The Comeback of Chinese-Canadian Music Icon: Wanting Qu 愛上‧曲婉婷

In 2012, her megahit “You Exist In My Song” catapulted her to superstardom, earning her numerous awards such as Best New Artist, Best Music Composer and Best Song from many top Asian platforms. To date, the track’s official music video has over 170 million views on YouTube, a staggering figure that might not even fully reflect her extensive following in China. Capping off her meteoric rise, Wanting performed in front of a live television audience of close to one billion viewers at the 2013 annual Spring Festival Gala, sharing the stage with the legendary Celine Dion.

Personal StoriesFête ChinoiseApril 26, 2022Asian Representation, singer, Music, chinese musicComment

The Inno-Visionary: Kevin Au-Yeung 創新令世界變得更好:歐陽浩東

We wondered aloud how Chinese principles have molded Kevin’s personal journey. Again, he pauses to consider his answer before sharing that his main, guiding sense of duty comes from witnessing how the Chinese community values and cares for seniors. He adds that “While this may not directly affect my business decisions, it moves me deeply as a person. Western communities spend so much time thinking about the future but don’t think about the past enough.” He credits the values that were instilled in him back in Hong Kong in his early days, which is that honouring, revering and respecting seniors is of supreme importance. And that this is something that the younger Chinese generation could do to remember...

Long Reads, Personal StoriesFête ChinoiseApril 19, 2022Asian Representation, BusinessComment

Putting Food and Compassion on the Table: Tina Lee 李佩婷：你吃了嗎？

Tina Lee’s pandemic experience has been all about people. From the thousands who are her work family, to the millions that her twenty-seven stores serve, to her own family at home; every one of these people was the reason Tina persevered and prevailed through the most challenging two years of her career. As CEO of T&T Supermarkets, Tina has faced many hurdles before, but nothing like when COVID-19 entered Canada. Almost overnight, Tina and her grocery staff became frontline workers. And just like all first responders, her employees could not stay at home; instead, they showed up day after day, driven by an overriding sense of civic duty.

Long Reads, Personal Stories, Community & PeopleFête ChinoiseApril 12, 2022Asian Representation, Business, T&TComment

Manfred Yuen: Daring to Be Different 阮文韜: 敢為人先的建築「覺‧渡」

The theme of this edition of Fête Chinoise resonates strongly with Manfred. He believes that proper perspective is the key to doing things the way they are meant to be. “Because most of us are now accustomed to seeing and feeling designs the wrong way. When judging something, it is common to add external factors into the equation — be it finances, politics or ethnic background for example. If we only relied on our five senses instead, I think we would find everything more enjoyable.”

Long Reads, Personal Stories, History & ArchitectureFête ChinoiseApril 6, 2022Asian Representation, ArchitectureComment

Canadian Actor Selena Lee’s Highly Anticipated Drama Sequel Takes Off This Week: 金宵大廈 2

Many fans of TVB’s supernatural drama 金宵大廈 can still hear the tune of theme song 今宵多珍重 in their heads from the blockbuster in 2019. Drama creator Ruby Law was inspired by the song, originally in Mandarin, to pen a story about a man and a woman who see each other in their dreams, which was the basis of the romance of the first series. This was also the song that Selena performed in 2020 on the stage of our Fete Chinoise Signature Event at the Royal York Hotel. Selena Lee not only plays the main character in this sequel, she also released her new single 相愛萬年, her first individual solo piece which she also had a part in writing.

Current AffairsFête ChinoiseApril 5, 2022Asian Representation, TV SeriesComment

Everything Everywhere All At Once is A Must Watch!

This long preamble is my way to wrap my brain around my stunned reaction after seeing EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. In my perfect world, all I’d write is “Trust me. It’s brilliant. SEE IT”. But I can’t, so please bare with me as I discombobulate my addled brain cells and convince you to be first in line to see the most original and bombastic movie in decades without any spoilers!

Mark Your Calendar, Current Affairs, Film & BooksFête ChinoiseApril 1, 2022Asian Representation, FilmComment

Justin Wu 吳一縉 : Representation in Image Making, Media and Film 圖像媒體中尋真我

My name is Justin Wu. My mother is a fine-art painter and my late father was a doctor. Both grew up in Hong Kong before emigrating to Canada to seek a better life. Typical of many first generation Chinese-Canadians, I felt obligated to attend university and enroll in sciences and business to satisfy my parents’ desire for me to follow in my father’s footsteps. However, much to their disappointment, I tore up my medical school application at the eleventh hour and chose to pursue my passion for the arts instead.

Long Reads, Personal Stories, Film & BooksFête ChinoiseMarch 30, 2022Asian Representation, Art, artists, FilmComment

Chef Mickey Zhao 趙健彬: Baking Bread, Breaking Boundaries「用心」烘焙無邊國度

Chinese bakeries are famous around the world for their unique selection of ‘Chinese Western Pastries’: buns, cakes and tarts that are best described as a combination of Chinese bakers’ imaginations and Western-style baked goods. Colonial life in Hong Kong brought together different ethnicities and demographics whose cultures and ideas inevitably co-mingled over time. Egg tarts, pineapple buns and coconut cocktail buns are perfect examples of this gastronomic mélange and can be credited to the legions of bakers colloquially referred to as ‘beng lou’ or ‘min baau lou’ — this literally translates to ‘bakery men’ or ‘bread men.’

Long Reads, Personal StoriesFête ChinoiseMarch 22, 2022Asian Representation, Food, PastryComment

Ronny Chieng in Toronto: This Is Not A Review

My day begin with delicious Pho for lunch, then on to exciting wedding planning activities, which eventually brought me to Nordstrom for some suit shopping. After an hour of unsuccessful consulting, I found myself rummaging through the ready to wear clearance section hoping to find some gems. I end up next to another frantic asian man – I could tell based on the slightly sweaty forehead and furrowed brows, and of course the pace of his browsing from hanger to hanger. I almost instantly had a hunch, wow, is this RONNY CHIENG? He made a remark to the associate helping him and I knew it had to be him based on his distinct Asian-Australian accent. Then, finally it was confirmed, I caught a glimpse of his cyan blue printed Ronny Cheng socks, and there was no mistake!

Current AffairsFête ChinoiseMarch 21, 2022Asian Representation, CommunityComment

Bernice Liu: The Metamorphosis of Perspective 廖碧兒：是「滴」是友

Like the metamorphosis from a caterpillar to butterfly, (coincidentally her favourite creature in nature), Bernice took time away from her work to heal. During this phase of her life, she spent time back in her home on the Canadian West Coast in the embrace of her home country, the love of her family and the serene beauty of British Columbia. It was in this cocoon of warmth and healing that she was able to breathe and slow down from the fast-paced life she had in Hong Kong.

Long Reads, Personal StoriesFête ChinoiseMarch 15, 2022Asian Representation, wine, CelebrityComment

Turning Red: A Disney Pixar Chinese-Canadian Fairytale

After the Canadian Premiere of Turning Red, Disney and Pixar’s newest masterpiece, we stepped out of the TIFF Lightbox onto King Street, where the historic two-storey brick buildings sat as a backdrop to a passing streetcar, CN Tower lit up in red and purple to the left. It felt like the scenes from the movie continued into the sidewalk. This is the first Disney film to be situated in (and featuring) Toronto in the early 2000’s, a coming of age story about a 13 year old Chinese-Canadian girl whose emotions turn her into a giant red panda… as the poster suggests, “growing up is a beast!”

Current Affairs, Mark Your CalendarDeborah Lau-YuMarch 11, 2022Asian Representation, Film, animationComment

Chef Ken Yau 邱璟琛: Elevating the Ordinary 舌尖上的人情味

After returning to Canada from years of working at groundbreaking restaurants like the Michelin 3 Starred The Fat Duck in England and Liberty Private Works in Hong Kong, Chef Ken Yau launched k.Dinners, a pop-up supper club concept in Toronto. These were multi-course, experiential tasting dinners for just 16 guests in a different location every week. Those lively evenings of great food and convivial conversations around a communal table came to an abrupt stop when the pandemic hit. Suddenly, Ken was left scrambling to think of another source of revenue.

Long Reads, Personal Stories, Food and LifestyleFête ChinoiseMarch 8, 2022Asian Representation, Food, Chinese FoodComment