The picture of China Overseas Chinese Network is a dragon dance performance. China News Service reporter Fu Qiang photographed
On September 27, the British "China Times" published an article titled "2019 National Day Special: 70 Years of Zhengrong, The Chinese Story of London's Chinatown". The article tells the untold Story of Chinatown by interviewing 26 Chinese people of different ages, different identities and even different cultural backgrounds living in the UK.
“Let’s SELFIE here!” (Let's take a selfie here!) London Chinatown "London Chinatown" and "Britain Chengxiang" two archways, such a call for friends to take selfies scenes are staged every day. During the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Double Festival of China's National Day, big red lanterns are hung high, and the red scenery at night and during the day has its own characteristics, which is more festive for tourists who come to punch in.
But what these hordes of tourists probably don't know is that just 70 years ago, it wasn't Chinatown.
There is no clear year for the establishment of London's Chinatown, but from the 1950s onwards, Chinese began to appear on Gerrard Street.
"Juelu Street is the central street of Chinatown, although Chinatown is now an area, but once, Chinatown specifically referred to this street." Ma Shaw, one of the leaders of China Exchange's Chinatown oral history project, described it.
China Station is a cultural exchange centre located at 32 Julu Street, Chinatown, London, originally located in the London Telephone Exchange.
Station, there is a coming-and-going, that is, a platform. On February 19, 2015, Sir David Tang, a well-known Philanthropist in Hong Kong, led the former information exchange center to turn a new page and become a site for "foreigners to see China, Chinese to see the world". Chinese Ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, ukway and his wife Camilla unveiled the China Station on the day of the Lunar New Year in 2015.
The Making of Chinatown, an oral history project at Chinatown, is an exhibition at China Station this summer. The creative team interviewed 26 Chinese people of different ages, different identities and even different cultural backgrounds living in the UK to tell the chinese story of those who are not known in Chinatown.
The picture shows a lion dance. China News Service reporter Fu Qiang photographed
The Unknown Information Center – The No. 20 Club
Formerly 20 Julu Street was a Chinese club. Like other Chinese clubs at the time, this club, which has little historical record and has not even left a word on the Internet, was once the Chinatown Information Center. In that era of closed information, the first stop for many Chinese immigrants to London was this Club 20, which was the entrance for many immigrants to enter the society of this country.
Freya Aitken-Turff, CEO of China, told me that even in the Interview with The Making of Chinatown, only a few respondents knew about the No.20 Club. Our imagination of this club is also derived from the description of the interviewees.
"From the stories we interviewed, it is conceivable that the No.20 club is dominated by men, and few women enter. At that time, the whole of Soho was very smoky, the industry was active, the drug industry was rampant, and it was a dark night place. It is also for this reason that the rent in the area is cheap and it is also a relatively easy place for newcomers to start working and starting a business. So that club can be said to be a male social club, looking for a job, looking for fellow countrymen, looking for people who can talk, smoking, mahjong, chatting, is a place to pull relationships through various ways."
In this way, the information of a club reached a street, which was a microcosm of Chinatown in that year.
From Chinatown to Chinatown
There are now 14 streets in Chinatown, as well as six pedestrian streets, including Juelu Street, Newport Place, Newport Court, Lisle Street, Wardour Street and Macclesfield Street, which have become important landmarks in the heart of London. Once a few Cantonese restaurants in the Jue Lu Street area, now full of Chinese cuisine, The turning point in Chinatown becoming an important landmark in London was the 1985 Planning of the entire area by the Westminster District Government of London.
Speaking of the construction of Chinatown by the Westminster City District Government, it is actually the result of the world's alignment.
"When it comes to Chinatowns around the world, look at North America, which is the most famous in San Francisco and New York. After a series of planning and reconstructions, the Chinatown of these cities has become a must-visit place for urban tourism. More and more people want to eat Asian food, and the first choice will be Chinatown. The Westminster Government also saw the potential of London's Chinatown and wanted to attract more visitors. Fenya explained.
At the same time, Finya also mentioned another important reason, that is, the government's welcoming attitude towards minorities.
"Chinatown is a gathering place for minority businesses, and the government officially planned to name Chinatown to show its welcome attitude, wanting to tell more Chinese that the UK welcomes them." Whether it's a tourist or a group that has already immigrated. ”
Since 1985, the influence of London Chinatown has become increasingly influential, which is not difficult to see from the New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square held by the London Chinatown Chamber of Commerce during the Spring Festival every year. In 2002, London's Chinatown held its first Spring Festival celebration in Trafalgar Square, which has been uninterrupted for more than a decade. And if at the beginning it was a festival celebrated by the Chinese themselves, today, it is a regular festival on the calendar of London and even the whole of The United Kingdom, it can be said that few Britons do not know about the Chinese New Year.
The story of Chinatown
"Although the history of Chinatown that we see now can only be traced back to the 1950s and 1960s, the history of Chinese immigration is long and unknown. No one has recorded it before, so what we have to do in China is to preserve these precious memories, build archives, and let more people know these stories. Fenya said.
Speaking of stories, Fenya told reporters a story of a project interviewee.
"One of our interviewees, who moved to the UK with her family in 1965, recounted an experience about one of her uncles."
"This uncle left Hong Kong alone from a very early age to work in Britain, and later opened his own restaurant, which is very successful. When the gentleman came to England, he still had long braids. After arriving in England, he cut off this braid, but the cut hair was always kept by him. After his death, his body did not return to his homeland as he wished. Knowing this regret, one of his compatriots found his hair cut and sent it back to the gentleman's home. ”
"This is just one of many stories about people, about their sacrifices, their struggles and their love for their lives."
The emotions carried are hometown
Ma Xiao told reporters that unlike other immigrant communities in London, London Chinatown is special because it is not a place where Chinese people live, but more like a social landmark, carrying the emotion of "home", and it is also an incision for many young generations of Chinese to understand their own Chinese identity background.
William Poon, the founder of Pan Ji Restaurant, who was also an old Chinese immigrant to the UK in the 60s, shared the story of his son. In the early years, when he returned to Hong Kong with his father and children, his son asked his grandfather on the second day of his arrival in Hong Kong: "Grandpa, where is Hong Kong's Chinatown?" Pan Lao said that this can be seen, although the son did not know his Chinese identity at that time, but he could see that "Chinatown" was an incision that he wanted to understand his original identity, and the children knew that there, they might be able to find the hometown in his blood.
Ma Xiao also expressed a similar view: "The more important point is that Chinatown carries the emotions of overseas Chinese families, and more importantly, it is more important to let more people from different backgrounds come to Chinatown, so that people with Chinese backgrounds can feel "close", "home" and "proud", and let others 'understand'." ”
Through The Making of Chinatown project, many children of old Chinese people have begun to understand the experiences and stories of their ancestors more directly, and have begun to understand their own identities.
Fenya told reporters that one of their interviewees was an old man whose life was legendary, but rarely told his own story to his children and grandchildren. After the exhibition, the old man came to see the exhibition with his British-born children and grandchildren, and his granddaughter was particularly interested and began to ask him many questions, including questions about her Chinese identity (as a third generation of Chinese). Later, when she saw the old man again, Fenya learned that his granddaughter was now starting to use her English name instead of her English name, but Chinese name.
Ma Xiao said that we want to record the story of Chinatown and then tell the story of China well.
Finya and Marshau are also digging up more stories and studying more untold history. Let's continue to look for these from their new book, The Story of Chinatown. (Reporter Wang Donglei)