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VIDEO – [SONGS] 2012 Cultures of China, Festival of Spring


VIDEO – [DANCES] http://vancouver21.com/?p=3045

The “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” 文化中国，四海同春is sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) of China’s State Council and the China Overseas Exchanges Association (COEA), presents art performances overseas during the Chinese Lunar New Year, bringing the spirit of unity, harmony and peace to wherever it travels. The North American tour included six cities – Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Montreal and last stop Vancouver, Canada on Feb 16, 2012.

2012 is the Year of the Dragon and this year’s performances included folk songs, classical dances, acrobatics, magic and Peking Opera.

Seven groups of performers journeyed through 18 countries and regions, bringing 46 memorable shows to audiences in 36 cities. “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” acts as a bridge that connects Chinese people from all over the world with art and culture and unites them together with the rhythm of the homeland.

The Vogue Theatre 918 Granville Street, Vancouver BC

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The “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” 文化中国，四海同春is sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) of China’s State Council and the China Overseas Exchanges Association (COEA), presents art performances overseas during the Chinese Lunar New Year, bringing the spirit of unity, harmony and peace to wherever it travels. The North American tour included six cities – Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Montreal and last stop Vancouver, Canada on Feb 16, 2012.

2012 is the Year of the Dragon and this year’s performances included folk songs, classical dances, acrobatics, magic and Peking Opera.

Seven groups of performers journeyed through 18 countries and regions, bringing 46 memorable shows to audiences in 36 cities. “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” acts as a bridge that connects Chinese people from all over the world with art and culture and unites them together with the rhythm of the homeland.

VIDEO – 2012 Cultures of China, Festival of Spring DANCES


The Vogue Theatre 918 Granville Street, Vancouver BC

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Two years ago today on Feb. 12, 2010, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games opened. Three months before that I was among a group of selected journalists invited to Whistler to photograph the Whistler Sliding Centre and the track made specifically for the sports of luge, bobsleigh and skeleton on the slopes of the Blackcomb Mountain.

This video offers an extremely rare look at the top of the Whistler sliding track. The same exact view that the eventual luge champion stared at just seconds before he slid down the track to Olympic glory.

I made the video in Nov. 2009 to reflect the excitement and danger of the sport. The race against the clock was also emphasized.

VIDEO – Starting point of the Whistler sliding track

Whistler Sliding Centre, Whistler, BC

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2012, it’s the Year of The Dragon. 龙年舞龙舞师大游行 This year in particular, the Chinese New Year Parade in Vancouver was all about the Golden Dragon with the Fortune God leading the way, of course. Otherwise the Chinese would not be happy. Neither would you since you won’t be getting any red package 红封包along the Fortune God’s path.

Money makes the world go around, world go around…

The parade started at the Millennium Gate and this year’s highlights included lion dances, police bagpipe bands, multicultural dancers and many more as they all wind their way through the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown along Pender, Gore, Keefer, Columbia and passing through the Dr. Sun Yet-Sen Garden among its route.

恭喜发财 Gung Hay Fat Choi or Gong Xi Fa Cai, whether it is Cantonese or Mandarin, the phrase heard often in Vancouver whether you’re Chinese or not, means the same thing – blessing for good fortune and prosperity.

VIDEO – Vancouver Chinese New Year Parade

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden, 50 East Pender Street, Vancouver BC

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The Vancouver Spring Show 2012 温哥华春节欢乐晚会 on Jan 15, 2012 was a celebration of different cultures coming together to share the joy of participating in the Spring Festival brought on by the Chinese New Year 2012 The Year of The Dragon 龙年.

The evening’s program also titled as The Spring Festival Gala was held at The Centre in downtown Vancouver. A multicultural cast of performers included Harry Yang, Jessica Liu, Beijing Little Peacock School of Dance, Nicole Li, Angel Huang Dance Co., Cecilia & Kevin Music Studio, Coast City Ballet, Shou-Yu Liang Wushu Taiji Qigong Institute, Cheondoong Performing Arts Society, De Danaan Irish, Shiamak Davar, Polonez, Sheila Christie, Zhi Liao, Yvonne He, QiaoYun Geng and others.

The event promotes the exchange of the Chinese culture with other Canadian multicultural societies and to develop and present high level performing cultural arts from different cultures and communities to the public. The night’s performances was recorded in high definition 3D TV for later broadcast and DVD distribution. The intention is to broaden the reach of this programming to China and around the world.

The main organizer of the Spring Festival Gala was CCLP International Cultural & Arts Exchange Center with support from The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Vancouver.

VIDEO – Multicultural Celebration of the Chinese Spring Festival

The Centre, 777 Homer Street, Vancouver BC

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The Vancouver Spring Show 2012温哥华春节欢乐晚 on Jan 15, 2012 at The Centre took the format of a variety show that featured a multicultural cast of singers and dancers. A notable one is a performance by
Shiamak Davars South Asian dance group.

VIDEO – Shiamak Davars Bollywood Dance

The Centre, 777 Homer Street, Vancouver BC

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The Vancouver Spring Show 2012 温哥华春节欢乐晚 that took place on Jan 15, 2012 had the format of a variety show that featured a multicultural cast of singers, dancers and other performers. 2012 is the Year of The Dragon in the Chinese lunar calendar and this is the 2nd annual Vancouver Spring Show. The evening’s program was held at The Centre (777 Homer Street, Vancouver BC) and the night’s event was recorded in high-definition 3D-HD for later broadcast and DVD circulation. The event was meant to promote the exchange of Chinese culture with other Canadian multicultural societies and to develop and present high level performing cultural arts from different cultures and communities to the public.

The main organizer was CCLP International Cultural & Arts Exchange Center with support from The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Vancouver. The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, Steven Point, OBC, Lieutenant Governor of BC, Christy Clark, Premier of BC, Jason Kenney, federal Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, James Moore, federal Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, Ed Fast, federal Minister of International Trade & Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, Alice Wong, MP, Minister of State (Seniors), Wai Young, MP, Vancouver South, Richard Lee, MLA, Parliamentary Secretary for Asia-Pacific, John Yap, MLA for Richmond-Steveston, Jenny Kwan, MLA, Gregor Robertson, Vancouver Mayor, Malcolm Brodie, Richmond Mayor, Derek Corrigan, Burnaby Mayor and many others were either present or sent in their letter of congratulations.

The night’s event was hosted by OMNI-TV news hosts Carol Wang and Lisa Wu, together with a number of others such as Kam Razavi (who speaks very good Mandarin), Hui Chen, Harry Lee and Frank Zhang.

Performers included Harry Yang, Jessica Liu, Beijing Little Peacock School of Dance, Nicole Li, Angel Huang Dance Co., Cecilia & Kevin Music Studio, Coast City Ballet, Shou-Yu Liang Wushu Taiji Qigong Institute, Cheondoong Performing Arts Society, De Danaan Irish, Shiamak Davar, Polonez, Sheila Christie, Zhi Liao, Yvonne He, QiaoYun Geng and others.

[Photo credits: Ray Van Eng - V21 Media | www.vancouver21.com ]






















































The Centre, 777 Homer Street, Vancouver BC

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Behind Sapphire had a passionate Vancouver Homecoming Concert on Dec 17, 2011 after a cross-Canada tour that included stops in Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax and many other Canadian cities. As an opener in the Vancouver concert lead singer Grant Cassell backed up by band members Matthew Mazankowski (guitar), Steven Ward (drums), Lindsay Sjoberg (guitar), Brayden Pichor (bass) and new member Joseph Ward, performed their classic songs such as Oh My What A Fine Day and Black Ties. Venue: Dodson Hotel on Hastings.

Behind Sapphire – Black Ties

Behind Sapphire – Oh My What A Fine Day!

Dodson Hotel, 25 East Hastings, Vancouver BC

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One of the thorniest issues between China and Japan is the Nanking Massacre南京大屠杀that happened in 1937 during the Japanese invasion of China. The matter has never been properly addressed or settled and relationship between the two countries has been strained at best for more than 70 years.

Nanking (or pinyin: Nanjing) was the capital of China during the Second World War. It is estimated that about 300,000 civilians who lived there in late 1937 and early 1938 were brutally murdered by Japanese soldiers in that city alone. Elsewhere in China, there were also countless other victims (civilians and foreign and Chinese prisoners of war) that were slaughtered and or grossly mistreated by the Japanese troupes.

The Nanking Massacre, also known as The Rape of Nanking, remains one of the most horrific military acts of war against a civilian population during World War Two. Beyond the murders and looting, there were also tens of thousands of women and girls as young as 12 years old being dragged away from their homes and forced to be ‘Comfort Women’ to service the Japanese Army.

Up to this day, China feels that Japan has not publicly admitted any wrongdoings nor offered any genuine apology. For China, there is no closure. And in 2000, Japan published New History Textbook that were perceived by most scholars both inside and outside of Japan as an attempt by the Japanese right-wing conservative groups to whitewash or rewrite history of the Japanese wartime atrocities. The revisionist textbooks, although only used by a very small minority (less than 1%) of Japanese junior high schools, further aggravated the Chinese government.

Enters China’s most famous director Zhang Yimou 张艺谋 and his newly crafted movie, The Flowers of War 金陵十三钗.

VIDEO – The Flowers of War Trailer


The movie was based on The 13 Women of Nanjing by Shanghai writer Geling Yan严歌苓. The novel is about 13 prostitutes replacing a group of young girls who are hiding inside a church to avoid being captured and sent away to be sexual slaves.

Zhang Yimou’s new movie maybe one of the ways the Beijing government could use to force the Japanese to face up to the wartime atrocities that Japan has committed during the occupation of Nanjing.

Sure, many movies about The Nanking Massacre has been made before. In the last five years alone there have been Nanking (2007), The Truth about Nanjing (2007), City of Life and Death (2009), John Rabe (2009) etc. But this time it is being directed by China’s most internationally acclaimed filmmaker in the most expensive movie that the country has ever produced (with a budget of almost US$100Million). The WWII epic starring Christian Bale, one of the biggest Hollywood stars will compete for recognition in many of the biggest international film awards such as the Golden Globes and The Oscars.

Christian Bale was referred to Zhang Yimou by Steven Spielberg to star in The Flowers of War. Bale played a young boy in Spielberg’s 1987 Empire of The Sun, a movie set in the 1940s in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion of China.

In The Flowers of War, Christian Bale plays a similar real-life role as John Rabe, a Siemens businessman and Nazi sympathizer who witnessed the Nanking Massacre in 1937. Rabe actually wrote German dictator Adolph Hitler and asked the Führer to intervene with the Japanese to stop the horrific raping and killing that went on. With American missionaries such as Minnie Vautrin, John Magee and others, John Rabe helped save some 250,000 Chinese lives by establishing an international safety zone in Nanking. Rabe even opened up his own resident to shelter another few hundreds more. When the Japanese troupes wanted to enter Rabe’s premises, they were stopped at the door when the German engineer showed them his Nazi membership credentials. As a result of his actions, John Rabe was being dubbed as The Good Nazi of Nanking.

However, after the war, John Rabe became impoverished and lived in destitute. For years, the citizens of Nanking and the mayor sent food to support Rabe and his family even after his death in 1950. In 1997, China honored John Rabe as a national hero and moved his tombstone from Berlin to Nanjing.

The Flowers of War has a limited North America run initially. The movie opens in the U.S. on Dec. 21 in New York and Dec 23 in Los Angeles and San Francisco, enough to qualify for competition as The Best Foreign Language Film in the 84th Academy Awards (The Oscars) on Feb 26, 2012.

Photo: John Rabe’s former home in Nanjing during the war. [Credit: Wikipedia CC2.0]
Nanjing, China

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Vancouver’s Bright Nights in Stanley Park opens Dec 02 to Jan 02, 2012.

The miniature train ride is $9 per adult and $6 per child/youth/senior. The ride is absolutely worth it, as the lighted forest is decorated with some two million Christmas lights. Parking is Free. Admission to the Christmas Plaza is also Free.

Check out this video made last year of the 2010 Bright Nights miniature Christmas Train Ride – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8VClGHtMj0

The event is a fundraiser for the Professional Firefighters Burn Fund and the organizers are recommending a minimum of $4 donation at the entrance of the plaza.

VIDEO – Bright Nights 2011 – Christmas Lights

Bright Nights at Stanley Park

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