London's Chinese community put in the frame

The up-and-coming generation of Chinese people who have relocated to London is the subject of a new exhibition opening at the city's Massimo De Carlo gallery on Oct 7.

The collection of works by artist Liu Xiaodong is called New England, and described as focusing "on a generation of young Chinese professionals who have moved to London to enrich their ambitions".

Liu was born in Jincheng, Liaoning province, in 1963 and is based in Beijing, where he is a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

He studied in Madrid, Spain, and his work has been exhibited all over the world, in locations including Denmark and Doha, and twice in Italy, at the prestigious Venice Biennale.

London's Chinese community is long-established, but had a low profile for many years. In recent years, a new community has become more visible, and begun to play a more prominent role in city life.

Liu said he was fascinated by the sort of lives that Chinese people live in London, and how they fit into a society that is, in many ways, quite different to home but in other ways similar.

"I was very curious about how so many British Chinese managed to live in such an expensive city, and also to have such comfortable lives here," he said. "They seem to be a quiet and self-disciplined community, and the United Kingdom is somewhere with a high level of civilization and sound legal system, which allows all kinds of people to live there. The British are a reserved and trustworthy people, and I think those are characteristics that Chinese people can relate to."

Britain's reputation as a place of manners and politeness is also something that appealed to Chinese sensibilities, he said.

"All the Chinese people I came into contact with here live with great humility, even those who are extremely wealthy," he said. "This is a country and a city with a lot of creativity, where you're free to demonstrate your talents, and personal life is respected. They like that."

The content of the exhibition is as varied as the sitters for Liu's pictures, but he said one thing that united his subjects was their openness.

"I think we developed a friendship that goes beyond the actual artwork — these people opened their homes to me, and let me paint them inside their houses with their families.

"The subjects of these pictures have in common that they are talented and successful, and all integrated into the society they live in, but apart from that, each picture is as different as the people in it and place where it was painted."

Above all, Liu said, he was painting a picture of a happy, satisfied community of Chinese people in London, and one that he hoped visitors to the exhibition would enjoy discovering.

"From what I was able to observe, they are all law-abiding citizens, they live in clean environments, and they seem to enjoy a great deal of freedom in this foreign country," he said. "I hope that the audience will see this, and realize how beautiful it is to have contacts with total strangers."

The exhibition runs until Nov 21.