Ginger Garden
Montreal 45° 30' 11.46" N, 73° 34' 11.30" W Academic and Education Academia/Research Arts Media Politics and Law Group
Welcome to Ginger Garden 2014
Ginger Garden 2014 is a gathering to eat, drink, and talk about burning questions and projects in the arts, education and community building.
Those who identify themselves as 1st arrivals/ 1st generation Asians, to Canada are invited to present their works.
Each presentation will be followed by Q & A and discussion. The presenters’ bios, descriptions, and video presentations will be available on: http://asiancanadianwiki.org/w/Main_Page
Date: Tues. August 19, 2014
Time : 5 -9 pm
Place : Simone de Beauvoir Institute, 2170 Bishop, Montreal
For discussion, you are invited to join Ginger Garden, Progressive Chinese Montrealers Social Club or Asian Canadian Wiki on Facebook.
Chinese Tea Salon in Montreal 2013 as an event name has been replaced by Ginger Garden.
The intent of Ginger Garden is: 1. to create an intimate space for sharing information and exchanging ideas, 2. to encourage self representations, 3. to break stereotypes, and 4. to connect, bridge and intersect the arts, academic and community circles and networks.
Event Schedule
5 pm- greetings
5:30 pm-begin presentations, Tracy: moderator-5 mins.
5:35 pm- Shuibo Wang 7 mins.
5:42 pm-Q&A, 7 mins.
5:49 pm- Satoshi Ikeda
6:56 pm-Q&A
6:03 pm- Jie Wu
6:10 pm-Q&A
6:17 pm- Kiran Ambwani
6:24 pm-Q&A
6: 30 pm- Shahrzad Arshadi
6:37 pm-Q&A
6:42 pm- break-15 mins.
6:57 pm-Q&A
7:04 pm-Veena Gokhale
7:11 pm-Q&A
7: 18 pm- Veronique He
7:25 pm-Q&A
7:32 pm- Green Chinatown Montreal, Chao/Miaoyun
7:39 pm-Q&A
7:46 pm- break, 15 mins.
8 :01 pm- Anna Perriere
8 :08 pm-Q&A
8 :15 pm- Khadija
8 :22 pm-Q&A
8 :29 pm- Milton Tanaka
8:36 pm-Q&A
8: 43 pm-Sophie Gee
8:50 pm-Q&A
8:57 pm- Mi Jeong Lee
9:04 pm –Q&A
9:11 pm-break, open
9:30 pm-begin clean up
Presenters Descriptions and Bios
Tracy Zhang,Moderator
Tracy Zhang is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment, Concordia University. Her recent research examines international recruitment of Chinese acrobats. She is a member of Art Can Heal Montreal, a collective group of oncology patients and their loved ones, arts therapists, researchers affiliated with Cedars CanSupport.
Shuibo Wang
Shuibo Wang is a Beijing/Montreal based artist and filmmaker, he is also a Guggenheim Fellow and Oscar nominee. He currently teaches at China Central Academy of Fine Arts.
Never Loose My Fist, is a feature documentary directed by Shuibo Wang, it tells the stories of a group of rebellions Punk Rock musicians from the industry city Wuhan in central China.
Kiran Ambwani
Passionate about people, their lifestyle, and the arts, Kiran Ambwani is a professional photographer of Indian origin, now based in Montreal. Kiran's creative vision captivates the editorial and advertising worlds, with a versatile portfolio ranging from portraits to products, lifestyle to landscapes and architecture to abstract images. Kiran freelances for various publications, advertising and press agencies, and non-profit groups. Specializing in portraiture and editorial photography, Kiran's photographs have been published in Vogue, Geo Plein Air, MindFood (Australia), Travesias (Mexico), US Airways, IB World (UK), Le Devoir, Journal Alternatives, Metro, Mirror, and The Bombay Times (India). Kiran's images reflect a sensitivity shaped by her background in anthropology and environmental science and her numerous travels. Driven by a curiosity for the problematics encountered by marginalised populations, Kiran has explored, among others, the lives of Tibetan monks in exile, the survivors of child trafficking in Mumbai, the inhabitants of Asia's largest slum Dharavi, and the indigenous women of Nepal. She has collaborated on several humanitarian projects with NGOs in Canada, India, and Nepal. Apart from commercial work, Kiran has held several group and solo exhibitions of her personal work in Canada and abroad. Kiran is a graduate of McGill University and the Dawson Institute of Photography in Montreal.
A public art project, it aims at bringing art and life to the otherwise dull and impersonal walls of the oncology departments in Montreal's wellness facilities. Initiated at Montreal's Notre-Dame Hospital, this installation seeks to inspire people by showcasing patients who have found the inner strength to face the challenges of the disease by engaging in various hobbies and activities. Art is known to have potent therapeutic effects, therefore there is need for art in places of healing. Furthermore, engaging patients in the artistic process can have positive mental health benefits and help them to feel more connected with the hospital and broader community. Creating art encourages vision, hope and imagination, all of which nurture the healing process.
Xiaodan He
Xiaodan He, born in 1975, has studied film production at the Beijing Film Academy in China from 1993 to 1997. In 2002, Xiaodan directed her first film, The Dance of The Star. In the same year, she moved to Montreal. In 2006, her first short film: Cairo Calling, has screenings in over 50 festivals around the world. In 2009, her documentary The Fall of Womenland is distributed in the TV of Canada and the other countries. Xiaodan is working on her first feature film, Pear Tree Blossoms.
Pear Tree Blossoms is a feature film of co-production between Canada and China. Li Fang, a Chinese immigrant has been living in Montreal for 10 years. Physically infertile and her violent separation from Eric, her québécois husband, has pushed her to the brink of despair. Escaping the chaos in Montreal, Li Fang travels to her birthplace and visits her grandfather in Dazu, a small district in south China. There, she hides the troubles she left behind but suffers from the sorrow and hate she keeps for her old love. The calmness of her granddad, the support of her childhood friends and being witness to their own problems and sufferings, helps her break the impasse in her life.
Jie Wu
Jie is doing his program of Master in Film Studies at the University of Montreal. His thesis work focuses on the impact of technological innovations on the film industry.
Jie will firstly review the portrayal of Chinese/Asians in the (popular) media of Montréal, Québec and Canada. Then, Jie will give an introduction of his documentary project on new-coming Canadian Chinese immigrants.
Veena Gokhale
Journalist, fiction writer, communications coordinator, project manager and educator. Worked in South Asia, Canada and Tanzania. Created issue-based, illustrated storybooks and developed and delivered workshops on “Using stories for social change.” Looking to build a professional team to apply the stories for social change concept in practice. http://www.veenago.com
My topic is called Using Stories for Social Change. I am going to talk about my own experience in this realm, it's going to be quite informal, and then ask people who may be interested in being on a team to take my project forward, to connect with me. Typically I'm looking for people with experience in video, film, radio, comic books and graphic novels, those who work in online or video games as also people who have started communications businesses. (But it could be others who are just inspired by my project and have some relevant skills.)
Milton Tanaka
Formé en sciences sociales à l’Université de São Paulo au Brésil, Milton Tanaka a complété un cours en production théâtrale à l’École nationale d’art dramatique-EAD du Brésil. Au Japon, il a été élève du Maître de danse feu Kazuo Ohno à Yokohama avec qui il apprend la danse BUTOH. Il a travaillé au Théâtre national Kokuritsu Gekijo de Tokyo comme assistant en production de scène. Milton a dirigé les relations de presse de Issey Miyake Design Studio à Tokyo. Ensuite, l’ambassade du Canada à Tokyo lui a confié la direction des expositions, des spectacles et de toutes les foires commerciales du Canada au Japon. À Montréal, Milton Tanaka a obtenu une maîtrise en administration d’affaires (MBA) aux HEC. Il a aussi monté le programme de diversité organisationnelle de l’Office national du film du Canada ONF-NFB et a collaboré avec plusieurs programmes de diversité de la Ville de Montréal. Milton a été à la tête du Jardin et pavillon japonais de Montréal et du Fonds Japon-Canada du Conseil des arts du Canada. Il est actuellement consultant Kaizen, une méthode d’amélioration continue japonaise.
Dans un format discussion, j'aimerais aborder à nouveau, après 14 après et pour constater son évolution /involution, le rôle des médias dans la représentation de minorités visibles au Québec.
KhAdija BAker
Khadija Baker is a multidisciplinary artist who creates installations that combine video, textile, sound and animation. Her work explores social and political themes related persecution, displacement and memory. Having worked with a variety of media such as painting, fibers, and video/moving images, her current research combines these practices to create intimate site-specific sculptural installation environments that engage the senses (sight, sound, and touch.) Her work breaches the divide between artist, art and public, creating an active space of participation, exchange, understanding and storytelling. Her work has garnered many awards and scholarships, including the Millennium Scholarship at Concordia University (2005 & 2006). In 2009-2010, she received the Vivacité grant for culturally diverse artists from the Conseil des arts et des letters du Québec, a Vidéographe research and experimentation grant, and the Joyce Melville Memorial Scholarship in 2011. She received grants from Canada Council of the Arts, in 2011, 2012 & 2013 and most recently form CALQ. Khadija has exhibited in cultural capitals such as Montreal, Toronto, New York, London, Berlin, Marseille, New Delhi, Beirut and Damascus. She presented her work at the 18th biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2012. Khadija was born and educated in the town of Amoude, Syria. She studied Interior Design, receiving a Master’s degree in 1999 from the University of Damascus, Syria. Since 2001 she lives and works in Montreal, Canada. She had a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University/ painting & drawing, and completed her MFA/Open Media at the same university2012.
The presentation describes " Don’t leave me I am still alive” a combination of a live performance and animation. I will use the space and life sound effect to create an environment that affects the viewers in a way to become part of the work; they are also invited to participate. This work involves a narrative storytelling and performance to create active spaces of empathy and greater understanding. www.khadijabaker.com
Chinese Tea Salon in Montreal 2013
This event is a special occasion with a visiting professor at Concordia, Olive/Li Hui, who teaches in China about Chinese Canadian writers and exciting post doc pre doc and interested Chinese Montrealers working on engaging subjects. Some of the presenters are: Tracy Zhang, Alice Jim, Alan Wong, Cheryl Sim, Chen Fang, Joanne Hui, Parker Mah and Leslie Cheung.
Anyone can take the floor as an impromptu 5 mins. presentation. This gathering is inspired from tea house in China, (茶館, cháguăn or 茶屋, cháwū), traditionally similar to the American cafe but centred on tea and to chat, eat and socialize. As a potluck where each contributes a dish or refreshments to share collectively, please also bring your own plate, utensils, cup etc. to minimalize any waste.
You are most welcome to present for 5 mins. on your doc post doc or interests. Please contact us. Presenter descriptions and video presentations will be available on: http://www.asiancanadianwiki.org/w/Chinese_Tea_Salon_in_Montreal
Event Date: Wed. July 24, 2013 Time: 5-9 pm Place: Simone de Beauvoir Institute, 2170 Bishop
See you soon!!
Cordially yours,
Tea Salon team and "Asian Canadian Wiki" <asiancanadianwiki@gmail.com>,
This Montreal tea salon was inspired by the many tea houses by Mary Wong. http://www.asiancanadianwiki.org/w/Mary_Sui_Yee_Wong
Event Schedule
5 pm- sharing potluck meal and chatting
6 pm- presenters: Olive, Alice (no video), Tracy, Alan, Cheryl, Leslie (5 mins. presentation + 5 mins. Q&A x 6 presenters = 60 mins.)
7 pm-break
7: 20 presenters: Parker, Fang, Joanne (no video), Rajee (no video) (5 mins. presentation + 5 mins. Q&A x 5 presenters = 50 mins. + one impromptu presenter @ 10 mins.
8:20 pm-break
8:40 pm-2 impromptu presenters & Q&A = 20 mins.
9 pm-break
Presenters Descriptions and Bios
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Olive Li Hui
Associate Professor, The Canadian Studies Center, College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Sichuan University Chinese Canadian Women Writers
Ever since the emergence of the Chinese Canadian literature more than 100 years ago, the Chinese Canadian women writers have been writing actively about their unique living experiences and spiritual quest. My research is about the major Chinese Canadian women writers to highlight their contributions not only to the Chinese Canadian literature but also to the Chinese Canadians’ history.
File:A CV from Olive.pdf
File:Chinese Canadian Women Writers.pdf
Alice Ming Wai Jim, Moderator
Performing Asian/Americas To think of Asian/Americas is to question how diasporic identities can be rendered beyond nation-state, global north, third and first world paradigms, and divisive dichotomies, I.e. East/West, North/South. I will present our call for workgroup participants in upcoming Encuentro in Montreal organized by NYU’s Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics and Concordia University, June 2014.
Alice Ming Wai Jim is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art at Concordia University, Montreal. Recent publications and exhibitions include ‘How to Occupy Retreat: dOCUMENTA (13) from Kassel to Banff’ in the Journal of Curatorial Studies and ‘Yam Lau: A World is a Model of a World’ at the Darling Foundry.
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Tracy Zhang
Tracy Zhang is a post-doctoral fellow in the department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at Concordia University and holds a doctorate in Communication Studies from Simon Fraser University. Most of her research explores the changing experiences of life and work in the cultural industries. The objective of her on-going research project is two-fold. First she examines the modern history of acrobatics in the People's Republic of China. Second, she investigates Cirque du Soleil’s recruitment strategies in the case of Chinese acrobats, including the implications of that strategy for the Montreal cultural sector and institutions.
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Alan Wong
My research focuses on activists in Montreal whose bodies are marked by the intersections of sexuality, race, ethnicity, colonization, gender, and class, paying particular attention to their deployments of subjectivity in seeking ways to belong and, consequently, perform their activisms in the face of the discursive violence enacted upon them. Alan Wong
Alan Wong is a teacher in the English department at Vanier College. He recently celebrated the successful defense of his dissertation and will receive his PhD this fall. His research interests include race, sexuality, activism, and community-based performance. He is also a community organizer in Montreal.
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Cheryl Sim
The Fitting Room: Canadian women of Chinese Heritage and the Cheongsam This research-creation PhD explores the relationship between the cheongsam and Canadian women of Chinese heritage born between 1965 and 1985. The final project will be an installation that responds to two inter-related questions; what are the current attitudes, ideas and wearing practices of the cheongsam and how can the richness of these responses be presented as an installation?
Cheryl Sim is Curator of research-creation projects at the Phi Centre as well as Associate Curator at DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art. She is currently a PhD candidate in the études et pratiques des arts program at UQÀM. In a parallel life she is a
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Leslie Cheung
Leslie Cheung is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at McGill University, with previous degrees in Public Policy and Social Work. Her dissertation looks at the intersection of race and language in the negotiation of competing host identities among second-generation immigrants in the Quebec context. She is currently doing her fieldwork in Montreal, seeking to interview second-generation youth (born in Quebec or arrived in Quebec before the age of 5, with at least one immigrant parent) between the ages of 18 and 35 from Filipino, Vietnamese, Anglo-Caribbean, and Haitian backgrounds.
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Parker Mah
Parker will briefly present the feature-length film Être Chinois au Québec (Being Chinese in Quebec), a documentary presenting the young generation of Chinese in Quebec through reflections and interviews on issues of identity, integration and the impacts of discriminatory policies such as the Chinese head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act in Canada.
Parker Mah was born in Vancouver in the year of the Rooster. A trained jazz pianist, he also counts photography and multimedia installations among his creative endeavors. His artistic involvement in the Asian community began with the New Voices Project, aimed at promoting the distinct cultural identity of the new generation of young Asian-Canadians. He is now based in Montreal and recently participated in a feature-length documentary exploring the identity of young Chinese-Quebecers.
Parker Mah est né à Vancouver durant l'année du coq. Formé comme pianiste de jazz, il compte également la photographie et les installations multimédias parmi les cordes à son arc créatif. Son engagement artistique dans la communauté asiatique a commencé avec le projet Nouvelles Voix, qui visait à promouvoir l'identité culturelle distincte d'une nouvelle génération de jeunes Asiatiques canadiens. Il vit maintenant à Montréal et a participé récemment à la production d'un documentaire long-métrage sur l'identité des jeunes Sino-québécois.
http://www.eyedea.ca
http://twitter.com/thought_cast
Fang Chen
The news account of “keeping a second wife” is a re-articulation of the established ideology of marriage and sexuality during a time of “opening up”. It also signals a particular convergence of the discourse within the context of market neo-liberalization and the appropriation of Confucianism around the privatization of social ills onto the domestic sphere.
Fang Chen, PhD candidate, Humanities Program, Concordia University. Dissertation is about media, audience and social change in China with a particular focus on marriage and sexuality.
Joanne Joe Yan Hui
Thesis Title: Fluid Terrains: Mobile Subjectivity in the Graphic Narrative Travelogue
Joanne Hui is an artist and doctoral student in the Humanities PhD Program at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University. Her research investigates concepts of identity in comic art, particularly how graphic arts addresses culturally-specific and historical conditions of migration and immigration.
Research Interests
Comic Art and the Graphic Novel Travelogue
Ethnocultural Art History
Asian North American Literature
Post-Colonial, Diasporic and Transnational Studies
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André Ho
André Ho is currently a master student in social work at UQAM. Since the last 15 years, he helps and is involved among organizations helping people with (mental and social) problems. His interests are in mental health, inter-cultural issues and contributions to the communities. For his master project, he will produce a documentary called Banane et bambou about how immigrants from China build their identity. One of the goal of his project is to study identity-related issues in a highly diversified and complex social context. The beginning of his project will be in October 2013. If you are interested to be part of the project, email him at : andre.ho82@gmail.com.
Rajee Paña Jeji Shergill
Rajee Paña Jeji Shergill is an interdisciplinary artist and current Master’s student in Art History at Concordia University. Her thesis examines artworks that engage with family accounts of trauma and personal memories related to the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. She is interested in transgenerational transmission as a key interpretative lens and investigative focus within the study of historical trauma associated with the Partition.
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mihee-nathalie lemoine
mihee-nathalie lemoine (a.k.a kimura byol) is a multimedia artist and curator, born in korea (south), raised in belgium, and immigrated to canada. "zer" visual work was exhibited solo and in group (seoul, tokyo, kyoto, hong-kong, taipei, berlin, brussels, lille, grenoble, montreal, vancouver, los angeles, new york). her poems, essay and critics have been published in the u.s., south korea and Japan. her videos were screened in korea, japan, hong-kong, tunisia, belgium, france, canada and the u.s. lemoine-kimura works on diasporic identity, question gender and play with words. lemoine believes in social justice and therefore dosn't like capital letters.http://starkimproject.com
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Henry Tsang
Henry Tsang is a visual and media artist whose work has been exhibited internationally. His projects incorporate digital media, video, photography, language and sculptural elements in the exploration of the relationship between the public, community and identity through global flows of people, culture and capital. Examples include video installations Orange County, 2004, and Olympus, 2006, shot in California, Beijing, Torino and Vancouver, demonstrating a complex understanding of overlapping urban and socio-political spaces; Napa North, 2008, exploring the relationship between wine, real estate and cultural translation in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley; and the Maraya project, with M. Simon Levin and Glen Lowry, that investigates the uncanny similarities between Vancouver’s False Creek and the Dubai Marina in the United Arab Emirates. His public artwork, Welcome to the Land of Light, is a 100 metre-long installation located on the seawall handrail along Vancouver’s False Creek. Comprised of fibre optic cable lighting and marine-grade aluminum lettering, it literally underscores Chinook Jargon, a 19th Century local trade language, and the English that replaced it, to speak about the promise of technology and how different cultures have come to live together in that part of the world.
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Day’s Lee
Day’s Lee is the author of the children’s picture book, "The Fragrant Garden," which was named “Our Choice” by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre in 2007. Her latest book is a young adult novel entitled "Guitar Hero." Her short stories which have appeared in anthologies including "The Ladies Killing Circle," have been nominated for the Arthur Ellis award for the Best Mystery Short Story of the Year, won honourable mention in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s short story contest, and placed third in Storyteller Magazine’s annual short story contest.
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