ANAS CHAO

I grew up eating dumplings that my mom made, she learned it from her mom in Saudi Arabia, who learned it from her mom in China. Each generation sees slight changes in their dumplings, reflecting the time and space that they traverse through. I call them “home dumplings”, not only because of its link to my mom, but it is also quite often the first thing that I eat when I return home after travels.

To recreate that feeling of home in the Netherlands, I bought minced beef from a Kurdish butcher, mixed with Dutch-grown carrot and spring onion, seasoned with Singaporean sesame oil and French sea salt. All wrapped into dough made with Polish flour, steamed in a Thai steamer that was bought from a store owned by Surinamese Dutch of Chinese origins. The dumplings have a slightly different taste and texture from that of my mom’s, distinct to the combination of ingredients I used. These dumplings are made in the Netherlands, they are my Dutch home dumplings.

But can I deliberately call these dumplings Dutch? After all, they are made with materials that are found in the Netherlands at this given moment, a combination of circumstances that would not have existed elsewhere. What does it take for a dumpling to be called Dutch? Does it have to be made with ingredients found in the Netherlands, or made by a Dutch person? What does it take for a person to be called Dutch?

To look into this matter, I began hosting workshops in the Netherlands. Participants were asked to bring their own filling, wrapped into dough that I have prepared. Participants eventually would exchange and combine their fillings with each other, resulting in dumplings of various shapes and tastes. The information gathered from the workshops are analysed and organised into a collection of stories, forming the base of the collage that is in front of you.

Much like what happened at the workshops, our personal identities and sense of belonging changes throughout the time and space that we find ourselves in. We start off with what we were born into, then blend with Others that we meet along the way, transforming into identities specific to given circumstances, enabling us to find belonging across the journey of life.

The collage incorporates found images from the internet with images from my personal archive, portraying the hodgepodge that is today’s society. Identity can no longer be found in singularity, belonging is ever-shifting and constantly on the move. This work presents the idea of home as the entanglement in a network of history and power, and reinspects the significance of origins and Othering in this day and age. The flip side of adapting to a home in every here and now, is the lost of past homes and the uncertainty of homes in the future.

As this presentation of my ongoing research comes to Italy, I would like to extend my inquiry into Italian dumplings, and this comes with two considerations. First due to the heavy presence of Italian cuisine in the Dutch culture today, both in the public sphere of Italian-themed restaurants and the popularity of homemade pasta in Dutch household. Secondly, for a work of ethnographic nature, I personally consider interactions to be essential to not just enhance a deeper connection with the audience, but also to extend the work beyond a curatorial space.

Would you like to contribute to the research? Please click here to fill out the form. I will reach out to you in case I need more information, or update you with possible events in the future.