THE heartwarming story of how a community has rallied to support the owners of a Quarry Bank Chinese takeaway which was targeted with racist graffiti has been turned into a work of art by an international illustrator.
Joanne Wong, a British-born Chinese illustrator currently living in Hong Kong, was moved to create a thoughtful online comic strip story telling how the Quarry Bank community banded together to show their love and support for the owners of the Tin Sing takeaway in the High Street after the popular eaterie was vandalised with racist hate speech relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
Children at Quarry Bank Primary School painted a rainbow picture saying 'love is stronger than hate' and 'Quarry Bonk likes rice not racism' which was put up on the takeaway walls where the words "China scum" and "we don't want you here" had been scrawled.
Dudley Council quickly sent a team out to paint over the graffiti and more than 1,000 people have since joined a Tin Sing Appreciation Group on Facebook to show their support for the owners following the incident which is being investigated by police.
Professional artist Joanne, who grew up in Hertfordshire, believes race related hate crime towards people of east Asian origin has increased in many countries since the coronavirus outbreak began and she told the News: "Being quite distressed about this, I decided to highlight the discrimination through my illustrations by gathering different voices that have been a target of corona racism and turning them into comics or illustrations.
"I was moved when I saw the Quarry Bank story, as the community outwardly showed that it cared and stood against racism, so I wanted to include this story of warmth and hope.
"That's when I contacted headteacher Alex Rawlings to see if he wanted to take part in my project.
"Everyone living in Quarry Bank should be proud that they’re from a close knit, friendly community."
Joanne's illustrations depicting the story of the Tin Sing takeaway can be seen on her blog at https://medium.com/@joannewong_2506/love-is-stronger-than-hate-970526c9c81f and people can find out more about the artist on her website joannewong.co.uk.
Alex Rawlings, headteacher at Quarry Bank Primary School, which is currently open to the children of key workers, said the school community had been "really upset for the family" who run Tin Sing and wanted to put a positive message out.
He said the community response following the incident had been "fantastic" and he said of the artist's decision to highlight the story through imagery: "It's a really powerful way to spread the anti-racism message beyond Quarry Bank. "The comic makes the message really accessible - it can span age groups and languages.
"We are planning to use the comic as a real-life teaching tool that shows the power of community and citizenship. And we're proud to be part of that community."
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