A SINGAPORE-born ‘urban artist’ has been tasked with harnessing better relations between local Dubliners and Chinese people living in the Parnell Street area.
Jay Koh, director of the International Forum for Intermedia Art (Ifima) in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, has been commissioned by CityArts in Dublin to undertake the three-year project, assisted by artists YaJin, Tien Woon and Ho Tzu Nyen from Singapore and Dublin-based artist Glenn Loughran.
The project will aim to bring together young people from Dublin and the local Chinese community in order to find common ground for cultural and social activities.
Local support for the project – entitled Ni Hao–Dia Duit (Hello–Hello) – is from Dublin Inner City Partnership and the Irish Youth Foundation, with travel support for Singapore participants from the National Arts Council of Singapore.
Commenting on his preliminary research, Koh told Metro Eireann: “Some of them [Chinese] have shared concerns, and the problem is they do not know enough of the Irish culture to try and connect with the structures here.
“In this initial research phase we just want to identify their needs, and see how we can bring them closer with the Irish community. This is a three-year project and we want to do it very carefully.
“Once the Chinese community understand these kind of expressions, they need to bring these across to the Irish community and also to understand what are the images that they are projecting out.
“If we can use artistic tools to visualise this message, maybe then we can create a calm discussion on tensions.”
He said there will be liaison with the local Irish community, after which “we can work together towards creating a social space for both communities to interact in the future, because now there’s very, very little social space”.
Koh also said that he has received feedback indicating that relations between local Irish and Chinese in the Parnell Street area are not good, and that tensions have arisen between young Irish and Chinese people both vying for local spaces for sports activities, for example.
He added that the rapid changes in the Parnell Street area, and the lack of knowledge among some about the world’s increasing globalisation, has posed particular challenges for everyone based in the locality. He also noted that language barriers are a major problem.
