My name is Dawn Becker and I write BananaViews. I am Chinese-Canadian, born in Vancouver, and now make my home in Toronto. Most of the time I live with two ridiculously adventurous, food savvy boys, Julian (11) and Cole (9). My plan for BananaViews is to share with you snippets of food and culture in Toronto from a banana’s perspective.

I believe that being both Canadian AND Chinese — or whatever cultural background you come from — has an impact on how you see the world and that has an effect on what you think and, directly or indirectly, affects how you behave. This blog is my attempt to share some insights, here and there, from this not so unique perspective. (There were about 250,000 recognized immigrants in Canada in 2008 alone, not a small number of people who experience this Canadian and alter-culture mixology happening in this country as a true immigrant.)

I don’t claim to know about the newcomers’ experiences but I do understand what it feels like to grow up as an outsider because of my race. Believe it or not, when I was just a twinky not that many revolutionary years ago, I was ostracized for being Chinese, something you couldn’t hide being a visible minority. And so now I wonder how newcomers to Canada handle having their kids growing up here in these changing times, how they deal with the unique challenges associated with the some times clashing cultures, and what it’s like for anyone who lives with conflicting duality whether they arrived here or were born into it or realized it later.

I hope BananaViews will give people an opportunity to identify with the quirks of living with a duo-cultural influence and see how food can bridge the gap. At the very least, join me initially in reliving the many delicious experiences I am so lucky to be a part of, whether it’s through my work as an event planner or just because I love to hunt down and taste the variety of food choices that’s available in this diverse and fluid city I call home, Toronto. BananaViews is my individual take on life looked at through rainbow-coloured glasses. Rose-coloured glasses are too one dimensional for me. I love my food experiences and I love my roots. And that’s what I ultimately want to share with you at BananaViews.

Enjoy! And please feel free to comment. I know that I am not the most prolific writer but good constructive positively-framed comments will only make my reporting better.

For inquiries contact bananaviews [at] gmail [dot] com

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Professionally, Dawn Becker is the owner and lead event planner for BPL Events. Established in 1997, BPL Events is a full-service event management company that provides results-driven targeted event solutions for their clients, planning conferences, fundraisers, gala dinners, awards shows and other events. Dawn is currently working on the Metropolis 2012 conference for CERIS, the Centre for Excellence in Research on Immigration and Settlement as well as a series of CEO conferences for PROFIT, a Rogers magazine.