China Now Silk Screens Live - the Finale of China Now On Saturday 19th July, in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, SILK SCREENS presents the lives of Chinese communities in Britain to city centre audiences between 2 - 6pm. Silk Screens is a series of simultaneous outdoor film screenings and live events, which reveals the life and times of established and new Chinese communities in Britain, celebrating the culture, diversity, life and times of these people from varying countries and backgrounds. A nationwide video portrait of contemporary Chinese in Britain, filmed by the communities themselves, with the support of the BBC's Video Nation , will appear on city centre BBC Big Screens. across the country. Silk Screens Live events will accompany the screenings in four cities: Big Screen, Leicester Square, London Silk Screens Live is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and is an afternoon of free outdoor live events designed by leading streets arts company Emergency Exit Arts, in collaboration with independent producers Tish Francis and Hi Ching, and film maker Peng Wenlan, and involving professional performers, and community artists and participants. With guest appearances and designs inspired by Taoist and Confucian themes, these live events will add spectacle, colour and vitality to the Screen settings. Silk Screens is the closing event of the China Now festival and will feature a selection of films from My China Now, a series of 33 films commissioned by China Now and capturing the prevailing mood of life in China today, and the presentation of a virtual Chinese city "RMB City: A SecondLife City Planning by China Tracy" in association with the Serpentine Gallery. MORE INFORMATION : SILK SCREENS FILM & LIVE EVENT DETAILS Since Chinese New Year heralded the start of the Year of the Rat in February 2008 BBC Video Nation has been working with Chinese communities in cities across the country to produce over 50 short films, supporting Chinese participants in the production of their own films in workshops led by British Chinese film-maker Peng Wenlan. In addition to the live event sites the Silk Screen films will also be shown on the permanent Big Screens in Rotherham (where a small local live event is being held from 10am to 4pm), Liverpool (tbc), Hull, Leeds, Bradford and Swindon. In Glasgow the films include preparations for Chinese New Year; a film interweaving Fortune Cookie making with the state of China today; a young dancer who specialises in Chinese dance and has performed at the Scottish Parliament; and a Chinese student's impressions of Scottish family life. The Glasgow Live Event is part of the Glasgow River Festival and the Silk Screens will be themed on the Chinese element of water, represented by a giant turtle, and involving performances from professional and community Chinese artists including the Glasgow Chinese Opera group. In London there are film contributions from a family who historically made clothes for the Imperial Court and are now part of the London rag trade; Connie and Leslie, two of the oldest members of the Chinese community; Chinese rap artists; and worshippers at the Buddhist temple. The London event in Leicester Square will also include performances from Jazz star Coco Zhao from China and Der-Shin Hwang, a British Taiwanese singer who appears courtesy of River Cultures. They will be performing old Chinese standards called ‘Laoge’. In Manchester the North West event will include films from Liverpool and Manchester, with stories about being a Chinese 'scouser', a weekend Chinese school, Chinese dance and a young man identifying more with his passion for motorbikes than his Chinese roots. Working with the Chinese arts centre and local artists a garden of water blossoms will be created on the water feature in Exchange Square with music and performance from North West based Chinese dancers and singers. In Birmingham we present the moving story of a young woman adopted as a child and caught between two cultures and two fathers; a Chinese solicitor from the Welsh valleys whose English partner knows more about Chinese culture than she does (so she says); and a young BBC (British Born Chinese) student who compares his life to young people of his age group in China. The Birmingham event will bring together the talents of Birmingham Chinese opera, dance and martial arts groups to form a spectacle in Victoria Square. Note : China Now is a 6-month nationwide festival of over 1000 Chinese events including exhibitions, performances and activities spanning Chinese film, cuisine, comics, art, literature, music, design, science, technology, business, education and sport across the UK.
Watch this space for more information as it comes in, click here to see other EEA China Now events.
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