Author: Krystle Alarcon

The small strip of Broadway, from Main to 12th Street, was blocked on Saturday to celebrate the community’s sense of social responsibility by showcasing sustainable methods and by opening a street market for local small businesses.

The Autumn Shift Festival was organized by the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Area, to “create an endless summer party”, said Lynn Warwick, executive director.  The occasion was quite fitting to the weather of Saturday, as the change in season was apparent with the sunny afternoon to the rainy evening.

Children strolled around with red and blue balloons sponsored by Hyundai, and others drew happy faces on the sidewalk with chalk.  Someone wrote “Be yourself.  Everyone else is taken,” in big letters beside a butterfly.

The range of kiosks offered information pamphlets on how to create a composting worm system or order a composting bin, find areas in the Mount Pleasant community are outdoor study-friendly zones, and locate where to buy installable solar energy panels, and other environmental ways of life.

A henhouse, with dailyeggs.com engraved into the wood, attracted a lot of the youth to peek into the metal mesh windows at the chickens.  Called a “Van-cooper”, the coops are sold for $600 and can be installed in one’s backyard.

Another popular attraction was a colony of bees that were swarming around in a wooden frame, displayed by the same organization under which Van-cooper is part of, the Backyard Bounty. The representatives talked to on-lookers about beekeeping as a hobby, and how to maintain a colony.

The west side of the street featured mostly community-oriented organizations, while the east side was opened to the merchant market.  Knitted tops, vintage clothing, and long feather earrings were among the items sold by the local store vendors and artists.

A live performance by a rock band called Matinee, courtesy of Shore 104 FM had a few 20 year olds slamming their heads in the air and kicking their legs up.  An old bearded man, with a rusty-orange shirt and stressed jeans exclaimed, “yee haw!”

The event represented the way of life of Mount Pleasant locals, who are interested in responsible living, said Warwick.   Volunteers coordinated the festival, who were a handful of students and seniors.

Rhizome Café filled all its seats, while others sat on the floor in celebration of the café’s fourth year of uniting practically all of Vancouver’s progressive organizations, ranging from social injustice, migrant workers, colored youth and queer community groups.

Doors opened at 7, but there was already a line up of around twenty people in front of Rhizome’s homely wooden doors before they even opened.  Homely is the best description for the interior too, as soft lighting, a plush couch, chalkboards with a handwritten menu and a mixture of cushiony and hardwood chairs create a cozy, almost grandma-like welcoming ambience.

Adriana Paz, a member of Justicia, an organization for the rights of Latin temporary farm workers,  greets everyone with a big smile and a hug, and everyone reciprocates.  People flocked to the bistro bar, where Three Sisters Stew, made with black beans, squash and corn and topped with sour cream for non-vegans, is served for dinner by donation.

A light, upbeat harmony of reggae infused with latin undertones whizzes through the air and induces a few to shake their shoulders.  MCs Andrea Canales and Hari Alluri, who wore brown t-shirts with red, yellow and orange rhizome graphics excited everyone for the 60 second performances.

Very diverse attendees, such as women with cropped, salt and pepper hair, cross dressers tattooed wrist to shoulder,  dark and light skinned latinos and students with tattered hoodies and messy rain boots clapped delightfully for all the performers.  Cease Wyss, a first nations filmmaker, opened the night with a compelling aboriginal sacred welcoming song.

The lyrics of some songs spoke volumes of how everyone appreciates that there is a central place where everyone can feel welcome.  “Yea, yea, I’m feeling so gay, I love, love, my Rhizome Café,” chanted two women dressed in cabaret outfits.

Members of No One is Illegal chuckled when they said “grow wings on our rebel doves”, when they recited their collectively composed piece.  But the biggest crowd pleaser was performed by the staff, as six women blew into beer bottles and created flute sounds to the effect of Irene Cara’s 1984 hit What a Feeling.  The women left the stage running backwards and mentioned that their group is called “B.O.”,  for Rhizome Staff Bottle Orchestra.

“I grew up in a smaller town, I’m just trying to open up my mind and it feels right to be here,” said benefits insurance administrator Desmond Wellesley, who’s originally from Kitchener, Ontario.  Wellesley volunteered to handle the sales from Rhizome t-shirts and the 38 items donated for the silent auction.

Crystal Mall, despite competition from a towering mall just across the street, Metropolis at Metrotown, survives going out of business, as locals easily spend $200 on a single shirt.

A Chinese sales associate, Suzie Xiao, explains that the culture clash in Asia actually proved conducive to business.  Most of her clients where she works, Sophia’s Boutique, a fashion retail store which caters to women in their 20s to 30s, are Japanese, Chinese and Korean, who all like to splurge on clothes and shoes.

According to China International Business, the highest spending market are the affluent young, urban professionals have no dependents, and fair an average of 20 years younger than the wealthiest consumers in U.S. and Japan.  But Xiao explains it differently: inflation rates for housing are so high in China, that young women are making up for the not being able to afford luxurious homes by wearing high fashion.

The rich smell of Chinese herbs and ginseng float through the air in the lower level market of Crystal Mall.  Mothers and seniors swarm around, squeezing firm taro roots and workers wearing dirty aprons rigorously cut Chinese winter melons behind the counter.

On the upper level, young women with perfectly straight doll bangs and studded tops walk elegantly into purple-walled boutiques lined with zebra carpets.  As Love As, a boutique that sells brand name Japanese clothes and shoes, recently sold over $5000 worth of products to just two Chinese international students.

Xiao handed me a $24 magazine whose front cover featured three Japanese women with chestnut wavy hair in over-the-shoulder sweaters and underwear, explaining that Asian women like to emulate their fashion.  One of their knitted tops hung near the front of As Love As, with a sales tag dangling from it marked $238.

Both Xiao and the store owner of As Love As said that they do not need to do advertising, as word-of-mouth marketing works well within the tight-knit Asian community.  Most of their clients are also international students, who do not have any siblings due to the one-child policy in place in China, so parents can afford spoiling their them.

On the other corner of Sophia’s, closing sale signs are taped onto the windows on Nancy Szeto’s retail store, I.N. Club.  Having compared her business to the successful younger stores nearby, she simply said, “things are different.”

With the elders sticking to the tried and proven products of Chinese herbal medicine and dried fruit, and the younger women selling luxury items, Crystal Mall is a microcosm of the intergenerational gap of Asia’s plain living back in the day and its competitive Westernized lifestyle of today.  But nowhere else in Metrotown can one find bubble tea for $2.75, not even in China.

A plethora of ethnic restaurants thrive on the far-stretching Kingsway Road, mostly Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian — but the lack of Filipino businesses speaks for the community’s economic marginalization.

There is only one Filipino dentist that services the community, on Kingsway and Broadway. Of course, Filipino Canadians need not to be served only by a Filipino dentist, but that there is only one that made it to the level of practicing such a profession is a sign in itself of the lack of work opportunities.

Dr. Gloria Samosa advertises her clinic in the Philippine Journal, a local Filipino newsletter, alongside only one Filipino lawyer, Anthony M.M. Remedios.

The phones are constantly ringing in Samosa’s clinic, as Filipino receptionists pick up calls in both English and Tagalog and the dental assistants are also Filipino, carefully preparing the utensils and offering medical gowns.  Such semi-professional jobs are barely even available to Filipino Canadians, as professional Philippine degrees are not recognized by the government.

Further down Kingsway, Real Liquidation Store, on the corner of Joyce, struggles as they run multiple businesses, such as providing a money remittance service, renting out films and selling non-perishable Filipino food and miscellaneous dollar-store-like items.  Within its dusty shelves, the best selling, of course, are the cheap phone cards.

Moving down Joyce, there is a sign of hope as five businesses in a row are Filipino, though all equally appear low-budget and unpopular. One of them, the Goto King, with its hybrid Chinese/Filipino menu, is more populated with clients that feast on bowls of mami, a Filipino version of Chinese congee.

Kay Market, a Filipino grocery store, advertises Western Union under its sign, which is an ideal sponsor because Filipinos are known for sending half of their pay cheques home.  A lot of the produce look like they should have been thrown out a week ago, but the beat up tomatoes and spongy radishes still sell, so long as those hard-to-find, Asian long beans, known as sitaw are still shelved.

One of the workers complained of the cold while he was arranging the vegetables.  Having moved here two years ago, he still has not gotten used to it, he said.

He cheerfully chatted with practically everyone who walked in.  But he was not doing so as a formidable vendor, but as a fellowman trying to make a personable relationship with people who likely aren’t used to the cold as much as he isn’t.