Susan Cotton Travel Award 2017-18Stage 2 Application

Name: Gina Tsang

Programme: MA Fine Art Year: 2

Address:

Email: Tel:

Award Applied for: International

Please provide a detailed outline of your travel plans. This should include a timetable of when you propose to travel and for how long together with quotes in respect of costs for travel, accommodation, subsistence and insurance (continue on a separate sheet if required).

1 Name of applicant: Gina Tsang

I plan to travel from Beijing, China to Guangzhou, China via train. Then onto Hong Kong via train also. I will stay in Beijing for 5 nights, then Guangzhou 5 nights, spending the last week in Hong Kong. I plan to visit at the end of October 2018. All quoted costs below are calculated over this date range.

Costs

5 nights at mid-range hotel in Beijing £300

5 nights at guesthouse in Guangzhou £250

6 nights mid-range hotel in Hong Kong £310 (perhaps could stay with my cousin)

Visa for China £150

Travel Insurance £80

Subsistence: £25 per day in Beijing and Guangzhou/£30 per day in Hong Kong

Flights: £480 Manchester to Beijing/£500 Hong Kong to Manchester

Train: Beijing to Guangzhou South - £35 (9 hours)/ Guangzhou to Hong Kong - £28 (5 hours)

Total = £2563 (any surplus over the award amount I will cover myself)

As your travel plans may have changed since the first submission, please explain the reasons why you think you should be given this opportunity.

2 Name of applicant: Gina Tsang

I believe the reasons I should be given this opportunity are two-fold: Firstly, I would benefit personally from the chance to connect to my Chinese heritage. I am a quarter Chinese, (my Grandfather was from Guangzhou (Canton), and I have spent my life in the UK, as have my father and his siblings. My Grandfather, Bo Kwai Tsang, was a seaman on the Blue Funnel line and met my paternal Grandmother in Glasgow before moving down to Liverpool in the mid 1940s when my Father was born. Before my Grandfather sailed to the UK he grew up in Canton, relocating to Hong Kong after the Sino-Japanese war in the 1930s. The purpose of my trip is to retrace the steps of his emigration. And in doing so build a connection to our family’s Chinese background. My father (and my siblings and cousins in turn) feel very estranged from our Chinese heritage as my Grandfather was away a lot at sea and had very limited English when he returned in later life. It would also mean a lot to my Father to see me making such links to his past, especially as his health is beginning to fail and he has become much more reflective and trying to make sense of the past.

Secondly, I believe such a journey will enhance my art practice. Themes of belonging, home and estrangement are strong in my current work. There has always been a sense personally in my life of not quite fitting in. There’s something profoundly disorientating about not being connected to a large part of your heritage – sometimes feeling like you’re on the periphery of different societies. As mentioned in my previous application, I have embraced Chinese themes in my work and retraced my father’s upbringing to his childhood yet I have lacked confidence in making such connections to China explicit due to lack of experiential knowledge. I believe that by not only retracing my Grandfather’s steps but also by immersing myself in the Chinese contemporary art scene I will be able integrate this part of my heritage into my work. I plan to make companion works to the ones I have already made regarding my own sense of belonging and attitudes using testimony from my Chinese family.

Serendipitously, since my first application, my cousin, Danny, has recently relocated to Hong Kong to run an English-speaking primary school. Since he has been there he has established contact with my Grandfather’s children (from his first marriage to his wife who died in Canton during the war). Many are still living in the Tsang Village in Hong Kong where my Grandfather spent much of his time whilst away from the UK. To follow up on this new connection in a timely manner would be of great benefit to carrying on the Chinese legacy in my family back here in the UK. I plan to meet with these relatives and make art works based on interviews regarding their childhood experiences growing up in Hong Kong. Making parallel connections to the experiences of my Grandfather’s UK-based children.

What do you hope to experience through your travel (1000 words max. Continue on a separate sheet if necessary).

3 Name of applicant: Gina Tsang

Firstly, I hope to immerse myself in both Chinese contemporary and historical art and artistic practices in the cities I visit. In turn, situating my own practice and exploring future directions embracing connections to my Chinese heritage. I will visit galleries and art spaces in Beijing initially. These will include the following:

*”Images from Other Worlds” at Pekin Fine Arts, Beijing:

http://pekinfinearts.com/en/exhibition/images-from-other-worlds-photography-on-textile/

*Qiu Zhijie’s “Mappa Mundi” at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing:

http://ucca.org.cn/en/exhibition/qiu-zhijie-mappa-mundi/

*”Musquiqui Chihying – New Directions” at UCCA, Beijing:

http://ucca.org.cn/en/exhibition/new-directions-musquiqui-chihying/

These are three exhibitions based on mapping social, spatial and object connections between different spheres of experience. These works relate to broadly to the remit of my visit in terms of making links between disparate places and people. In addition, I plan to visit 798 Art Zone, Beijing, an artist-led space to investigate different artistic practices. I will also visit gallery spaces in Guangzhou (such as Vitamin Creative Space, Redtory Art and Design Factory and the Observation Society) as a contrast to the bigger galleries in Beijing. These latter galleries host many international exhibitions in addition to Chinese contemporary art. I’m interested in seeing the reception to such exhibitions by local artists and residents, noting cultural differences in the reception of artworks. I will also visit the many museums (in each city) to not only learn about the historical context of my grandfather’s life but also reach further back into Chinese history and mythology. Such research will hopefully substantially underpin any future narrative-based video works I will produce.

Secondly, I will retrace my Grandfather’s emigration route (with reference to his story relayed from my family and making reference to the many letters he sent to my grandmother from China, Guangzhou and Hong Kong). Visiting where he was born and grew up in Guangzhou before travelling the route he took south to Hong Kong by train. My hope is to empathise with his point of view and his emotional journey south alone after he lost his first wife to build a new life in Hong Kong. I will document the changing physical and social landscapes using sound, photography and video; staying mindful of any subtleties or drastic changes in: behaviour,

Signature: G TsangDate: 16th March 2018

Will you require a visa to travel to your destination: Yes

Will you require any inoculations: Yes

Upon your return you will be required to submit a report about your travel experience to document aspects of your journey and we would encourage you to compile the report as you go along in the form of a blog or video diary.

Please submit this form via email to the School Office, lsaoffice@ljmu.ac.uk, no later than 5pm on Friday 16th March 2018.

Signature: G Tsang

Date: 16th March 2018

4 Name of applicant: Gina Tsang

language, scenery, customs and housing. I will talk to other people taking this route (and record if possible) noting reasons for undertaking the journey and links between life in China and Hong Kong.

Third and finally, I hope to build connections with my recently retraced family in Hong Kong. I will meet with my cousin Danny and arrange meetings with my family. So far, there is one son of my grandfather (photographs below) and many half-cousins: including Camy, Robin, Maggie and Winnie. I have messaged my half-cousins already and look forward to meeting them in person. I will relay our family history, particularly my father’s, who was my grandfather’s eldest son from his second marriage. I will visit the Tsang Village, where my Grandfather spent much of his time again referring to the many letters he sent my grandmother from this location (scan below). As a trained early years teacher, I will volunteer at my cousin’s school to get a feel for what it’s like from the children of growing up in modern day Hong Kong. Perhaps even getting the chance to talk to their parents. My hope it to produce a set of art works based on two generations of my family based in Hong Kong such as the floorplans of their houses and video works based on recorded testimony of the spaces in which they grew up (see my online portfolio for details of works already completed on the spaces and places of my father’s and my generation’s upbringing: https://georginatsang.wordpress.com/).

This is an opportunity of a lifetime, not only for me but also my immediate family here in Liverpool. A chance to bridge the gap between our two heritages utilising my art practice. I sincerely hope that I have the chance to make this journey and find a new sense of belonging.

Top: my cousin Danny meeting our Chinese family for the first time last month.

My grandfather’s first born sons from his previous marriage.

5 Name of applicant: Gina Tsang

6 Name of applicant: Gina Tsang

7 Name of applicant: Gina Tsang