“Show Me a Mountain:
Jamaican Writers & Visual Artists of Chinese Descent”
REGISTRATION for Session 1. REGISTRATION for Session 2.
With the coming of Emancipation in 1834 to the island of Jamaica, the formerly enslaved sought to leave the site of the plantation in droves. Faced with a shortage of labor on the plantations, the white elite of the island and the imperial powers of Britain turned to countries such as China to fill these labor shortages in an indentureship scheme that would see mainly Hakka Chinese immigrants arriving in Jamaica starting in 1840, though there is evidence of a Chinese presence on the island from as far back as the 1700s. Many of these new Chinese arrivals would remain on the island, sporadically going back to China to visit relatives, while more often than not encouraging relatives to relocate to the island. This growing community would see Chinese cemeteries being built on the island, Buddhists temples, and today an area of downtown Kingston has been recognized as the first China Town on the island. Chinese festivals would slowly be incorporated into local festival traditions and sadly there would be two violent riots targeting the growing and thriving Chinese community and businesses on the island. Jamaicans of Chinese descent have also represented the island in the Miss Jamaica and Miss World Competitions. These early Chinese immigrants then would go on to constitute an integral and significant component of contemporary Jamaican identity.
“Show Me a Mountain” hopes to shed a spotlight on this dynamic community by having two panel discussions with writers and visual artists who are Chinese of Jamaican descent:
Session 1: Writers
Thursday, April 15th– 8AM Jamaica/US/ 1PM UK/ 8PM Shanghai
Featured Writers: Ann-Margaret Lim, Hannah Lowe, Kerry Young. Session will be moderated by Sharon Leach.
The program will be one hour long. Sharon Leach will do a general welcome before doing an introduction of the writers in alphabetical order Ann-Margaret Lim, Hannah Lowe, Kerry young. Writers will read in alphabetical order before being engaged in a discussion of their work by Sharon Leach. The final 15 minutes of the program will be opened up to the audience for a general discussion.
Session 2: Visual artists
Thursday, April 22nd — 7AM Jamaica/US/ Noon UK/ 7PM Shanghai
Featured visual artists: Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow and Albert Chong. Session will be moderated by Jacqueline Bishop.
The program will be one hour long. Jacqueline Bishop will start off with a general welcome to the program and the artists. Then Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow and Albert Chong will do a 10 minute power point presentation of their work. This presentation will be followed up with a discussion by Jacqueline Bishop with the two artists before the discussion is opened up to the audience for the last 15 minutes of the program.