters' demands to Japan's Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in Tokyo. The statement also said, "Japan has expressed its
deep remorse and deep regret as well as expressed its sincere apology
for damage inflicted by the acts of Japan, especially in Asian
countries by colonization or aggression."
