Hello my name is Caitlin Moss, I am a second year student at Liverpool John Moores University studying History of Art and Museum Studies. The Sound Agents is one of the most successful art blogs in Liverpool and I am very keen to learn more about socially engaged art through gaining experience writing reviews and shadowing The Sound Agents during their projects.
I am considering working as an Art Journalist/Art Critic later in my career. I have an eager interest pursing opportunities during my internship with the Arts duo John Campbell and Moira Kenny.
My highest grades within my course have been within museums and galleries module and I believe I will be an asset to the team.
Chinatown Film Review
Chinatown is a short film directed by John Campbell and Moira Kenny (also known as The Sound Agents.) The short film illustrates the first ever European Chinatown located here in Liverpool Merseyside, showcasing the history and culture of the town. Chinatown gives the viewer the opportunity to witness the journey of Chinatown from the late 1850’s when Chinese immigrants first came to Liverpool until now where they are an essential Merseyside community.
The film begins with the title “Chinatown” followed by the title in Chinese. The fading of the title into an image of the paifang (chinatown gate) gives the recognition of the landmark most of us walk by everyday. The soothing almost ethereal gouyue sets the eloquent mood describing the photographs which are displayed chronologically giving the viewer the idea of Chinatown’s society and what everyday life was like in the earliest Chinatown in Europe.
Throughout the first few photographs (courtesy of Open Eye Gallery and Getty Images) gives us the idea that it was the man’s role to provide for the household. The black and white images showing well dressed men whether adolescent or elderly tell the viewer that the men went to work while a woman’s role in Chinatown was to stay home and complete womanly duties. The possible segregation of gender is shown as neither men or women are in any of the photographs until the first coloured image appears, possibly illustrating that gender roles were an extremely forced social factor which eased as society grew more modern. The viewer is hit quickly with the saddening poverty that society was forced into in Chinatowns early days. We see this through images depicting a wooden sink with a man washing himself either over it or in it along with a woman cleaning her home which appears quite rustic and poverty stricken. However, with this in mind it contains a saddening aspect of decoration suggesting that even though they didn't have much, they did with it what they could to make it feel like home. This poverty aspect again fades when coloured images are introduced, showing community led art groups proudly showing their work and accomplishments with friends and family.
The introduction of mixed race communities, Chinatown and other Merseyside communities, are shown at a wedding and communities are shown as coming together whether as an art group, music group or simply gathering as a community to spend time together. One aspect I found quite moving was that whether the images represent a time of poverty or a time of the community coming together, everyone is always smiling and appears joyful.
In conclusion, Chinatown represents an essential community within Liverpool and portrays them as a close-knit community. It represents a community that can be poverty stricken at the beginning and still find the joys in day to day life and come out the other end even stronger. It portrays the Chinatown community as one where if without it, Liverpool would not be the same. Caitlin Moss