The Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery is dedicated to building understanding and empathy, as well as exploring the rich cultural heritage and historic links between Manchester and China. From the initial conversations with the Museum team and representatives from the Chinese community in Manchester we wanted to avoid visual clichés but still offer a gallery that looks and feels familiar to the Chinese visitors, while at the same time providing something a little unexpected or insightful to other visitors. The gallery has been designed to provide a welcoming space for visitors to explore and understand Chinese culture. A contemporary take on a traditional Chinese Moongate offers a welcome to all visitors and we used a colour palette that was born out of Chinese landscape paintings, botanical water colours from the Museum’s collection and trees that are found both in China and the UK. At the heart of the gallery is a gathering space with seating and benches which provides opportunities for conversation, observation and reflection.

The gallery features star loan objects from The British Museum, National Museums Scotland and an amazing 12 meter long scroll from the Rylands Library.