Charlie Smith

1 week ago | pancouver.ca | Charlie Smith

Asian Heritage Month is nice, but let’s get real. Vancouver is a Pacific-facing city that is very Asian in its heritage, composition, and identity. Yet this isn’t adequately reflected in our institutions, including the media, legislature, city councils, and especially in the senior bureaucracy. To be frank, I’m uncomfortable with creating a one-month silo of Asian cultural stories, which is one of the reasons why we launched Pancouver.

1 week ago | torontospark.ca | Charlie Smith

It was like two bands for the price of one at Gateway Theatre in Richmond on Tuesday (May 27). The Metro Vancouver Overseas Taiwanese Society presented Ten Drum Art Percussion Group 十鼓擊樂團 to perform as part of its Taiwan Pulse tour. Halfway through the evening, the dramatic drumming troupe—which included talented suona, xylophone, and flute players—morphed into a six-member hard rock band. For  the next hour, Cross Metal 手合鐵鼓 still included pulsating traditional drumming from Taiwan.

1 week ago | pancouver.ca | Charlie Smith

It was like two bands for the price of one at Gateway Theatre in Richmond on Tuesday (May 27). The Metro Vancouver Overseas Taiwanese Society presented Ten Drum Art Percussion Group 十鼓擊樂團 to perform as part of its Taiwan Pulse tour. Halfway through the evening, the dramatic drumming troupe—which included talented suona, xylophone, and flute players—morphed into a six-member hard rock band. For  the next hour, Cross Metal 手合鐵鼓 still included pulsating traditional drumming from Taiwan.

1 week ago | pancouver.ca | Charlie Smith

Melissa Karmen Lee describes the Chinese Canadian Museum’s major new exhibition as “a celebration of sound, style, and diasporic imagination”. Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000 tells a story about Vancouver that has largely been overlooked, according to Lee, the museum’s CEO. “At its heart, Dream Factory is about how Canada and especially Vancouver played a central role in shaping one of the most influential music movements in Asia,” Lee declares on a media tour of the exhibition.

1 week ago | pancouver.ca | Charlie Smith

This week, I stumbled across some amazing music videos by a Vancouver poet and hip-hop artist with an inspirational life story. YellowBunny is an Indigenous woman born and raised in Kamloops. As a child, she ended up in government care after her mother became a drug user. YellowBunny also started using drugs in foster homes, but she found a pathway to recovery with the help of Secwepemc Family Services.