Yum Cha – Together! by Jenny Zhe Chang

“Yum Cha – Together! is based on both the installation Yum Cha – Sharing Monuments, which was created for the MAV’s Mapping Melbourne, Australia 2017, and the artwork Yum Cha with Milk Tea presented for the South Wind Rises, Asia-Pacific Contemporary Art Exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan 2018.

Yum Cha in the Cantonese language means “drink tea“. Tea’s history is intertwined with the history of botany and herbal medicine and it was believed that the very first drinker of tea was the creator of Chinese medicine dating approximately 2737 BC.

The basic materials of the artwork consist of bamboo steamers, couplets collected in Chinese from the Melbourne Chinese community and personal blessings in English combined with digital images of making food for Yum Cha. Like how the first person who drank tea may have been looking for healing properties, Yum Cha has become a communal activity that nourishes the soul.

The artwork is focused on resilience and togetherness. The final work includes a poem, which is written for this video ***“We Yum Cha Together!”***. It encourages the audience to consider how we eat and what we do for our body, mind, soul and wellbeing.”