“Haha! Britain” UK Book Tour – Manchester | Finding Home in Britain: Belonging, Home and Identity
What does “home” mean?
Is it the place where we were born, the city we later chose to live in, or the people and stories that eventually give us a sense of belonging?
On 20th of October this year, the Haha! Britain UK Book Tour comes to Manchester for a special conversation on belonging and identity, held at The Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery, Manchester Museum.
Finding Home in Britain: Belonging, Home and Identity
For this event, we bring together two guests with very different life experiences. Through the perspectives of Chinese life in Britain and transnational adoption, they will explore a question that sounds simple, but may not be so easy to answer:
When our lives span different countries, cultures and identities, how do we understand what “home” means?
Panel Guests
Dr Qian Liu
Contributing author, Haha! Britain
Associate Professor of Translation and Chinese Studies
As one of the contributing authors of Haha! Britain, Dr Qian Liu will draw on literary writing and her cross-cultural experiences to share stories of Chinese people living in Britain, and how we observe, understand and find a sense of belonging in a place away from where we began.
Shaosheen Jewel Quirk
Guest representative, MBL Adoption Dialogue
Host of the Not Made in China podcast
Shaosheen was adopted from China at nine months old and grew up in the UK. Drawing on her own life experiences and conversations with other adoptees, she will explore how we find our identity and sense of belonging when our birthplace, the place where we grow up and our cultural identity do not entirely coincide.
Moderator
Dr Xiaobing Wang
Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor), Department of Economics, The University of Manchester
Research Director, Manchester China Institute
Dr Xiaobing Wang will guide the conversation, bringing together these two different life stories to explore the relationships between home, culture, identity and belonging.
From the experiences of Chinese people living in Britain documented in Haha! Britain to an adoptee’s reflections on growing up and identity, these seemingly different journeys ultimately lead us back to the same questions:
Where do we find belonging, and how do we become ourselves?
The event will also include an audience Q&A.
Event Information
📅 Date & Time
Tuesday, 20 October 2026
12:30–2:00 pm
Doors open at 12:00 pm for networking and book sales
📍 Venue
The Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery
Manchester Museum
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL
🎙 Panel Guests
Dr Qian Liu
Shaosheen Jewel Quirk
🎤 Moderator
Dr Xiaobing Wang
🤝 Partners
Manchester China Institute, Manchester Museum
The Lee Kai Huang Chinese Culture Gallery
About Haha! Britain
Haha! Britain brings together the voices of forty Chinese authors living in the UK. Through vivid and personal stories of everyday life, they record their experiences, observations and reflections on Britain, while creating a collective record of Chinese lives in Britain today.
Copies of Haha! Britain will be available to purchase at the event. All proceeds from book sales and all donations received during the event will be paid directly into The Mothers’ Bridge of Love charity account.
Join us in Manchester on 20 October.
We may come from different places and have lived very different lives. But perhaps, by listening to one another’s stories, we can begin to ask ourselves again: What does it mean to find home?
Reserve your space here.