HK Immigrants Gather at HK Fair

A semi-outdoor area featured numerous stalls to buy items

Today was the fourth annual Vancouver Hong Kong Fair and I finally checked it out for the first time. Just like last year, the fair was held at The Shipyards in North Vancouver and I'm glad I went. It's the closest thing for like-minded Hongkongers to meet up, share and enjoy their culture.

I was on a tight schedule with a concert to attend in the early afternoon, so I took the bus downtown just before 9.30am and caught the seabus at Waterfront station to get there at 10.30am before it opened half an hour later. There was already a small line for ticket holders that already formed though the signage wasn't very clear.

Back copies of Apple Daily were for sale

The fair opened a few minutes after 11am and they scanned my QR code and gave me a bright pink bracelet before I could wander around the outdoor fair in a covered area. It's a good space, and I was glad I went early because I can see how it can get crowded very quickly.

There were all kinds of stalls selling handmade beauty products, cookies like salted egg yolk shortbread, treats for dogs shaped like egg tarts (my cousin's dog wolfed them down later), Chinese books, jewellery, Lion Rock T-shirts and tote bags, Hong Kong-themed coasters, key chains and artwork.

One stall was run by activists who are raising money to help people back in Hong Kong. There was a stack of Apple Daily newspapers, and included the copy of the last publication of the paper for C$50. Manning the booth was former Hong Kong radio host "Giggs" Edmund Wan Yiu-sing, who was jailed for 32 months for sedition and money laundering who are raising money to help people back in Hong Kong. 

Curry fish balls with peanut sauce

Another section was food one could buy and eat there, like curry fish balls, various sweet drinks with sago in them; I tried one with durian, coconut milk and sago. Hong Kong milk tea was also available as well as mango mochi.

Recently re-elected NDP MP Jenny Kwan was at the opening ceremony and gave a bilingual speech explaining that she was originally from Hong Kong and grateful to be in Canada. She promised she would help ensure the Canadian government would approve all Hong Kong immigrants' applications for permanent residency. She got a big round of applause.

In an indoor space was the cultural section, where UBC Cantonese had a booth, an area showing the black and white photographs of legendary photographer Chan Kiu, who passed away in Vancouver last year at the age of 96. There were pictures of Vietnamese refugee children eating from basins, the funeral of Bruce Lee, and Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to Hong Kong.

There were also mahjong tables for people to play the game, or learn how to make paper lanterns. An interactive exhibit featured various places in Hong Kong with photographs matched with scents from those areas.

MP Jenny Kwan spoke in Cantonese

I also got to meet up with some people I had met before and catch up with them, and get to know what others are doing in Metro Vancouver, from holding Cantonese summer camps to drawing workshops.

After about an hour and a half, I made it back to the seabus with two minutes to spare. As I was leaving there were more people lined up to go in, and even more spilling out of the seabus. Now I know why people make an effort to go because settling in Vancouver isn't easy; at this event they feel strength in numbers, and feel understood and appreciated.

UBC Under Fire for Renting Space to HK Govt

UBC Robson Square campus recently rented to HKTEO

It was recently reported that the University of British Columbia rented out a room to the Hong Kong Trade Economic Office for a recruitment exam, much to the horror of activists in Vancouver.

On December 7, the HKTEO rented a room at the UBC Robson Square campus to conduct a recruitment exam, and in it were questions regarding the national security law. It is not clear what jobs were being recruited.

The sign says: "Common Recruitment Examination and Basic Law and National Security Law Test Joint Recruitment Examination".

Recruitment exam related to NSL and Basic Law

An organisation called Chinese Canadian Concern Group on the Chinese Communist Party's Human Rights Violations wrote a letter to UBC President and Vice-Chancellor Dr Benoit-Antoine Bacon on December 22 expressing their disapproval of renting the room to the HKTEO.

"Successful candidates for this examination are required to swear allegiance to the Hong Kong, and by extension Chinese governments," said the letter.

"Allowing this recruitment activity on UBC's campus raises serious national security concerns for Canada, especially in the context of potential conflicts between the two governments. Such actions could pave the way for the infiltration of foreign authoritarian influence into our society."

New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan also criticised UBC for renting the space to the HKTEO; while she said the university can rent their space to anyone, it should have some ethical standards when doing so.

Meanwhile UBC acknowledged people's concerns, but said the exam didn't violate any of its rules, and that it rents space out to many groups, but doesn't mean it endorses their views.

Kwan says UBC must have ethical standards

Kwan says the response is "completely inadequate".

"It's just basically saying, well, it doesn't matter. We're blind to all of these issues," she said. 

"As a global institution, which is what UBC is, you would think that they would have a little bit more thought than to say, 'We will just follow the regulations of basic rental requirements.' That's not good enough."

She said the Chinese government is trying to recruit people to work in Hong Kong and China, and the applicants must demonstrate their understanding of the national security law.

"UBC of course can rent their space to anybody. However, from my perspective, I think that you should be looking at some ethical standards that should apply," she said. 

"In the very minimum, one would think that any organisation, any institution that's going to rent out a space to a government that is a regular, persistent, violent human rights violators, that they would apply some standard to it."

June 4 Remembered in Vancouver

"Don't Forget June 4" written in chalk on the ground

The Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement commemorates the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre every year, with not only marches to the Chinese consulate on the anniversary day, but also events leading up to it. 

This year the group moved up the march to May 27, where New Democratic Party MP Jenny Kwan participated. She was recently cited as one of two politicians a Chinese diplomat allegedly targeted. The diplomat was subsequently sent back to China. 

Meanwhile two remembrances were held today in two locations. 

A terrier took part in the event

In the morning there was a ceremony held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, a cemetery in Burnaby, and at around lunchtime another by the small Goddess of Democracy statue that stands near the Student Union Building at the University of British Columbia.

Sadly a fence was an ugly backdrop, as there is a construction site right next to the Student Union Building and there are fears the statue may be moved again.

Originally, Mabel Tung, chair of the VSSDM, had tried to get the statue placed in Chinatown, but it was vehemently opposed to the proposal. It was eventually accepted at UBC in 1991.

About 30 people showed up at the latter event, almost all wearing black, masks and sunglasses. The majority were middle-aged, along with a few young people, and one or two young families. 

Tung led the mini ceremony, first asking attendees to stand for a minute of silence. She then gave a quick speech to recount what happened 34 years ago, and how there used to be a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong's Victoria Park every year until 2020. 

The activist said as a result it was even more important for the Hong Kong diaspora to continue to remember not only the victims of the bloody crackdown, but also the Tiananmen Mothers group, and the victims of the 2019 protests in Hong Kong.

Most attendees took a group photo together

Attendees were given either yellow carnations or roses and asked to line up one by one to pay their respects to the Goddess of Democracy. Many bowed three times in front of the statue before placing the flower on the pedestal. There was also a wreath of yellow carnations for the Tiananmen Mothers.

Nearby was a makeshift memorial with flowers and photocopied drawings of Chow Tsz-lok, the 22-year-old student who fell to his death on the third storey of a carpark in Tseung Kwan O on November 4, 2019 during the Hong Kong protests. 

Another portrait was of Li Wenliang, the doctor in Wuhan who alerted the world about Covid-19 in December 2019 and died in February soon after he was infected.

The third person remembered was Peng Ming, a pro-democracy activist and Christian who founded the China Development Federation in 1998. Later that year the authorities banned the group and Peng was sentenced to 18 months of re-education through labour.

Upon his release in 2000, Peng went to Thailand with his parents where they were granted refugee status. He later moved to San Francisco and re-established his federation again, calling for the end of one-party rule and replacing it with democracy.

A memorial for activist Peng Ming

Four years later during a visit to his parents in Thailand, Peng was lured into Burma by Chinese special agents and abducted into China where he was convicted on trumped-up charges. In 2005 he was sentenced to life in prison in Hubei, but 11 years later the prison authorities announced he had died suddenly at the age of 58.

Next Sunday VSSDM will hold a candlelight vigil at Dr David Lam Park from 4pm onwards.