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CITIES BY THE SEA VANCOUVER
ENGLISH VERSION
Vancouver is the third-largest city in Canada,
situated in the westernmost province of British Columbia.
Downtown Vancouver is surrounded by water
and can only be reached via bridges or boat.
Vancouver is one of the most densely populated cities in North America.
Yet it is a very green city with over 200 parks.
In 1972, the environmental organisation Greenpeace
was founded here.
Vancouver is said to be the most environmentally friendly city
in North America.
2.5 million people live in the metropolitan area.
One of three have Chinese ancestors.
One of Vancouver's most popular restaurants
is the "Bao Bei".
Tannis Ling calls her restaurant a "Chinese brasserie".
The food she serves has Chinese roots
with elements of French cuisine.
Tannis loves restaurants and bars.
Her Chinese parents found this hard to accept.
I never wanted to go to school, I never had dreams to do anything ...
very ... professional.
My mum's a dentist, my dad's an architect.
I think as a child you're just like,
"I don't want to do what my parents do."
"I'm going to be a bartender." So that's what I did.
After ten years as a barkeeper,
Tannis Ling opened her own restaurant.
Yeah, I took the risk - I mean, in my mind, it wasn't a risk.
I mean, in everybody else's mind - my parents', my friends',
the community's - it was a big risk to open up a restaurant,
especially in this neighbourhood, which was struggling
and, you know, on the outer edges.
And nobody was hanging out in Chinatown at that time.
During the Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century,
there was a huge immigration wave from China.
The Chinese were experienced goldminers.
And when the Canadian Pacific Railway was built,
15,000 Chinese worked as cheap labourers
under very bad conditions.
At the end of the 20th century,
great numbers of Chinese came to Canada from Hongkong.
Nowadays, new immigrants tend to settle in the less crowded suburbs
rather than in Chinatown.
Chinatown has always been a favourite place of mine,
because I used to come here quite a lot as a child.
That's when Chinatown was still thriving.
Really loud, lots of smells ...
In Vancouver, there are almost as many people with Asian roots
as there are with European ancestors.
Vancouver's multicultural.
It makes it unique that it has such a high density of Asian culture.
You see a lot of mixed couples and mixed children here.
I think it's interesting.
Because in the future, maybe in 100 years,
everybody will kind of look the same because we've all blended together
into, you know, a chocolate-vanilla milkshake.
I think that's cool
because it's a seamless blending of cultures.
Together with her head cook, Tannis has created a dish
which combines elements of Asian and European cuisine.
We both thought it would be interesting
to have beef tartare, but instead of pickles,
it would be pickled mustard greens.
Instead of salt, it would be soy sauce.
So it was a lot of sweet, salty, savoury elements of Chinese food
in a traditional French dish.
Tannis' creations are successful.
On some evenings, there's a long waiting line.
Vancouver city was established in 1886.
But indigenous peoples, the so-called "First Nations",
have lived here for thousands of years.
Shawn Hunt belongs to the Heiltsuk nation.
He is a sculptor and painter.
He is known for his clear lines and flowing forms
which constantly seem to shift.
Shawn was born in Vancouver and comes from a family of artists.
My father taught my how to carve and how to design
from a very young age.
And growing up with him and learning about our culture
through the art really,
I have come to take the same forms and the same iconography
but really try to make it my own, really try to modernise it.
For many years, Shawn had his workshop in the city.
But then he returned to the land of his ancestors,
the Sunshine Coast.
It starts about 20 miles north of Vancouver
and can only be reached by boat.
Many people come here to live or to vacation
or because they want to enjoy the beauty of the place.
But we're actually from here.
This is where my people have lived for, you know, 10,000 plus years.
So we really feel like ...
We're not trying to dominate nature,
we want to live within nature and live in harmony with nature.
Away from the bustle of the big city,
Shawn has found a quiet place for himself and his wife Kate.
Here, he can concentrate on the essential things in his life.
The way the indigenous people were treated by European immigrants
is one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history.
For a long time, they were expected to give up their language and culture
and to adopt the Euro-Canadian culture.
So I'm Heiltsuk first nation,
and then from my mother's side, I'm Canadian of Scottish descent.
And so I sort of have these two cultures coming together - in me.
For one of his projects, Shawn carves totem poles,
cuts them up, and then reassembles the parts.
These new sculptures represent what has happened
to the indigenous people.
Europeans coming over, colonising ... the native people here.
And ... sort of feeling at the time
that it was better if they were more European.
I felt like ...
by cutting up these totem poles,
I was then sort of mirroring what our people have gone through
and how our stories and our culture and our history
have been cut up in so many different ways.
So I'm taking traditional artworks and reconfiguring them
in a way a European would want to see them.
I started to realise that it was a great advantage.
And not only could I create works that were interesting,
but they could also speak to both sides.
And instead of, you know, this barrier between the two cultures,
I could act as a bridge between them.
In Vancouver's multicultural society,
Sikhs from Punjab play an important role.
About 100,000 members of this religious community
live in the metropolitan area.
This is the largest settlement of Sikhs outside of India.
Charnjit Dhadda is one of them.
He transports goods through all of West Canada.
Vancouver drivers are pretty good drivers, you know.
Vancouver drivers are probably
some of the best drivers in the world you will find.
They're not laid back, they're not aggressive,
they're not dangerous, they're assertive.
So ... they're very professional.
After work, Charnjit hits the road again.
He was 15 when he came to Vancouver from Punjab with his parents.
In India, he was used to seeing many people on motorbikes.
And when we moved here, I saw a few friends
riding their bikes with turbans on.
And only then I decided to get my licence
and started riding.
I've been with the club for ten years now.
Twice a week, the members of the Sikh Motorcycle Club
meet for drives around Vancouver.
The turban is a symbol of their religion.
The club has obtained the right to ride motorbikes without a helmet
for Sikhs in British Columbia.
The club has 120 members.
They advocate safe motorcycling.
Their leather gear stands for good behaviour.
Hooliganism is not tolerated.
We're not just some tough guys that just do motorcycle rides.
We just want to show the world that we're good people.
You know, your next-door neighbour.
Canada has given us so much, you know.
You know, facilities, and they have embraced us,
So we just want to give back to communities too.
They take their responsibilities as Canadians citizens seriously.
They have collected 100,000 dollars for children with cancer
during a charity ride across Canada.
Thank you very much.
Loud music from the speakers is part of the pleasure of motorcycling.
Bhangra, music from Punjab.
My buddies were like, "You have the voice to do it."
"Why don't you just sing one song, you know, professionally?"
"Just record one track." So sure enough, we did.
And everybody liked it.
From then on, we just did one track a year.
Charnjit has become quite well known with his songs and music videos.
If he wanted to go professional, he would have to go on tour in India.
But then, he would have no more time for his family -
and for riding his bike.
Vancouver is one of the centres of the North American film industry.
Around 50 films are constantly in production.
Series like "Supergirl" or movie productions like "X-Men".
Thousands of highly specialised jobs
have been created over the past years.
Ready? And three, two, one, go.
Maja and Jeff Aro are stuntmen.
They work out their moves for the scenes they will have to act.
I've done a few where I'm playing, like, a fairy.
You know, you're just sort of flying around.
Peter Pan, all those sorts of ones where you're flying around,
It's all wires.
The stunt scenes have to be practised to perfection before filming.
Our living room is our training space.
We styled this living room after Lara Croft's and the Matrix Dojo.
All the windows and stuff kind of have the style like the Matrix.
And the way all the rigging is and the ceiling
like what Lara Croft has, where she does her bungee ballet.
So we have all that stuff in here
that is just a mash-up of those movies that we love.
That one's called a "face-off".
Because I fall forward and then spin at the last minute.
So in this instance, this is probably
where someone has maybe kicked me in the stomach.
And I'm just going to go flying ... into that wall over there.
Go!
Set? - Set.
Ready? And three, two, one, go!
As a stunt performer, scrapes, cuts, bruises - those are pretty common.
Something like this, if I was doing that on set,
I'd probably have to do it -
depending on the camera takes and angles,
I'd have to do it a bunch of times, to a hard wall.
So I'd have to prepare myself to not get hurt.
So I have to do it over and over again.
Maja and Jeff also use the roof of their house for their training work.
It was built to be walked on and has several levels.
In the back, back over where I park my car,
we actually have a 14-foot gap,
and we made that where we could jump off of that.
Maja did ski racing when she was younger.
Today, she uses her mountain bike to keep in shape.
I love Vancouver specifically. There' so many things outside to do.
You can ride on every one of the coastal mountains,
so you can start at the top, where you've got great views.
And then you're ripping down really cool trails
and end up right in the city. It think that's unique.
SWR 2018