Echoes - China & Hong Kong. Voicing the collection

Echoes invites audiences to engage with the collection of the Portico Library and the communities who are reclaiming the colonial narrative written and illustrated in the Library's books.

It seeks to navigate Britain’s complex colonial relations with China and Hong Kong, by centering the voices of the five Critical Friends who have co-created the exhibition.

Bruce Lai, Deborah Ng, Jasmine Gardner, Jessie Tam, and Yichao Shi reflect on and distill their responses to the historic collection. Their exploration has honed in on Manchester’s Hong Kong and Chinese diaspora.

Their 'reading' of the collection delves into retention and adaptation of identity, place and purpose, particularly through language, landscape, and calendar customs such as Lunar New Year celebrations.

The exhibition features commissioned artistic responses from Critical Friends and local filmmakers: which encapsulate a counternarrative to the Victorian collection. These include:

1. Contemporary art intervention. Papercut Installation by Jasmine Gardner.

2. ‘Mother Tongues’ by Mat Lingard. With permission from the North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University.

3. ‘A Cloud Was Fallen from the Sky’ by Jessie Tam

The exhibition has also been supported by the expertise of Walter Fung, Maxine Hunter and Fang Zong.