A sword handle?

Huei-Wan: We were looking through the collection, we found this, it was in the Chinese collection. I started wondering how it came to belong in that collection and I couldn’t find any clues, so I discussed it with Wing Hong. We tried to review our knowledge - the historical knowledge we learnt at school. Wing and I come from different countries but we share the same stories about Chinese history. An object like this can inspire you to talk about many things.

I couldn’t make sense of this at first, the figures seem to be in Western style dress, but there is also what looks like Arabic writing on the top and along the bottom. On both sides it looks like people are holding eggs in their hands, could this be part of a religious ceremony? We don’t know, it’s a mystery, but the more we talk about it the more we understand…I think it is an interesting process. We don’t always know the right answers, but this object encourages us to talk about it and perhaps do some research to deepen our understandings of it.

Tasneem: I’d rather listen to different stories around how you see it. It is quite fascinating, and then you hold on to those stories and maybe you pass it on when you meet other people and say ‘these are the different versions, so go by the one you like!’.

Sofina: Because the truth may be something completely different!

Huei-Wan, Camden Chinese Community Centre
Sofina, Bengali Men's Group
Tasneem, Coram