Connected by Difference
The Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery will be Manchester Museum's first permanent space dedicated to Chinese culture when it opens in February 2023. It draws on historical and contemporary links between China and Manchester and will present a range of voices and storytelling. The aim is to give a dynamic understanding of Chinese culture and to highlight collections from across the city. According to the Museum’s director, Esme Ward, the objects tell a unique series of stories about friendship, collaboration and reciprocity between people from Britain and China.
More widely, the museum has a clear ambition to be a caring institution and to think about what a commitment to care looks like if you move beyond objects and think about people and relationships and ideas.
Esme Ward Director, Manchester Museum
Updated 27-07-2022
How did the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery happen? I became director of Manchester Museum in April 2018. One of the first meetings I had was with Dr. Lee. He had already invested in the Manchester China Institute at the University of Manchester and he’d also agreed to invest in Manchester Museum to build the Chinese Culture Gallery. One of the things I really liked about our conversation was it was so open ended and framed the sorts of questions we wanted to explore, particularly those about building a sense of belonging and connectedness. What would it mean to create a space that built understanding between the UK and China and why should that space be in Manchester? What would it mean to people in Manchester, whether of Chinese heritage or not, and how could it draw on the breadth of collections across the city, in museums, libraries and galleries, but which have never been shown? We won't know until the galleries open whether it really engenders that sense of belonging, but we’re working closely with all sorts of partners, both in China and in the city, to bring their perspectives to the heart of the Gallery. Community contributions and engagement have been vital to the development of the Chinese Culture Gallery, and we are extremely grateful for the input of Chinese students, the Manchester China Institute, and wider Chinese communities in Manchester.
Which unseen objects will be included? There’s a whole host of them. We have an incredible 24-metre-long Qing (1644-1911) scroll from the John Rylands Library, which is almost as long as the Gallery, and from the Museum’s own collection we have 52 bronzes from the Thomas Bellot Collection, which have never been displayed together before. We’re a museum of human cultures and the natural world, so one of the things we also want to do is think about the natural environment. One of the pieces we recently acquired is a milu deer, often known as the Père David's deer, which was introduced to Britain from China in the 19th century and now thrives here. It died out in China but has been reintroduced from the population in the UK. So, we’re also able to tell these wonderful conservation stories that highlight examples of UK-China collaboration. More widely, the museum has a clear ambition to be a caring institution and to think about what a commitment to care looks like if you move beyond objects and think about people and relationships and ideas. One very beautiful manifestation of this is a life-size acupuncture model that's been donated to the Museum by Professor Shulan Tang, who has a traditional Chinese medicine practice in Manchester.
Will there be much about modern and contemporary China? We've intentionally chosen not to do a chronological history. Instead, we've chosen to be thematic in our approach. I've already mentioned caring and healing. Other themes include movement and migration, and identity and belonging. My brilliant colleague, Bryan Sitch, who is Deputy Head of Collections and one of the lead curators of the Chinese Gallery won a Headley Fellowship a couple of years ago, which allows him to spend quality time researching stories that link Manchester and China. Another of our themes is about our interconnected future and the shared desire to make our cities more harmonious and sustainable. So, for example, we look at sponge cities – essentially cities that are designed to manage flooding and respond to climate change. We look at one project in West Gorton, Manchester, and one in Wuhan. That relationship with Wuhan is a strong focus for us because the two cities are twinned.
Will there be anything about Covid? There will be, but maybe it won’t be what people expect. When Covid first impacted on all of us, one of the things we did was look at how we could connect with Wuhan. We decided to commission a Manchester artist called Jan Bautista and a Wuhan artist called Daisy Chen to make works that explore this experience. So, you have these really beautiful drawings from both of these artists encountering their home city after lockdown. The work is called Touching from a Distance and speaks to an interconnected future and recognition of this shared global experience.
What are the challenges in collaborating with China? The Golden Mummies of Egypt exhibition, which we produced in partnership with Nomad Exhibitions is touring China right now. It’s currently in Shanghai and is due to move to Shenzhen, but because of the new wave of Covid infections it’s not going anywhere, so that’s one of the challenges. Ordinarily, you would have a whole team of staff travelling with an exhibition like this, not least a conservator and a curator. Instead, we’ve done it digitally. All the things you would normally do with a touring exhibition like this, such as condition checking and so on is done digitally with local conservators on the ground. In the museum world it's something that’s transforming international touring exhibitions. So, yes, we’ve had to face real practical issues. But at the same time it’s revealed some interesting ways to move forward, which are also far more environmentally friendly. I would say it has slowed things down but maybe the quality of conversations and relationships has improved because you have to invest so much more time in understanding.
Golden Mummies of Egypt, installation view at the World Art Museum in Beijing, 2021.
What conversations for you have led to greater understanding? We've got one that’s live at the moment. During Covid we’ve been reviewing our collections in relation to restitution. Usually, people associate this with ethnographic collections. In our case, we have two dinosaur eggs from China which were collected in good faith but are not supported by the relevant export licences. And so, we've been building relationships, initially with the Beijing National Museum but also other partners in China to return these two specimens. A new science museum is being built at Tsinghua University and we're talking to them about returning the eggs.
You describe Manchester Museum as a “caring museum”. How easy is it to communicate that idea? I think there's actually a lot of interest. I did an interview at the Chengdu-UK Cultural Heritage Week conference (19-24 October, 2021) and a lot of the feedback was about exactly these things. Also, I think it's part of the evolution of museums. The broader work around education, access and inclusion has only really taken place in the past 30 years. This coincides with the construction of all these new museums in China and so there’s a real appetite to learn more. Once we’ve completed the Gallery we can be a part of that process together and start to really understand how we can share our work and experiences. It certainly frames a lot of the conversations we've had with the British Council about how we might work more effectively with partners in China. More widely, for example in terms of using technology in museums to increase access, inclusion and engagement, it seems to me there’s a huge opportunity for UK museums to learn from the work that’s happening now in China. In line with the aims and ambitions of Manchester Museum and the Chinese Culture Gallery, and Manchester Museum more generally I really hope this can be the start of how we work more collaboratively with our partners in China.
Special thanks to Bryan Sitch, Judith Fabian and Anna Pickard for their help in preparing this interview. Interview by John Millichap. Produced by Manchester China Forum and Signal8 Digital. Graphic by Signal8 Digital.
When Covid first impacted on all of us, one of the things we did was look at how we could connect with Wuhan. We decided to commission a Manchester artist called Jan Bautista and a Wuhan artist called Daisy Chen to make works that explore this experience.
Connected by Difference
The Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery will be Manchester Museum's first permanent space dedicated to Chinese culture when it opens in February 2023. According to the Museum’s director, Esme Ward, the objects tell a unique series of stories about friendship, collaboration and reciprocity between people from Britain and China.
Esme Ward Director, Manchester Museum
Updated 27-07-2022
How did the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery happen? I became director of Manchester Museum in April 2018. One of the first meetings I had was with Dr. Lee. He had already invested in the Manchester China Institute at the University of Manchester and he’d also agreed to invest in Manchester Museum to build the Chinese Culture Gallery. One of the things I really liked about our conversation was it was so open ended and framed the sorts of questions we wanted to explore, particularly those about building a sense of belonging and connectedness. What would it mean to create a space that built understanding between the UK and China and why should that space be in Manchester? What would it mean to people in Manchester, whether of Chinese heritage or not, and how could it draw on the breadth of collections across the city, in museums, libraries and galleries, but which have never been shown? We won't know until the galleries open whether it really engenders that sense of belonging, but we’re working closely with all sorts of partners, both in China and in the city, to bring their perspectives to the heart of the Gallery. Community contributions and engagement have been vital to the development of the Chinese Culture Gallery, and we are extremely grateful for the input of Chinese students, the Manchester China Institute, and wider Chinese communities in Manchester.
The museum has a clear ambition to be a caring institution and to think about what a commitment to care looks like if you move beyond objects and think about people and relationships and ideas.
Which unseen objects will be included?
There’s a whole host of them. We have an incredible 24-metre-long Qing (1644-1911) scroll from the John Rylands Library, which is almost as long as the Gallery, and from the Museum’s own collection we 52 bronzes from the Thomas Bellot Collection, which have never been displayed together before. We’re a museum of human cultures and the natural world, so one of the things we also want to do is think about the natural environment. One of the pieces we recently acquired is a milu deer, often known as the Père David's deer, which was introduced to Britain from China in the 19th century and now thrives here. It died out in China but has been reintroduced from the population in the UK. So, we’re also able to tell these wonderful conservation stories that highlight examples of UK-China collaboration. More widely, the museum has a clear ambition to be a caring institution and to think about what a commitment to care looks like if you move beyond objects and think about people and relationships and ideas. One very beautiful manifestation of this is a life-size acupuncture model that's been donated to the Museum by Professor Shulan Tang, who has a traditional Chinese medicine practice in Manchester.
Will there be much about modern and contemporary China?
We've intentionally chosen not to do a chronological history. Instead, we've chosen to be thematic in our approach. I've already mentioned caring and healing. Other themes include movement and migration, and identity and belonging. My brilliant colleague, Bryan Sitch, who is Deputy Head of Collections and one of the lead curators of the Chinese Gallery, won a Headley Fellowship a couple of years ago, which allows him to spend quality time researching stories that link Manchester and China. Another of our themes is about our interconnected future and the shared desire to make our cities more harmonious and sustainable. So, for example, we look at sponge cities – essentially cities that are designed to manage flooding and respond to climate change. We look at one project in West Gorton, Manchester, and one in Wuhan. That relationship with Wuhan is a strong focus for us because the two cities are twinned.
Will there be anything about Covid? There will be, but maybe it won’t be what people expect. When Covid first impacted on all of us, one of the things we did was look at how we could connect with Wuhan. We decided to commission a Manchester artist called Jan Bautista and a Wuhan artist called Daisy Chen to make works that explore this experience. So, you have these really beautiful drawings from both of these artists encountering their home city after lockdown. The work is called Touching from a Distance and speaks to an interconnected future and recognition of this shared global experience.
When Covid first impacted on all of us, one of the things we did was look at how we could connect with Wuhan.
What are the challenges in collaborating with China? The Golden Mummies of Egypt exhibition, which we produced in partnership with Nomad Exhibitions is touring China right now. It’s currently in Shanghai and is due to move to Shenzhen, but because of the new wave of Covid infections it’s not going anywhere, so that’s one of the challenges. Ordinarily, you would have a whole team of staff travelling with an exhibition like this, not least a conservator and a curator. Instead, we’ve done it digitally. All the things you would normally do with a touring exhibition like this, such as condition checking and so on, is done digitally with local conservators on the ground. In the museum world it's something that’s transforming international touring exhibitions. So, yes, we’ve had to face real practical issues. But at the same time it’s revealed some interesting ways to move forward, which are also far more environmentally friendly. I would say it has slowed things down but maybe the quality of conversations and relationships has improved because you have to invest so much more time in understanding.
