Photos: Gung Haggis Fat Choy at Floata rings in the Year of the Water Dragon

by Matthew Burrows on January 23rd, 2012 at 10:46 AM

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Politicians of all stripes must have had other business in this postelection malaise, as the 15th annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner went off without them.

The only person to note this was Scottish-born-and-raised local political veteran Margaret Birrell, who told the Straight that Scotland is likely to vote for independence from the U.K. in 2014.

Other than Birrell, nobody seemed to mind too much, as there was music, poetry, whisky, haggis, banter, and fun a-plenty.

Cohosts Tetsuro Shigematso and Gung Haggis creator Todd “Toddish McWong” Wong made sure the night was seamless at the Floata Restaurant in Chinatown, which culminated in a cross-cultural Mandarin-English version of "Auld Lang Syne" ("Youyi dichang-tianju"), traditionally used to sing in the New Year in Scotland and elsewhere.

“If we could have one Chinese person next to one Scottish person, that would be great,” Wong interjected at one point, driving home the truly multicultural nature of the event.

In the end, that wasn’t far from the reality, with traditional Chinese dress and kilts liberally displayed as a circle formed round the entire restaurant at the end. People linked arms and still managed to sing the words thanks to the songsheets provided in the program.

Earlier in the evening, the Black Bear Rebels kept the music flowing along with the green tea and endless rounds of food, which included haggis wonton, vegetables, and, oh yeah, the real haggis, piped in by more local pipers in kilts.

In the audience were local digniataries such as parliamentary poet laureate Fred Wah, along with his wife Pauline. Author Larry Wong read from his book Dim Sum Stories, and Scottish-Canadian Harry McGrath regaled with tales of Todd Wong’s visit to Scotland, where purportedly Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond and other politicians fell in love with him.

“And my sister fell in love with him,” McGrath, born and raised just outside Glasgow, noted at one stage.