MEDIA RELEASE – 5 April 2007

Should Auckland have a Chinatown?

This is just one of the questions posed by the Beijing-based art collective Long March Project with Auckland artists Daniel Malone and Kah Bee Chow. (above) Their No Chinatown survey asks the public to identify Auckland’s own Chinatowns and to define what makes a Chinatown.

The survey has struck a chord with Aucklanders, attracting 2,000 responses so far. The online results are displayed at ARTSPACE, 300 Karangahape Rd. The artists are also inviting the public to design a Chinatown on the rejected waterfront site of the Rugby World Cup stadium.

The competition will be judged by leading architects Rong Sang and Graham Burgess, spatial design lecturer Albert Refiti and Auckland Art Gallery’s contemporary curator Natasha Conland at The Gus Fisher Gallery, 74 Shortland St, on Saturday 14 April at 1pm.

The winner receives $500. The highly topical No Chinatown campaign aims to engage Aucklanders with questions of identity and place in the wake of recent Asian immigration.

The project is part of turbulence: the 3rd Auckland Triennial, a multi-venue exhibition in which over 35 artists from 20 countries respond to the turbulent times in which we live.

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