Tag Archives: Chinatown

Oct 29 2025
Leave a comment
Art and architecture, Daily Post

Chinatown works

Tuesday 28th October 2025, 12.15pm (day 5,178)

Michelle Yeoh mural, 28/10/25

Manchester’s creative destruction is an ongoing, continuous thing. The pagoda in Chinatown has been boarded up for a couple of years now. Attractive murals were painted on the bare boards — or stencilled on them, as this shot from September 2023 depicts. At some point since then, Michelle Yeoh’s not-unattractive features were added. Time passes. And then everything gets ripped down again, board by board. Nothing behind the screens is any different, and we wait for it to all cycle round again.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
Jul 07 2025
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Yesterday, tomorrow, today

Monday 7th July 2025, 9.10am (day 5,065)

Well, the header of this blog still does declare “Life, One Day at a Time”. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. I can live with that.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Feb 05 2025
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Chinatown

Tuesday 4th February 2025, 8:55am (day 4,912)

Chinatown lanters, 4/2/25

One of those seasonal themes, coming a little late this year — Chinese New Year celebrations have yet to make it to St Helena. Manchester always sprouts a healthy crop, though.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
Nov 13 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Retouching the bees

Tuesday 12th November 2024, 9.15am (day 4,828)

Retouching bollards, 12/11/24

This scene has been seen a few times in Manchester city centre recently. All the bollards you see here are decorated with little golden bees, the bee having been adopted (I think fairly recently) as the symbol of the city. And it’s some bloke’s responsibility to go round and repaint them now and again. Actually I think they’re doing a pretty good job, but it must be hard on the knees.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Oct 03 2024
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Below the Chinese Arch

Thursday 3rd October 2024, 10.20am (day 4,788)

Chinese Arch, 3/10/24

Did nothing except trug into campus by the usual routes, do my thing, and trug home again. The usual routes take me through Chinatown, of which Manchester has a large example, the third biggest in Europe if you believe the hype. And I do — it is hard not to, bearing in mind the ethnic composition of my classes at the present time.

Tagged , , , , , ,
Oct 03 2023
1 Comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Political statement

Monday 2nd October 2023, 10.10am (day 4,421)

Political statement, 2/10/23

The Conservative Party can’t even do incompetence competently — and by now, they have had lots of chances to practice it. Brilliantly, some idiot lets slip that the proposed high-speed rail link to Manchester is likely to be cancelled, in the very week that the party are holding its annual conference…. in Manchester. Frankly, I am so disillusioned about there being any prospect of genuine change in the trajectory not only of this country, but the human race, that I have largely stopped caring, but let’s at least document the existence of a political opposition to these clowns: unfortunately, sticking posters to lamp-posts seems to be the extent of it.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Sep 26 2023
1 Comment
Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Stencil artist

Monday 25th September 2023, 11.45am (day 4,414)

Stencilling, 25/9/23

Someone else’s art. It was nice, too — when I walked back past this on the way home (it is by the Chinese Arch in Manchester) it was finished and looked good, perhaps it will feature on here at some point in the future.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Nov 11 2022
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Chinatown crane

Thursday 10th November 2022, 10.00am (day 4,095)

Chinatown crane, 10/11/22

I’m sure it’s up to something useful. One of those shots which, I am very aware, would have benefited from better symmetry, but there’s only so much preparatory work one can do while stood in the middle of a street.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Feb 09 2022
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

Chinatown

Wednesday 9th February 2022, 2.50pm (day 3,821)

Chinatown, 9/2/22

I haven’t had three days in a row of Manchester pictures since February 2020 — what happened after that, I wonder. But today’s the latest burst of two-in-a-row, and with good light to boot. Manchester’s Chinatown is, in no way comparable to, say, San Francisco’s in scale (not to mention anywhere in China) but in European terms it’s sizeable enough. At this point it is possible to imagine one is far away.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Feb 02 2022
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Urban scene

xīn nián kuài lè

Wednesday 2nd February 2022, 9.45am (day 3,814)

Lunar lanterns, 2/2/22

It’s 2/2/22, and also Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year, Tet, whatever other term you want to use). It seemed appropriate to depict this today even if I suspect I am a day late. Manchester has a large Chinese population (students or otherwise) and the city centre is decorated accordingly. I believe I should say at this point: xīn nián kuài lè .

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
← Older posts