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We can't believe that it's been half a year since explorASIAN 2016! We had a wonderful time at the festival, and it was a great privilege to learn about the Japanese-Canadian community and their rich history and culture. Their perseverance in the face of hardship was inspiring, and we thank the community for all their hard work this year. Thank you also to all of our amazing volunteers and Community Partners who celebrated with us!
Now, we look towards May 2017, and we are excited to announce that we will be featuring the Mixed Asian Heritage Community for Canada's 150th Anniversary! We at the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society believe that celebrating the mixed Asian heritage community is extremely fitting for this upcoming anniversary, as what better represents Canada than many heritages and cultures coming together to form a community of many different roots?
We are proud to work this year with the Hapa Society and Hapa-palooza Festival, which places prominence on celebrating and stimulating awareness of mixed Asian heritage and cultural hybrid identity.
Read on to learn more!
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A Letter from Our President, Ken McAteer
Featured Community
This year we are pleased to feature the growing community of mixed Asian heritage with its rich history and culture. Thanks to featured award-winning film producer Jeff Chiba Stearns, writer/ editor & community organizer Anna Ling Kaye, and author/teacher Brandy Lien Worrall-Soriano, we will be treated to a wonderful, educational and entertaining festival this year which is the 150th anniversary of Canada. Jeff and Anna are two of the founders of the Hapa-palooza Festival.
Opening Ceremony
The Opening will once again be with our partner Simon Fraser University Woodwards from 10:00 am to noon on Saturday, April 22, 2017 in the Milton & Fei Wong Experimental Theatre.
Recognition Gala
For the Gala we are partnering with the Museum of Vancouver, (1100 Chestnut Street in Vancouver) from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on Sunday, June 4, 2017. We will be at the MOV beginning at 5:00pm doing the set-up, and would welcome assistance in order to be well prepared for the start to formalities. Featured will be three community builders from the mixed Asian heritage community.
Festival Partners
As we did last year, we will be assisting our large number of partners to publicize their presentations at many different venues. We are fortunate to have an excellent Newsletter, Website, and social media channels to feature our Partners. These partners will also be featured by our print sponsor, the Vancouver Courier.
Annual General Meeting
Our AGM this year will be held from 2:00pm to 4:00pm on Sunday, January 8th at the Lipont Art Centre in Richmond. We invite all our members to attend to greet the Directors who will be elected and to hear of our exceptional progress during the last year. The address is 4211 No. 3 Road (at Browngate Road), Richmond, BC V6X 2C3. It is right across the Canada Line Aberdeen Station. Free parking is available next to the building.
Special Projects
We will keep you informed on our special projects: Silk Routes/Spice Routes, Canadian National Film Day, and Generation One Artists. We are also currently exploring the possibility of offering a Citizenship Court for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. We appreciate the office and meeting space provided by the UBC Learning Exchange.
Best Wishes
On behalf of our Board and Advisors, I would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous and exciting 2017.
Ken McAteer, President
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A Message from Anna Ling Kaye on the Mixed Asian Heritage Community
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What does "Hapa" mean?
The Mixed Asian Heritage community, also often referred to as the Hapa community here in Vancouver, is composed of peoples who identify as mixed Asian and other heritages.
Since 2011, the Mixed Asian Heritage community and larger mixed community has been celebrated by the Vancouver-based Hapa-palooza Festival (www.hapapalooza.com), which champions mixed ancestry and cultural heritage through fostering community engagement with diverse cultural public programming featuring local multi-disciplinary artists.
A celebration of mixed ancestry and cultural heritage, Hapa-palooza Festival is held every September, and features writers, artists, filmmakers, dancers, actors, musicians and other talent of mixed heritage.
The festival is public and welcomes all, appealing to all ages, cultures, and artistic disciplines, with an especial focus on creating a welcoming environment for mixed heritage youth and families. Hapa-palooza's programming mission is to provide platforms for exploration of mixed heritage identity, cross-cultural dialogue, and cultural expression through multi-disciplinary art forms and community engagement.
- Anna Ling Kaye, Co-Director of Hapa-palooza
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Mark Your Calendars: Opening of explorASIAN 2017
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Our upcoming 2017 Festival will open Saturday, April 22, 2017, at SFU Woodwards at Simon Fraser University (Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings Street).
Please join us from 10:00am to noon in the Milton and Fei Wong Experimental Theatre.
More details are still to come, but do mark your calendars to celebrate the opening of explorASIAN 2017 with us!
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Introducing New Partner, the Museum of Vancouver
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We are pleased to announce that we have formed a new partnership with the Museum of Vancouver, where we will be hosting our Recognition Gala from 6:00pm-8:00pm on Sunday, June 4th, 2017!
This year we will be featuring three community builders from the mixed Asian heritage community at 1100 Chestnut Street. We hope you will join us at explorASIAN's only fundraiser to honour the mixed Asian heritage community!
If you are interested in renting the beautifully situated Museum of Vancouver like we will be doing this June, do check out their rates by contacting sales@museumofvancouver.ca.
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Special Discounts for VAHMS Members: Cathay Pacific and Silkway Travel Tickets
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We are honoured to have chosen Cathay Pacific Airlines and Silkway Travel as Vancouver Asian Heritage Month's exclusive partner airlines! For those of you that don't know, at our last Recognition Gala in 2016, we gave away two Cathay Pacific round-trip tickets to Hong Kong as our biggest raffle prize! Thanks to Cathay Pacific for their generous donation.
We are pleased to announce that as a part of our partnership and friendship with Cathay Pacific and Silkway Travel, we are able to offer special discounts for travel on select Cathay Pacific and Silkway Travel routes to VAHMS members. For further details please contact Rosana Loo at Silkway Travel 8899 Odlin Crescent, Richmond 604-249-0078.
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More from Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society
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VAHMS is always happy to hear from our Members, Partners, Supporters, and friends. If you have questions about our festival or if you have further inquiries about any of the above topics, please message our Coordinator at <office.vahms@gmail.com>.
For information on how to promote your Asian heritage related event outside of the May festival, please see the submission instructions here for our community partner/event promotion requests.
Don't forget to follow us below on Facebook, Twitter, and explorasian.org!
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