UK China Arts Meeting 27th September London

On 27^th September 2014, the second China UK Arts meeting will take place in London, hosted by Natasha Phillips and Kunjue Li in collaboration with the Goldsmiths Confucius Institute for Dance and Performance. This will be a 3-hour event in which artists from different disciplines, academics, and art producers and representatives of institutions will come together and look at artistic exchanges between the two countries, understand and communicate industry practices and formal practicalities, and exchange intercultural creative ideas and working methodologies through the sharing of resources.

The reason and motivation behind these series of UK China Arts meetings are threefold:

1.  There is a lack of concrete foundations that are successful in support and facilitation of cross-cultural creative projects and talents.
2. It is catered to tackle specific issues that often result in the unfulfilling utilization of resources in both the UK and China.
3. We want to bring together a community of knowledge and resources that will contribute to the ever-growing amount of opportunities that are being offered and sought after within the industry.

The first meeting was hosted by Bill Aitchinson at Birkbeck University in November 2013. This will be the second meeting of what is planned as an ongoing network and the focus at this meeting will be upon to better understand the experiences and to create opportunities for the different parties involved to meet and strengthen the network. This can be viewed from both directions as British artists working in China and Chinese artists working in the UK. 

The speakers and topics we have presenting at this meeting are:

'A cross-cultural dialogue of cultural, linguistic and artistic understandings between UK and China artists and organisations.'

1) The difficulties and obstacles for bringing work into the international market. [Lindsay Liu, news and radio presenter and documentary producer]

Lindsay Liu is a news and radio presenter and a documentary producer. Lindsay has worked in the media industry for around ten years in both the UK and China and is currently the TV presenter, director and producer of Interactive Media Britain (http://www.im-britain.com/). She used to be the News Anchor of Phoenix TV station, Radio Presenter of China National Radio station where she interviewed various of celebrities, stars, diplomats and reported on many important events as well as hosted hundreds of important events. Her credits include- Commercial videos: "Non-stop Plan from Beijing to Birmingham" (Producer), Documentaries: "Chinese Designers" (Director), "The only one Chinese Lady in Savile Row" (Director), "The Chinese architect in London Olympic Games" (Director).

2) The Transcultural Curator: The successes and problematics of developing a platform for Chinese contemporary culture. [Rachel Marsden, Curator and cultural producer, Founder of The Temporary, Arts Writer]

Rachel Marsden is a curator, art consultant, PhD researcher, arts and culture writer, and avid blogger in the field of contemporary art, music and visual culture, specifically East Asian and Chinese contemporary visual culture, since 2010 living between UK and Shanghai (China). In January 2014, she founded ‘The Temporary’, a new transcultural exchange platform examining “temporary” and ephemeral experience in art, architecture, design, music, sound, performance and culture between the UK and China. She is also Coordinator (part-time) for the Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) (Birmingham (UK) and China) and worked as Research Curator (October 2012-April 2014) for the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (UK).

3) Propose solutions that address misunderstandings and challenge commonsense ideas about Chinese identity and customs. [Dr. Diana Yeh, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Winchester]

Diana Yeh is senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Winchester. A former Fellow of Sociological Review, she also teaches on the MA Culture Diaspora Ethnicity at Birkbeck College, University of London and in Sociology and Psychosocial Studies at the University of East London. Her research interests lie in race/ethnicity, diaspora, migration and culture. Her book The Happy Hsiungs: Performing China and the Struggle for Modernity was published with Hong Kong University Press in 2014. She has presented her research on BBC Radio Four, and at institutions such as the Royal Geographical Society, the Wellcome Trust, National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain.

4) Talk about your own experiences and explorations with your work as an international artist, specifically in China. Communicate the challenges, successes, pitfalls and loopholes and give advice to artists and companies. [David Tse, China Town Arts Space]

David K.S. Tse 謝家聲 is an actor, writer, theatre director and filmmaker, developing the British Chinese / East Asian (BCEA) arts sector to improve intercultural understanding. As consultant Creative Director for CAS (chinatownartsspace.com), he engaged artists from China / UK during the Five Circles festival 2008; toured to Beijing / HK with Piccadilly Revisited; secured a Cultural Olympiad Chinese commission for New Music 20x12; and in 2014, will unveil a new sculpture commission for Chinatown and develop artists' / youth arts talent during Autumn Moon. He was Founder-Artistic Director of YellowEarth.org, where for 13 years, he led the company to become the UK’s only revenue-funded BCEA theatre, touring across UK / China.

Tickets are £11.00 (with a £1.31 booking fee) and can be purchased tickets here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/uk-china-arts-tickets-12751657551

Note: China is here considered as both the broad Chinese speaking world (so as to include Singapore for instance) and the nation state so as to include all ethnicities and languages within PRC.

This is a series of meetings designed to stimulate ideas and discussion and consolidate UK and Chinese arts networks. Further events will take place in 2015.