explorASIAN
612 Main St. V6A 2V3 Vancouver, BC, Canada

What are you doing Halloween night? Vancouver Asian Film Festival welcomes you to attend the 24th Annual Vancouver Asian Film Festival (#VAFFVIRTUAL) October 31, 2020 to November 8, 2020. While things may be operating a little differently this year, their featured films are sure to take you up close and personal into their stories. Learn more about all the film lineup showcases.... Kicking off their spooktacular start this Halloween is the Korean horror film The Closet. When Sang-won and his young daughter move into their new home, they begin hearing strange noises from their closet. Don't miss out on their first ever opening Halloween night in person at the Cineplex Odeon International Village OR in the comfort of your own home. Spots are filling up, grab your ticket before it's too late! TICKETS: https://festival.vaff.org/2020/movies/the-closet/ FULL LINEUP: http://vaff.org/get-your-home-theater-ready-for-vaff2020/

Another #YummiestAsianFood submission courtesy of Ha Cheung: Chinese rice noodles filled with shrimp/prawnsThis is a common dish at Yum Cha. "My partner bought me a special steamer online for making rice rolls/noodles. I made the noodles from scratch and filled the rice rolls with prawns, baby Shiitake mushrooms, green onions, and cilantro. The rice rolls are gluten-free, so this can be appealing to everyone. Other possible fillings are: sliced BBQ pork or beef, all seafood (prawns, scallops, fish), all vegetables." Thank you Ha!

The United Nations commemorated this day in 2005, in order to raise general awareness of the need to preserve and safeguard important audiovisual material for future generations, and for urgent measures to be taken to conserve this heritage and ensure it remains accessible to the public now, and to future generations. This year’s theme is Your Window to the World, a theme which rings especially true during this era of social distancing as we observe events we cannot attend,... we hear voices from the past who can no longer speak, and we craft stories that inform and entertain. Audiovisual content plays an increasingly vital role in our lives as we seek to understand the world and engage with our fellow beings. Audiovisual archives tell us stories about peoples’ lives and cultures from all over the world. They represent a priceless heritage which is an affirmation of our collective memory and a valuable source of knowledge since they reflect the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of our communities. They help us grow and comprehend the world we all share. Conserving this heritage and ensuring it remains accessible to the public and future generations is a vital goal for all memory institutions, as well as the public at large. The Semiahmoo Arts Society is presenting a virtual panel talk on October 27th which includes VAHMS President Leticia Sanchez, will elaborate on the meaning of cultural heritage, the importance of the preservation of both tangible and intangible heritage and how we can ensure that we convey history through heritage in an inclusive and embracing manner. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/virtual-talk-day-of-audio-visua

WOW what beautiful presentation on this week's #YummiestAsianFood submission! Judy Lam Maxwell of Historical Chinatown Tours has shared this Soba and Udon with Spicy Cilantro-Pea Pesto. "This was originally a Parsley-Pea Pesto recipe and I wanted to make it Asian so I used cilantro, peas, and Thai chilis and instead of regular pasta I opted for 2 kinds of common Japanese noodles: Soba and Udon. It has lots of garlic, spice, and is a bit sweet from the peas. I like to cook something different everyday and cooking is my creative outlet." Thank you so much Judy :)

Vancouver Asian Film Festival is pleased to announce the countdown to their much anticipated 24th annual celebration of diversity in film and the Asian diaspora, brought to you virtually (#VAFFVIRTUAL) from October 31 to November 8, 2020 in the comfort of your home, with a few surprises in store. Take a look at all the spotlight films series and shorts program series being presented this year. Don't miss your chance! #whatsyour20 Get your tickets and passes NOW: https://fest...ival.vaff.org/2020/ #VAFF #DiversityInFilm #Asianrepresentation

This month, the Vancouver Public Library is presenting two lecture and discussion events in conjunction with a virtual screening of "The World is Bright", a documentary film that chronicles the journey of the grieving parents as they navigate a new culture and a complex web of bureaucracy to uncover the truth behind their son's death by suicide. Join director Ying Wang and Anthony Truong Swan, Outreach Director of Story Money Impact, as they discuss some of the themes explore...d in the film, such as the stigma surrounding mental illness, resources available to immigrant families, the dislocation and disconnection arising from global migration, and the importance of culture competence in mental health care. The conversations will take place on October 22 (in English) and 29 (in Mandarin), and the film will be sent to registrants one week in advance. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYoKPQgBTm4&feature=emb_logo Follow this link to register: https://bit.ly/2IoNwSo

We're giving away two tickets to the premiere screening of ‘My Prince Edward’, the directorial debut from Hong Kong filmmaker Norris Wong! The film has won a plethora of awards including Best Picture at China’s Cinephile Prize and Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards and is presented by CHENG CHENG FILMS and the Vancouver International Film Festival at the Vancity Theatre from Oct 17-21. The first person to comment on this post will receive two free passes to see the film! https://www.youtube.com/watch

This month you can catch one of Vancouver’s leading exponents of the South Indian dance style of bharata natyam, Sujit Vaidya! Sujit will be streaming a Virtual performance between October 15th and 29th in collaboration with The Dance Centre. For more details, please visit: https://thedancecentre.ca/event/sujit-vaidya/

Have you seen all of our #YummiestAsianFood submissions yet? We've enjoyed your stories and recipes so much, thank you all for sharing them with us! If you have any yummy creations or family recipes to share, please drop us a line. It could be photos, videos, audio, poems - you name it! Submissions: [email protected] https://explorasian.org/2020/08/07/yummiestasianfood/

The Support Network for Indigenous Women & Women of Colour - sniwwoc is offering a free, safe-space open discussion about Allyship on Thursday, October 8th at 7pm. For more information about this talk and the great work they do, please visit: https://www.sniwwoc.ca//safe-spaces-an-open-discussion-abo

Wow! We have a #YummiestAsianFood submission all the way from Toluca, Mexico! We have Ingrid Campillo to thank for this one: "Hello from Mexico, the land of the taco. I am a Mexican Mom who loves to share time with my son while preparing food. Through the years, cooking has been a great way to share time with him, and experiment with different food preparation. Since Kung Fu Panda was released, my son, just a kid then, wanted to have dumplings every day, but dumplings in Mexi...co have a different taste, let’s say that they are dumplings with a taco flare. On the other hand, Asian restaurants are not very common in our city, so we decided to follow more authentic recipes from this unifying family dish. At first, we started watching tons of videos in languages that of course, we didn’t understand, but we were able to sort of follow the steps. I must say, it was not only complicated, but extremely difficult to get the ingredients, the dough texture, the shapes, and not to mention, the many times the little pouches broke apart while we were trying to keep the filling in them. Three years later, my son and I have found that preparing dumplings is our most bonding time in the kitchen because we get to spend about three hours making them from scratch, chatting about life while making the discs, shaping the little pouches, and of course, keeping an eye on the steamer until they are perfectly cooked. While we have sort of mastered preparing some fillings and shapes, we haven’t quite learned when to stop devouring them, but hey, this seems like an excellent excuse to prepare more dumplings over and over again. Overall, it has been such a great experience learning how these yummy dumplings are made from scratch, as well as how important this dish is to unify family and friends.We hope, you too, will enjoy the smell and flavour of fresh dumplings while bonding with someone you care about." See more

Today and tomorrow are the last two days to catch this great event from Celia Leung Calligraphy Art and Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site!

The Support Network for Indigenous Women & Women of Colour - sniwwoc invites to join their free online event Women in Academia: Knowledge that Supports a Community, happening October 1 (Thu) at 7:30PM. Their guest speaker is Dr. Grace Wong Sneddon, an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History & Visual Studies and past Director of Academic Leadership Initiatives and Adviser to the Provost on Equity and Diversity at the University of Victoria. She holds an ...Interdisciplinary PhD in Anthropology and Pacific and Asian Studies. Her areas of research include equity, diversity and inclusion, race and gender in popular culture, Asian North American identity, Chinese Canadian Spirituality in the 21st Century, and the Chinese diasporic culture. She consults extensively with organizations regionally, nationally and internationally on fostering an inclusive workplace environment. This event will be held virtually on Zoom, free of charge, and everybody is welcome! Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85838654329 Meeting ID: 858 3865 4329

This delicious #YummiestAsianFood submission comes to us from Hye Ri Kim, thank you so much for sharing this beautiful food! If Hye Ri's story inspires you to get cooking, we want to hear from you! Drop our coordinator a line at [email protected]! "As a child, I vividly remember the smell of rice cooking from the rice cooker and fish being fried on a pan. That smell used to wake me up every morning. My mom made tasty ban-chans (side dishes), a bowl of soup, a bowl of ric...e, and pan-fried fish. Back then, I complained how I wanted fried eggs or sausages instead of fish. Thinking back on it, I now realize that I was actually lucky to have such variety for breakfast. These days, I get up from hearing my alarm buzzing in my ears instead of smelling pleasant cooking smell. I really miss my mom's food and now I 100% appreciate her effort to feed her family by getting up so early and putting the time into our meals."