Culture
Liu Hong 刘宏
Professor of Chinese Studies
Culture. Education.
Chair of Chinese Studies and Professor of East Asian Studies; Director of Centre for Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute, University of Manchester.
Born in Fujian, Hong Liu was educated in Xiamen and Fudan Universities. He was a lecturer at Xiamen University for two years before he went to the Netherlands and the USA to do research and Ph.D. studies. Upon completing his Ph.D. he was offered a position as an assistant professor at the Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore, where he taught between 1995 and 2006. He was awarded tenure in 2000 and served as the Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Convener of the University’s China Studies Minor Program. He also served as a visiting fellow at Kyoto, Harvard, and Stockholm Universities for a cumulative period of about two years.
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Zoë Baxter
DJ/Radio presenterArts. Culture. Film, TV & Radio. Music.
Zoë started Djing at parties in 2000 and progressed to Internet radio and then community radio. She has always had a keen interest in East Asian cinema and cuisine and this lead her to investigate East Asian music. Now she is a collector of vinyl with a specialist interest in 1960’s ‘Asia Beat’.
In 2005 Zoë presented and produced Ni Hao Chinatown parts 1 & 2 for the London community arts radio station Resonance FM focusing on the Save Chinatown Campaign and the history of Chinese immigration in London.
Following on from this Zoë presented and produced a weekly one hour radio show for Resonance FM from October 2005 - June 2006 called Lucky Cat. With a focus on Chinese and East Asian culture the magazine style programme featured guests, music, film and art reviews and topical issues (e.g. the Takeaway Racism Campaign).
The series included 2 programmes on the Chinese contribution to Reggae music and also a programme featuring a live performance by Korean punk band Crying Nut.
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Eve Lee
Creative DirectorArts. Culture. Fashion. Design. Media.
Eve Lee is a Malaysian born graphic designer and art director who has lived and worked in London for the last seven years.
Following her studies in Malaysia and the US, Eve worked for five years as an art director at advertising agency TBWA in Kuala Lumpur, before coming to London in 2000 to work as a freelance designer and follow the MA design course at Central Saint Martins College.
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Joanna Nim Heung Yeung
Community Learning OfficerArts. Community. Culture. Education. Sports.
At the age of 10, Joanna emigrated from Hong Kong to live in the UK. In 1992, she moved from Lincoln to London, where she was exposed to more of the multicultural life of Britain and became an active member of several local youth clubs, representing the needs and interests of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Since 2000, Joanna has worked in voluntary and organisations and local government building relationships and engaging community groups to take an active role in developing a positive social well being for themselves and others.
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Wah-Yin Rixon
Film examinerArts. Culture. Film, TV & Radio. Politics.
Born in Singapore, Wah-Yin grew up in a family where she is the only one not to be an engineer (apart from her mother, who was an extraordinary cook). In 2006, she embarked on a 5-week odyssey through Guangxi in south China with her daughter, Shan - who was studying Chinese in Kunming - to find their ancestral village (see Shan’s pictures at www.flickr.com/photos/s-h-a-n/sets/). She hopes to do something similar with her son, John, one day. But he is a jazz musician and his schedule, like his music, is unpredictable (www.howardpeacockjazz.com).
Wah-Yin watches over 5 hours of film and TV material every weekday to determine their classification as she is a film examiner at the British Board of Film Classification (www.bbfc.org). Whenever possible, she reads, writes, eats, sees and makes pictures, and dreams up schemes related to arts and culture.
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Yang-May Ooi
Writer, specialising in cross-cultural matters and social mediaArts. Culture. Information Technology.
Yang-May Ooi is a writer, specialising in cross-cultural matters and social media based in London. She has a background in law and has published two legal thrillers The Flame Tree and Mindgame, which have been described as "Amy Tan meets John Grisham".
Her cross-cultural blog Fusion View has around 10,000 unique visitors a month and has been featured on the BBC. She has also worked with businesses and professionals to maximise social media as part of their communications strategy.
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Chinese contemporary and classic music
Sun Zhuo
PhD in Ethnomusicology at School of Oriental and African Studies University of LondonCulture. Music.
Sun Zhuo - zheng (Chinese zither) performer, top graduate from the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, where she gained her BA and MA from, both was majoring in zheng performance. She is now continuing her PhD studies in London. She is in high demand as a guzheng player both in China and abroad, most recently working on new compositions and contemporary styles.
Sun was born and brought up in Xi'an, the ancient walled capital of Imperial China. Started from the age of 5, taught by her mother Qu Yun, a well-known zheng master with deep understanding of the core and essence the zheng. From there, and after winning a string of prizes and accolades and appearing on the cover of Music Life and Music Weekly, she embarked upon a distinguished career as a zither soloist.
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Photo courtesy of Dr. Kimho Ip
Dr. Kimho Ip
Composer, creative producer, conductorCommunity. Culture. Music.
Kimho Ip works in the UK as composer, director, producer and Yangchin performer. He studied in Germany and Scotland and received his PhD in 2004 at the University of Edinburgh with the support of the Composers & Authors Society of Hong Kong, Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.
His orchestral and chamber music works have been performed at the Gaudeamus International Music Week, Amsterdam (2006) and ISCM World New Music Days (2002/ 2007), by ensembles such as the Paragon ensemble, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.
Commissioned by Cinema China 2007, he composed a soundtrack plus live music performance for the historical Chinese silent film, “The Goddess”. In April 2008 he will compose and perform “Song of the Fishermen” in the Five Circles series at ROH2, London.
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Florence Qiu
Founder, Sino-Anglo Cultural Exchange AssociationArts. Community. Culture.
Florence has been instrumental in pioneering Chinese arts and culture in the Chinese community, and to a wider mainstream audience in the North East of England. She founded the Sino-Anglo Cultural Exchange Association and her work and dedication has enhanced the quality of life for many of Newcastle’s members of the Chinese community, providing access and education to both the young and the old.
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Jiang Li
Chinese ComposerCulture. Music.
Jiang Li is a Chinese composer based in the UK whose music includes traditional Chinese, contemporary and East meets West styles. Of particular interest is his innovatory internet collaboration created to compose signature tunes for the BBC World Service.
This innovation was born out of difficulties arising from the lack of an established Chinese orchestra in the UK, therefore necessitating the introduction of technology to create online music collaboration. This method was used again in an East Meets West project to compose new music for Chinese New Year’s day 2002.
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