Chinese in Essex: Stories and Costumes

I owned a restaurant in China. It burnt down and I didn't have insurance, my livelihood was gone and I didn't know what to do, and I had my son to support. I wanted to start fresh and made my way to the UK as my son had studied English and he could help me communicate.

It didn't get easier moving over here, I still needed to support myself and my son. I've tried, successfully and unsuccessfully, to start up and run several businesses. Before and after marrying my English husband my entrepreneurial spirit has never left me. Initially I imported clothes from China to sell at the local market. I noticed that fashions were different over here and my stall wasn't very popular. My neighbour in the market sold plants and wanted to retire, so I used the money I'd saved to buy their business and I learned everything I could about growing and caring for plants.

When I married my husband he wanted to give up his job as a taxi driver and build a business as a couple. We pulled together money from our family and friends and started a restaurant. I was in my element again, it was very successful. However, we were getting old and running a restaurant takes a lot of energy. We sold the restaurant and opened a B&B. I've loved running our place and often wear my costume for guests who ask questions about my culture. This last year has been hard with lockdown, but I've been trying to make the most of it. We've redecorated and incorporated more Chinese furnishings in the B&B, so I'm excited to invite guests back.

Shui People

The Shui people are from Southern China. Shui means water, so blue is an important colour to us as it's the colour given to rivers, lakes, and the sea. White is the other main colour, which represents purity and chastity. Because we like to live near water fish is a big part of our diet usually. We also eat a lot of dried corn and peppers, and cook them in hotpots, which are a kind of soup.

Our biggest festival happens in the Autumn, we celebrate the harvest and bring in the New Year. For festivals we mainly dress up in blue. Embroidery is very important to us. Parents teach their children the skills and techniques from a very early age. It's particularly important that girls are highly skilled.

When a girl gets married she embroiders her own outfit and brings other pieces she has made to her new home. Her husbands family will judge her on her skills and it will effect her status and how she is treated by them. To secure good treatment you have to have good embroidery skills, it's very important! The costume I am wearing is factory made, but still shows traditional Shui patterns. We include a lot of colourful flowers, but also animals and birds.

Dong Ji was not able to attend the photography days, her friend Bai Lin modelled her costume.

Dong Jie

When I moved over here I saw that supermarkets only sold rice in what seemed to me like very small quantities. I was worried that the UK was facing food shortages and life would be difficult here. It's only when I learned that the UK was such a mix of cultures with English food as well as Indian and Italian being really popular, and that people had different staples like potatoes, pasta, and bread, as well as rice, that I realised that wasn't the case. It's funny now to look back and realise how naive I was.

Dressing up like this makes me think of my family and homeland, I miss them. However, I do my best to keep up these traditions living over here, it makes me feel connected.

Tibetan People

My home is in the South West of China on the Tibetan plateau. Our staple foods are yak meat and mutton. We also use yak milk to make cheese, butter, and yoghurt. My people make wine out of flowers and use millet and rice to brew a drink that is similar to beer.

Not a lot of people know this, but hair braiding is an important part of Tibetan culture. Bai Lin is wearing a wig here, but we would braid our actual hair. My early life was nomadic, we had no permanent settlement and lived in the high plains. Braids are a way to keep your hair neat, but they also display your status, such as whether or not you are married and what tribe you are from. You're only allowed to wear a headdress when you're married. Turquoise, coral, and silver are popular for headdresses and jewellery. During festivals women wear all of the jewellery they own, it can get heavy!

Both men and women wear robes. For festivals the robes are usually made of very colourful silk and lined with different materials, like fur and leather. The robes are long so you tuck them into your belt. The temperature changes when day turns to night during festivals. In the day while we're dancing and taking part in competitions we take one or two of our sleeves off as we wear shirts underneath. When we get cold the long wide sleeves keep us warm.

Bai Lin

I think it's strange when people assume all Chinese people are the same. In my opinion, even in our small group we're all so different. For example, if we're talking about language, amongst this group we can all communicate with each other in Mandarin and in English, but some of the women also speak Cantonese. We all speak the different languages of our minority groups as well.

I'm from the North, up in the mountains, so talking to people from the South is similar to a person from Liverpool talking to someone from America, except there's a bigger difference because our dialects have many many different words as well. A country made up of that many people cannot be homogenous, we're all different, we're all individuals, and that's what I want to show through this exhibition. I'm standing in for my friend, but we're from different cultures. Just like in English speaking countries, in China we have different cultures across the country.

Visits home are rare, it's hard to still feel connected to my culture, and home, and even my family. Living so far away is hard on those relationships, especially living a country that's so different from the one I came from. Which is why connecting with other women like me is so important. I enjoy any opportunity to dress up like this, Chinese New Year is my favourite day of the year, I wear this and do traditional dances, it's my happiest time.

My heritage is Mongolian, but my identity as a Chinese person is also important to which is why I wanted to show both of these sides of myself in different costumes. As a member of the Mongolian minority in China I also feel comfortable wearing a Qipao as well.

For festivals and traditional Chinese events I'll wear my ethnic costume to display my heritage, but living over here especially, if I'm going to a wedding, or an event where I want to dress up I wear my Qipao. It's sophisticated, and I feel elegant wearing it. This way I'm showing my heritage as a Chinese person without feeling out of place. When I'm wearing this I get a lot of compliments, it makes me feel proud.

Mongolian People

Mongolian people also live in China. We live in the North East of the country on the grasslands, where the landscape and lifestyle isn't very different from other Mongolian people. Milk and meat are a big part of our diet. We use milk for a variety of things, we drink fermented milk on special occasions, which is a bit like beer.

My costume represents the great plains of Inner Mongolia, it's white and blue to represent the sky and the clouds. This dress is only worn during festivals as it's not practical for every day life. These dresses are usually made of silk and are short so we can take part in festival activities. We wear boots with turned up toes, these ones are decorative, but they are also made of practical materials like leather.

Our main festivals revolve around horse riding and archery competitions, wrestling matches, and displays of fighting for both men and women. Our main festival is in August and can be a week long. During this time we sing and dance and hold big competitions. Our festivals are an opportunity to get matched, so it's important to stand out and look beautiful. It also helps if you do well in a competition!

The Qipao

This dress has a long and contested history. Most sources agree the origins of the Qipao can be found in the 17th century during the early part Qing Dynasty.

The Qipao started to look like the dress we recognise during the 1920s when Chinese women were gaining more freedoms. They shed their traditional, heavily ornate, and constricting robes and adopted a looser version of the dress we know today. As fashions changed the Qipao evolved, incorporating flower patterns and auspicious animals. During the 1930s and 1940s the dress became more form fitting and the side slits that were knee level lengthened to reach the upper part of the thigh. This dress became everyday wear in the 1950s, but in the 1960s Western style clothing became more prominent and its popularity declined.

The Qipao has been reclaimed as a modern dress worn in many variations by Chinese women across China and the Chinese diaspora as a way to showcase their identity and individuality. It is now worn largely for special occasions. Traditional patterns and styles are incorporated alongside contemporary trends to produce outfits unique to the
wearer.

I came here because I was looking for a change of environment, I wanted to see what England was like. I ended up getting married to an English man, which is why I'm living here still.

English is hard. When I married my husband my parents in law were kind enough to pay for English lessons for me at the local college. I took the classes for 2 years and I struggled the whole time, it's a hard language to learn. I'm glad I got through it though. With the help of my husband and his wonderful family, and the classes, I can communicate well. They've also spent a lot of time introducing me to the culture and traditions of the UK, they've all been so supportive in helping me adapt.

When I first came to the UK I was quite timid about putting on my costume, but after going to the different cultural festivals and celebrations that happen here and seeing other women dress up with courage to represent their cultures I've become more brave and more open with my own background.

I work at a care home. They have a BBQ party every summer that is similar to a fire festival we have back home. On that day I wear my costume and show them the dances we would do, they all join in. Now I feel more at ease showing my background and telling people more about myself. Through speaking to the people living at the care home I've learned a lot about different attitudes, different ways of thinking and have seen myself improve as a person. That's why it's so important to have conversations with people who are different from you, it's helps you understand and grow.

Yi People

The Yi people are one of the most ancient people in China. We live in the South West of the country in Yunnan Province. Our land is famous for the terraced rice fields, lots of tourists come to see them.

We venerate our ancestors, we pay respect to them by preparing offerings and saying prayers. Our main festival is the Torch Festival that happens in the summer. Our ancestors worshipped fire as it's supposed to ward off evil and protect the people. Every family will have a torch in front of their house, and we dance around the fire all night.

Our main costume is made with goat skin and goat fur. We wrap our hair in turbans, older married women wear black ones like I have. Because fire is central to our beliefs our costume reflects that, fire patterns are embroidered onto the sleeves and collar, and the main colours are red, yellow, and black. Our skirts are 7 metres long and wrapped around our waist. During the dances we lift it out and display the colours and patterns using different gestures.

I've been here for 30 years, and I've seen Essex change, and experienced it first hand. I came to England to study, I had no intention of staying any longer than my degree. At first I felt very isolated and lonely, I was still learning the language so found it hard to meet people and make friends, and I couldn't get used to the weather! After I graduated I found a temporary job. People were really welcoming and I realised how important that was to me, to feel a sense of community.

My daughter was born here and grew up here, she went to school in Colchester. Although she has a Chinese appearance, I feel like she's English through and through. It was hard to get her to connect with Chinese culture when she was younger, but I insisted on her learning my language, so she can speak basic Mandarin. Since moving out and getting a job she has come back to me angry, saying I should have forced her to learn more. You can't win as a parent. As she's got older she has come to realise that her culture is important to her and taken more interest in my work with CCCS, so I'm happy.

The thing I've struggled most with is information that isn't said, or tones people say things in. I'm getting better, but I still don't always pick up on sarcasm or humour in the way a native speaker does. I appreciate people who take the time to explain or at least don't get annoyed with me!

I like Essex, I like the people, and I'm so happy with the community I've helped build. I won't go back, I'm staying here. I'm even used to the weather now.

Zhuang People

I'm from Guangxi Province in the South East of China. The landscape there is full of limestone hills and mountains, as well as lakes and rivers, it's very
beautiful. For those of us living in the villages our main staples are rice which we grow in paddies in the valleys or on terraces on the mountainsides, pork, wild pheasant that we hunt, and preserved pickled vegetables.

We're the largest minority in the country and our traditions are very old. We have few festivals because it's difficult to travel. We are big singers, our gatherings are based around singing. We have festivals where whole villages compete with one another in singing competitions. These are also chances for young people to make a good match. Young girls wear costumes like this and sing traditional folk songs and hope to meet their future husband!

Zhuang silk is famous. Our costumes are made out of silk brocade representing plants and animals found in the area you're from. Our headscarfs our unique to our culture and are usually bright for festivals, but black and brown for everyday life.

I used to only wear my costume during times I had friends and family to visit, to celebrate and remember. But since becoming part of this community I've had more chances to connect with my culture and I've become more confident showing this side of me.

I'm a cook in a canteen for a big company, the people there love my cooking. Because of me my company started celebrating Chinese New Year every year. I wear my costume the whole day, we play music, and I cook lots of different Chinese dishes. I tell them about the festival and we celebrate it as a whole company, it's a great day. It makes me feel very welcomed, and I love that I'm able to share my culture.

I wish people were more aware of the different Chinese cultures, and the different minorities. I think it's very important that people can share their cultures and learn more about other people. I'm from a very remote place, life was hard there so festivals were important to us, they were our chance to dress up and look glamourous. For us, as with all women, it's important that we feel beautiful. I want to show people that I too am beautiful, and that being different is a good thing. I want to share my costume with the world.

Red Miao People

The Red Miao people can be found across Southern China, I'm from Guangxi Province. We are a musical people and play many instruments, so our festivals include a lot of singing and dancing. I play the Hulusi, which is a kind of flute with a gourd at the base and bamboo pipes. I practiced a lot when I was younger with traditional Chinese music, and now I can play a lot of British songs including Auld Lang Syne.

Our costumes are traditionally all handmade, the silver and silk are sewn by hand. The techniques of how to do this are passed down generation to generation, it makes me proud that these things are still practiced.

Young girls learn how to embroider from around 6 or 7 years old. They make their own wedding dresses, which take years to produce and are covered in intricate patterns. We include flowers, plants, and birds in our embroidery. The fish and the phoenix are especially auspicious creatures for my people. I love seeing girls dressed up in clothes they've taken care to make. It makes me proud to be Red Miao.