Feature: Europe's oldest Chinatown needs to tell its story to the world, say cultural campaigners

A row of empty houses in Liverpool, home to Europe's oldest Chinatown, has become a trailblazer for a permanent cultural center of the Orient.

The frontages of the buildings on Duke Street are almost 200 years old and have become a focal point for visitors to the Chinatown area where they view photographs and stories of the Chinese community in the port city.

The street art work is called Opera for Chinatown and has prompted one of its creators, Moira Kenny, from the cultural organization Sound Agents, to devise ambitious plans for the story of Chinatown and Liverpool's links with the Orient to be given more prominence.

"Liverpool, as a leading seaport in the 19th century, was Europe's gateway to China and wider Asia. It led to thousands of artefacts being brought back, and most of them are hidden from view in storehouses," said Kenny.

Sound Agents has won backing for its proposed Chinatown cultural exchange from academic architect Dr. Robert MacDonald from Liverpool John Moores University. It has also been welcomed by Liverpool musician Zi-lan Liao who runs the award-winning Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra, the only ensemble of its kind in Europe.

Kenny added: "Our Opera for Chinatown in Duke Street has generated a lot of interest and shows how welcome a wider interpretation of the Chinatown story would be in Liverpool. Chinatown has played such an important part in the history of our city."

She wants to initially create a roving cultural exchange that could be moved around the area to tell the story of the Chinese community to schools and community events.

"What we at Sound Agents are doing is develop new ways of curating; a museum without walls."

"We believe there should be a cultural exchange to showcase culture from China and Asia; somewhere to share stories about this amazing community with the rest of the world. Yet Chinatown seems to be ignored. We have millions of pounds worth of artefacts stacked away in boxes in warehouses. They need a home. We also want to see a permanent building for various arts and cultural events.

MacDonald said: "Chinatown in Liverpool is an untapped resource, a very special part of the city that needs and deserves to be celebrated. I can imagine a center which celebrates Chinese art, calligraphy and other cultural aspects.

"The idea of Liverpool hosting a center of the orient is great. Liverpool is the perfect place for such a thing to happen," he said. Endit