吃饭 (Chi-Fan) is a visual arts / heritage studies project tracing the intimate stories and migration of family recipes across the contested “Chinese diaspora.”
Materialising as a minigame, audiences enter animated kitchens which are vivified by interviews between young people who identify as a member of the Chinese diaspora and their relatives about a family recipe. Each kitchen features: audio ruminations about the recipe; photo essays of the cooking methodology; the dish’s cultural significance; and intimate vignettes of domestic spaces.
By playfully weaving these interpretations of a ‘family recipe’, 吃饭 (Chi-Fan) presents an alternative version of the ‘Chinese diaspora’ - beyond surnames, passports or dialects. The project gives licence for the interrogation of who defines cultural history.
Dylan Goh
吃饭 Chi-Fan, (2023)
Commissioned for the Aftertaste exhibition by Fairfield City Museum & Gallery, 2023.
Illustrator: Amy Ge. Web developer: Jane Fan
Photography by Silversalt.