Ever since Lien Yeung started reporting on the weather for CBC TV, Vancouver hasnt had a drop of rain. In fact, if the clouds can hold off for a few more days, it will be the first rain-less July in the citys recorded history.
As CBC sports guy Shane Foxman says, shes been Vancouvers lucky charm.
But its Yeung whos having the pinch-me moments. As much as working for the CBC is a dream job, its not what she expected to be doing when she graduated from SFU with a degree in criminology and communications.
Born and raised in Vancouver, she wanted to be a lawyer until she took some law classes and found them dreadfully boring. She stayed with criminology, thinking that shed work on legal issues for a non-profit organization. After graduation, however, she found a communications job with a technology event marketing firm, switching over to CBC four years ago.
Over time, she started getting more experience on the air. She initiated the community listings segment and has been the host of the Musical Nooners live music in front of the 700 Hamilton Street headquarters from noon to one weekday in the summer for the past couple of years. On September 26, CBC is airing her show, Cultural Secrets of Vancouver. As part of Culture Days, shell take viewers to a food truck that sells delicious Mumbai street food in Surrey and check out the mouth-watering butter chicken poutine at Roots Café, a foodies treasure trove at Main and 49th.
Although not trained as a meteorologist, her high school science and geography courses are coming in handy. (Never tell a teacher Ill never need to know this, she says.) Not content to just read about dew points and weather fronts, shes taking a self-imposed crash course on atmospheric science, with the CBCs Johanna Wagstaffe as her sensei.
This past weekend, she wanted to be able to talk knowingly about whether we had a chance of getting to Thursday (August 1) without rain. She read the charts and graphs and knew there was a weather system coming but couldnt figure out where it was coming from. She feverishly texted Wagstaffe, who was taking a day off to actually enjoy all that sunshine, for help.
You get to learn constantly, she says.
She also believes in the CBC, and its role as a national broadcaster.
Theres such a legacy to it, she says. All of us have a CBC memory, whether it was the only signal that reached your cars radio during those family summer road trips to the interior, or watching Hockey Night in Canada, or being able to talk with relatives a few provinces away about a story uncovered by the CBCs news team.
Every single one of our journalists believes in what theyre doing and the power of journalism to change things for the good, she says. The CBC glues us together as Canadians, taking our individualism and creating a cultural whole. It really builds the fabric of society and feeds the brain.
Her brain is a bit full right now. Around the time of her new on-air job, she became the president of the SFU Alumni Association and has been chosen for the Womens Leadership Circle advisory council through the Vancouver Board of Trade.
She laughs when asked whats next on her career path. I have a couple of things to do before I think about whats next. I feel Im just taking one day at a time.
One extraordinarily sunny day at a time.
A long-time admirer of Amanda Lang (of CBCs Lang and OLeary Exchange), Yeungs respect for the business correspondent has grown with every page of Langs The Power of Why.
Shes brilliant, Yeung says of her fellow CBCer. The books about innovation and change and how we can constantly improve ourselves and our society.
She asks people to challenge their assumptions. Dont become a knowing person, become a thinking person. She shows you to question things to get to the root of the problem.
One of Yeungs favourite places to read is the Harrison Gallery on the corner of Homer and Smithe. Shell grab a coffee and pastry in The Buzz coffee shop and then go upstairs, plop herself on one of the leather couches, soak in the paintings and indulge in a few moments of quiet solitude. Its just such a lovely spot.
Reading on the beach is always fun, too. She and her husband Craig Ryomoto, the director of pro revenue and growth at HootSuite, will head to Kits Beach for a quick hit, but when they have time for a more leisurely pursuit of summer at its urban best, will travel farther west to Jericho, with its long stretch of beautiful sandy beach and some of the best views of the Vancouver skyline.
