Chinese and British Exhibition, Nottinghamshire Archives

Exploring British Chinese communities and culture.

Chinese communities have been calling the UK home for much longer than many realise. Tracing their heritage back to regions in East and South-East Asia, they’ve established a rich and diverse culture across the UK.

In a new display, from the British Library we reflect on this long history through photographs, manuscripts and interviews with those who have lived through it. 

Join us to celebrate the history and lasting legacy of this vibrant community, and to understand what it really means to be Chinese and British. 

Frank Soo (1914 – 1991) was a British Chinese footballer. He played for Stoke City and Luton Town in the 1930s and during the Second World War captained the RAF team. He later went on to manage the Norwegian national team.

Born in Liverpool to a Chinese father and English mother, he started playing as a child. He is the only British Chinese footballer to represent England at the national level

Attribution- The Sentinel/StokeonTrentLive

Ling Shuhua (1900 – 1990) was a modernist writer and painter. She was associated with the Bloomsbury Group of writers through a relationship with Julian Bell (Virigina Woolf’s nephew). She corresponded with Virigina Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. Woolf gave Shuhua advice on her writing and supplied her with English books (sending them to China). Sackville-West wrote the foreward for Shuhua’s book, which was published by Hogarth Press (the Woolfs’ publishing house).

Her most famous book, written in English, Ancient Melodies, was a feminist autobiography about her life in China, and was a best-seller at the time. She also translated English works into Chinese.

Attribution- Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library

Manchester’s Chinatown is the second largest in the UK with its origins in the early 20th century when Chinese migrants began to settle in the city.  It is now home to a thriving Chinese community with many businesses such as the pictured Happy Seasons restaurant which opened on Faulkner Street in 1982.

Attribution- Photo by Zach Rowlandson on Unsplash