Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 highlights to catch at the 2022 Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Festival

The July 1 to 3 fest features film, dance, music, visual art, and more

By Gail Johnson

Tara Catherine Pandeya and Billy Chang. Photo by Jazmyne Geis/StudioJaz

The Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society presents the 2022 Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Festival at šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square (Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza), Vancouver Playhouse, and the Annex Theatre from July 1 to 3

TO CELEBRATE CANADA DAY, the Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society is hosting the 2022 Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Festival. Now in its fourth year, the event showcases outstanding Canadian and Taiwanese artists working in a range of disciplines. It’s never been more important to bring people of all backgrounds together through the arts than right now, says fest project manager Michael Wu.

“After more than two years of a global health crisis and recent distressing social issues among Canada's Asian and First Nation communities, the TCCS believes that 2022 will be a crucial time to connect and reconnect the community and build and share positive cultural and heritage experiences,” Wu tells Stir. “The festival brings together music, dance, visual arts, and performing arts in one place. The festival offers exposure to the artists and creates a meeting place for artists and audiences. Interaction, communication, and participation can truly enhance the Canadian public's appreciation of the arts and respect for other ethnic cultures and traditions.”

The 2022 TCCF will kick off the five-year Taiwan–Canada Arts Fusion Initiatives, Wu explains, with six key themes: Crossroads: A Collaboration of Taiwan and Canada Indigenous Arts and Traditions; Taiwan-Canada Journey of Music; Taiwan-Canada Visual Arts Explorations; Cultural Expressions of Taiwan; Discover Taiwan; and Taiwan's Light and Shadow: Taiwan Cinema.

Sounds Global Ensemble—which is headed by the festival’s musical director, Lan Tung—sets the stage with a performance on July 1. (The musical group represents the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra at events when it’s not feasible to have a full orchestra on stage.) Tsatsu Stalqayu—Coastal Wolf Pack performs at that day’s opening ceremony.

Among the other acts taking part are in the three-day festival V’ni Dansi, RazzMaJazz, Sons of Granville, Zimbamoto, Uzume Taiko, Vancouver Pops Orchestra & Choir, Brazilian Swag, Chronicles of False Creek Brazilian, Crossbridge Strings, Ali Razmi Persian Jazz Ensemble, and Lara Wong Trio, among others. 

Events are free. Here are five festival highlights to catch.

Billy Chang and Tara Catherine Pandeya.

#1

Billy Chang & Tara Catherine Pandeya

Taiwanese native Billy Chang is a former performer with Cirque du Soleil who, in 2021, decided to focus his career on sharing his culture through dance. He has also had a hand in an experimental yoga retreat in the fields of Nanao, Yilan and directed a Buddhist-scripture-inspired dance for the year-end celebration of the Buddhist Compassion Relief of Tzu Chi Foundation. A proponent of drama therapy, Chang has worked at holiday resorts in Miaoli and Wulai, creating therapeutic experiences based on drumming, tea tasting, and Zen dancing.

Here, Chang teams up with another former Cirque dancer, Tara Catherine Pandeya, who has more than two decades’ of experience in cross-cultural dance settings in over 35 countries across five continents. Committed to promoting Central Asian dance, Pandeya often collaborates with Abbos, a Uzbek tambourine master in the United States.

Wu Gi Troupe.

#2

Wu Gi Troupe

The group formed in 2017 by Zi-Yung Cheng consists of 12 multidisciplinary performers who fuse genres to create their own style of movement and storytelling. “Wu Gi” represents the “centre” in tai chi; Wu Gi Troupe means “the team from Central region”. The plum blossom on the ensemble’s logo tells the world “We are from Taiwan.”

Mike Alexander.

#3

Mike Alexander

 Mike Alexander of Thundercloud Designs is an emerging Anishinaabe visual artist and writer originally from Swan Lake First Nation in Treaty #1 Territory who now resides on the traditional and unceded lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc. Adopted out to a non-Indigenous family shortly after birth, Mike is a ‘60s Scoop survivor and a second-generation residential school survivor who grew up in Winnipeg, having no connection to his community, language, or culture until his early 20’s. He has attended the University of Victoria, the Victoria College of Art and the Vancouver Island School of Art. A student of the Woodlands School of Art, Alexander identifies very strongly with his Ojibwe roots

Li Tung, Worry Like a Dream.

#4

Li  Tung

Born in Taipei, Li Tung has practised painting, installation arts, photography, calligraphy, performing and action arts, contact improvisation, writing, stage design, and game and multimedia design. Li’s recent paintings reflect his thorough understanding of surrealism and Pan-Asian art.

Mermaid Whispering.

#5

Taiwan Cinema Under the Star 

July 1 at 8:10 pm and July 2 at 7:50 pm

Mermaid Whispering plays on July 1. Through the perspective of the sea, the human being, and the fish, this film sheds light on the marine ecological catastrophe that is unfolding. It also conveys the attachment and contradictions of the Dawu people to the ocean.

A decade in the making, Father plays on July 2. The documentary looks at the life of 90-year-old Taiwanese glove-puppet master Chen Hsi-huang and his strained relationship with his father, Li Tian-Lu, a legendary puppeteer-actor. In 2009, the Council for Cultural Affairs (now the Ministry of Culture) designated Chen an “important preserver of traditional puppetry.” In 2011, he was named a “preserver of traditional techniques for making glove-puppet costumes, hats and props.” 

Father.

For more information about TCCF, see here.

---

Related Articles