1 August 2000
Brushstrokes is a magazine of British Chinese writing and drawing, published three times a year, with articles in both English and Chinese. It continues to be supported by Liverpool City Council, as well as more recently by the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, but it is produced by a team of volunteers who put it together in their spare time. If you would like to find out more about the magazine, either to contribute or subscribe,

3 October 2000
What is it about a couple that particularly catches your eye, so much so perhaps, that you can't help but watch them go by? A particularly handsome pairing? A woman taller than her man? A Chinese guy with a blonde girl?

3 October 2000
They don't call it 'culture clash' for nothing. When people from different backgrounds come together you can expect fireworks, even when there's love in the air. Sometimes sparks fly when long-held expectations or ideologies are negotiated. Sometimes people just can't get along. But where does the culture end and the person begin? Dimsum investigates.

11 September 2000
Written and directed by David KS Tse Commissioned by Sainsbury's Checkout Theatre - an initiative to encourage quality new theatre for the 10-14 age group. One of only two projects to win funding this year, Play To Win is a powerful mega-byte of theatre which looks at the forces behind gang violence, social exclusion and the need to belong.

8 September 2000
The Mu-Lan Youth Theatre comprises a group of creative, articulate, fun and funny young people and the same can be said of their production of "Chinkerella". The play works up to a film audition, with parent-child scenes dotted along the way. These scenes, with very amusing caricatures of extremely loud and grumpy Chinese mothers, describe important insights into Chinese values that the young people have gleaned. One scene depicted parental favouritism of the male child; another the Chinese parent's obsession with money and prestigious careers, and all with the message that acting is silly and therefore forbidden. But the most poignant moment came in the soliloquy of a young man who, caught between his desire to obey his mother and the desire to find himself, realised that going to the audition was just something he "had to do".

1 December 2000
The Albany Theatre, New Cross, sees a double-whammy celebration this weekend courtesy of the sterling Mu-Lan Theatre Company. Audiences will feast on eleven new works by New British Oriental writers, comprising ten small-scale performed readings and one larger, showpiece presentation "Dining Alone" (Lab Ky Mo).

Camden Town on a sunny Saturday afternoon is alive, buzzing, chic, alternative and hip. Walking towards the Lock I pass from reggae beat to hip-hop to Latin rhythm and see people in funny hairdos, tattoos, skate-wear, and piercings.On closer inspection, I realise that these are not real Chinese characters, but jumbled up knots of strokes and swishes. Chineseness, it seems, is still in fashion. Last year I thought that the Chinese trend would pass by this Summer. Then I remembered that I had thought the same the year before. So when is Chinese culture going to go out of style?

It's been a minor travelling goal of mine to blend in to the country I'm travelling through, to take up their culture, habits, styles and mannerisms...to become invisible. I think it's a challenge of observation and adaptability. Going unseen is like the passing of the test. Of course it helps that I share their Mongolian lineage but thinking about it, don't the Chinese go about their business relatively unseen, behind closed doors?

An exhibition of photographs that explore the social history of Liverpool Chinatown Saturday 16 September - Saturday 30 September David Yip recently wrote and directed a short film entitled Chinese Whispers that documented several testimonies of the history of Liverpools Chinatown. Davids project emphasised the importance of rewriting a history that had lain forgotten and neglected by both the City of Liverpool and the Chinese community itself.

Thursday 28 September - Sunday 1 October 2000
A festival directed by Tan Dun Invited by the Barbican Centre to direct a cross art-form festival, Chinese-American composer Tan Dun has created Fire Crossing Water (Thursday 28 September - Sunday 1 October), a weekend of multi-media events that will bring together collaborators of Tan's, many of whom are also his friends. These partners, "creators without boundaries", all share a similar ideology and outlook and include Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor, Ang Lee, James Schamus, Ping Chong, Bill Viola and Peter Sellars amongst others.

A film review by Jack Tan When I was growing up, while others watched Coronation Street and EastEnders, my family watched soaps about political intrigue set in Chinese imperial palaces. Emperor - Empress - Concubine - Queen Mother - Crown Prince - Prime Minister - Chief Eunuch. This was the dramatis personae contained in the piles of Cantonese videos my parents rented every other weekend. What was to be expected were plots for power, wars, assassinations, true love, long goodbyes, sacrifice, revenge and a fair amount of crying