Brian Wong | The First Fan in the Family: Sport, Culture & Belonging

When Brian Wong arrived in Calgary from Hong Kong at 17, he thought his English was pretty good.

Canada quickly taught him otherwise.

Suddenly, Brian was navigating culture shock, language barriers and the complicated experience of trying to find your place in a country that is now supposed to be home.

Sport became one of the places where those barriers began to disappear.

First through soccer, where Brian found community and the comfort of speaking Cantonese with people who understood him. Then through hockey, a sport he had first encountered through NHL video games before becoming a Calgary Flames fan sitting in $5 seats in the nosebleeds.

Inside the arena, something shifted. Thousands of people from different backgrounds could cheer, celebrate and belong to the same thing.

Years later, Brian would go from being a first-generation hockey fan to becoming the host of Flames TV Chinese, using culturally relevant storytelling to help make hockey more accessible to Chinese-speaking communities.

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny and Brian explore what happens when we stop thinking about sport as simply entertainment and start recognizing its power as a vehicle for belonging, representation and community.

They talk about Brian’s immigration story, language and identity, soccer and hockey as cultural equalizers, the evolution of Flames TV Chinese, why translation and cultural relevance are not the same thing, and why representation in sport has to extend beyond the athletes we see on the field or ice.

They also dig into the gaps that remain in marketing, leadership and decision-making across Canadian sport, why a heritage night is not the same thing as a long-term relationship with a community, and what sports organizations could gain by treating multicultural engagement as a strategy rather than a campaign.

Because for many newcomer families, fandom isn’t inherited.

Someone has to become the first fan in the family.

Brian was one.

And today, he’s helping more people see that Canada’s game can belong to them too.