MBL: A Look Back at 2025
For MBL, 2025 was a year of steady progress and continued growth.
With the collective efforts of our volunteers, we worked across a range of areas including culture, education, children’s art, adoption dialogue, and charitable reading initiatives. Throughout the year, we continued to build connections, create spaces, and ensure that more genuine and heartfelt voices could be heard.
1. Building Bridges Through Stories: Haha! Britain Cultural Events Across the UK
Led by volunteer Bei Zhou, MBL organised a series of cultural exchange events across the UK centred on the bilingual charitable publication Haha! Britain. By sharing the real-life stories featured in the book, we engaged in face-to-face conversations with readers in different cities, exploring the lived experiences, cultural observations, and sense of identity of Chinese people in the UK.
These events helped the book reach a wider audience while allowing individual experiences from different parts of the country to be seen and understood. They also created a bridge, built through storytelling, between Chinese communities and the wider public. Haha! Britain is now officially available on the website of Waterstones, the UK’s largest bookshop chain, marking a further extension of this project into the public cultural sphere.
2. Illuminated by Children’s Voices: “Colours of Us” Children’s Art Exhibition and Ongoing Collaborations
Led by volunteer Xianping Bai, the “Colours of Us” children’s art exhibition was successfully held at St Martin-in-the-Fields in central London. As a partner event, it was featured as one of the highlights of the London Open House Festival.
This was not only an exhibition, but also a practice in listening carefully to children’s artistic expression. The artworks were brought into a public space and displayed and appreciated on equal terms. Among the 85 works exhibited, 33 were created by children with additional needs. These artworks remind us that there is no single way to express oneself, and that art can open pathways for children of different abilities and experiences to be seen and understood.
Building on this foundation, MBL also partnered with Charing Cross Library to launch the 2025–2026 Art and Culture Exhibition Programme. The Colours of Us exhibition will remain on display until January 2026, followed by a series of projects including a fashion show by children from Chinese ethnic minority communities, the MBL Huggle Group joint exhibition, the Aimei Fang photography exhibition, and an art exhibition by Diya Wen. Together, these initiatives allow the voices of children, women, and diverse cultures to continue taking root in public spaces.
3. Dialogue as a Foundation: Continuing the Adoption Dialogues
Led by volunteer Siwei Tan, MBL continued its quarterly Adoption Dialogue programme. On 28 December 2025, we will host the eighth session of this ongoing series.
These dialogues are not intended to provide answers, but to offer a safe and honest space for adoptive families, adoptees, and those who care about adoption-related issues to listen and be heard. Through sustained conversation, complex emotions are acknowledged, and experiences that have long been overlooked are gradually brought into view.
4. Beginning with Reading: The Ongoing Books for Kids Initiative
Led by volunteer Julie Zhu, MBL continued to work alongside Sino-UK Culture Bridge to advance the Books for Kids initiative. The project supports primary schools in under-resourced areas of China by funding and establishing school libraries and reading rooms.
Reading is not a short-term form of assistance, but a long-term commitment.
By the end of 2025, we had jointly established 30 MBL and Sino-UK Culture Bridge International Children’s Libraries and Reading Rooms. These spaces offer children not only access to books, but also the opportunity to connect with a wider world.
5. Language as Empowerment: The Fourth UK–China Bilingual Recitation Competition
Led by volunteer Tongyu Li, MBL successfully held the Fourth UK–China Bilingual Recitation Competition.
Language is an essential part of identity and a source of confidence. Through recitation, children develop a more natural relationship between two languages and learn, through expression, what it means to be heard. The significance of the competition lies not only on the stage, but in encouraging children to use their own voices with confidence.
6. Multimedia as Wings: Elevating MBL’s Reach to New Heights
Under the leadership of Vivian Ni, the multimedia team provided richer and more comprehensive publicity support for MBL’s activities throughout 2025 than in previous years. Alongside the demanding work of content collection, editing, and promotion, the team also explored and strengthened the technical capacity of MBL’s media platforms.
Every step MBL took in 2025 was made possible by the dedication and perseverance of our volunteers.
We extend our sincere thanks to every volunteer involved in planning, organising, communicating, implementing, and offering companionship. It is your efforts that turn ideas into reality and allow MBL to remain a place that can be trusted and returned to.
From single drops to flowing streams, from small paths to shaded ways, as we enter the new year, let us continue forward together with shared hopes and purpose.