Samantha Tong

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Chinese-owned food and beverage businesses in Manhattan have shut down, resulting in a loss of livelihood and cultural memory. Founded upon the idea that making the recipes of our ancestors is inherently a form of protest, this thesis asks how cultural food practices can be used as a placemaking tool to preserve immigrant identity, engage in decoloniality, and promote exchanges within a diverse economy. Using “self-Orientalism” in the constructed landscape as a design tool with which to negotiate power and identity, the communal kitchen encourages placemaking through creative practice, participatory collaboration, and joyful celebration. In the communal kitchen, recipes of my ancestors, in combination with the harvest of today, can be used to combat hostility, celebrate cultural identity and pride, and create a sense of belonging far from the land many of us call home.