London caught in a China vibe

Apr 21, 2009
London caught in a China vibe
By Daniel Allen

LONDON - As London gears up for its own Olympic Games sportfest in 2012, the runaway success of the Beijing Summer Olympics last year has given the English capital's fascination with all things Chinese a major shot in the arm. With over 100,000 Chinese nationals living in London alone, and another 150,000 across the British Isles, the spread of Chinese culture is a natural by-product of deepening bilateral ties and mutual respect.

London's Chinese community is one of the oldest in Europe, dating to the mid-1880s, when seamen from China settled in East London to escape their chicken-coop dockside lodgings. Nowadays, an impressive network of Chinese schools and community centers helps Chinese Londoners pass on their cultural identity from one generation to the next. Still, it's one thing to preserve your own culture, it's quite another to get other people of a different background to understand and appreciate it.

For many years, tucking into chicken chow mein or egg rolls from the local takeout was as close as most Londoners came to sampling Chinese culture. Set in the heart of the West End, London's Chinatown was little more than a loose collection of bargain buffets and cheap grocery stores. Neither very authentic nor very contemporary; it was, much like the fortune cookie, an aging Western take on a hackneyed Eastern theme.

Now, thanks to the Beijing Olympics, and the efforts of people like David Tse Ka Shing, all that is changing. Tse Ka Shing is creative director of the Chinatown Arts Space (CAS), started in 2003 by a group of British East Asian artist who wanted to drive the development of East Asian performing and visual arts in London. Over the past couple of years, CAS has organized many high-profile events, and was heavily involved in last year's "China in London" event.

"Together with all at CAS, I decided it was time to help rebrand Chinatown," says Tse Ka Shing. "For a long time the area was just known for food and shopping. Now a younger generation of Chinese and other East Asians in London want to express themselves, and this involves promoting all manner of art forms, from dance and drama though to sculpture and songwriting."

Most recently, CAS has overseen the installation of Chinatown's first public art work, a giant mural by Hong Kong-born architect and designer Wing Kei Wong. Her design, entitled 1888, is a huge mural of a simple bowl of rice that when viewed up close reveals itself to be a mosaic of 1888 photos of Chinatown, its residents and visitors. This month, a second art work, a three-meter long plastic and steel sculpture of a Chinese lion by Taiwanese Hsiao-Chi Tsai and Japanese Kimiya Yoshikawa, will be erected at one entrance to Chinatown.

The addition of Chinese-themed artwork is just the start of Chinatown's enhancement. Late last year, the London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA), set up over 30 years ago to promote the interests of Chinese businesses, teamed up with the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment and Westminster City Council to launch the Chinatown Design Strategy, which was aimed at boosting the area's authenticity and cultural appeal.

As a result of stakeholder consultation, this year's 2 million pound (US$2.9 million) Chinatown revamp is likely to include a new screen garden, golden lanterns, a timber pagoda and replicas of ancient Chinese dragon statues to guard its nine entrances. Building work, which will take into account Chinese mythology and feng shui, will be jointly funded by Westminster Council and private developers. There will also be a series of monthly crafts markets showcasing Chinese creative talents.

"The aim is to make Chinatown seem more authentic, taking its inspiration from Chinese cities such as Beijing, and should result in London's Chinatown being given even more of a Chinese feel," said Robert Davis, Westminster City Council's deputy leader. "It is vital that we work with the local community to develop design ideas that build on the area's heritage, and reflect the cultural identity of the Chinese community who first made this unique area of the West End their home in the 1950s."

Many people feel that Prince Charles' involvement in the Chinatown project, through the foundation, is a way of compensating for his high-profile boycott of the Beijing Games last year. The foundation has also recently worked to preserve Beijing's hutongs, the unique backstreets. Charles - who once famously described China's leaders as "appalling old waxworks" - recently met President Hu Jintao while he was in London for the Group of 20 summit, with the apparent aim of "mending bridges".

Hank Dittmar, chief executive of the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, explains more behind the charity's thinking on Chinatown's development. "Our mission is to improve the quality of people's lives through a timeless and ecological approach to designing, planning and building. We think Chinese crafts and traditional building methods are enduring and will improve the quality of experience of Chinatown, both for residents and visitors.
"In Chinatown, we were particularly interested in learning how the design of the built environment had evolved, and is evolving still, within the context of its London surroundings. A key part of its distinctiveness comes from the blend of Western traditions and Chinese crafts, seen both in London and Beijing. By working with the local community, we hope to build on that cultural interchange, which has persisted for a couple of hundred years," says Dittmar.

People make places as much as pagodas, and keeping London's Chinese community involved in Chinatown's development has been vital. This was acknowledged by Suzannah Kwok, LCCA's vice president, when she spoke to BBC London recently. "We've engaged some of the younger members of the Chinese community in London Chinatown; some of the BBCs [British-born Chinese] have got involved. This is positive because in order for Chinatown to move forward we need to embrace the younger generation coming through as well as respecting the elders."

David Tse Ka Shing agrees with Kwok's sentiments. "A younger generation of Chinese people in London wants to express themselves. They can really contribute to the multicultural vitality of this city, with Chinatown as a base."

As part of London's Thames Festival in September, Tse Ka Shing and CAS are working on "Piccadilly Revisited", a project based on the 1929 silent black-and-white movie Piccadilly starring Anna May Wong, Hollywood's first-ever Chinese star. A fresh interpretation on a classical theme, it neatly sums up the capital's new take on Chinese culture in 2009.

Daniel Allen is a freelance writer and photographer from London who has lived in China for the past three years.

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