The Journey to the West Chinese community project was inspired by an exhibition which came to the Herbert from the British Museum in 2009. The exhibition included beautiful and fascinating items from the British Museum's collections and was based around five main themes - food and drink, festivals, technology, games, and writing and language.

The Herbert developed an intergenerational project with the Coventry Chinese School and elders from the community to make a film on the theme of food and festivals. Our Media and Inclusion teams planned and delivered a training programme for 12 young people from the Chinese school. The workshops equipped them to carry out and film interviews with the elders, capturing their memories of traditional festivals in China and Hong Kong. The students are bilingual and were able to conduct the interviews in Chinese community languages. They worked with a textile artist to make colourful backdrops for the filming, and with an animator to create film shorts which were combined with excerpts from the interviews. 

The finished film, in Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles, was integrated into the British Museum exhibition and was enjoyed by a wide range of visitors. It was also distributed to local schools with supporting notes. 

For more information please call Anne-Marie Sandos on 024 7629 4784 or send her an e-mail.