My Chinatown

What does Chinatown mean to you?
To me, Chinatown means getting closer to my roots. When I came to England over ten years ago to study architecture, I found that going to Chinatown always made me feel good again when I was homesick.

How did you come to submit your 1888 design?
I heard about the opportunity at a hip-hop performance organised by Chinatown Arts Space. When CAS’s creative director David Tse Ka Shing announced that CAS were also running a competition to design a mural, I was curious straight away – I’m passionate about art and culture – especially my own culture. When I found out about it in detail I realised I had just six days to submit my entry. Even though I’m a designer, I’d never really entered anything like this - but I felt strongly about it and the ideas just kept coming. It’s a project that combines my passions with my attachment to Chinatown. I love food, photography and organising events – 1888 combines my interests and my personality and the final idea came to me very quickly.

What made you decide on a mosaic for this project?
I felt that I, alone, was not enough to represent Chinatown; it’s a place that is made up of a lot of people’s stories – and photographs are a very good way of telling stories. I love looking at other people’s photographs and seeing things from different perspectives, and I knew that 1888 would be so much more interesting if everybody was involved. When you spend time in Chinatown, you see a lot of things happening – lots of people; lots of different East Asian groups. A photo mosaic is a very good way of representing that.

Why the bowl of rice as the central motif?
I was looking for an image to symbolise the Asian community, and it occurred to me that the reason so many people come to Chinatown is for food – either to visit restaurants or to buy ingredients. I did some more research about the different countries and cultures mentioned in the competition brief and I found out that rice, as their main staple food, was a common denominator. So the rice is a simple image but it’s one that represents Chinatown very well. In the same way that Chinatown is an important base where lots of interesting things happen, rice is a simple thing that enables you to appreciate a huge variety of tastes when they’re put next to it.

What’s the significance of the number 1888?
As well as being the number of photos in the mosaic, it’s a good number for Chinese people. Eight is a good figure in Chinese numerology – it symbolises fortune, so a triple eight is especially good. The number one, in Cantonese, sounds like the word for ‘every day’. I’m hoping that it’ll bring Chinatown good fortune every day! And, of course, the unveiling date is 18/8/08.

What do you want people to take away from 1888?
I want people to take a whole experience away from seeing 1888. It’s going to be a journey of discovery – for a start, its location isn’t obvious from the busiest area of Chinatown, although you can glimpse it when you’re walking from Gerrard Street to Shaftesbury Avenue. You have to walk past a lot of things to find it. Then, when you find it, you’ll see the rice bowl surrounded by a golden glow – and, by walking up to it, you’ll reveal all of the different stories in the colour pictures of the rice bowl and the sepia-toned pictures in the background. Each picture will be around the same size as a regular photograph so, if you sent a picture in, you should be able to find yourself as well.

What’s going to be the most challenging part of the project?
The most challenging part is going to be collecting 1,888 photographs by June 25th. I have a lot of photographs myself, but it’s really important that the public get involved. I want 1888 to reach as many people as possible.

To participate, send Wing Kei your Chinatown-related photos with your name, contact details and a note on when and where the picture was taken. As well as being considered for the piece, each photo will be entered into a draw for cash prizes, with the top prize being £100 – and there’s a £50 bonus prize for the artist’s favourite shot.

Send hard copies of pictures to: PO Box 279, Esher, Surrey, KT10 8YZ

Email digital photos (in a 300dpi, or minimum 1024 x 768 jpeg format) to Chinatown1888@yahoo.com.

The closing date for entries is June 25th.

Please note that by submitting your photo, you are agreeing to let the artist potentially use it to create the Horse and Dolphin Yard mural commission and all derivative works based upon it. You are also agreeing for it to be used in part or whole, for any publicity purposes related to this mural commission.