In the third of our Campaign insight’s marking the first anniversary of the Campaign we are releasing an extract from the Project Proposal, written back in the winter of 2013. It explores the potential significance of the Campaign on the British Chinese community.

SIGNIFICANCE
This project represents the largest coalition of Chinese community organisations in the history of the Chinese in Britain. That the coalition will endure for 3+ years is testament to the strength of feeling that this forgotten part of the community’s heritage invokes.

But this is more than simply an evocative rallying point for one of the UK’s most diverse (and divided) ethnic groups. It may well prove to be the catalyst for a paradigm shift in the perceptions of the community and its relationship with mainstream society.

For the first time the Chinese community in Britain will be taking a pro-active rather than re-active step in engaging with mainstream society in search for a fair and equitable place within British society.

For the first time in its history the focus of the community’s involvement in British society will move away from colonialism and of being guests, to a community that can take pride and confidence in its contribution and sacrifice to and for Britain.
For the first time, the Chinese in Britain will have a cultural reference point that embeds them within a historical Britain – our history will no longer begin with post second word war migration.

For the first time British born Chinese children will have a shared heritage with their peers, inspiring a confidence and self-esteem from which their rightful assertion to be British Chinese is not accompanied by feeling the need to justify being one or the other.

For the first time, our place and belonging in British society will stretch beyond living memory, and when we speak of our heritage it will no longer necessarily be a reference to far off places in east and southeast Asia.