Influences | Pamela So
Family
At the turn of the century, my grandmother traveled on foot from Hubei province in Central China to Europe with a group of young people, who earned their living by performing and making paper flowers on the way. Arriving in Britain, this group of travelers adopted a more settled way of life and by the time my mother was born in Liverpool in the 1920’s, my grandmother was running a laundry business from the family home.
In 1935, my father sailed first class on a P&O liner from Hong Kong to Britain. In his suitcases were silk vests, padded silk jackets and intricately knitted sweaters his sisters had made for a long stay in a cold climate. His destination was Scotland and he was to study medicine in Glasgow.
Had it not been for the war years and meeting my mother in the interim, perhaps he would have returned to his family in Hong Kong. However, he remained in Scotland, training as a surgeon in Glasgow, while momentous changes were taking place back home in Hong Kong
Scottish-Chinese Identity
The role of Liverpool and Glasgow during the Second World War, bringing work related to Chinese shipping crews, brought about a small exchange between Chinese communities living in these cities. This is how two Chinese families, from very different backgrounds, came to be connected.
“In 1953 there were only 3 Chinese families living in Glasgow” one of these families was mine and my mother’s brother and sister formed the other two.
Because there were no Chinese people, shops or restaurants in the Glasgow of my childhood, I became assimilated into Scottish culture in a way that is hard for both Chinese and Scottish people to understand now. I lost my Chinese language but not the essentials of Chinese culture that have formed the basis of my artwork.
Key dates regarding the Chinese in Britain
- 1814
- First references to Chinese settlement in dock areas of London & Liverpool
- 1840-42
- Opium Wars
- 1855
- First Chinese to be awarded medical degree at Edinburgh University.
- 1920-30’s
- Growth of Chinese student population
- 1949
- Inauguration of People’s Republic of China stems flow of students from China
- pre 1950
- Chinese population in Britain predominantly seafaring origins and laundry business
- 1950’s-60’s
- Growth of Chinese restaurant trade – mainly immigrants from Hong Kong
- 1985
- San Jai Chinese project inaugurated to provide support services to Chinese community in response to House of Commons report on the Chinese in Britain
- 1989
- Tiananmen Square events start influx of Mainland Chinese to Britain. Increasing number of Chinese born in Britain in professions.
- 2006
- 68 students arriving from Mainland China to study at Glasgow School of Art
