Chinese Classics: Arts Practice & the Community is a visual arts project exploring the relevance of Chinese classical literature today, through dialogue and discovery between artists and the Chinese community in Birmingham.

The project uses three pieces of Chinese classical literature, The Butterfly Lovers (Tang dynasty 618-906); Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740) by Pu Songling, and Classic of Mountains and Seas (3rd Century B.C. to the 1st Century A.D.) as the starting point. To examine these classics and texts, regional and international artists, Frances Yeung, Leah Lovett and Joey Chin, developed workshops to collaborate with older women, men aged 40+ and carers from the Chinese Community Centre – Birmingham (CCC-B).

Building upon dialogue from verbal exchange, and discovery from object handling and artistic practice, the groups and artists explored themes of family, folklore, gender, language, love, mortality, myth, nature and society. The workshops also provided opportunities for the community and artists to reveal and exchange personal memories, stories and histories.

“The workshops have been such a revelation – through engaging the community with Chinese Classics, we have shared, discovered and learned so much from one another. With what’s going on in the world right now, art has reconnected us and shown us a way to make sense of it all. ” – Frances Yeung, artist