"Dear foe yong hai"research report 2018

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/ CONTENTS /

STARTING POINT /01/ DESIGN GOAL /03/ RESEARCH QUESTION /05/ PROJECT CONTENT /07/ CASE STUDY /08/ IDEOLOGY & METHOD /09/ STORYLINE & SCRIPT /02/ MAPPING MATERIALS /02/ SKETCH AND TESTING /02/ FINAL PRODUCT /02/ BIBLIOGRAPHY /02/

/ STARTING POINT / 01/02

A feeling of alienation; A search for “Chinese Identity”.

As a native young Chinese coming to the Netherlands, the unfamiliarity and even alienation of Chinese Indonesian fusion cuisine such as “foe yong hai” trigger my curiosity for searching the “Chinese” identity.

On the one hand, the dish “foe yong hai” could reflect the complexity of history on Dutch colonialism, political conflicts, and movements among the Netherlands, China, and Indonesia; On the other hand, with the falling of those fusion restaurants as well as globalization, the Chinese immigrants (including second generations, third culture kids, and new highskilled immigrants) are presenting multiple identities and facing a lot of social issues, such as integration, generation gap.

As an investigator, interviewer and also a character in this content, I hope to inform people who don’t know this content especially the international people outside the Netherlands and make space for more discussions on the immigrants’ culture.

/ DESIGN GOAL /

Documentary & Narrative experiment The goal of this project is to make a documentary or fiction film about the Chinese immigrants’ culture in the Netherlands as well as all the complexity of the history behind this third food culture.

I expect the final product will be set up in an exhibition space, which will trigger me to think about how to organize the information and arrange the space with installations.

During the design process and research, I hope to explore more about the poetic and fictional narratives for representing history and reality.

Because I think the reality is more based on the different positions we stand and the aspects we looking at. Poetic documentary1 may show more subjective attitudes of producer while making a sense of blurriness for the audience to have their own personal opinion.

<1> Poetic Documentary: Instead of using traditional linear continuity to create story structure, the poetic documentary filmmaker arrives at its point by arranging footage in an order to evoke an audience association through tone, rhythm, or spatial juxtaposition. <Patrick Hogan - Six Modes of Documentary>, https://www.slideshare.net/ MaaZe/six-modes-of-documentary

03/04

DESIGN GOAL

Documentary & Narrative experiment 01.

The goal of this project is to make a documentary or fiction film about the Chinese immigrantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; culture in the Netherlands as well as all the complexity of the history behind this third food culture.

I expect the production will be set up in an exhibition space, which will trigger me to think about how to During the design process and research, I hope to explore more about the poetic and fictional narratives for representing history and reality, as well as experiments on narratology with videos.

/ RESEARCH QUESTION / 05/06

How to deal with complexity in a form of a documentary?

Could fictions represent reality?

In which way? How? How to use poetics and fiction in narratives?

Could anthropomorphism be applied to food? How to create more intimate or emotional atmosphere in this way?

How to organize the footages and scripts for better visual communication?

How to test if the video and collages of footage make a good communication with the audience?

How to make the balance between blurriness and understandability?

/ PROJECT CONTENT /

History and real condition # DUTCH COLONIZATION: 01. Dutch East Indies-Colonial Period of Indonesia (1800â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1949 ) 02. 1740 Batavia massacre # RACIAL CONFLICT: ANTI-CHINESE Indigenous people vs Ethnic Chinese: 01. 1965-1966 Communist Chinese Massacres in Indonesia 02. May1998 riots of Indonesia # IMMIGRATION HISTORY 01. South of the Ocean: A New World (Hakka) 02. Chinese immigrants to Netherlands # CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN NETHERLANDS (CONDITIONS): Different groups and multiple identities 01. First / second immigrants 02. High skilled immigrants # CHINESE FOOD TRENDS IN NETHERLANDS (CONDITIONS): The falling of CHIN-IND and search for authentic # A Dutch journalist who documents all the CHIN-IND restaurants The changes of Catering industry online archieve footages interviews

#

07/08

archieve and interviews

Documentry <The act of killing>

by Joshua Oppenheimer

Documentry <The look of silence>

by Joshua Oppenheimer

Documentry<The Search for General Tso>

by Ian Cheney, 2014

Documentry <My father’s choice>

by Yan Ting Yuen

Films to learn from fiction narratives.

<Reconstructing Reality>

by Alice wang

<HyperNormalisation 2016>

by Adam Curtis

<Sinofuturism (1839 - 2046 AD)>

by Lawrence Lek

Mark Hamill Reading Donald Trump’s Tweets As The Joker Is Terrifying

/ CASE STUDY /

Films about relevant history and culture.

/ IDEOLOGY & METHOD /

IDEOLODY:

fiction vs realism fictiocracy2 METHOD:

anthropomorphism3 personification4

09/10

Human are more self-centered and emotional beings. We love to listen stories of characters.

In this way, to find more connections.

So, I want to humanize this dish and imagine if it was a real person how she will talk about her background, her experience, her friends...

<2> Fic-ctio-cra-cy /ˈfɪkʃ(ə)krəsi/ n. pl. – cies.

1. Political regime that, implicitly or explicitly, considers the distinction between fact and fiction irrelevant.

2. A political or social unit that has such regime.

3. The principles of word-building and transmedia storytelling applied to politics and journalism.

4. The title of this longform. [French fictiocracie, from Late Latin fictiocratia]

<3> Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. <4> Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather.

“what matters is not the objective, real truth, but how a fictional story is pitched.”5 So, instead of some traditional documentary, I want to humanize dish “foe yong hai” as well as experimenting with arranging irrelevant collages to evoke audience association through tone and rhythm.

<5> <Fictiocracy: Media and Politics in the Age of Storytelling>, by Davis Banis

/ STORYLINE & SCRIPT /

Dialogue Script Writing

11/12

01 This is my first longest-distance leave from my familiar hometown and friends.

During the last year, I was always searching for some authentic tastes of China, while the food what I usually get here are a bit unfamiliar to me. what is the taste of China? What builds the identity of the Chinese here?

I become curious about this intercultural environment in the Netherlands.

02 One day, I encountered Mrs “Foe yong”, a charming and exotic woman, who has so many stories and experiences in her life which are attractive and reflect on me. We become special friends and talks about our life.

03 Dear, Mrs. Foe yong. Nice to meet you!

I might never know you if we haven’t met in that cold windy night nearby Lidl.

I remember your rolling long hair, red dress, the always-wearing warm smile, and the unknown accent. Then, your amazing sweet and sour surprised me in the first bite. This unfamiliar touch makes a bit sense of alienation, while also being attractive for me. Hope to see you next time. All the best.

04 Dear Mrs. Foe yong. Last time, I felt a bit unfamiliar but kindness (with some Asian temperament) from you. I am curious Where are you originally come from? Are you a Chinese?

I am not a 100% Chinese. I am a third-culture kid like many others since my father is a Chinese, my mother is from Indonesia. I was born in Indonesia but moved and grew up in the Netherlands at a very young age. My ancestors and previous generations were Chinese Indonesians, who were Hakka descendants originally from the south of mainland China.

05 Dear Mrs. Foe yong. Why you leave your hometown to stay here?

My parents’ generation experienced a lot of racial riots in Indonesia. Even they worked very hard, starting the small business for better life, in that time, the indigenous people were not friendly to them.

They always excluded us. There were severe discrimination, even violence, on the ethnic Chinese for long time. So my memory of childhood is about moving to another place to stay, but finally, we came to the Netherlands by boat and settled down for living. When I was young, I felt so much isolated from this Western environment/surroundings.

06 Dear Mrs. Foe yong, I am sorry to hear that. Hope you all the best now.

These days, I miss the scenery of Lake enhanced by pavilions, weeping willows and flowering trees. Do you also miss your motherland? Do you like Holland or prefer your motherland?

Actually, I have an indescribable feeling of this country. Before I came here, I had some bad impressions since our ancestors are tortured in their bloody colonized time. But these were all the past going away. After I arrived here, I fall in love with the nice rural environment with windmills, dams and local customs.

Now, I have a family with a local Dutch.

We breed two children who have almost built their own families. However, It sounds wired that I never feel myself belong to this land, neither my motherland.

I do not belong to anywhere, but this is who I am.

Here, I humanize the dish as a lady called “Foeyong”. The writing of dialogues between Mrs.Foeyong and me will be the main structure and storyline of the video, which affects the visual footage and sound.

07 Dear. Mrs. Foe yong, how are you? these winter days are so gloomy like a piece of canvas filled with heavy dark colors. I wonder how you could overcome these 40 years ago?

It is just a training in life to learn from loneliness and helpless, which we need to be used to.

I have gone through lots of difficulties as many immigrants when I was young. But I believe the life is about the experience than being successful, so I am happy to enjoy every moment even the tough ones. And actually, after every cold winter, there is a shining summer waiting for us.

8 Dear. Mrs. Foe yong, thank you for your words. Haven’t seen you for weeks. Do you have many friends here? How are they?

Well, despite my friends from Indonesia and Suriname, I have more Dutch friends than Chinese. My old Dutch friends visit me a lot, especially on a lazy weekend night. They love to invite me in their cozy self-zone. In the end, I always comfort their starving and make them super satisfied.

9 How about your Chinese friends then?

Oh, they are all around my age. We knew each other for more than 30 years.

Most of them are from Hong Kong, Malaysia, or mainland China, like Wenzhou, Fujian. However, one thing I found interesting is that even though, in recent years, there are more and more Chinese immigrants coming here, it is hard to make close friends with them.

10 Why? They seldom come here. Most do not know my exist. Sometimes, I feel more distance with those new arrivers on cultural value and habits. I know most of them are high skills immigrants with good education. Compared with us who still work with greasy dishes every day, they might kind of live a better life. Yes, I think they are luckier to come in this new era.

11 How about those new Chinese immigrants?

They are really diverse and behave well in work. Since I have run restaurants for most of my life, In my opinion, there are always connections between food and people. So I would say those Chinese have indeed show multiple personality and features, like what is happing in the catering industry here now.

12 Are they happy there?

I couldn’t tell. It is hard to say. However, Sometimes, several new faces come to visit me. They talked with me about their worries here. For example, the struggles and trails to make a balance between responsibility for parents in China and their new life in Western. I can imagine and understand. It takes some time to start a new life in an unfamiliar place.

13 Dear. Mrs. Foe yong, do you have any worries? yep, of course. The world is changing too fast. I am getting old and can not keep up with the times, especially young people might think I am a bit out-ofdate. Have you seen those Chinese restaurants around me? They offer local authentic dishes with varied tastes, including Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan spicy food, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, even Shandong food. Although they have just started for years, they are really popular now. People are also obsessed with “Wereldrestaurant”, which is a mix of every cuisine like Asian food and popular Italian dishes.

14 Have you ever imagine the future? ye. It sounds a bit sad to be a grain of sand in the history, but it is the real life.

And I will be happy to be remembered by some people.

/ STORYLINE & SCRIPT /

Dialogue Script Writing

13/14

01 This is my first longest-distance leave from my familiar hometown and friends.

During the last year, I was always searching for some authentic tastes of China, while the food what I usually get here are a bit unfamiliar to me. what is the taste of China? What builds the identity of the Chinese here?

I become curious about this intercultural environment in the Netherlands.

02 One day, I encountered Mrs “Foe yong”, a charming and exotic woman, who has so many stories and experiences in her life which are attractive and reflect on me. We become special friends and talks about our life.

03 Dear, Mrs. Foe yong. Nice to meet you!

I might never know you if we haven’t met in that cold windy night nearby Lidl.

I remember your rolling long hair, red dress, the always-wearing warm smile, and the unknown accent. Then, your amazing sweet and sour surprised me in the first bite. This unfamiliar touch makes a bit sense of alienation, while also being attractive for me. Hope to see you next time. All the best.

04 Dear Mrs. Foe yong. Last time, I felt a bit unfamiliar but kindness (with some Asian temperament) from you. I am curious Where are you originally come from? Are you a Chinese?

I am not a 100% Chinese. I am a third-culture kid like many others since my father is a Chinese, my mother is from Indonesia. I was born in Indonesia but moved and grew up in the Netherlands at a very young age. My ancestors and previous generations were Chinese Indonesians, who were Hakka descendants originally from the south of mainland China.

05 Dear Mrs. Foe yong. Why you leave your hometown to stay here?

My parents’ generation experienced a lot of racial riots in Indonesia. Even they worked very hard, starting the small business for better life, in that time, the indigenous people were not friendly to them.

They always excluded us. There were severe discrimination, even violence, on the ethnic Chinese for long time. So my memory of childhood is about moving to another place to stay, but finally, we came to the Netherlands by boat and settled down for living. When I was young, I felt so much isolated from this Western environment/surroundings.

06 Dear Mrs. Foe yong, I am sorry to hear that. Hope you all the best now.

These days, I miss the scenery of Lake enhanced by pavilions, weeping willows and flowering trees. Do you also miss your motherland? Do you like Holland or prefer your motherland?

Actually, I have an indescribable feeling of this country. Before I came here, I had some bad impressions since our ancestors are tortured in their bloody colonized time. But these were all the past going away. After I arrived here, I fall in love with the nice rural environment with windmills, dams and local customs.

Now, I have a family with a local Dutch.

We breed two children who have almost built their own families. However, It sounds wired that I never feel myself belong to this land, neither my motherland.

I do not belong to anywhere, but this is who I am.

Here, I humanize the dish as a lady called “Foeyong”. The writing of dialogues between Mrs.Foeyong and me will be the main structure and storyline of the video, which affects the visual footage and sound.

07 Dear. Mrs. Foe yong, how are you? these winter days are so gloomy like a piece of canvas filled with heavy dark colors. I wonder how you could overcome these 40 years ago?

It is just a training in life to learn from loneliness and helpless, which we need to be used to.

I have gone through lots of difficulties as many immigrants when I was young. But I believe the life is about the experience than being successful, so I am happy to enjoy every moment even the tough ones. And actually, after every cold winter, there is a shining summer waiting for us.

8 Dear. Mrs. Foe yong, thank you for your words. Haven’t seen you for weeks. Do you have many friends here? How are they?

Well, despite my friends from Indonesia and Suriname, I have more Dutch friends than Chinese. My old Dutch friends visit me a lot, especially on a lazy weekend night. They love to invite me in their cozy self-zone. In the end, I always comfort their starving and make them super satisfied.

9 How about your Chinese friends then?

Oh, they are all around my age. We knew each other for more than 30 years.

Most of them are from Hong Kong, Malaysia, or mainland China, like Wenzhou, Fujian. However, one thing I found interesting is that even though, in recent years, there are more and more Chinese immigrants coming here, it is hard to make close friends with them.

10 Why? They seldom come here. Most do not know my exist. Sometimes, I feel more distance with those new arrivers on cultural value and habits. I know most of them are high skills immigrants with good education. Compared with us who still work with greasy dishes every day, they might kind of live a better life. Yes, I think they are luckier to come in this new era.

11 How about those new Chinese immigrants?

They are really diverse and behave well in work. Since I have run restaurants for most of my life, In my opinion, there are always connections between food and people. So I would say those Chinese have indeed show multiple personality and features, like what is happing in the catering industry here now.

12 Are they happy there?

I couldn’t tell. It is hard to say. However, Sometimes, several new faces come to visit me. They talked with me about their worries here. For example, the struggles and trails to make a balance between responsibility for parents in China and their new life in Western. I can imagine and understand. It takes some time to start a new life in an unfamiliar place.

13 Dear. Mrs. Foe yong, do you have any worries? yep, of course. The world is changing too fast. I am getting old and can not keep up with the times, especially young people might think I am a bit out-ofdate. Have you seen those Chinese restaurants around me? They offer local authentic dishes with varied tastes, including Cantonese cuisine, Sichuan spicy food, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, even Shandong food. Although they have just started for years, they are really popular now. People are also obsessed with “Wereldrestaurant”, which is a mix of every cuisine like Asian food and popular Italian dishes.

14 Have you ever imagine the future? ye. It sounds a bit sad to be a grain of sand in the history, but it is the real life.

And I will be happy to be remembered by some people.

Interview people

to be continue