Westminster hosts international workshop on diasporic Chinese museums in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University

The event brought together museum directors and curators from Australia, Canada, US, France and Singapore as well as more than 40 museum and heritage practitioners, scholars and doctoral researchers in the UK. They were joined by experts from the Migration Museum and the Ming-Ai (London) Institute to discuss shared experiences, explore collaborations across borders and come together to share ideas to help develop new methods and influence policymakers around migration. 

This is the second in-person workshop organised as part of the research activities of the Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The first workshop was held in Singapore on 26 July 2024, and saw museums from across Asia take part. 

The London workshop focused on museums related to the Chinese diasporas in the UK, Europe and North America, and was built upon the successful year-long bilingual English-Chinese online public talk series on diasporic Chinese museums. The series provided representatives of diasporic Chinese museums a digital platform to share their museum practices with a global audience for the first time. 

The workshop was opened by Professor Andrew Linn, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at the University of Westminster. He welcomed the international speakers and all attendees, commended the value of this AHRC project, and encouraged further development of international partnership as a key part of the University’s research strategies to develop cutting-edge and impactful research.

Andrew Linn

Professor Cangbai Wang, the project lead and Co-Director of HOMELandS, introduced the context, objectives and the development of the project. He emphasised the significance and urgency of developing a comparative perspective to look at the representations of Chinese diasporas across borders to encourage asking new questions, developing new methods and informing policy making on migration-related issues. 

This was followed by a talk from Dr Yow Cheun Hoe, Director of the Chinese Heritage Centre, who introduced its role in enhancing public understanding of the history and culture of Chinese diasporas and its contributions to the success of this project. 

The first day of the workshop was made up of three sessions. The first one, titled Museums in Conversation, was chaired by Dr Yow Cheun Hoe. Speakers shared their histories and experiences of diasporic Chinese museums in different countries and reflected on immigration stories and community-led projects from local and transnational perspectives. 

The second session, titled Understanding Diasporic Chinese Museums and Heritage in Wider Contexts, was chaired by Dr Huimei Zhang. This session brought into conversation the experiences of Chinese diasporas and migrant stories from across the world, with a particular emphasis on the British experience of preserving and promoting migrant histories and heritage. 

Professor Cangbai Wang chaired the final session, a roundtable discussion titled Museums in Practice: Exchange and Collaboration Between Museums Across Borders, where speakers discussed collaboration in collecting, curating, exhibition and public engagement, the approach to putting together collectively a digital exhibition on the project’s website, and the strategies to deal with challenges faced by diasporic Chinese museums.

On the second day a group of delegates visited the Migration Museum in Lewisham, London. The visit provided international speakers and participants the opportunity to interact with local museum professionals and continue the conversation on diasporic Chinese museums in a local museum setting. 

The food brand Lee Kum Kee (Europe) Ltd. sponsored some of the workshop activities and contributed to the discussion of British Chinese food heritage. 

Speaking about the workshop, Dr Mellisa Lee, CEO of the Chinese Canadian Museum, said: “Thank you so much for a wonderful conference. It was so fulfilling and gratifying to hear all of the different presentations that discussed the diversity of the Chinese diaspora experience.”

This event was organised in line with the University’s research and knowledge exchange strategies which is driven by a mission to champion cultural and linguistic diversities, social inclusion, equity and wellbeing. It helped enhance the University of Westminster’s global engagement and directly contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 10: Reduce Inequalities and 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. 

Visit the Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative for past and upcoming activities of the project, and find out more about research undertaken by the HOMELandS Centre at the University of Westminster.