How can geographies sound, feel, taste, or be dreamed of in diasporic phenomenology?

After moving to Montreal from southwest China, the feeling of disorientation surrounds me. It seems that my mind hasn’t caught up with my body and it always wanders to a different place. This reverberation of everyday dwellings in between different places—acoustic, gustatory, affective, and imaginary, is what prompts me to think through the entanglement of the unsettling feelings that may surface to emotional register.

During this trying time, I have been surprisingly connected to my aunt Jing Lin who I have never seen growing up in China for she immigrated to Canada more than twenty years ago. However, a holiday visit last year has brought us closer through cooking together and talking in our southwestern dialect. In cooking and sharing food, I got to hear stories about our family that I didn’t know of as well as her bittersweet immigration experience. I realized it is in the subtle and seemingly trivial conversations that life is being composed.

This diasporic proximity of relating to the paradoxical home through the experience of food—is what I call Poetic Cartography. In our food-sharing culture, some unspeakable emotional weight can only be expressed in the event of food. While diasporic food bears immense traces of migration, logistics, and translations; it also contains the creativity of the diasporic community to utilize what is available under different circumstances. 

In her vivid and compelling stories that are joyful and wholesome, there are also reminiscences of hunger and parting. To honor the memories of people, an virtual and immersive world scan be a good place to layer, render, and cook the textualities of her/our Poetic Cartography.

This work has been generously funded by Ada-X, a feminist artist-run center in Montréal. 

Speacial thanks to Jing Lin, Yufeng Zhao, Tyra Trono, Wenhui Zhang, Frida Chen, Zihao Li, and Professor May Chew.

   

    在离散现象学中，地理可以如何被听见、感受、品尝或想象？
    从中国西南搬到蒙特利尔后，似乎思绪还没跟上身体，总是徘徊在另一个地方。这种在不同的声音、味道、情绪、以及想象空间中的徘徊回响，促使我去反思那些若隐若现的不安思绪。
    在这段关山阻隔的时期，无独有偶，我与从小没有见过的姑妈林静联系上了。由于她在二十多年前就移民到了加拿大，我之前和她并不熟悉。然而一次寒假的拜访将我们拉近——我们一边做饭，一边用方言闲聊。在一起做饭和分享食物的过程中，我听到了许多以前并不知道的家事，还有姑妈苦甜苦甜的移民经历。原来生活就是在这些琐碎的对话中被构建起来的。
    这种建立在以食物为纽带的、一种共同的离散的亲密感和矛盾感，就是我所称的“诗歌地图”。在分享食物的文化中，有些不可言说的沉重的情感只能通过饮食来表达。在这样的情境下，离散的食谱便不仅承载着丰富的迁徙、转运和翻译的痕迹，也体现着离散社群在不同环境下利用可用资源重现“家”之味觉的创造力。
    在姑妈引人入胜的故事里，充满了欢乐与充实，但也暗含饥饿和离别。为了纪念这些人和事，我们创造了一个亦真亦幻的世界，用来叠加、渲染和烹饪我们诗歌地图的文本。
   感谢来自蒙特利尔的女性主义艺术家自组织Ada-X对本作品的资金支持。
    特别感谢姑妈林静、合作伙伴赵钰沣、友人Tyra Trono、张文卉、陈家盈、李子豪和May Chew教授对本作品的支持。

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