Echoes: China & Hong Kong. Voicing the collection.

回音：中港回响书藏之声

迴音：中港迴響書藏之聲

Free entry

Monday 20 January to Friday 30 May 2025

Exhibition preview on Friday 24 January at 6 - 7pm

This exhibition is presented in English, traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese.

本次展覽以英文、繁體中文、簡體中文呈現

本次展览以英文、繁体中文、简体中文呈现

Echoes invites audiences to engage with the collection of the Portico Library and the communities who are reclaiming the colonial narrative written and illustrated in the Library's books. It seeks to navigate Britain’s complex colonial relations with China and Hong Kong, by centring the voices of the five Critical Friends who have co-created the exhibition. Bruce Lai, Deborah Ng, Jasmine Gardner, Jessie Tam, and Yichao Shi reflect on and distil their responses to the historic collection.

This is part of the Portico Library’s People, Purpose and Place: Dynamic Collections project, which has piloted co-produced cataloguing, interpretation and creative interventions around our historic collection.

Their exploration has concentrated on Manchester’s Hong Kong and Chinese diaspora. Their 'reading' of the collection delves into retention and adaptation of identity, place and purpose, particularly through language, landscape, and calendar customs such as Lunar New Year celebrations.

The exhibition features commissioned artistic responses from Critical Friends and local filmmakers, which encapsulate a counternarrative to the Victorian collection. These include:

1. ‘I think you’re wrong . . . England isn’t racist, I never hear any racism’ – A white man from Essex named Andrew, 2020, by Jasmine Gardner

2. ‘Mother Tongues, by Mat Lingard

3. ‘A Cloud Was Fallen from the Sky’ by Jessie Tam

4. ‘The Ng's Family’ by Deborah Ng

The exhibition has also been supported by the expertise of Walter Fung, Maxine Hunt and Fang Zong.

Echoes has also been made possible by the Heritage Fund and the support of the National Lottery players. Additional thanks to our Portico Library volunteers who have given so much of their time and support to coproduce this exhibition.

Acknowledgements

With thanks to Walter Fung, Maxine Hunt, Fang Zong and volunteers who had been part of the Dynamic Collections team.

Critical Friend and Co-Curators

• Bruce Lai

• Cheuk Lam Deborah Ng

• Jasmine Gardner

• Jessie Tam

• Yichao Shi

Dynamic Collections Staff Team

• Polly Anna Steiner

• Dr Imogen Durant

• Apapat Jai-in Glynn

• Alice Measom McMahon

• Dr Debbie Challis

For exhibition enquiry, please email Apapat at engagement@theportico.org.uk