Working with professional photographers, Chinese families from London, Glasgow and Manchester have compiled photographs, artwork, slide shows and objects to express what family means to them.

Anthony Lam worked with families from the Soho Family Centre, who used photographs and postcards to illustrate their version of a British seaside holiday in Clacton. The images depict a typical family break at sea- happy smiling faces, playing games, eating barbeque, taking photographs, having fun: in many respects, no different to the archetypal British family holiday. Lam said of his work:

“The important part was to create a meaningful relationship within the scope of the project with the families as a group and as individuals. The time spent together showed a side to the families that many outside of the British Chinese communities may not experience or see. The work by the families will contribute significantly to the diversity of contemporary imagery by and about the British Chinese.”

Lam also worked with Ricky Siow, a London based chef who drew interesting parallels between his family and his food. A series of mouthwatering dishes serve as a metaphor for each of his relatives. His grandparents represent pickled vegetables and pork belly slices, a meal which has been served for over 50 years and takes over two hours to cook. Like the dish, Siow’s grandparents are mature, experienced and have seen a lot.

By comparison, his wife represents sweet and sour pork- she has brought colour to his life, and given him children and fulfillment. In this sense, his family effectively sweetens any sourness caused by struggle.

Siow sees himself as plain boiled rice, the staple of oriental cuisine; he serves to act as the structure of the family, complimenting all aspects of it.

Touchingly, Siow represents his children using pak choi- young green leafy vegetables that need nurturing and tender loving care in order to grow, and make their own way in life.

So far, it is clear that in London, the Chinese place a huge emphasis on the importance of a close-knit relationship between their relatives, and in Glasgow it is no different.

Artist and photographer Pamela So worked together with Glaswegian families to express their sentiments about family life.

A slide show of a marriage in the Wan family provides a good example of how Chinese and British cultures have been infiltrated simultaneously. In the first of two celebrations, the male guests are seen wearing kilts, while the bride is radiant in an elegant white flowing gown. By comparison, at the following wedding party, the bride is dressed in traditional bright red robes, with the Chinese dragon a frequent presence in the shots.

Also on show is a series of photographs at the scene of a golfing match- an important activity amongst Chinese businessmen in Britain. This is yet another example of Chinese and British culture integrating.

But one of the most moving parts of this exhibition is another slide show of the Ang family, which reveals the long journey that relatives have traveled – from the USA, Malaysia and UK – to see each other. Tearful yet joyous scenes depict relatives greeting and getting to know each other, many for the first time.

Close relationships are equally important to Chinese families living in Manchester. The Lam family produced a 3-D tree to symbolize their family history, including branches and leaves festooned with photographs and handmade decorations.

The Lams, working with photographer Yan Preston, also used painting, photographs and clothing to decorate a wardrobe as a way of illustrating their family values and traditions. Gypsy Lam, and his wife Yuet, maintain a firm hand of discipline with their daughter Doris, aged 12. As a list of rules reveals, Doris is not allowed to use the phone for more than ten minutes, to have a mobile phone or to have her ears pierced until she is 18, and she is also forbidden to have a boyfriend before university.

These restrictions serve to illustrate a difference between the way that the Chinese and modern Britons raise their children, with the latter perhaps employing a more lenient approach, although undoubtedly both are still capable of sustaining a loving relationship.

Finally, the Li family created a collage of photographs and newspaper articles to illustrate the meaningful events in their lives. Images depicting birth, growth, marriage and death are juxtaposed with cuttings about 9/11, China on the brink of a civil war and the London tube bombings.

Such events, where bloodshed and loss of relatives was inevitable, eloquently highlight the importance of family.

There are also a series of hands on interactives in this exhibition, including an opportunity to make your own ‘food family’, and some etch-a-sketch style devices on which you are invited to try and write Chinese words – by no means an easy task!

Although visually this exhibition is not the most striking, its message is poignant and clear- family values and togetherness are highly important, regardless of origin, tradition, or the method to which it is achieved.

As Sarah Champion, CEO of the Chinese Arts Centre, says:

“This is a really important exhibition as it presents a realistic glimpse of Chinese contemporary life in Britain and draws our attention to the similarities, and differences, between these families and our own.”

The final exhibition in the “Reaching Out, Drawing In” programme, entitled “Four Corners”, is dedicated to four community groups with diverse cultural heritage across London, and opens in March 2007.