HOP (Happy Old People) Project

We delivered Chinese dance and music performances and Chinese dance workshops funded by HOP for Moss View Care Home residents. We had very good feedback from the residents and staff. 

Mid-autumn Festival 2014 for LHT Tenants

We delivered performances in dance and music and workshops in Chinese dance and mask making to celebrate the most important festival after Chinese New Year 'Mid-autumn Festival' on 12th September for LHT tenants at Stanley Terrace funded by LHT. We also provided Chinese refreshment and moon cakes, the traditional food for Mid-Autumn Festival. Approximately 30 LHT tenants mainly from Stanley Terrace and Friendship House, visitors and staff attended the event and gave great feedback for the event. Most tenants were Chinese elderly people. 

Thank you LHT to fund this project, all the artists involved, LHT staff and volunteer to facilitate the event. Please click here for more photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152362967553339.1073741870.49603953338&type=3

                                         

Autumn Chinese Cultural Event

We organized Autumn Chinese Cultural Event on 8th November 2014 at Lark Lane Community Centre funded by Community Development Fund 'Community First' initiative and sponsored by Lycamobile UK. We had one-hour performances in Chinese dance, music, singing and Tai Chi and workshops in Chinese dance, Flash mob and Willow Pattern Art. We also had stalls of Chinese food, Moon cakes tasting Henna and jewellery. We had about 100 people in and out on the day and received enthusiastic feedback.

Please see some photos below. You can view photos here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152494713593339.1073741872.49603953338&type=3
A video about the event will come up soon, please come back for that shortly. 

 

What Have We Achieved? 

We achieved to introduce other Chinese traditional festivals through the year as well as Chinese New Year and raised the profile of the breadth, depth and richness of Chinese culture within the St Michaels' neighbourhood. We delivered an eclectic and quality new Chinese cultural programme and more diverse activities than last time including singing, Flash mob, Tai chi, moon cakes tasting. The day engaged people of different ages and backgrounds, who gave very positive feedback. Audience gained deeper understanding and appreciation of Chinese traditions, arts and culture. We also had people travelling from further afield, like London and Birmingham to the area for the event. People enjoyed themselves in various activities. The event provided opportunities for different communities to interact with each other.
 

What Could Be Improved? 

Unfortunately we did not have as many as people attending the event that we expected, even though we pushed more in terms of marketing this time, like wider distribution of posters and flyers, more publicity online including twitter, Facebook, linked in, Weibo (Chinese twitter) and Wechat, more assist in marketing from Lark Lane Guide, Liverpool Days Out, and even on BBC Radio Merseyside, the attendance was much lower than the event we did at the same place in January funded by Community First, for which we had about 300 people. The reasons behind it could be:
1. It was not round the Chinese New Year period and people may not pay much attention to Chinese cultural events outside Chinese New Year. However, we aim to challenge that and will continue to do so.
2. There was a big game between Liverpool and Chelsea at the same time as the event, which attracted a lot of citizens in the city who could not make our event instead and also affected the traffic in town for people to come to the event. 

So next time, we will check the event calendar to make sure our event is clashing with any other major events or matches in the city.  


Thank  you very much to all the artists, staff, volunteers and stall owners for taking part in the event, to who came to the event and support us, to the venue's support, and of course the funder and sponsor.

2014 Liverpool Mutual Homes Funding Scheme

We were funded by Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH) to deliver several Chinese cultural projects in 2014.  Now the scheme has successfully completed. The projects we delivered with LMH scheme include 

1. Year of the Horse 2014 Chinese New Year Variety Show 
2. Handel Court 
3. Light Night 2014
4. Appledore Court
5. Dragon Boat Festival 2014 

1. Year of the Horse 2014 Chinese New Year Variety Show

We produced Year of the Horse Chinese Cultural Show to celebrate 2014 Chinese New Year on 1st February at Unity Theatre, who we have been working with in the past three years to put on a Chinese New Year show. 

We had a full house and the theatre was packed with people of different ages and backgrounds, which produced great festival atmosphere. The show had performances from local and regional artists featuring traditional Chinese Han Tang dance, Classical Chinese dance, Chinese folk & ethnic dance, Break dance in fusion with Chinese Kung Fu, Classical Chinese music and Chinese pop music performed on Chinese Harp (Guzheng) and Chinese flute (dizi). The show was very eclectic, authentic and innovative presenting different aspects of Chinese culture including history, literature, tradition, ethnicity, modernity and integration of Chinese culture in the British society. 

FEEDBACK

We received very positive feedback from the audience and the theatre. Here are a couple of the feedback: 

 

VIDEOS 

Here is the highlights of the show. 

Watch videos of the whole show please visit 

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLppDx5r47EP0Sw9Py_rhSIVXcY99Dm3CP 

PHOTOS

Here are some photos from the show. Check our album here: 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151932971023339.1073741848.49603953338&type=3

 

 

PRESS

We had extensive media coverage for our show including locally Liverpool Echo, BBC Radio Merseyside, Liverpool Confidential, Click Liverpool, Bay TV, Art In Liverpool, Your Move magazine, regionally BBC Radio Manchester, nationally My Asian Planet, internationally Xinhua Net, China National TV, China Daily, Global Time, People Daily China, China Military Online

Liverpool Echo

2. Handel Court

We visited one of the LMH sheltered schemes, Handel Court, on Lodge Lane on 17th February. We delivered Chinese music and dance performances and workshops in Chinese dance and lantern making. We had about 30 people participating in the event. The participants and Manager gave us very good feedback. Check photos here. 

3. Light Night 2014

We presented a Chinese cultural programme with performances in Chinese dance, music, Taichi and Taichi workshop on Friday 16th May at Museum of Liverpool.  We had 500/600 audience and received wonderful feedback from the funder, venue and audience. David Pye  from LMH attended the event and gave a speech. Check photos here. Julia Bryan from Education department in Museum of Liverpool commented: 

"The performances by China Pearl during Light Night were beautiful and professional, exceptionally well received by our visitors and attracted huge audiences. At the Museum of Liverpool we aim to demonstrate the contribution of different communities to the history and status of the city over a long period of time throughout our exhibitions and as such we are keen to showcase talent of our local performers which reinforce this message."

4. Appledore Court

We visited another LMH sheltered schemes, Appledore Court, in Garsden on 3rd June. We delivered Chinese music and dance performances and workshops in Chinese dance and lantern making. We had about 12 people participating in the event. The participants and Manager gave us very good feedback. Check photos here. 

5. Dragon Boat Festival 2014 

We organised an event to celebrate a tradtional Chinese festival Dragon Boat Festival on 7th June at World Museum Liverpool. We had lion dance, martial arts, Chinese drum, Chinese music, Chinese dance as well as workshops in martial arts, Tai Chi and Chinese dance. We had about 350 people watching or participating in the workshops on the day and received great feedback from the audience and participants. We also had an honour to have Liverpool Lord of Mayor 2013-2014 Councillor Gary Millar, Young Lord Mayor and Junior Lord Mayor attending the event and taking part in activities on the day. Check photos here and the video here.