BEYOND THE FRAME: EAST END CHINATOWN

Paul Davies, Vivienne Chow, Donald Shek, illustrated by Maria Chen.

DATE

2020/09/26

ARTICLE

Vivienne Chow

PHOTOS

Courtesy EASTEND CHINATOWN

East End Chinatown: Heritage, Identity and Creative Practice

Vivienne Chow, Donald Shek and Paul Davies discuss Cantonese and ESEA heritage, migration, family, archives and creative practice in the UK.

At an EASTEND CHINATOWN conversation in East London, journalist and writer Vivienne Chow joined artist Donald Shek and cultural commentator Paul Davies to explore Cantonese and East and Southeast Asian heritage, migration, family, archives and creative practice.

Moving between personal histories and wider cultural shifts, the conversation considers how heritage is inherited, remembered and reinterpreted — and how cultural identity can continue to evolve across generations, communities and borders.

Panel discussion

17 September 2026 · Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch, East London

Moderated by Vivienne Chow

With Paul Davies and Donald Shek

Speaker key
VC. Vivienne Chow
DS. Donald Shek
PD. Paul Davies

CREDITS

Header: Left to right, Donald Shek, Vivienne Chow, Paul Davies

Slider 1-4: EASTEND CHINATOWN event

“Being here, I feel that my world has expanded. I’m looking at a much broader region of Asia, and my world has become bigger.”— Vivienne Chow

INTRODUCTION

VC. Hi everyone, welcome to this evening’s event, and thank you so much for having me. I’m Vivienne Chow, a journalist and writer, and currently Writer-in-Residence with esea contemporary, Manchester, and CNTRFLD.ART. I’m very glad to be here today, joined by Paul Davies, a cultural commentator and member of the advisory board of CNTRFLD.ART, and Donald Shek, an artist of East Asian heritage.

The reason I wanted to hold this panel is mainly connected to my current project, which looks specifically at artists and creatives of Cantonese heritage currently living in the UK.

I find it fascinating to talk to people of Cantonese heritage because they don’t necessarily come from one place. They come from different parts of the world — East and Southeast Asia, as well as elsewhere — and somehow ended up here in the UK, continuing with their work and practice.

So, first of all, I’d like to ask both of you: how do you relate to your Cantonese or East and Southeast Asian heritage while living here in the UK?

IDENTITY, INHERITANCE AND THE OUTSIDER

DS. I’m kind of half and half. Mix of Hakka and Cantonese, but even that is an interesting diversion.

In terms of the culture and how it has influenced me, I’d say it’s probably something I’ve explored more recently. When you’re younger, you’re more likely to put that aside in order to fit into life. I think now I’m able to explore it much further, and you can see more projects building on that momentum — and the fact that people are able to help each other.

VC. Paul?

PD. This is an interesting one because I’m not sure if my mother was romanticising the idea, but apparently the family originated in Mongolia. They migrated — it’s a well-known migratory route — moving down into China and then following the river into Thailand. I think the river continues into Vietnam. So, my family eventually stopped in Thailand, but the origins are much further north.

In terms of how I relate to that, I think you’re always the outsider looking in. When I’m in England, I’m looking at it as the outsider; when I go to Asia, I’m looking at it as the European.

There’s always this constant tension. I don’t mean tension in a negative way, but rather a constant inquiry into identity: how much can you belong to one location compared with another?

VC. How do you think your cultural heritage has manifested in the work you create and your day-to-day practice?

DS. I don’t think you can simply assimilate it into your work. For me, it’s about being able to return to certain things.

I have one drawing of my parents’ takeaway. There were only four photographs of the whole space from that period. So, I think that’s what’s great about returning to these things — keeping them alive.

I’m also looking at it through questions of origins and perception.

One of my cousins said that at least one person in our family is still interested in part of our cultural history, because I’ll do research in local archives and in archives in Hong Kong. So, it feeds into my work, but I’m constantly questioning it as well.

People sometimes say, “Why do you put Chinese words on that? I can’t read Chinese.” I used to write my exhibition booklets half in Chinese and half in English, but the Chinese was completely illegible. So, no one really knew what it said. It was almost a kind of play, and probably a little bit of strategic essentialism as well.

I’d say I’m looking into it more now in terms of understanding / documentation, but also trying to understand how people perceive themselves, which is constantly shifting as new generations come through.

PD. For me, it was through education, in the sense that both my degrees were centred around identity. With the second one, I really wanted to get a sense of my own identity.

I had grown up throughout Southeast Asia, but as an adult I was very much fixed in London. It was through studying postcolonialism and understanding how that impacts culture — both indigenous culture and how that culture translates or travels through different populations around the world — that I became interested.

In a way, that feeds back into what I said earlier about always being the outsider looking in, or the insider looking out.

It was always a point of contrast that became something other than simply being assimilated within one dominant culture. There was always an intention to find a different perspective on things. That very much informed how I approached my work as a journalist.

“Even though my Cantonese isn’t great, we ended up being able to dance the waltz together. It proved that we didn’t need to speak perfectly to connect through movement.”— Donald Shek

CREDITS

Divider: Donald Shek, Land Of Kings, A Counter At The Fortune Kitchen, 2024

“Even though my Cantonese isn’t great, we ended up being able to dance the waltz together. It proved that we didn’t need to speak perfectly to connect through movement.”— Donald Shek

SEEING ASIA FROM THE UK

VC. I moved here five years ago from Hong Kong, and when I was in Hong Kong, I always felt that I couldn’t quite fit in. Now, having lived here for five years and working in the art industry as a journalist covering arts and culture, I find that being here allows me to see a much bigger picture.

That’s something I never really had a chance to explore when I was in Hong Kong. I felt that I was always looking through a particular lens, focusing on a particular place and a particular lineage.

But being here, I feel that my world has expanded. I’m looking at a much broader region of Asia, and my world has become bigger.

PD. It does feel that the one thing that — although it has changed a little bit — the general climate in this country is that it’s quite welcoming, and it encourages expression, at least in the creative fields.

Obviously, we’ve seen slightly darker elements introduced over the last ten years, but generally, I think for artists coming into this country there is a sense that you can express yourself in ways you may not be able to in your home country.

Would you say that was indicative of how you’ve built your work? Do you feel that your work has had an opportunity to grow?

VC. Definitely. At least I’m learning something new about different parts of Asia here in the UK.

For example, I’ve met a lot of new friends from East and Southeast Asia as well as South Asia. Even though there is quite a prominent South Asian population in Hong Kong and we have close ties with parts of Southeast Asia, I never really had a chance to get to know those communities.

Being here, I think because of the way the art world functions, it allows me to make new friends and reach out to new communities. When we have conversations, we discover a lot of shared lived experiences and common interests.

DS. I’ve started hanging out a lot with the Vietnamese artists, and I feel that there’s a lot more collaboration happening in terms of growing together.

PD. I think because the creative population is larger in the metropolitan centres, there are more opportunities for cross-cultural conversations to take place, and that’s always inspiring.

Especially when you encounter something you weren’t expecting or anticipating, and it suddenly snaps into place or develops very quickly. That’s always an inspiring opportunity.

DS. It’s weird, though, because one of the people involved, Tuyet Van Huynh, is an artist/producer who is a pillar within the ESEA arts community. We used to go clubbing at the same places 20 years ago, but I’d never met her.

We know the same people. I thought, “I would have recognised you because you’ve got those tattoos on your arms!” But somehow, 20 years ago, I must have completely passed her by..

It’s quite interesting that we’ve now come full circle and met again as we’re older and can work together. We had mutual friends but strangely never crossed paths.

DIASPORA AS CONNECTION

VC. Recently, at SLQS Gallery’s exhibition No Place Like HomeNo Place Like Home III, focusing on artists of Vietnamese diasporic heritage, I took part in the conversation and wrote an essay reflecting on the show.

I learned that we actually have something in common culturally. I also discovered that some artists of Vietnamese background may also have Cantonese heritage. If I had stayed in Hong Kong, I might not have been able to discover all these new things.

DS. Some of the curators here have now moved over to Hong Kong, and there have also been shifts in the other direction. It would be interesting to see how that develops. So, I want to see what’s happening, because in a sense, the curators who are there now represent a very specific group.

PD. When you say a specific group, do you mean an economic or social stratum?

DS. No, I’d say just a different group — different routes of entry, different perspectives.

PD. Understood.

VC. I think the recent migration trend has really influenced the cultural industry, at least the art industry that I’m familiar with here.

There are curators who have moved to Asia, and also people from Asia who have moved here. Very recently, quite a few curators from Hong Kong have started working in different institutions.

I feel that these art professionals are bringing real changes and new perspectives to institutions here.

We’re seeing more Asian artists represented at major institutions, such as the V&A, Tate, and Hayward Gallery. It’s a great addition to the dynamic of this city, and I’m looking forward to some of the new changes that are coming.

AUGMENTED CHINATOWN AND THE ARCHIVE OF EVERYDAY LIFE

VC. A question for you, Donald: is one of the videos being shown here yours?

DS. Yes. It’s Augmented Chinatown 2.0.

Before Augmented Chinatown 2.0, the first project I entered was through an open call from Kakilang, formerly Chinese Arts Space, an organisation representing East and Southeast Asian communities, back in 2019.

What you see here is an expansion of that project. Unfortunately, it was delayed because of COVID.

My background is in architecture and printmaking. Augmented Chinatown proposed a walking tour to understand the community and local history, looking into Eastern and Western mythologies. That was my first entry into the art world, and I’ve been continuing from there.

It was only in the last three years that I gave up architecture to do this full-time.

But without certain small groups of people, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity.

I mean, I still have no money!

VC. When you look at where we are living now, how do you see new developments or new ways of approaching East and Southeast Asian cultural heritage within the community?

DS. I think it’s still quite divided.

There are different parts of my family. Some family members are very much interested in the arts, and I can invite them to exhibitions and events. But other parts of my family can’t engage in the same way because there’s a disconnect.

I made a piece of theatre — Home X, an immersive digital theatre project conceived with An-Ting Chang and Ian Gallagher — and we toured around the UK, including presentations at York Theatre Royal, Cambridge Junction and the Barbican, and the work was subsequently nominated for the UK Theatre Awards Digital Innovation Award.

A few years ago, during a self-initiated research project into the diaspora I found some photographs in an old archive focused on my family — I found photos of my auntie’s salon and my uncle working in the local supermarket. Those businesses have all changed or closed now. The last business in Liverpool closed recently; that was my auntie’s shop.

So, it’s kind of gone.

But if you look at artists from earlier generations, there was a feeling of, “Can we stop drawing Chinese chip shops? No more dragons!”

PD. Yeah, exactly!

DS. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite cross that myself.

FAMILY, CREATIVITY AND GENERATIONAL CHANGE

PD. The concept of family and how that influences you feels like it’s never going to go away.

You want to think that every generation is going to see an improvement. Certainly, if it’s a first-generation family that has moved to this country, or to any Western location, they’re very much fixed in their ideas.

I don’t think that’s confined to Asian or any Oriental culture. Any traditional culture that moves to a new location wants to retain as much of its values as possible. It's about maintaining identity.

That becomes a defining character in how your parents enable you to access the creative arts.

They’ll encourage it if you play the piano, violin or do ballet. But if you want to write, or pursue anything that seems economically unsustainable, it becomes a challenge.

DS. It’s the worst!

PD. Part of my first degree involved an exchange programme in America, so I spent a semester at university in New York.

At that time, I was doing a lot of journalism, and because my writing was mainly about dance music culture, my parents thought, “This is obviously some sideline. He’s not going to take this seriously.”

Being in America gave me an opportunity to interview so many major artists whom nobody in America wanted to know about, but whom everyone in Europe was crazy for.

I left my chequebook with my parents and said, “The cheques are going to come to you, so pay them into the bank.”

When they saw how many commission cheques were coming in, they thought, “Okay, actually he’s quite serious about this, and he seems to be doing all right.”

That was the first time they began to think this was actually possible for their son — that he could make this work economically viable. And that reassured them.

DS. As long as the parents see that your plan is actually secure, then they’re happy!

I’m looking into dance music culture right now for my first project around rave culture, looking at intergenerational social spaces and dancing as a way to release and to connect at a human level.

My parents owned a takeaway, and they would go clubbing when we were younger— so it’s a way for me to cross intergenerational lines.

My Cantonese is absolutely rubbish, but recently I did a workshop with six women who spoke Cantonese and Vietnamese. Even though my Cantonese isn’t great, we ended up being able to dance the waltz together. It proved that we didn’t need to speak perfectly to connect through movement.

PD. That was the universal language — dance.

DS. Exactly!

ART, COMMERCE AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE

VC. I had a question for you, Paul. You also advise companies on culture?

PD. I’ve done some work for Mercedes-Benz, and I was involved with Carsten Höller Fondazione Prada when they had an installation in London around 2008.

Carsten opened The Double Club, which became a six-month nightclub, pop-up restaurant and bar. Carsten likes to have a playful approach to his artwork. If you’re not sliding down giant slides, you’re dancing to Congolese music and mingling amongst sapeurs!

That was fascinating because I hadn’t had much experience in the art world before that. It was quite an entry point for me, which came about because I had a background in dance music journalism and was helping with the PR strategy.

VC. How has your experience been working with these companies, and what are your observations on how things are changing when it comes to art and creative heritage?

Are companies becoming more inclusive, or are they increasingly wanting to engage with different communities in order to reach new markets and clients?

PD. I think China has opened up a lot, and the movement of Chinese artists globally has grown.

Whether Western countries want to accept it or not, you can’t avoid the fact that they are making inroads not just economically, but culturally as well, and companies have had to acknowledge that.

For instance, magazines that started in New York in the 1990s are now putting energy into establishing Chinese editions, such as V Magazine.

VC. Yes, and Cultured has a Chinese edition as well.

There are a lot of changes going on, and we’re looking forward to the future.

I want to thank everybody for joining us this evening, and thank you so much, Paul and Donald.

PD. Thank you.

“There’s always this constant tension… a constant inquiry into identity: how much can you belong to one location compared with another?”— Paul Davies

About the Panelists

Vivienne Chow is an award-winning journalist, writer and content strategist whose work examines art, cultural ecosystems and identity at the nexus of East and West. Through her reporting and analysis, she explores cultural exchange, uncovers overlooked stories and fosters dialogue across the international art and cultural landscape. She is a Salzburg Global Fellow and an IJP Premium Fellow.

Over more than two decades, Chow has built an internationally recognised career spanning Asia and Europe. She served as Senior Reporter at the South China Morning Post and London Correspondent at Artnet News, where she co-founded The Asia Pivot newsletter. Her writing has appeared in BBC Culture, Variety, The Art Newspaper, the Financial Times and the New York Times, among others.

Beyond journalism, she founded the non-profit Cultural Journalism Campus and has taught arts writing and reporting at universities. She was editor of A New Reality, a monograph on Hong Kong artist Stephen Wong Chun Hei, and advises cultural organisations on strategy and research. She is also a regular speaker and moderator at international art and cultural forums.

Donald Shek is a British-born Chinese multidisciplinary artist and architect whose practice explores cultural hybridity, identity and belonging through moving image, immersive technologies, performance and digital storytelling. Drawing on the concept of the ‘third space’, he examines how memory, place and cultural identity are shaped through the coexistence of multiple histories and perspectives.

His work combines augmented reality, virtual environments and participatory experiences to investigate how realities are constructed and perceived. In 2019, he created Augmented Chinatown, a site-specific augmented reality commission for Kakilang Festival that reimagined London’s Chinatown through digital intervention. Following a residency at ESEA Contemporary, he developed Augmented Chinatown 2.0 (2021), expanding the project through interdisciplinary collaboration and immersive storytelling.

Shek was also co-conceiver and lead 3D world builder of Home X, an experimental theatre production commissioned by the British Council Hong Kong. Combining live performance, game technologies and virtual reality, the production toured nationally in 2023 and was nominated for the UK Theatre Awards Digital Innovation Award.

His current practice explores the intersections of technology, cultural memory and lived experience, creating immersive spaces where personal narratives and collective histories converge.

Paul Davies is a British-Thai writer, editor and cultural consultant whose perspective has been shaped by growing up and spending his formative years in Southeast Asia. His editorial work spans fashion, art, culture and contemporary visual practice, with contributions to Arena Homme Plus, Highsnobiety, i-D, The Sunday Times Style, Tank, V/V Man, Visionaire, Vogue UK and Wallpaper.

Through his consultancy, Argot, Davies has advised international brands and cultural businesses including Aesop, Dover Street Market, Mercedes-Benz and Prada. His experience sits at the intersection of editorial, fashion, design and contemporary culture, with a particular sensitivity to how culture, identity and commerce intersect across different contexts.

Davies is an Advisory Board Member of CNTRFLD.ART, contributing his editorial and cultural perspective to the organisation’s development as an open-access ESEA arts journal and archive.

About EASTEND CHINATOWN

EASTEND CHINATOWN (EEC) is a cultural project documenting and celebrating a new generation of ESEA creativity, culture, entrepreneurship and community emerging across London’s East End. Rather than describing a traditional Chinatown defined by a single district, EEC frames EASTEND CHINATOWN as a more fluid cultural landscape shaped by Chinese and East and Southeast Asian artists, designers, businesses, food, technology and creative communities.

In 2026, EEC raised a flag in Shoreditch representing a new “City of Creativity” and, through its wider programme, has explored the changing visibility and influence of ESEA communities in East London.

As part of East 2046, a Chinese art and technology festival held from 4–12 July 2026, EEC invited a selection of creatives to use AI to explore the speculative question: What will Chinatown mean in 2046? The resulting short films consider how Chinatown might evolve beyond a traditional geographic model, and how culture, creativity, technology and entrepreneurship could reshape its meaning for future generations.

The panellists featured in this conversation form part of that wider exploration of how ESEA culture, identity and creativity are being reimagined in East London.

eastendchinatown.com — EASTEND CHINATOWN 2046

East End Chinatown: Heritage, Identity and Creative Practice

“Being here, I feel that my world has expanded. I’m looking at a much broader region of Asia, and my world has become bigger.”— Vivienne Chow

“Even though my Cantonese isn’t great, we ended up being able to dance the waltz together. It proved that we didn’t need to speak perfectly to connect through movement.”— Donald Shek

“Even though my Cantonese isn’t great, we ended up being able to dance the waltz together. It proved that we didn’t need to speak perfectly to connect through movement.”— Donald Shek

“There’s always this constant tension… a constant inquiry into identity: how much can you belong to one location compared with another?”— Paul Davies

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