SotA Anthology 2015-16
Graduating BA English and Communication student Karen Ngai wrote this print news feature about urban development in Liverpool
What new Chinatown ? More like Liverpool Two !
The new £ 200m Chinatown is set to be Liverpool ’ s next big thing , but even with its plans to include residential buildings in the area , the majority of its efforts will be put into developing a retail core . Locals are concerned that Chinatown will lose its cultural vibrance , becoming a replica of the saturated Liverpool One .
Photo credit : North Point Global
Most redevelopment projects in Liverpool go unnoticed until the work is fully complete . There is a high amount of anticipation for the new Chinatown , set to finish in 2017 . But with its resemblance to Liverpool One , aesthetically and functionally , people are concerned it will not celebrate Chinese culture like a Chinatown should .
Since the planning process of Chinatown began , it has been designed to be a money-making mechanism rather than to celebrate the arrival of Chinese culture in the 19th century . The project relies heavily on investors and lacked communication with the Chinese community until the final stages .
The plan to redevelop Chinatown was approved in 2015 , but the planning began back in 1992 . The project took over a decade to be approved due to the lack of funding available . According to the Chairman of the Chinese Business Association , Simon Wong , “ until investors took interest in the project , Liverpool City Council had no extra money , and therefore no interest to help refurbish the area ; it just was not their priority .” Since Chinese investors provided £ 200m , Liverpool City Council finally developed an interest .
Their plans did not involve the Chinese community until they were finalised . “ Never were we consulted towards what we wanted to be included in the new Chinatown , to our home ,” says a Chinatown representative , who has chosen to remain anonymous . BLOK Architecture and North Point Global are both local companies with no preexisting knowledge of the Chinese culture . The plan , shown above , is said to be inspired by modern Shanghai , but the lack of involvement of the Chinese community speaks volumes . Wing adds , “ Chinatown is not for business profits , it represents much more than a country but our history in Liverpool .”
We cannot lose the spirit of Chinatown
When the first Chinese trade vessel arrived , it marked the first presence of the Chinese community carrying goods such as silk and cotton wool to Liverpool in 1834 . Between 1960 and the 1990s , a small number of Chinese immigrants began to establish small businesses to cater for their seamen , who travelled regularly between China and Liverpool . Many of these Chinese seamen would go on to marry working-class British women , resulting in a number of ‘ British-born Eurasian Chinese ’ being born in Liverpool .
Liverpool established itself as one of the earliest places in Europe to house a Chinese community , and the growth of this population was significant in the way