The Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded funding of £49,400 to a project that will explore the history of Liverpool’s Chinese community.
Now visual art historians The Sound Agents will be using the award to create a digital archive, with help from the Chinese community and Liverpool John Moores Art and Design Academy.
The project will record an oral history of the Blue Funnel Sailors, the forced repatriation of Chinese sailors shortly after the Second World War and the Liverpool Chinese children who took part in the 1958 film The Inn of Sixth Happiness.
It is also hoped that some of the funding will be used to further develop the Chinatown Project.
The Chinatown Project will create opportunities for members of Liverpool’s Chinese community to take part and learn oral history skills, especially for those who have lived between two cultures.
Moira Kenny, project manager, told JMU Journalism: “The Chinatown Project is a five year umbrella project to highlight and promote the need for a Contemporary Chinese Cultural Museum in Chinatown, Liverpool.
“The Heritage Lottery Funding is key to the Chinatown Project as the oral history will create content for the proposed Museum.”
Volunteers, made up of students from the LJMU Design Academy, will receive on-the-job training from both The Sound Agents and the Oral History Society.