QING MING JIE 清明節 celebration : March 30, 2025

A half-day heritage food experience in collaboration with Oramasama Dumplings and KonbiniSF kitchen and community gathering space. The project brought participants into an immersive experience, including a celebratory Taiwanese meal, a guided plant meditation, an ancestral remembrance ritual, a lesson about the traditional and medicinal uses of Mugwort and Nettle — two plant ingredients used in making Kueh, a heritage food with roots in Taiwanese Hoklo, Hakka, and Pingpu cultures; and a hands-on Kueh dumpling making workshop co-facilitated with Taiwanese American food educator and chef Henry Hsu. In my role as ceremonialist, I activated the gathering space into a sensory experience with heritage and local plants, curated the communal dining tablescape, and guided participants in the ceremonial elements. The project’s intentions were to celebrate Taiwanese heritage foods, educate participants on the depth of history, folklore, and medicine of the edible plants that are a part of our foodways, and to cultivate community through the sharing of stories.