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An International Students' Canadian Christmas

Many university students pack their bags and go home for the Christmas holidays to sleep in past noon and eat oversized portions of homemade food. For many international students this is not an option. Instead they stay in a foreign country filled with Christmas cheer and look for ways to join the festivities.

The students at St. John's College - a graduate residence at the University of British Columbia with an international focus - host a potluck dinner on Christmas Eve to celebrate.

"It was beautiful. People really enjoyed it and the food was so super good. I mean - honestly - the turkey was the best turkey I've had," said Nicole Ong. The Singapore native organized the event, after participating in the dinner for the past two years.

Over 40 residents and their guests filled the social lounge. Blue and white Christmas lights shined above their heads, individualized handmade stockings hung on the walls and songs about mistletoe played in the background. Designated cooks placed their freshly made dishes on the buffet table. Two glistening turkeys sat beside less traditional spicy curries and Greek pastries.

"I loved it. I've never had that many different kinds of food in one time ever in my life," said Ziaul Hasan, from India. He is a second year PhD student at UBC.

Ong and Hasan agree it is too expensive for them to fly home for only a few weeks. Ong's family doesn't celebrate Christmas in Singapore. They put up a tree, exchange a few gifts and walk to view the light displays in store windows. She thinks Christmas in Vancouver can be more fun, especially with the potluck dinner. She prefers to pay for a flight home for holidays that are more important to her family, such as Chinese New Year.

In India, Hasan's family doesn't celebrate Christmas, but everyone has vacation time. They spend the winter holidays visiting with family. But Hasan could not afford to fly to India. He is thankful to have the holiday dinner. "I would have just stayed home... and wouldn't have done something great," said Hasan, of his plans if the potluck hadn't been organized.

In 2009, there were almost 200,000 international students in Canada, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Vancouver had the second largest population with 20.2 per cent. The city trailed behind Toronto by only 0.4 per cent. Many of these students can't afford the visit home and most don't live in St. John's College and can't attend its traditional feast. UBC's International House offers the university students another option: sharing a holiday meal with a local Vancouver family.

International House partners with UBC chaplains to find host families. Students are matched based on availability and dietary requirements. This year about 30 students participated.

Maureen Wicken, the Catholic Campus Ministry co-ordinator, and her husband hosted three students on Christmas day. An American, Indian and Maltese students added to the bustling household filled with four children, extended family, friends and one small black dog. "I think it's really important that when a student is here from another place that they have an experience of being immersed into family or local life in whatever experience they can have," said Wicken.

Are Asian Feet Different?

By Michelle Pham

Hong Kong will be experiencing the joys of custom designed shoes that are apparently designed to accomodate the 'Asian foot.'

Is there really a difference between Asian and Western feet? Teresa Wong and Betrand Mak, heads of luxury shoe-brand Rupert Sanderson and Bruton Limited think so. Rupert Sanderson's marketing strategy advertises that its new line features shoes that are tailored for Asian feet. These shoes will hit shelves in its Hong Kong boutique and can also be found at Lane Crawford.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Mak says:

We basically developed a new last [the mold on which a shoe is built] that is tailor-made for the Asian foot," says Mr. Mak. "We're trying to make a four-inch [10-centimeter] heel more comfortable.

Mr. Mak did not consult with a podiatrist in making the mold for the Asian foot, and some podiatrists dispute his claims that Asian feet are higher-arched and more narrow.

Podiatrist Alexandra Duff is one:

Asian feet tend to be slightly broader in the forefoot and they have a lower arch profile," says Hong Kong podiatrist Alexandra Duff, who has been practicing for 15 years. In fact, she says about 80% of Asians are flat-footed -- more than any other ethnic group.

The mold was created from one foot, that of Teresa Wong, Mak's business partner. Mak acknowledges that his research solely consists of client and friend consultations. Dr. Duff still retains that women should only wear heels under 1.5 inches. Any more than 1.5 inches can cause damage according to her research.

Time will tell if a pair of Rupert Sanderson shoes will be the next Jimmy Choos. All I know is that I want the Winona model in lavender pink; you'll see me in them this coming spring.

Posted by Michelle Pham | January 17, 2011 | Comments (0)

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Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto Plays Palestinian in Miral

By Gayatri Bajpai

Freida Pinto, starlet of Slumdog fame, is all set to prove her acting chops in the new movie Miral. Pinto plays a sheltered Palestinian orphan who makes it out of the 'Institute', where she has been raised, to find a struggle awaiting her. While sent to teach at a refugee camp she falls in love with a political activist and takes up the cause of the Palestinian victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Check out the trailer below for what promises to be an edge-of-the-seat kind of movie.

American director Julian Schnabel (director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) mentions that this is the first time a lot of people in the States will see this side of the Arab-Israeli story portrayed in this way, or, at the very least, by an American director, in this way.

The film is based on a novel of the same name by Palestinian broadcaster and journalist Rula Jebreal. I was struck while watching the interviews by the resemblance between Rula and Freida. Are authors supposed to be that good-looking?

By the looks of it, the book is based on the true story of Rula who actually did spend time in an orphanage run by founder and visionary Hind Husseini. Rula really did experience the torture Pinto's character experiences in the movie (apparently Pinto was uncomfortable having to act out these scenes with the writer on set). Nothing like a true story on the big screen to make people look and really listen. I'm stoked that it's from the perspective of a young woman in Palestine too. Being neither an angry young Palestinian man, nor an Israeli soldier, she's not what most of the world has in mind when it thinks 'force to be reckoned' with in the eye of the Arab-Israeli storm. Watch out for the film in March of 2011.

Posted by Gayatri Bajpai | January 11, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Film

Using technology to Preserve First Nations Languages

By Kathy Ko

On December 19, 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Native American Apology Resolution. Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized to the First Nations population on June 11, 2008. These were historic steps taken to atone for many centuries of wrongdoings committed by American and Canadian governments towards aboriginal people.

White Europeans began residential schools in the 19th century as a means to assimilate First Nations children into "civilized white society." In these schools, children were forced to live apart from their families and often, siblings were not allowed to communicate with each other. Many physical and sexual abuse cases emerged over the years. The language, culture and customs of the First Nations people were forbidden in residential school systems. Fines were given out by the government for rituals such as sundances and potlatches. The last of the residential schools shut down in 1996.

This prolonged suppression of the language combined with the migration of people from reserves to big cities resulted in the new generation of Aboriginals not knowing their own language. The National Aboriginal Health Organization states that at least ten Aboriginal languages have become extinct during the last 100 years. And according to the 2006 Census, only 29% of First Nations people could converse in an Aboriginal language. Acknowledging this alarming issue, First Nations people have taken action and have embraced technology in order to preserve their language.

The first to act is the Cherokee Nation. Through funding from the New Relationship Trust, Apple has created an App that allows users to type in Cherokee and it is now being used as an educational tool in schools on the reserves. Ten more communities are also in development to have their Apple Apps.

Posted by Kathy Ko | January 13, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Aboriginal, Apple, Culture

Combine Collective | Black Walnut Keyboard Tray

By Kayo Homma-Komori

What's better than simple, practical, sustainable design? Simple, practical, sustainable design that is crafted locally. Which is what originally drew me to Combine Collective, described as "a group of like minded artists working together to achieve a common goal", and their black walnut keyboard trays crafted in Vancouver by local artists.

The concept is simple -- in fact, I wonder why I didn't think of it myself. A sleek wooden tray that "combines the Mac wireless keyboard and trackpad into one clean unit." Imagine how legit you would look with this lovely addition to your office desk. Your co-workers will definitely start taking you seriously.

Not only is the tray's production environmentally-friendly, using water-based glues, food-safe oil finishes, and sustainably harvested wood, the tray also comes in both right and left-handed versions. Now there's a progressive design for ya, no more lefties being left out.

To find out more about Combine Collective, visit their website at www.combinecollective.ca

Posted by Kayo Homma-Komori | January 13, 2011 | Comments (1)

Tags: Design, Environment, Technology

PuSh | International Performing Arts Festival

By Vinnie Yuen

The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is back for the seventh time this year from January 18 to February 6, 2011. The festival features live performance arts with theatre, dance, music, and various forms of multimedia and hybrid performance. This year, the festival will showcase works that reflect upon Vancouver's 125th Anniversary and notions of "cityness".

The show 100% Vancouver is particularly unique, in that the show is not performed by trained actors, but "everyday Vancouverites". Casting started with one person, who had 24 hours to recruit the next person, who then found the next and so on. The 100 participants were chosen according to specific criteria such as gender, age, ethnicity, marital status, and the neighbourhood they live in -- an attempt to reflect the demographics of the last census.

The festival is also featuring a free show called La Marea (The Tide), an outdoor performance at the zero to hundred block of Water Street in Gastown. Audience members can come and go as they please as each of the nine scenes unfold between 7pm and 9pm.

Individual tickets range from free to $44 or the flexible PuSh pass is available for four shows ($115) or six shows ($170).

Posted by Vinnie Yuen | January 10, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Art, Events, International, Theatre

New Year's Bombing in Egypt Precursor To Political Unrest

By Michelle Pham

A couple mornings ago, I woke up to a flood of Facebook posts from friends in Alexandria, Egypt - the city where the New Year's bombing occurred.

Shock and anger were two emotions that resonated in Alexandria when a church bomb killed 21 Coptic Christians on New Year's day. 96 bystanders, including Muslims were also injured in the blast that left body parts strewn and piled up against church doors. A gruesome sight for many, tensions broke out between Muslim and Christian bystanders left standing after the explosion.

This is not the first time that violence between religious communities has broken out. Approximately a year ago, on January 7th 2010, on the eve of coptic Christmas, a drive-by shooting killed 7 churchgoers in the town of Naga Hammadi.

Here is an excerpt from Huffington Post correspondant Mohamed El Dahshan:

Clumsily, people are trying to go about their business -- but demonstrations in Alexandria have not quieted, later in the day to be matched by a 3,000-person strong demonstration, huge by Egyptian standards in Shubra, one of Cairo's neighborhoods with a strong Christian presence. As always, the demonstration was met by police brutality, with protesters clashing with the state police that reacted the same way it always did. But the demonstration was nevertheless deemed as extremely successful -- it was even described by one foreign correspondent as the "most unique protest I've been to. First time it seems protesters outnumber police"...

Having many good friends from Alexandria, I was quick to get in touch with loved ones.

Ghada Abdelhady reported that the Egyptians were suffering from low morale.

I'm fine physically, but I doubt if I am emotionally. You have no idea how this start for 2011 affected me. A wave of pessimism just rushed over me and everybody in Alexandria and Cairo. Putting aside the losses instead of celebrating New Year's eve put everyone a victim to terrorism's plan.

My trip to Istanbul as a journalist for the 5th World Youth Congress allowed me to see religious harmony in Turkey. The architecture of the Aya Sophia represented Islamic and Christian symbols integrated together in one building, despite the tumultuous history between the two groups. Often, I was able to step into a mosque during the adzan, and then into a church right across the street. In the dormitories, I met a handful of Egyptians, and I am Egypt-bound in 2012 to attend my friend Marwa's wedding.

Alhassan Ali Omar, a highschool student in Egypt said that the New Year's attacks spread sadness throughout Egypt and foreshadows a rocky start to 2011.

The world watches on as Muslims and Christians from all seven continents are coming together to protest against the violence that has tainted Alexandria's New Year. Better days will come. Insha'Allah.

Posted by Michelle Pham | January 10, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Activism, Culture, Identity, International

A Facebook Map of the World

By Justin Ko

With the recent pronouncement of Facebook founder and 26-year-old billionaire Mark Zuckerberg as TIME Magazine's Person of the Year, it should come as no surprise that Facebook stands as one of the most influential and connective online entities ever created. With over 500 million users, Facebook has an unparalleled ability to join people from across the globe (although the dominant area of usage of course remains confined to the Eastern United States).

But how exactly is Facebook connecting people across municipal and country borders? It stands to reason that one of the strengths of the website is the empowerment it gives in ignoring boundaries and geographical distances. A world map created by Facebook intern Paul Butler mapped these transnational connections in a fascinating display that reflects all of the millions of Facebook users and shows lines and links to friend networks outside of local city regions. The image is startling in that it seems to disregard certain countries such as China or Canada, entirely due to censorship of the Facebook website in China, and the relatively low population of Canada respectively.

A particular chain of connections that drew the attention of Granville Magazine writer Hillary Henegar was the web of links that joined Vancouver with other major cities along the Northwestern United States, mainly Seattle and Portland. This region, known as the Cascadia, is referred to in Henegar's editorial as holding more influence on Vancouver than the links that join us to other Canadian cities. If the map of Facebook friend connections is any indication, the traditional boundaries that separate countries and cities apart may be lessening in importance in the wired age.

Posted by Justin Ko | January 14, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Technology

7 Billion | National Geographic

By Jocelyn Gan

By the end of 2011, you will be 1 of 7 billion people living on Earth. 7 billion is a huge number. Think about it this way: if everyone on Earth planted a tree, we would have 7 billion extra trees. If everyone on Earth screamed at the same time, how long would the echo last? I can go on, but I think you get my point.

National Geographic magazine is doing a year-long series on global population. I'm looking forward to this series for a number of reasons. I'll be honest -- I haven't really given much though to the significance behind the growing number of the world's population. But with issues such as the environment, global consumption and waste take center stage, I can think of 7 billion reasons why it's time we start to really pay attention to our impact on each other and to the Earth.

Posted by Jocelyn Gan | January 7, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Magazines

Dai Haifei | Cracking Into A New Model of Living Spaces

By Aleksandra Sagan

Have you ever wondered how you will be able to afford your first house in Vancouver - one of the world's most expensive cities to live in?

Dai Haifei found himself asking the same question, except about his city: Beijing. After graduating from an architecture program, he did not know how he would pay for his first apartment, condominium, house or other living space. So he decided to build his own "other living space": a two-meter high house with a striking resemblance to an egg.

Before building his own egg-house, Haifei attended the 2010 Shanghai Biennale Exhibition. He saw a project called "City's Egg" there and it became the inspiration for his future home.

"I was impressed by the green-notion of building a house like that, especially in cities like Beijing where rental price for a fresh graduate is a huge burden," Dai said to China Daily.

His egg-house is built from sack bags, bamboo splints, wood chippings and grass seeds. It fits a bed and a water tank. Though small, it is definitely an environmentally friendly and - most important for Haifei - affordable home.

Posted by Jocelyn Gan | January 4, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Art, China, Design, Environment

Jay Chou Era Concert | December 23rd, 2010 at Rogers Arena

By Justin Ko

Over the last ten years there have been few figures in Asian popular music and cinema that have come close to the stature and fame that Taiwanese luminary Jay Chou has amassed. Slated to appear in the upcoming film The Green Hornet opposite Seth Rogen, his popularity is certain to spread to North America in the coming years.

Last Thursday, I had the awesome opportunity (courtesy of Metropolis Hot Seats) to watch his Era World Tour concert at Rogers Arena, a spectacular event which drew out the masses in celebration of the Jay Chou era.

Not only was I given a free ticket (thanks to Metropolis at Metrotown), but the ticket turned out to be for an executive suite on the fifth floor, which included free food, drinks, and a lounge! The hospitality shown by the Metropolis representatives was top notch- as if seeing an iconic Asian artist of Jay Chou's stature was not thrilling enough.

Though we sat high above the rest of the crowd, the energy in the building was palpable and frenetic, as the innumerable Jay fans made their devotion known. And Jay did not disappoint. With constant costume changes nearly every song, Jay was able to change up his style on the fly, as he has been known to do throughout his career.

Jay also used the concert to help showcase his new label mates and talent signees, including the beautiful Cindy, who performed a duet with Jay on the piano after holding her own with two of her own hit singles. After this sentimental moment, Jay began mixing up his repertoire with more of his fiery rap and hip-hop oriented songs.

When he closed the concert with two rap songs from his first album, Ninja and Nunchucks, the crowd was ecstatic, yelling the lyrics as loud as they could as Jay showed off his martial arts prowess. With such a rousing performance, which also functioned as a coming-together of the local Chinese community, Jay injected the city with an innovative musicality and passion that is often lacking in mainstream artists. I for one was thoroughly impressed, and I remain grateful to Metropolis Hot Seats for giving me such a fantastic and memorable opportunity.

Posted by Justin Ko | January 3, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Events, Music

Summer Wars

By Adrian Bailon

For the past few years, animation studio Pixar has had a monopoly on just about every prestigious animated feature film award in North America. However, Japanese animation studio Madhouse will be gunning for the Best Animated Feature prize in the 83rd Academy Awards with the critically-acclaimed film Summer Wars.

Released in theatres in Japan in August 2009, Summer Wars tells the story of high school student Kenji, who gets a summer "job" as his secret crush Natsuki's boyfriend during her grandmother's birthday party. Amidst the regular teenage summer love story though, Kenji accidentally breaks the security barricade of Oz, a virtual world not unlike Second Life, where millions of people, businesses, and governments connect online. The problem? Oz also handles very sensitive information from national defence and nuclear launch codes, to the more mundane, such as online shopping. It gets worse as an Agent Smith-like AI program called Love Machine is unleashed and hijacks Oz accounts, becoming more powerful and destructive. With the help of Natsuki, Kenji must somehow find a way to stop the real world and virtual world from colliding.

Summer Wars, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, has already won the 2010 Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year, the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival's Animation Division Grand Prize, the Anaheim International Film Festival's Audience Award for Best Animated Feature, and was also nominated for the 2009 Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.

According to Hosoda, the virtual world of Oz, despite its similarities to Second Life, was actually inspired by popular Japanese social networking site Mixi (Japan's answer to Facebook). Visually, though, Oz takes cues from the superflat work of pop artist Takashi Murakami, who first started gaining fame in the west for collaborating with Marc Jacobs to redesign Louis Vuitton's brown monogram to bright colours on a white background.

With Facebook now having enough members on its site to become the world's third most populated country, and the recent controversy surrounding WikiLeaks' publishing of confidential government files, Summer Wars seems strangely relevant in our increasingly virtually-connected lives. But will it be enough to win an Oscar?

Summer Wars was submitted for the upcoming Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature category, and will be fighting it out with 13 other animated features. The nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards will be revealed in late January, but I have a feeling Summer Wars stands a very good chance at making the cut.

Summer Wars will be released in North America for blu-ray and DVD on February 15, 2011.

Posted by Adrian Bailon | January 6, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Animation, Film, Japan

Hibakusha | An Animated Short on Hiroshima by Steve Nguyen & Choz Belen

By Gayatri Bajpai

Channel APA's Steve Nguyen (Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, Jarhead) collaborates with Choz Belen (Far East Movement's 'I Party', Deep Foundation's 'Sleep') and Daisuke Suzuki (The Hillz, American Dad!) have collaborated on a new animated short film that tells the story of Kaz Suyeishi, an 80 year-old Japanese-American woman who was studying in the USA when Americans bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hibakusha is a Japanese name for those who survived.

Nguyen's production is in its initial phases. He and his team are still looking for funding. While their appeal on the website kickstarter.com has raised a few donations so far, every cent makes a difference to a worthwhile project like this.

The old cliche about history repeating itself is the very kind this film could counter. With the wide appeal of its medium, it'll serve to make a lasting impression on contemporary audiences that have grown complacent beyond the immediate reach of WWII's catastrophes. Time heals most wounds, but history keeps its scars. I think it's wonderful that two young directors who have been in the music biz and worked on blockbuster films are taking on a historical event like the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A message from the pair:

This film is inspired to bring awareness to the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings in hopes that nothing like this will ever happen again and over time, show tremendous forgiveness after these terrible incidents occurred. This project will commemorate the 66th Anniversary of the bombings and is dedicated to the Association of Hiroshima & Nagasaki A-bomb Survivors.

We are in the process of setting up an IMDB page once production starts rolling, so hopefully everything is squared away by then!

What the money is for:
In the past several months, the crew has grown and managing the project has happily taken over our lives. This critical mass is forcing us to leave our part time work and focus on the film until it is done. The funds needed would be directed straight to the production and animation costs as well as distribution and film festival circulating. Your financial support will make this a reality.

Posted by Gayatri Bajpai | January 5, 2011 | Comments (0)

Tags: Asian American, Film, Japan

This page contains all entries posted to Schema Magazine's Blog, "Daily Dose" in January 2011. They are listed from oldest to newest.

December 2010 is the previous archive. | February 2011 is the next archive.

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