OUTSIDE CHINATOWN: THE EVOLUTION OF MANCHESTER’S CHINESE ARTS CENTRE AS A CULTURAL TRANSLATOR FOR CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART

Written by BECCY KENNEDY

BECCY KENNEDY

MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

Abstract: In light of the Chinese Art Centre (CAC)’s recent rebrand to the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Art (CFCCA), this case study endeavours to trace the organisation’s ontological trajectory from its origins in Manchester’s Chinatown to its current location, considering how its purpose and focus have changed in relation to how it identifies and translates Chinese Art to a local and/or global audience. Furthermore, I consider how the organisation has both addressed and embodied changing diversity discourses in Britain through its mission to represent Chinese culture¹.

Keywords: agency, arts policy, ‘British-Chinese,’ diaspora, diversity, globalisation

About the Author: Beccy Kennedy is a Senior Lecturer in Art History and Curating and MA Route Leader for Contemporary Visual Culture and Design Cultures at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has curated exhibitions for Asia Triennial Manchester 2011 and 2014 with Manchester Digital Laboratory and Imperial War Museum North. Her published writing covers the topics of: Chinese and Korean diasporic art, contemporary Korean art historiography, biennialisation and the imaging of the Korean DMZ. She is Principal Investigator for the current AHRC funded research network: Culture, Capital and Communication: Visualising Chinese Borders in the 21st Century and on the editorial board for the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.
http://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/profile/bkennedy

¹ I would like to acknowledge the time and support of those individuals interviewed for this study: Amy Lai, Kwong Lee, Yuen Fong Ling, Ying Tan and Elizabeth Wewiora. Thank you also to Sarah Fisher – then acting Director of CFCCA – who referred me to Ying Tan and for Tan’s and Wewiora’s helpfulness regarding knowledge of former employees. In particular, I am indebted to Yuen Fong Ling – with whom I had additional, stimulating conversations about ‘British-Chinese’ art and Kwong Lee, who leant me his extensive archive of leaflets and notes from his time working at Chinese Arts Centre. Since working at the Chinese Arts Centre, Sarah Fisher has become Director of Open Eye Gallery, Kwong Lee has become director of Castlefield Gallery, Yuen Fong Ling has been involved with a range of art and curatorial projects and he is currently Senior Lecturer and researcher in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University and Amy Lai attained a PhD in Chinese Cultural Studies from the University of Manchester and currently works as a qualified acupuncturist in Manchester. Job roles current at time of research, spring 2014.

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