Our Platforms
TAIWANfest – Dialogues with Asia Series
From its humble beginnings as the Music Night of Taiwanese Composers in 1990, TAIWANfest has grown to be the largest English/Mandarin bilingual cultural festival in all of Canada, and the largest event outside the island nation to bear the name “Taiwan”. The annual summer event takes place in downtown Vancouver, attracting over 350,000 visitors.
In recent years, TAIWANfest has taken a new direction with the Dialogues with Asia series, co-presenting a different Asian culture each year in a dialogue that results in a truly unique festival experience! Arts and cultures are alive, flowing through and around one another with the passage of time, and there’s no better example than TAIWANfest!
International Pan-Asian Culinary Invitational (IPACI) – Fusion Cuisine at its Best!
Asian cuisines are as diverse as the climates and environments of the expansive continent, ranging from rich seafood to crisp vegetarian, and everything in between. Food is perhaps the easiest (and most filling!) way to learn about culture, and the perfect example of cultural dialogues and exchange!
Innovative fusion cuisines bring the world together on a plate, and each dish is the story of centuries or millennia of growth. IPACI is the chance to explore the world’s cultures through a culinary lens as these chefs from Asia demonstrate the art of this fiery cuisine!
IPACI currently features as a highlighted program within the annual TAIWANfest.
LunarFest – A Celebration Like No Other!
As a legacy event from Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, LunarFest is a celebration of Lunar New Year for all cultures and traditions. The event takes place across three consecutive weekends in the downtown cores of Vancouver and Courtenay, with exhibitions going On Tour as far as Calgary.
Regularly featuring new art inspired by old traditions, creative and engaging family activities, and the opportunity to learn about one of the most diverse celebrations around the world, LunarFest is a surefire way to blow off the winter blues and warm up with family, friends, and food! Be sure to keep an eye out for the friendly figurines produced to accompany each year’s Zodiac animal!
The Lantern City
From its beginnings in 2019 as a sole installation called the Coastal Lunar Lanterns, the vision to combine compelling stories of Indigenous artwork with Asian lantern structures has been at the heart of the project. Since then, The Lantern City has expanded to include installations at various locations across Vancouver during the Lunar New Year, each one representing the vibrant colours of their respective communities.
As The Lantern City continues to grow, artists from a wide range of cultural backgrounds come together to celebrate the Lunar New Year in this spectacular new tradition. Take a tour of The Lantern City as part of LunarFest and enjoy the visual storytelling of our local artists.
We Are Canadians, Too!
Birthed from Canada 150 in partnership with Canadian Heritage, “We Are Canadians, Too!” is the celebration of Canada from the perspective of first generation immigrants and newcomers. Taking place in downtown Vancouver, the inaugural event will be on November 25th, 2017 and returning each July onwards.
Canada Day celebrations vary little from year to year or from city to city, and while we have every reason to be proud of our traditions, it’s also important to recognize that first generation and newcomer Canadians are just as proud to be Canadian! For a nation built on immigration that spearheaded the multicultural movement around the world, it’s high time for Canada to visualise our diverse cultural fabric and take multiculturalism to the next step!
Through artistic expressions that reflect the sentiments and experiences of first generation immigrants, this one day event is an opportunity to bridge the gap between communities and declare once and for all that We Are Canadians, Too!
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