'Chinese Whispers?': Reading Race, Collecting Cultures - The Roving Reader Files

The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre is an open access University of Manchester facility. The blog 'Reading Race, Collecting Cultures' (www.aiucentre.wordpress.com) features on its website (http://www.racearchive.manchester.ac.uk). The Roving Reader Files category of blog posts is produced by Alison Newby (under the pseudonym The Roving Reader) in collaboration with Hannah Niblett (Collections Access Officer). The former provides the text and the latter provides the images. The Roving Reader Files are designed as public engagement materials. The intention is to introduce research skills and terminology to the general user/reader in an entertaining yet informative manner by revealing hidden stories, making unusual connections and sharing insights into using the Centre's collection for research. The post "Chinese Whispers?" traces the experience of poor Chinese immigrants to the UK, in order to highlight community-based oral history projects (here, an unusual dual-language publication in Chinese and English) and well-researched exhibition catalogues (here, material produced by The Geffrye Museum of the Home), illustrating how their juxtaposition can illuminate historical and current realities.