Chinese New Year: Sources relating to the history of Birmingham’s Chinese community

Posted on by kathryn

10 February 2024 marks the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. Chinese New Year remains a significant event in Birmingham’s cultural calendar. Focused on the Chinatown district on the southside of the city centre, the celebrations attract around 30,000 visitors annually.

Archives and Collections holds a range of resources documenting the Chinese community and the Lunar New Year events over the years.

Chinese migration and settlement in Birmingham: a brief background

Although a small population existed in the region before World War Two, Chinese migration to the West Midlands increased significantly in the decades thereafter. Covering a small area around Hurst Street, Ladywell Walk and Pershore Street, Birmingham’s Chinatown district took shape from the 1950s onwards.

Most of the incoming migrants came from the New Territories of Hong Kong, then a British colony. Many worked in the hospitality sector or set up restaurants and associated shops, businesses, and services.

Poster celebrating the year of the Rooster. A black and white painting of a rpoud rooster with chinese writing down the side.
Chinese New Year programme 1993 [LS 4/35/22]

Chinese New Year in Birmingham

As the Chinese community established itself and families began to settle, social and cultural organisations were set up. The Chinese Community Centre (founded 1977) played a major role in organising the city’s Chinese New Year celebrations in the early days.

The Arcadian Centre, a multi-levelled piazza of restaurants, bars, and shops at the heart of Chinatown which opened in 1991, has since become the focal point for the celebrations.

Street festivities were interrupted for two years in the wake of the Covid pandemic, returning in 2023. Information on the forthcoming festivities can be found here, a full programme will be announced in January.

Sources documenting Birmingham’s Chinese New Year celebrations

The following resources are in our collections and may be viewed by appointment in the Wolfson Centre unless otherwise stated.

Full reference numbers are provided where applicable. Most items (except photographs) can be found in our online catalogue, CALMView, links are provided where applicable. To search CALMView, use text Chinese New Year or variations.

Text sources:

  • Newscuttings/Ethnic Minorities (most of which are indexed) are a good place to start – they include articles about New Year celebrations past, particularly from the 1980s
  • LS 4/35/22 [Ephemera Festivals/22] Chinese New Year programme 1993
  • MS 2512/1/76 Flyer for exhibition at Midland Arts Centre, c1990s: ‘Reflections.’ A celebration of the Chinese New Year through visual arts’
  • MS 2512/1/77 Poster for exhibition of photographs by Terry Lo at Central Library, 1995:’From Cathay to Pershore Street: The Chinese Community in Birmingham’
Person dancing in red and gold traditional red dress ( skirt and top) the outfit is bordered in gold with gold flower design on the fabroc. The dancer wears floweres in her hair and is holding fan above her head
Dancer performing on stage at the Chinese New Year Celebrations at the Arcadian Centre, Birmingham, 2000. Photograph by Nicola Gotts Image used with kind permission of photographer [Our reference: MS 2363 ]

Visual sources:

  • MS 2363 Photographs by Nicola Gotts showing cultural events (including Chinese New Year) around the Arcadian, 1990s-2000s. Image below is on the Photo Wall, Floor 3, Library of Birmingham
  • MS 2512 The Terry Lo Collection. Biographical information with digital images can be found on Connecting Histories here
  • MS 2683/B/1/2/1 Album of photographs by Russ Escritt – includes 2002 Chinese New Year celebrations in the Arcadian

Oral history:

  • MS 4738 Records of the ‘Chinese Lives in Birmingham’ project, playing copy CDs available (no transcripts or full catalogue). Please contact Birmingham Archives and Collections for further information

General sources relating to Chinese history in Birmingham:

  • A good general overview is given in research undertaken by Dr Malcolm Dick and Dr Chris Upton, republished on our blog in 2021. Article here
  • LF 21.85 BIR Birmingham City Council, The Chinese in Birmingham: A community profile (1996)
  • BCOL 21.8 Sue Baxter, The Chinese and Vietnamese in Birmingham. Research commissioned by Birmingham City Council (1986) [Open Access, Floor 4]
4 items from the accession. A small closed red colume, an open notebook, a photocopy of a printed items with text and images of people with the title Goodwill Mission to China 1955 and the front of a large album with a colourful hand painted landscape showing an ordnate old building.
Items from Aviss Hutt’s archive [Our Reference: MS 5089]

A new accession

Not specifically relating to New Year, this is an opportunity to showcase a new accession that came to us last year, providing an interesting record of China just after the Communist revolution in 1949.

The archive comprises a small collection of personal papers and photographs belonging to Aviss Hutt (1917-2010), documenting her part in the Birmingham People’s Peace Committee Peace Mission to China.

Between 1947 and 1960 Hutt lived in Moseley, Birmingham. She was active in various peace campaigns in the West Midlands during the 1950s. In 1955, and as Secretary of the Birmingham group, she was invited on a non-government goodwill mission in 1955.

The delegation stayed in China a fortnight, with the aim of studying issues around peace, international relations and Anglo-Chinese cooperation. She recorded her travels and activities in diaries, correspondence, and photographs, all of which are in the collection.

All the records are open and may be consulted in our archives by appointment. For more information see entry for MS 5089 in the catalogue.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Michael Hunkin, Digital Preservation Officer