Chinese Arts Centre Workshop

Chinese Arts Centre Workshop
Age Group: 6 – 15 years old
Title: Chinese New Year
Time: 1.5 – 2 hours

The workshop will look at the history and tradition of Chinese New Year and Springtime Festival, it will concentrate on the story and legend behind the festival and then we will recreate the legends by using modern icons/people to represent the characters in the stories.

Each picture will be photographed and then put into a frame (see below); these will be sent off to the teachers/tutors of the participating school/college and then they can print off the pictures for the pupils/students.

A copy of the images will be sent to Chinese Arts Centre for their records and so they can print off what they need to put on the wall in the Learning Space of the Gallery.

When the workshop is not on then it would be good to have blank frames available for people to use on their own, so that they could still participate.
The Learning Space would need a book/document telling the stories of Chinese New Year and a description of the what we want them to do in the space.

Workshop Details

1-15 minutes
Brief history of Chinese New Year
(Will look at the Nien Story and the Chinese New Year characters story).

15-30 minutes
Outline of the workshop; creating British versions of the characters based in Chinese Folklore and the Traditions of Chinese New Year.

(The Gate Gods – These could be seen as policemen, bouncers, wrestlers, goalkeepers, etc…
The God of Stove – think kitchen & food; Nigella Lawson, Hairy Bikers, Jamie, etc…
The God of Wealth – Alan Sugar, Bill Gates, Manchester City owners, etc…
The Village God – Mum, Dad, Gran, Football Manager, etc…
Nien/Nian – A scary creature e.g. large dog, dragon, monster, etc…
The Festival of Lanterns – Torches, cameras at a concert, fireworks, floating lanterns, etc…
God of the New Year – RABBIT
Year of the Rabbit –As designed by me
Kitchen God – Gordon Ramsey, etc…
The Jade Emperor – Green in colour? Hulk, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc… Or look at authority figures; the Queen, President Obama, etc…
Look at other animals in the Chinese New Year Calendar, e.g.: Dragon, Rat, etc…)

30 – 90 minutes
Illustrating and designing; discussions on subjects chosen and their links with the literature of Chinese New Year.

90 – 100 minutes
Conclusion and discussion
Pupils/Students depart.

100 – 120 minutes
Workshop leader to put all images through Photoshop and send off to school/college and CAC.

121 minute
FIN.

EXAMPLE OF FINAL IMAGE THAT WILL BE SENT OFF TO SCHOOLS/COLLEGES AND CHINESE ARTS CENTRE.THE IMAGE SHOWS A FRAME HANGING ON A WALL; THE WALLPAPER HAS BEEN MADE FOR CHINESE ARTS CENTRE YEAR OF THE RABBIT.

THE TITLE UNDERNEATH THE FRAME CAN HOUSE THE NAME OF THE CHARACTER FROM CHINESE FOLKLORE THAT THE IMAGE IS BASED ON.