Story: The first Chinese people recorded in Sheffield is a troupe of magicians, jugglers & acrobats who performed for five days at the Whitsuntide Festival in Newhall Gardens, Attercliffe in 1855. The troupe was led by Teh Kwei 德貴 and his wife ‘Wang Noo’ who travelled and performed with their children, including 12-year old son ‘Tun-Chu’ and ‘Achuen Amoy’, a girl they had purchased from a poor family in China. Teh Kwei aka ‘Tuck Guy’, was known for his exhilarating knife throwing act.
“...The wonderful dexterity of the Chinese jugglers, who threw about and darted at each other the sharpest instruments, and caught them without injury, excited much surprise and admiration...” - Sheffield Independent, 2nd June, 1855
Sadly, whilst in Sheffield, Teh Kwei and Wang Noo’s 5-week old son died of a lung condition. The baby was buried the following day on Thursday 31st May in St Paul’s Churchyard, and registered as ‘A Chow, son of a magician.’ St Paul’s was a large church that stood on the site of the Peace Gardens for over 200 years [1721-1937]. Baby ‘A Chow’ was the last member of the public to be buried in its churchyard. While in Sheffield the family lodged on Sycamore St where the baby died. Sycamore St used to run straight through the current site of The Crucible.
The recovery: Led by multimedia artist Eelyn Lee, Ancestral Futures is a processional street performance in honour of the first recorded Chinese people in Sheffield –a group of magicians on tour from China who performed at the Whitsuntide Festival, 1855.
Guided by Sheffield’s East and Southeast Asian [ESEA] communities, a new mythological character, Lee and her collaborators will embody the spirits of these ancestors. Taking place during Ghost Month, where in some ESEA cultures, the deceased are believed to visit the living, the procession will conjure the British born Chinese baby and his family. Weaving movement, costume, ancestral objects and sound to activate stories from the past, present and future, the procession will re-write the archive into the city streets.
