Lu Yu, Sunny at Colchester Castle. Courtesy Colchester Museums.

A photographic exhibition reflecting the Chinese community in Colchester has opened at the First Site Café in the Minories Gallery in Colchester High Street.

Conceived as a collaboration between Colchester Museum Service and Colchester Chinese Cultural Society (CCCS) 'Chidentity' comprises about forty images. Approximately half these are black and white, developed from traditional photographs, with the other half created digitally with help from a digital artist.

“This project has helped to widen community engagement in furtherance of Colchester Museum’s role as a partner in the East of England Regional Museum East of England Regional Museum Hub,” said Cllr. Kevin Bentley.

Lu Yu, Noodles. Courtesy Colchester Castle.

Ten Chinese Colchester residents, aged from eleven years old upwards, worked with two photographic artists for three months, exploring ideas of ‘home’ and ‘personal identity’ to reflect their life in Colchester.

Joanne Gray, museum outreach officer, said: “The Chinese community is the largest ethnic group in Colchester and we look forward to developing other projects with them.”

The Chinese community in Colchester consists of about two thousand people and Fay Chen of the CCCS supports the new initiative. “The project was a great success,” she explained, “Joanne Gray was very helpful, it would not have happened without her support.”

Lorna Tsang, Tasty Spare Ribs. Courtesy Colchester Museums.

“The council organised courses for us to attend and it has helped make the Chinese community in Colchester more visible,” she added. “The people who participated were very pleased with their work and we all look forward to doing more projects with the council.”

The Chinese group visited Gainsborough House Museum in Suffolk to look at historical portraiture and used the museum’s facilities to experiment with lithographic printing.

The project fostered new partnerships between Colchester Museums, Gainsborough House Museum, Colchester Institute, Colchester Library, Wilson Marriage Adult Education Centre and the Chinese Cultural Society and organisers are hoping to run a similar project next year. It was funded and made possible by money from the East of England Renaissance programme.

The Minories Art Gallery is situated in the centre of Colchester.‘Chidentity’ will run until February 28 before moving to other locations in Colchester and Sudbury in Suffolk until the end of June.

Paul Dance is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the East of England region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.