Manchester's Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art appoints new director and board after racism allegations

Xiaowen Zhu, former assistant director at Times Art Center Berlin, becomes director of Manchester's Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), joining five new board members and a chief operating officer. This leadership overhaul follows racism allegations that surfaced in March 2020 when artist JJ Chan criticized the organization's predominantly white staff. Chan argued CFCCA's Eurocentric leadership perpetuated hierarchical cultural diplomacy while exploiting Chinese artists' labor. The center initially formed a working group for reform, but artist Jack Tan accused it of institutional racism through avoidance and lack of transparency about racist bullying allegations. An external consulting firm was then hired to investigate, with staff reportedly finding the process challenging but committed to change. The new board includes Philomena Chen, Simon Li, Yung Ma, aaajiao (Xu Wenkai), and Bonnie Yeung. Founded in the late 1980s inspired by the Black Arts Movement, CFCCA originally served Manchester's Chinese diaspora community. At Times Art Center Berlin, Zhu oversaw Wong Ping's 2022 solo exhibition 'Earwax' curated by Hou Hanru, the 2021 group show 'Más Allá, el Mar Canta: Diasporic Intimacies and Labour' curated by Pablo José Ramírez, and 'Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman' (2019–20) curated by Nikita Yingqian Cai and Xiaoyu Weng. The organization has also created a community development and engagement manager position.