China Exchange has secured £22,776 in pledges through its crowdfunding campaign to Champion London Chinatown’s Heritage. The campaign was backed by 147 supporters, including Shaftesbury PLC and Westminster City Council.
These funds will be used for projects this year to collect, record and celebrate heritage in London’s Chinatown.
Over the next few months China Exchange will finalise the design and install the first two permanent public displays of East and South East Asian history in London’s Chinatown in Gerrard Street. The boards will be installed and uncovered this autumn.
Twenty volunteers have been recruited to work on two aspects of the project. They will receive professional training, develop a range of skills and become part of a community in the next few months. Eight of them will become History Champions to learn and share the rich history of London’s Chinatown by delivering monthly guided tours for a year. Twelve Heritage Trail Volunteers will be trained in heritage gathering techniques and food heritage gathering processes to be able to develop the Chinatown food heritage trail between July and October.
Trained volunteers will conduct heritage-based interviews with Chinatown workers to record, document, translate and archive food heritage practices in London’s Chinatown in the next months. This will create a new way for visitors to enjoy Chinatown.
We are delighted to have achieved the fundraising target and receive so much support from generous people who want to see this important project in London’s Chinatown come to fruition. Thank you to all our backers!
Find out more about the project on the campaign page here.