Cherish-Chinese Family in Britain

Cherish-Chinese Families in Britain was part of the National Portrait Gallery’s acclaimed programme “Reaching Out, Drawing In. It was a series of national-wide creative community engagement with British-Chinese families and an exhibition that explored photographic family portraits and family album.

In 2006, Yan Preston was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in collaboration with Chinese Arts Centre to deliver the project in Manchester. Photographer Anthony Lam and Pamela So worked in London and Glasgow respectively. For three months, Yan worked with three Chinese/English families. Together they created two pieces of installations and one video work which used family snapshots, painting, sound recording, installation, newspaper cutting as well as Chinese traditional handcraft to make the work.

The resulting exhibition was shown in the National Portrait Gallery from September 2006 to March 2007 and received more than 50,000 visitors.

'Cherish has provided a unique opportunity for the Chinese community to represent themselves within a national gallery. The families have all worked with leading Chinese photographers who have given them the skills and confidence to document their own lives. This is a really important exhibition as it presents a realistic glimpse of Chinese contemporary life in Britain and draws our attention to the similarities, and differences, between these families and our own. '
Sarah Champion, CEO of the Chinese Arts Centre

Video above: Michael Logan's Family Story

More process photos: