Category Archives: Published Articles

Published Articles, Published Articles by Tung

Is speaking another language other than English really that bad

There is another ugly incident recently posted on social media showing a person berating an Asian customer service representative in a drug store in Burnaby for speaking a language other than English in front of her.  This is really surprising as we are a country that prides itself as tolerant and accepting of multicultural communities.

In 2003 I wrote an op-ed piece for the Vancouver Sun in response to a similar incident in one of the bank branches where I worked. In that incident, a customer complained to me about a customer service representative speaking Chinese to the customer he was serving. 

For a great number of immigrants coming from countries where English is not their mother tongue, that attitude is not only hurtful, it is also incomprehensible. 

Is this country really what it advertises itself to be?

I grew up in Hong Kong, but lived and worked in Holland for several years before I immigrated to Canada in 1974. While I was there, I never heard people complain when others spoke a different language other than Dutch in their presence. In fact, most Dutch people speak one, two and sometimes three languages other than their native tongue by the time they finish high school. 

In B.C., high school students are taught French because we are officially a bilingual country. But how many British Columbians can really function in French? An interesting fact is that there are many immigrant children from Asian countries who are interested to learn French. After visiting Vancouver’s Alliance Française in 2008, former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Reffarin wrote in a blog on the consulate’s website, “French language is alive and well in B.C. thanks to the Chinese immigrant youths.”  Almost 80 percent of the students that he saw taking French classes were Chinese-Canadians.

In recent years, I have traveled extensively to many countries as a tourist.  I have seen English being used at almost every tourist destination. I seldom detect even a wisp of resentment when I speak English to them.

So why are we seeing this kind of bizarre behaviour by a Burnaby drugstore customer recently, in a Richmond parking lot in August and at a bank almost 16 years ago?

Some may say the behaviour is based out of fear – a fear that Canada will be overrun by people who are unable or unwilling to speak any one of our two official languages. The fact is that during my years of service at SUCCESS, one of the largest immigrant settlement services agencies in the country, I have yet to come across anyone who is unwilling to learn English. 

Yes, I have seen quite a number of individuals who are unable to learn to speak English. But have you ever tried to learn a foreign language as an adult? Linguists will tell you that it is exceedingly hard for a unilingual person to acquire another language beyond the age of 40. We should, nonetheless, continue to encourage and help newcomers to improve their proficiency in English for their own as well as the society’s benefit.

Still, it is a minority of recent immigrants who are unable to communicate in basic English. For the past several years, immigration applicants must have level four English-language skills (as defined in the Canadian Language Standard) before they will be accepted by our country.

In fact, most immigrant parents who I speak to complain that their children are rapidly losing their ability to speak their mother tongue. So the fear of being overrun by non-English-speaking immigrants is, to state it mildly, overstated. Or, to state it bluntly, irrational.

We should be more concerned that Canada is losing its competitive advantage as a country with people able to speak multiple languages. As a trading nation, this loss is a real threat to our long-term sustainable prosperity.

Others may argue that resentment about people speaking another language is motivated by patriotism, that language and, therefore, culture, is what binds us together as a country. So, not speaking English in public means that they are not and will never become “real” Canadians.

But census data indicates that the overwhelming majority of Canadians who speak another language also speak English. If people speak to one another in another language, most often it’s for no other reason than convenience. 

Our core value of supremacy of God, the rule of law, equality, fairness, and justice is baked into our Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedom.

Our criminal code also spells out in very precise terms on what is and what is not acceptable behaviour.

Our culture, as expressed by our language (both English and French), our fashions, our food, our arts, our architecture, our literature, and our music are, on the other hand, constantly evolving.  New elements of our language are added every year.  What we like to wear is tracking what is fashionable around the world.  Fusion food is all a rage in cities like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.  In that sense, successive waves of immigrants have brought with them their culture and add them to our unique multicultural mix.  This is what makes Canadian culture vibrant and world-leading.

The fear that by letting people speak their own mother tongue in public is that it will diminish our culture is misplaced. Values are constant, but culture is fluid as is language. What makes Canadian culture vibrant and unique is the fusion of foods, languages, and traditions brought by successive waves of immigrants.

To be afraid of such changes is as ridiculous as suggesting that we should all speak Shakespeare English, dress in top hats, pointed boots and live in thatched-roof huts. Such a nostalgic view of the world is unrealistic and futile.

The only remaining plausible explanation of such abhorrent behaviour is racism. But I simply refuse to believe that was the motive for the woman in the Burnaby pharmacy who in front of her own child said such foul and hurtful things. 

I was taught that humans by nature are kind and generous and that bad behaviour is learned from family and friends. 

Did this person learn that from her parents just like the child is learning from his?

Considering the racist history of British Columbia and Canada towards Chinese, I would not be surprised. It’s only two generations ago that Chinese-Canadians were allowed to vote and it’s only a few years ago that many discriminatory statutes.

So what to do? The best course of action is education. Being part of Canada in the 21st century means respecting and celebrating the diversity of language, dress, and cultures.

After all, this is my country and my home as much as it is for those who are unilingual and uni-culturally English or French. 

Published Articles, Published Articles by Tung

Getting notice may or may not be a good thing

I felt flattered when I received a request from Oxford University Press Canada for permission to include my article “Social disconnect leads to ethnic enclaves” (2013, October 16, The Province) in an upcoming e-book. My ego was deflated when I found out the book, entitled: Skill Set with Grammar, was about the better usage of English grammar. My article will be included in the section containing samples of articles for readers to practice how to spot and correct improper use of grammar.

As a matter of fact, feelings of hurt, humiliation, and resentment ran through my mind. My initial reaction was to reject the request. Why do I want my article to be held out as an example of poor use of English Grammar? After all, English has been my working language for almost 40 years. Besides, the article was published by a respectable English newspaper whose editor had gone over the article and corrected any mistakes deemed unacceptable. So if there were any bad choice of grammar, I am not the only person responsible.

I then thought of the so call Donald Trump theory of publicity: it does not matter if it is good or bad publicity as long as your name gets mentioned in the media. So with that in mind, I negotiated a very nominal honorarium and gave my permission.

But the real point of all of this, I thought, is how important it is to master correct usage of English grammar. I grew up speaking Chinese. I can read and write in either the classical or the contemporary style Chinese with ease. The difference between the two is almost like Victorian English used by Shakespeare and current day English used by Margaret Atwood. However, people who are fluent in Chinese in its written form know that the Chinese language has a vastly different grammatical structure than English. The Chinese language does not have tenses. It uses reflective adjectives to describe time. Verbs are not modified according to whether the subject it attached to is singular or plural.

Just to make things more complicated, there are many exceptions to the rules in English grammar! So you can imagine how difficult it is for someone like me to try to master English grammar.

But throughout my career, I have seen how native speakers, particularly those who has a degree majoring in English tend to look down upon or discount the ideas of people who wrote with improper grammar. To these people, inability to master English grammar is tantamount to weak logical skills and even low IQ. So instead of trying to understand and appreciate the idea being presented, these folks would just put the paper aside and ignore the ideas no matter how worthy of consideration it may be.

This is a terrible waste of talent and human resources because we do live in a multicultural and multilingual environment. There are many people, me included, who, no matter how hard they tried, will have difficulty in achieving perfect use of grammar. You would have likely noticed several grammatical mistakes in this article so far! But to discount what I have to say in this article because of my grammatical mistakes would be to deny the existence of another side of issue.

There are two ways to remedy the situation. The first is to publish books such as the Oxford University Press of Canada is publishing to help people to master English Grammar. The second, I think is more important from my personal experience, is for native English speakers to tune down their cultural superiority. They need to remove from their mind the notion that the ability for correct grammar usage is an indication of mental capacity. What matter is the substance and not the expression of the idea.

At the end of the day, my article still gets noticed and I am glad I will contribute to the improvement of people’s grammatical skills. And the best of them all, I now have the bragging right of having one of my articles published by the Oxford University Press of Canada.

Published Articles by Tung

Do you have a Chinese Name

The Federal election season is fast approaching. The BC civic election was a mere three months ago. Every aspiring federal politicians will try to vie for the attention of every eligible voter. With so many residents speaking Chinese in the Lower Mainland and Greater Toronto, getting their attention in their own language seems to be a good thing for politicians to do.

The Chinese language media is a force of their own. If you have attended any political media conferences lately, you will notice the number of reporters representing Chinese language media organizations out number the English language media outlets. They are diligent and report news almost verbatim from what was said and what was in the press kit.

They will, for the benefit of their consumers, translate the English proper names into Chinese. If a Chinese name was not provided, each news outlet will make up a phonetically translated name base on the mother tongue of the translator.

A case in point is how NPA’s Vancouver mayoral Candidate Kirk LaPointe’s name appeared in various Chinese newspapers when he first announced his candidacy. You don’t need to know how to read Chinese to see that they all look different: Ming Pao Daily (明報): “拉波特”; Singtao Daily (星島日報): “拉波因特”, World Journal (世界日報): “拉龐特”; Dawa Commercial Press (大華商報): “凱克.拉波特” Together, this four dailies have a daily circulation in the low six figures and reach about one in five Chinese-Canadians in the Lower Mainland.

Can you imagine what kind of a nightmare it would be if you try to promote yourself as a politician to the Chinese-Canadian readers of these four newspapers? Mr. LaPointe’s team soon caught on and issued an official Chinese name for him: 賴普德.

But how does one come up with a Chinese name?

There are generally four ways to generate a Chinese name from English. They are i) literal translation, ii) pure phonetic translation, iii) beautified phonetic translation, iv) trans-creation.

The first method, literal translation, is the most simple. This method of name creation is more applicable for organizations where their name has a meaning and less useful for individuals whose names usually carry no meaning. This method is particularly appropriate when the name has a positive connotation in Chinese. For example, the Royal Bank’s name in Chinese is 皇家銀行 which literally means Royal Bank. This method may not be as appropriate if the translated name is not so positive in the target market. For example, Volkswagen could be translated into 大眾汽車. The name was not used because “common people’s automobile” may not be the image it wants to project to the Hong Kong Chinese consumers. So it calls itself in Hong Kong 福士, a name translated using the pure phonetic translation method that means “good fortune person”. (Volkswagen uses 大眾汽車 in Mainland China as the name is more acceptable in that market.)

The second method, pure phonetic translation, is a standard translation method used by official news outlets in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The aforementioned Chinese names for Mr. LaPointe used by the four local Chinese language outlets are generated based on this method. But because the same Chinese character are pronounced differently in Cantonese (used mainly in Hong Kong) and Mandarin (used in China and Taiwan), the same English name is assigned different Chinese characters depending on the language spoken by the translator. To understand how this works, imagine how the numeric symbols 1, 2, 3, etc. are pronounced differently by English, French and German speakers even though the symbols are the same.

I still remember when I was a youngster living in Hong Kong, I was confused when reading news about the US. I was confused because US President Kennedy was known as 甘迺迪 in the Hongkong based newspapers and 肯尼迪 in the Mainland China based newspapers. For a while, I mistakenly thought the US has two presidents!

This method of translation is not very helpful if your aim is to create a memorable name in the minds of Chinese speaking consumers. Our mind is set up to learn by association. It is difficult for Chinese speakers to associate a pure phonetically translated name to something in their memory bank. To understand this point, see if you can register the name “Tung Yun Tong” in your mind. The name is just three meaningless sounds that you would have a hard time to visualize. However, to most Canadians who speaks Chinese, 同仁堂 is a well known, respected and established traditional Chinese herbal store. It is with this understanding in mind that the Bank of Nova Scotia stopped some years ago from using 士高沙 (a pure phonetic translation of the word Scotia) as their official Chinese name.

The third method, beautified phonetic translation, is the most commonly used method. This is a modified approach of the pure phonetic translation method. The starting point of this method is the phonetic pronunciation of the name followed by choosing culturally meaningful homonyms. The official Chinese name for the aforementioned Mr. LaPointe, 賴普德 was arrived at by such a method. The three Chinese characters are pronounced in Cantonese as Lai Po Dug and which approximate LaPointe.

The word 賴 is a common Chinese Surname; 普 means general, universal or popular; while 德 means virtue or moral. Thus, 賴普德 is far better than the pure phonetic name 拉波特 used by one of the local Chinese language newspapers. Another such example is the Chinese name for the Toronto Dominion Bank. It dropped the pure phonetic name of 道美寅in favour of the beautified phonetic name of 道明. Both of the Chinese names were based on the word “Dominion”. 道美寅 has no consequential meaning while 道明 means a “bright pathway”.

The Chinese name for Coco-cola 可口可樂 is another wonderful example. The four Chinese characters are pronounced in Mandarin as Kē Kou Kē Lè and can roughly be translated as “pleases your mouth, makes you happy.”

The fourth method, trans-creation, is by far the most powerful but less used one. This method is used almost exclusively for commercial entities and rarely used by individuals. The starting point of this method of name generation is to crystallize the essence of the resulting image one wants to project onto the consumer. The second step is to pick a name that best reflect that essence but not necessarily bears any relationship to the actual English name. Thus the HK and Shanghai Bank becomes 匯豐銀行 (plentiful remittance bank), the Bank of Nova Scotia becomes 豐業銀行 (plentiful business bank) and Manulife Financial becomes 宏利財務 (grand profit financial). The Chinese names of all three examples cited above resonate with people who understands Chinese and is by far the most effective way to brand a product unless you are working with a pan cultural name like “Apple” 萍果.

Good luck in picking a powerful Chinese name.

Published Articles, Published Articles by Tung

We need to bring down the cultural barriers

Tung Chan heads up one of B.C.’s most influential non-profits, the Vancouver-based organization S.U.C.C.E.S.S. That role has brought Chan’s life full circle in this province. He arrived in 1974 from Hong Kong with no English and no money and worked as a volunteer with S.U.C.C.E.S.S. After a successful banking career with TD Bank for almost 30 years, he became the organization’s CEO in 2006.

Tung Chan, Special to The Sun

Published: Tuesday, April 01, 2008

In a civilized society, people share their knowledge, beliefs and culture through communication. The ideals of a civilized society are created after long periods, sometimes generations, of constructive discourse. Debates of contentious topics that shift our understanding and tolerance, often begin over family dinners, carry over to the work place and move finally to public forums and the media.

But what would happen if there were no debate?

What if some strong points of view were presented and agreed to by only one segment of the society and unknown to the larger society?

Surely such a disparity could not and should not exist unchecked in our society?

Unfortunately, this very scenario has been quietly unfolding, under mainstream Canada’s radar.

In the Lower Mainland, there are literally hundreds of media outlets in a variety of languages serving the multitude of cultural communities. These media outlets serve a very useful and important function in helping newcomers who lack the ability to fully understand our official languages. They are lifelines that help people overcome their initial cultural shock and familiarize them with social issues important to Canada.

But reporters and editors report and editorialize through their own cultural lenses. As a result, most non-English-language media outlets report and interpret news from new and different Canadians’ perspectives. Some of them may even advocate a point of view that is diametrically opposed to the mainstream of our society.

Ordinarily, such diverse points of view are fundamental to a free and democratic society. Ordinarily, however, people would be aware that a different point of view from what is proclaimed exists and a debate may ensue. Ordinarily, while total agreement may not be reached through debate and dialogue, people would at least understand each other’s position and perspective.

This is not happening now.

There is no institutionalized sharing of opinions between the various non-English language communities and the larger community. The opinions of popular English talk show hosts have no impact on the non-English speaking communities. The reverse is also true. For example, how many readers of this article know one of the Chinese radio stations recently started a petition for more police officers and collected thousands of signatures?

While the majority of the people who regularly listen to CBC may not be listeners of CKNW because of preference, the majority of CBC listeners are not Fairchild (Chinese) radio listeners, because of the language barrier. While Fairchild Radio’s morning host Dr. K. K. Wan would have a good idea what Rick Cluff is saying, Rick would not have a clue about what K.K. is saying, even if he were to tune to Fairchild radio.

This has created an interesting parallel reality.

These parallel realities are exposed when opinions on so-called wedge issues are debated. These wedge issues include morality issues such as same-sex marriage and drug treatment policy; law and order issues such as minimum sentencing and capital punishment; immigrant settlement issues such as credentialing and English-language training availability.

If we want to create a civilized society with the kind of social cohesion that we all want, we need to find ways to talk to each other. The question we need to ask ourselves is, how we can break down the silos formed by language? How can we debate such important issues together, and not have it restricted by language?

Currently, our provincial government and the City of Vancouver subscribe to media monitoring services of the Chinese-language media. Our major English-language media may perhaps want to follow suit. But merely monitoring what is reported is not sufficient. Someone in an executive position, sensitive to the issues from a newcomer’s perspective, needs to interpret the reports and act.

On the other hand, we may encourage and facilitate people who work in non-English media outlets to gain more understanding of Canada’s history, value and aspiration. Such knowledge will likely improve the chance of news being reported and interpreted from more of a Canadian perspective.

The need for change is now. If we continue the way we are, Canada will have stratified ideals, bound by ethnicity and language, created by our inability to communicate.  It is not the future I wish to see for my country.

© Vancouver Sun

Published Articles, Published Articles by Tung

The role the language play in a civilized society

Tung Chan – March 2008

In a civilized society, people share their knowledge, beliefs and culture through communication.  The ideals of a civilized society are created after long periods, sometimes generations, of constructive discourse.  Debates of contentious topics that shift our understanding and tolerance, often begin over family dinners, carry over to the work place and move finally to public forums and the media.     

But what would happen if there were no debate?
What if some strong points of view were presented and agreed to by only one segment of the society and unknown to the larger society?
Surely such a disparity could not and should not exist unchecked in our society?

Unfortunately, this very scenario has been quietly unfolding, under mainstream Canada’s radar.
 
In the Lower Mainland, there are literally hundreds of media outlets in a variety of languages serving the multitude of cultural communities.  These media outlets serve a very useful and important function in helping new comers who lack the ability to fully understand our official languages.  They are lifelines that help people overcome their initial cultural shock and familiarize them with social issues important to Canada.

But reporters and editors report and editorialize through their own cultural lenses.  As a result, most non-English language media outlets report and interpret news from a new and different Canadian’s perspective.  Some of them may even advocate a point of view that is diabolically opposed to the mainstay of our society.  

Ordinarily, such diverse points of view are fundamental to a free and democratic society.  Ordinarily, however, people would be aware that a different point of view from what is proclaimed exists and a debate may ensure.  Ordinarily, while total agreement may not be reached through debate and dialogue, people would at least understand each other’s position and perspective.

This is not happening now.

There is no institutionalized sharing of opinions between the various non-English language communities and the larger community.  The opinions of popular English talk show hosts have no impact on the non-English speaking communities.  The reverse is also true.  For example, how many readers of this article know one of the Chinese radio stations recently started a petition for more police officers and collected thousands of signatures?

While the majority of the people who regularly listen to CBC may not be listeners of CKNW because of preference, the majority of CBC listeners are not Fairchild (Chinese) radio listeners because of the language barrier.  While Fairchild Radio’s morning host Dr. K. K. Wan would have a good idea what Rick Cluff is saying, Rick would not have a clue on what K.K. is saying, even if he were to tune to Fairchild radio.  

This has created an interesting parallel reality.

These parallel realities are exposed when opinions on so-call wedge issues are debated.  These wedge issues include morality issues such as same sex marriage and drug treatment policy; law and order issues such as minimum sentencing and capital punishment; immigrant settlement issues such as credentialing and English language training availability.  

If we want to create a civilized society with the kind of social cohesion that we all want, we need to find ways to talk to each other.  The question we need to ask ourselves is how we can break down the silos formed by language?  How can we debate such important issues together, and not have it confined by language?

Currently, our provincial government and the City of Vancouver subscribe to media monitoring services of the Chinese language media.  Our major English language media may perhaps want to follow suite.  But merely monitoring what is reported is not sufficient.  Someone in an executive position, sensitive to the issues from a new comers’ perspective, needs to interpret the reports and act.  

On the other hand, we may encourage and facilitate people who work in non English media outlets to gain more understanding of Canada’s history, value and aspiration.  Such knowledge will likely improve the chance of news being reported and interpreted from more of a Canadian perspective.

The need for change is now.  If we continue the way we are, Canada will have stratified ideals, bound by ethnicity and language, created by our inability to communicate.  It is not the future I wish to see for my country.

Published Articles, Published Articles by Tung

The recent participation of Chinese immigrants in local politics

While 1982 was the year the first Chinese-Canadian was elected to Vancouver’s city council, 1990 was the watershed year of Chinese immigrants’ participation in local politics.  It was in that year that, for the first time in Vancouver’s history, a Chinese-Canadian was on the ballot for Council, School Board, and Park Board.  The fact that all three aspiring local politicians[1] had strong ties with SUCCESS was no coincidence because SUCCESS’ Vision is “[to] be an innovative organization in building the capacity and participation of individuals, families, and communities towards a truly integrated society.”

But what is the role of a Chinese immigrant politician in “a truly integrated society”?  The first Chinese-Canadian Councilor, Bill Yee, said that “When I got elected, I wanted to make a statement that the Chinese-Canadian community wanted to contribute, that we wanted to participate and that we had a role to play.”  That role, as exemplified by Sandra Wilking, the first Chinese-Canadian woman elected to Vancouver City Council, is to bridge the cultural divide between the Chinese-Canadian community and the European-Canadian community.  She was responsible for getting spots for Chinese journalists at the press table in City hall and later – as a member of the Jack Webster awards foundation – created award categories for Chinese media.[2]

The Chinese-Canadian community has played a crucial role in a couple of Vancouver civic elections.  In the 1990 election, Mayor Gordon Campbell’s Non Partisan Association team hung on to power with a slim six to five majority on Council.  Some observers credited the narrow NPA majority to the support it received from the Chinese-Canadian voters who turned out in large numbers to support the three Chinese-Canadian candidates on the NPA slate.  History repeated itself in the 2005 Vancouver civic election.  In an exit poll conducted for the Vancouver Sun, almost 70% of the Chinese-Canadian voters surveyed indicated they voted for Sam Sullivan, the first Cantonese speaking politician elected to the Mayor’s office in the history of Vancouver.  The NPA was rewarded with another slim majority of six to five on Council.

Voting as a bloc, however, is not something that can be taken for granted for the Chinese-Canadian community.  In a poll conducted for Ming Pao in 1996 during a provincial election in B. C., of the decided Chinese-Canadian voters, 44.85% supported the Liberal Party while 34.2% supported the NDP.  According to the same survey, the racial origin of a political candidate is a deciding factor for only 5.1% of the people surveyed.  The most important factors cited by the respondents were Programme (31.6%), Ability (24%), and Achievement.  In other words there is no guarantee that a Chinese-Canadian voter will vote for a candidate just because he or she is of Chinese origin. 

But while aspiring immigrant Chinese-Canadian political candidates cannot count on their compatriots’ unconditional electoral support, they can certainly draw on the community to fulfill their financial, and manpower needs.  The campaign teams of almost all of the first generation Chinese-Canadian immigrants running for the first time for office are made up largely by Chinese-Canadians.  Their fundraising dinners are attended overwhelmingly by members of the Chinese-Canadian community.  They can also count on the local Chinese language newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations to give them a high profile in their reporting during the election.

The willingness of recent Chinese immigrants to support people from their own community points to the fact that the community craves for political leaders to represent its point of view in the political process.  It wants someone who is sensitive to their cultural values.  The community needs someone who is willing to address issues such as English language training, job training, unemployment, under-employment, and recognition of foreign training and work experience. 

In a multicultural society such as ours, Chinese immigrant politicians can play a larger role then the one they have played so far.  Writing for the Canadian Jewish Congress’ publication entitled “Fundamentally Canadian – Questions about Multiculturalism and Diversity, Lilian To suggested that “While the definitions of these terms remain abstract, many new comers relate these terms with the ideas of cultural inclusive and acceptance, which is what makes Canada so attractive to many.”  Turning the ideas of “cultural inclusive and acceptance” into reality is a role that can be played by Chinese immigrant politicians.

While multiculturalism is a fact of life in urban Canada, our governments, and the people who govern this country are still struggling to response adequately to this new reality.  Our political institutions need to have processes and systems in place to ensure that different cultural perspectives and interests are brought into play in the design of policies.  Our governments should strengthen their policy capacity with respect to the cultural aspects of modern day Canadian society.  The intent is to make certain that government programming is suitably in harmony to the distinctive features of the multicultural reality of our country. 

Chinese-Canadian politicians can ensure that such harmony does exist.

In the representative part of our democratic form of government, the cultural value and aspirations of the recent Chinese immigrant community should be reflected not only in the faces of the government but also in the policy directions of the government.

Canada is a country of immigrants.  Successive waves of immigrants have brought their values and ethics to this country.  It is important that Chinese-Canadians immigrant politicians contribute their positive traditional Chinese values to the making of government policies.  Their success at the policy level will create an environment to foster the making of a fusion culture that is not just European, not just North American, not just Asian – but a culture that is uniquely Canadian.  A culture that we can all be proud of, a culture that, to paraphrase Lilian, we can all feel included and accepted.

[1] Tung Chan (Council candidate) was a former Vice-Chair, John Cheng (School Board candidate) was a former Board Director, and Alvin Lee (Park Board candidate) was a volunteer.  They were following the foot steps of Sandra Wilking, a former Board Chair who served as a Councillor from 1988 to 1990.  Maggie Ip, the founding Board Chair of SUCCESS, will follow Wilking and Chan’s trail to become a Councilor in 1993.  Another former Board member, B. C. Lee became a Councillor in 2005.

[2] Based on an article by Mike Howell published by the Courier in November 11, 2002