Artist celebrates Chinese identity in New Zealand

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Multi-media artist Mu Yuming will take part in the Chinese Lantern Festival in Christchurch on March 6-7 with two projects which celebrate Chinese - and human - identity in New Zealand.

Mu is used to living in different worlds, having Han Chinese and Naxi minority parents. He grew up in south-west China's Yunnan province, but has spent more than a decade living in Europe, studying in Oslo and working as artist-in-residence at the prestigious Rijks Academy in Amsterdam. Since returning home to China he has initiated two international arts and cultural centres in Lijiang attracting artists from all over the world.

He is in New Zealand in February and March working on projects exploring the legacy of Chinese settlement and Chinese identity in this country.

Mu will be painting the portraits and videoing interviews of the descendants of the early Chinese settlers to New Zealand as part of his Family Portrait project, funded by the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage fund.

He will also be working with others - students, artists, Chinese New Zealanders, passers-by - to create public art over 20 days in 20 locations, as part on the 20-Day Project, already completed in five countries.

The works created in New Zealand will be exhibited nationwide, with later exhibitions in Amsterdam and New York. In New Zealand, Mu and Cantabrian Keith Lyons will be demonstrating the ancient Naxi pictograph text, the world's only living picture language.