Diverscity: Community Showcase Project

Public Ping Pong Tables for City

Three, temporary concrete ping pong tables will be installed near the Bridge of the Remembrance this coming weekend by Gap Filler as part of their new Diverscity: Community showcase project. The project aims to give migrant communities greater visibility with this instalment of the project being a collaboration with the Chinese Cultural Association of Christchurch . The tables will be installed for the duration of Summer and are free to use.

Gap Filler has been developing several community-led projects in the Diverscity series which aim to showcase the cultural diversity of the Christchurch community. Korean, Fijian-Indian, Chinese and Nigerian communities are involved this Summer to realise collaborative projects which share aspects of their culture for the wider public.

The projects range from K-Pop performances to table tennis, a contemplative space and public board games and have been developed in collaboration with members of various cultural communities. All will take place outside, in public spaces. The first project that Gap Filler supported was heats for K-Pop - a Korean song and dance performance competition - held at the Dance-O-Mat on November 5. The finals for the K-Pop events are usually held in public but this year, so were the heats. The aim was to make the event more accessible and visible to the greater Christchurch public, encouraging more people to enter and watch.

"The Korean community dispersed after the earthquakes, we thought this was a great initiative to bring the community back together. And it's fun!" says Chai KIm, the event organiser.

This week, the next instalment of Diverscity will launch with ping pong tables in the city. This project is being undertaken in collaboration with the Chinese Cultural Association (NZ) Inc (CCA). Three innovative concrete table tennis tables, created by local company C Lund & Son, will be available for public use over the summer close to the Bridge of Remembrance. People are welcome to bring their own paddles and balls or borrow some from Coffee Therapy on Hereford Street and Cosmic Corner in Re:START mall.

"This project is very meaningful to the multicultural community, especially during the earthquake rebuild period of Christchurch. This project makes the most popular sport in China publicly accessible. We hope it will lead to friendly exchanges and interactions between local residents and the Chinese community. For us, this is a creative project.” says Robbin Wang, the local president of the CCA.

For Gap Filler, this project is about celebrating our city’s diversity and bringing greater visibility to cultural communities. Members of the communities involved say that the opportunity to work with Gap Filler on a project has given them the chance to be seen in the city beyond their own cultural festivals and contribute to how Christchurch is perceived. A common theme has also been encouraging members of cultural communities to participate in something that takes them beyond their usual community.

“This project has been an education for us” says Sally Airey, Gap Filler Project Developer. “We’ve learned more about the cultural communities we have in Christchurch as well as learned about the ways in which we communicate and relate to each other.”

As well as giving visibility to migrant communities, Gap Filler hopes the tables will be used by inner-city workers, visitors, shoppers and more, connecting a range of people and supporting the area’s ongoing recovery along with the newly opened Bridge of Remembrance, Re:Start mall and renewed river banks near The Terrace development nearby. “This area is really coming back to life and we wish to support that” says Sally Airey, Gap Filler project developer.

Phase three of this project will see projects in collaboration with the Fijian-Indian and Nigerian community realised in the city. While still under development, they will involve a contemplative space and public board games. If there are any other cultural community groups that wish to be involved in realising a public project to showcase their community, they are welcome to get in touch with Gap Filler via fillthegap@gapfiller.org.nz.

This project has been supported by: C Lund, the Chinese Cultural Association, Canterbury Migrant Centre, New Zealand Red Cross, COGS and Rotary.

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