Here is my solo performance All That Jazz by Liza Minelli, choreographed by Caelia Gardiner, and performed before a live audience on 13 Aug 2022 at The Refinery, Saskatoon.
Category: Family history stories
The “Linda learns to dance” project, chapter one
Caelia created a new jazz routine with All That Jazz by Liza Minelli. For the next six weeks, she taught me the routine - thirty seconds at a time - until we'd done the entire three minutes. She recorded each segment. My weekly dance regimen became learn, practise, practise, repeat. Then she taught me more: how to walk onstage and offstage, musicality, marking, and timing. I learned things you can't learn from the internet.
Reflections: My life as a Chinese Canadian genealogist
There has never been a better time to get into Chinese genealogy. More and better records are being digitized, found, and released as privacy laws and resources permit. I'm excited to see what the future holds and I can't wait to teach more people how to find their own families. The fact that I, a non-Chinese speaker, can do what I do is testament to titanic changes in genealogy. As well, the story of Chinese settlement in Canada has all the hallmarks of a great novel: enormous sacrifices against overwhelming odds, generations of time, and oceans of distance. All it needs now is us to find and interpret the hidden stories and tell them to our kids.
The holiday read: “Finding Mr. Wong” by Susan Crean
In Finding Mr. Wong, Susan Crean (b. 1945; Toronto, Ontario, Canada) weaves together the histories of two significant men in her life: her grandfather Adam Gordon Campbell Crean, a second-generation Irishman from County Roscommon; and Gordon's cook-cum-consigliere (see below), Wong Dong Wong (黃宗旺) (pinyin: Huang Zong Wang) (1895-1970), a first-generation Chinese from Taishan County. Their… Continue reading The holiday read: “Finding Mr. Wong” by Susan Crean
The Six: Interview with Grant Din
Have you seen "The Six" a documentary about the six surviving Chinese from the sinking of the Titanic? I watched it this weekend and was immediately inspired to learn more. Here's my interview with Grant Din, who worked on the project.
Connecting, capturing, conversing, creating, and learning: celebrating Asian History Month in genealogy
It's Asian History Month and Asian genealogy has never been hotter. In this post I celebrate connecting to elders, gathering stories, courses I've taken, and courses that are coming.
100,000 thank yous – Past Presence celebrates a milestone
I celebrate my 100K visitor with a retrospective on Past Presence, with a look behind the curtains, some stats, and lots of thank yous.
9 Reflections on 2020
I ask myself nine questions and reflect on 2020: the most memorable year of my life.
From China to Canada: a story of modern day migration
Not all genealogy migration stories are historic. Here is the story of Ran Ju, of Calgary, AB, a guest blog post by Taryn Kildare.
PSST: I’m going live on the radio on Canada Day!
Catch me LIVE on CBC Radio, July 1st