The Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society – 26th Annual General Meeting
Exploration of Asian Arts & Culture
The Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society (VAHMS) is pleased to invite you to its 26th Annual General Meeting to be held virtually on Sunday, January 16th, 2021 at 4:00 pm PST via Zoom. Though we cannot gather in person, we look forward to seeing all of our community members, partners, and guests come together to explore the upcoming explorASIAN Festival 2022, as well as how VAHMS can better foster, promote and celebrate the arts and cultural diversity that Asian-Canadian communities bring to Canadian society.
The meeting is open to the public and we encourage you to share this invitation with your community and those who may be interested in learning more about – or joining – VAHMS. Register in advance here.
Immediately following the meeting, VAHMS will be presenting a panel discussion entitled “Voice for the Voiceless” with Jimmy Yang, the previous Secretary and now new Treasurer of VAHMS. The two invited panelists will be Loretta Seto, an award-winning playwright and children’s book author, fiction- and screenwriter, and Dr. Ally Wang, a scholar in Ancient Chinese Literature who has published 15 journal papers and translated a number of works into Chinese.
Bios
Jimmy Yan, Treasurer of VAHMS (host)
Jimmy Yan, BSE, MEd., is the Project and Information Officer of Access Pro Bono. Jimmy is a columnist of the City Post of Singtao News and has been a media commentator on issues of public legal education and information since 2008. He is also a research assistant of The Centre for Education, Law, and Society in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University and a CELS educational advisor to the Chinese community. Meanwhile, Jimmy has served on the Boards of many committees with the Royal Commonwealth Society, Mainland BC Branch as well as the Royal Society of St. George, BC Branch.
Dr. Ally Wang, Ph.D. in Ancient Chinese Literature and Writer
Wang has published hundreds of articles about Tang Poets and over ten books including “The Study of Jiaofang in the Tang Dynasty”, a prose collection named “Leaving the Best Time with You” as well as the translation of “The Poet Zheng Zhen (1806-1864) and the Rise of Chinese Modernity” (Schmidt, 2013). Wang also has hosted cultural and educational seminars at the Vancouver Public Library and many other community organizations.
Loretta Seto, Screenwriter, Children’s Book Author, Award-winning Playwright
Having earned her MFA in Creative Writing at UBC, Loretta is excited by the challenges she faces writing in different genres. She is the author of the children’s picture book Mooncakes (Orca Books), which is now in its 5th print run and has a 5-star review on Amazon.ca. She is also a co-founder of Wet Ink Collective, an initiative that supports the creation, development and production of new stage- and screenplays written by women.
Loretta’s play Dirty Old Woman was a smash hit at the 2014 Vancouver Fringe Festival, enjoying a completely sold-out run, and winning the Pick of the Fringe and The Cultchivating the Fringe awards. The play was remounted in April 2016 at The Cultch, again selling out its entire run and garnering more positive reviews. Her latest play, The Ones We Leave Behind, was developed and produced by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, and had a successful run at The Cultch in 2018, winning a Jessie Richardson award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Alannah Ong).