William Sheppard has been selected to join the organisation via the 2025-2026 Future Talent Programme.
William is an ambitious and focused student of history, dedicated to researching the social and cultural history of migrants, particularly Chinese migrants to Britain. The passion towards my research is built upon a personal and professional goal to advance cross-cultural understanding and to drive positive change across academic disciplines and across society.
Here is William’s introduction proposed project for the year:
“During my undergraduate studies I co-hosted the opening evening of the Electric Shadows: Leicester Chinese Film Festival on two consecutive occasions, in 2023 and 2024. This experience facilitated my passion for positive cross-cultural collaboration alongside my developing Chinese language ability. These two events also demonstrated the power of film as a tool for diplomacy and cross-cultural understanding.
I have been invited to present a paper at The Migration Conference 2026 in Bratislava; this multi-disciplined conference presentation is built upon my undergraduate dissertation Sichuan to Soho: Chinese Migration and Kung Pao Chicken. This research has also led to an invite to a workshop to be held in 2026 organised by Immigrants & Minorities journal with a view to a potential future publication.
My proposed project, through the research and development of a documentary film series, will explore how second-generation British Chinese have utilised food to negotiate, redefine, and reclaim their identity. The British Chinese community remains relatively understudied, and the narrative of the ‘British-born Chinese’ is often oversimplified. As a group, the ‘British-born Chinese’ have been frequently reduced to statistics of academic or professional success, overlooking the flavour that Chinese migrants add to British society. This project will begin to fill that lacuna. Through the diplomatic medium of food, the project will reveal how this community redefines “authenticity” in the dishes they have developed for consumers at home or on the high street, challenging the rigid or commercially driven concept of “authentic” Chinese food. Through intimate portraits of chefs, food bloggers, and families, the project will explore how the second generation has redeveloped dishes that reflect an upbringing across cultures. whilst reclaiming the double-barrelled identities of British Chinese or ‘British-born Chinese’ on their own terms.
Moreover, the project will build upon my historical research into the Chinese in Britain, demonstrating the community’s heterogeneity and the first generation’s establishment of restaurants and takeaways as a means of survival and economic integration. Investigating how the second-generation migrant experiences of this environment led to a diversification of “authentic” foods. To explore this, the project aims to produce a mini-series for publication on accessible platforms, enabling a democratisation of knowledge. Each episode will combine visual historical sources with personal interviews and employ historical narratives alongside striking culinary cinematography. In doing so, the project meets the talent programme mission by engaging with film diplomacy from the ground up, highlighting the everyday diplomats, the British Chinese community, who have, through food and across generations, long built cultural bridges across the UK and China.
Using film to document the living history of the British Chinese community will showcase how the Chinese in Britain are active creators and participants of contemporary British culture, while maintaining a fluid connection to their heritage. Thus, moving the conversation beyond stereotypes, and spreading awareness and understanding of the colourful, nuanced reality of a second-generation at a cultural crossroads. With the mentorship and platform of the Future Talent Programme, I am confident the project will transform into a powerful testament to the evolving, collaborative spirit of UK-China relations, one plate at a time.”
You can connect with William here.
