Chinese Protest Recipes

Clarence Kwan, 2020
"A particularly concentrated period of anti-Black violence rippled across the United States earlier this year, a confirmation of the dark prophecy indicated by the nation’s disregard for the disproportionally Black and Brown victims of this pandemic. We shared, marched, rioted, and donated; we read, cried, taught, wrote, and pored over the news. But many of us, people of color in diasporas worldwide, are still grappling with the devastation. Chinese Protest Recipes comes at a time when Asian communities in the West are suffering under racist aggression newly emboldened by Covid-19, and the deliberate misinformation circulated about its origins. “I realized I had a lot to say,” Kwan tells me during our correspondence.

Having volunteered on the ground in Toronto’s Chinatown, cooking and distributing free meals to community residents in need, the Chinese-Canadian cook took to his Instagram (@thegodofcookery) to begin sharing messages of solidarity between Black and Chinese communities after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “Whether you are conscious about it or not, you are making a political act and actively upholding white supremacy three times a day when you choose what to eat,” he wrote on Instagram. Calling for a decolonized approach to cuisine, Kwan urges his audience to look beyond what has been validated by Eurocentric accolades or institutions – and toward an exchange of cultural knowledge produced and perfected with patience, practice, and love.”
Shelving
Protest / Revolt,
Socialism / Communism / Capitalism