What makes us who we are? What motivates us to do the things we do in our everyday life? Or even take action to tackle something that as an individual, would have minimal impact on, like the Climate Crisis?
Low Carbon Chinatown x Leeds Residency is a residency project that explores the backgrounds and identities of Leeds’ East and Southeast Asian Chinese diasporas, their relationship to Asian Chinese food culture, and how they tackle the climate crisis in their everyday life through food and cooking.
Four short cooking-documentary films were developed as part of the residency. Inspired by the use of pervasive social media content to interject complex and, at times, activist, messages (e.g. an American teenager used makeup tutorial on TikTok to spread awareness of internment camps in Xinjiang), the films follow 4 Leeds residents, a 79-year-old immigrant from Hong Kong, a 41-year-old immigrant from China, a 25-year-old university student from China, and a 18-year-old high school student from Hong Kong into their own home environments. They each cook their own version of a low carbon Salt and Pepper ‘Prawns’ dish in their own kitchen, while talking about their own experience living in the UK as immigrants and migrants, and their relationship to climate change. The films invite the audience to examine how different age, background, heritage, and life experience affects the way people cook food at home and in tackling the climate crisis.
Building on Low Carbon Chinatown, a group of local participants explored the environmental impact of a chosen traditional Asian Chinese dish (Salt & Pepper Prawns). Using data science, they looked at the dish’s carbon footprint impact, the impact of Asian Chinese food culture and explored ways to cook it that would reduce its carbon footprint. The engagement culminates in a final sharing session where all the participants gather together to enjoy the co-developed low carbon dish cooked by a local chef.
“I truly enjoyed the project, which gave me a chance to connect to my heritage and also reflect on our daily modern lifestyle. How to cook more environmentally and live more sustainably, this is the ultimate question we should always ask and seek answers for, to secure a beautiful future for our children.”
– Bei Gao, film participant
” I really enjoyed the whole residency with Ling – I am so glad to have got involved as I’ve started to enjoy experimenting with recipes …! “
– Sally Chan, workshop participant
Special thanks to
Team at Compass Live Art – Peter Reed, Jennie Gilman
Film participant and chef Man Chiu Leong
Filmmaker Rachel Bunce
The other 3 film participants – Bei Gao, Haojin Wang, Stephen Wong
All the participants who attended the workshops
Lychee Red Chinese Seniors
Mafwa Theatre & Lincoln Greeners
Low Carbon Chinatown x Leeds is a residency project by Ling Tan, supported by Compass Live Art.
