| Radio 4 - Chinese in Britain |
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| Sunday, 20 May 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Takeaways? Is that the sum total of Chinese contribution to these shores? A recent BBC radio series – Chinese in Britain – sets out to prove otherwise. As velvet-voiced presenter Anna Chen, explains: “Many people think the history of Chinese in Britain begins with the takeaway generation. But we’re exploring the lives of the Chinese who came before 1960s – sailors and scholars, writers and artists, laundrymen and cooks”. Opening at the court of James II in 1686 and rattling through to the present day, Chinese in Britain is an intriguing series. Perhaps aimed primarily at non-Chinese, the series nevertheless features many first-hand accounts that bring the variety of Chinese experiences vividly alive. It kicks off with Shen Fu Tsong, friend of James II and the first recorded Chinese in Britain. The first, too, to catalogue the Chinese collection in the Bodleian library – helpfully showing the librarian which way up to hold the books. But it’s with “John Anthony”, an East India Company intermediary and the first Chinese man to be naturalized as British citizen, that the programme latches onto Chinese economic involvement. From there, it’s full steam ahead to tales of Chinese sailors serving British shipping lines, especially Blue Funnel. Family reminiscences recount the commitment that made these sailors so employable – and so exploitable. A short step, then, to the birth of Britain’s Chinatowns in London and Liverpool. And to their exotic and lurid appeal – with Thomas Cook cashing in through turn-of-the-century bus tours to London’s Chinatown. But it’s Sax Rohmer and his popular Fu Manchu novels (and films) who’s wheeled out as one of the first stereotypic creators of the ‘wily oriental’ myth. The advent, boom and bust of Chinese laundries is set in the context of opportunities taken and monopolized. So too the development of Chinese cuisine, from high street takeaways to the high-class restaurants like the Asiatic, opened in the West End by out of work Chinese embassy staff. Wing Yip, founder of the oriental food emporium, recalls the days when the English first developed a taste for Chinese food (“as long as it was served with chips”). Actors Burt Kwouk and David Yip recount their experiences in British film and TV. The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), filmed not in China but deepest Snowdonia, was not only Kwouk’s big break, but a rare chance for Chinese extras to meet members of other Chinese communities (“some rich students arriving on set in sports-cars to play poor villagers”). But while Kwouk made it big as Inspector Clouseau’s martial arts manservant and while David Yip made headlines as The Chinese Detective in 1981, it’s sobering that the intervening years couldn’t give the programme-makers any up to date examples of Chinese screen talent. It was good to be reminded of the literary success of Chang Yee – author of The Silent Traveller books from the 30s and 40s. More surprising to hear of the now-forgotten Hsiung Shih-I who became the first Chinese to write and direct a West End play with his 1935 adaptation of the popular Chinese story Lady Precious Stream. It ran for 1000 nights in London to glowing reviews. Each 15 minute episode felt too short - but certainly whetted the appetite for more. And the top-quality website for the programme has a host of follow-up links – including Dimsum. The BBC was rightly proud of this series – a breezy and wide-ranging account of authentic experience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/chinese_in_britain.shtml NB the later episodes can still be heard through the Listen Again feature on the website Glenn Watson
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