Low Carbon Chinatown | 低碳唐人街
Low Carbon Chinatown is an award-winning environmental initiative consisting of interactive urban interventions, a participatory platform, and meal-as-performances that together address the Climate Crisis through our food systems.
Using Chinese diasporic food culture as a starting point – due to its popularity and misperceptions around its environmental impact – it engages large groups of cross-generational diasporic East and Southeast Asians in the UK. Blending science, art and technology, they develop new ‘authentic’ sustainable ways of producing, sourcing and consuming food that evoke joy and memories.
Food, with its association to culture, is something we all have in common, breaking down barriers and bringing us all together. In the project, East and Southeast Asian communities worked with data scientists and notable chefs to create low carbon alternatives to typical Chinese dishes, exploring different ingredients, cooking techniques and food sources that, in combination, still retained a core essence of Chinese food culture. By presenting these dishes back to the wider public in a pop-up structure built using low carbon materials and processes, we showed how reimagining both food and design can contribute to a more sustainable future.
Low Carbon Chinatown is a project by Ling Tan, an artist and designer based in the UK, and has been presented in London, Manchester, Linz and Leeds. Recipient of a Seoul Design Finalist Award 2023, the initiative has been nominated for a number of other awards, including S+T+ARTS prize 2024.
– Project Trailer for Low Carbon Chinatown at London Design Festival 2022 –
Past Presentations of Low Carbon Chinatown
Learn more about Low Carbon Chinatown through its previous presentations in different cultural and public venues.
Resources For Climate Actions
Explore the cultural and environmental impact of food ingredients used commonly by East & Southeast Asians, learn about the lived experience of Chinese migrants and their climate actions, and get resources on how to cook low carbon Chinese dishes at home yourself.
Low Carbon Pop-Up Structure
London Design Festival 2022
As part of Low Carbon Chinatown, a Pop-Up Structure built from low carbon materials and processes is installed in Chinatown, used to host a series of sit-down tastings featuring low carbon dishes chosen and developed by London’s East and South East Asian communities alongside a data scientist and acclaimed Asian food writers. The Pop-Up was featured as part of the London Design Festival.
The Pop-Up Structure is designed by Ling Tan and Usman Haque as part of HAQUE TAN, supported by structural engineers Atelier One, fabricated by Gary Campbell and production managed by Nick Murray.
– Photography by Luke O'Donovan –
The Pop-Up Structure is intended to showcase other aspects of tackling the Climate Crisis by adopting low carbon approaches to designing and fabricating sustainable touring works. Designed to be easily assembled/disassembled and transported by a small electric van, the structure is made from a range of materials that are sustainable/low-carbon or easily recyclable in existing facilities once touring ends.
The Structure has four key components: a Preparation Unit, a long Banquet Table, a Pleated Canopy, and borrowed chairs from the Chinatown community. These are made primarily from three materials: These are made primarily from three materials:
• UK grown Bamboo for structural members
• EnviroHoard™ for cladding and surfaces
• Tyvek for sun/rain protection
UK Grown Bamboo
The bamboo used in the Pop-Up Structure was grown and harvested from Ness Botanic Gardens in Liverpool (UK).
Borinda bamboo originated from mountainous Tibet and was first propagated in Shropshire (UK) many years ago by one of a few UK bamboo experts, Michael Brisbane. Borinda bamboo is a hardy plant that thrives in different climates. When harvested, it is a strong and sustainable material with many uses in different industries such as construction and design. It has a powerful capacity for capturing carbon, particularly as a result of its growth rate. In contrast to trees, bamboo plants regenerate quickly after being harvested. There is a growing initiative in the UK to explore the use of bamboo as a future sustainable building material for the planet. The bamboo used in the Pop-up was kindly donated by Liverpool City Region.
EnviroHoard
The surfaces, counters and cladding of the Pop-Up Structure are fabricated using EnviroHoard™ panels, a recyclable alternative to typical construction hoarding panels.
Developed by UK-based Panthera Group, and normally used in construction sites as hoarding, the panels are made of post-production recycled PVC. In contrast to normal plywood hoarding, they are typically reused up to three times on different sites over several years , and then recycled and processed again to be used as new hoarding panels. Panthera Group has kindly donated Class B pre-used EnviroHoard panels to the project.
Tyvek
The canopy of the Pop-Up Structure is constructed from pleated Tyvek. While not strictly speaking low-carbon itself, Tyvek is a lightweight paper-like substance that can be easily repurposed and recycled.
It is lightweight, waterproof and a high-value recyclable material, often used in banners and disposable protective wear, which can be mechanically recycled into products such as underground cable protection piping, automotive parts, blown film, packaging cores and trays. Made with 100% HDPE, Tyvek is readily recyclable for its second life in existing recycling facilities. Tyvek from the Pop-up will be repurposed and recycled once it reaches the end of its touring.
Borrowed Chairs From The Chinatown Community
In addition, all the chairs used in the Pop-Up have been lent to us by different nearby Chinatown businesses, placing the project within a local sharing economy – with thanks to Min Tea, Wing Wing, Pot Pot Matatang, Jin Li, New Canton, Ku Bar, Gourmet Kitchen, Shanghai Modern, Candy Cafe, Imperial China, Mi Canteen, Monga, Dumplings' Legend, Leong's Legend, Real Beijing, Shu Xiang Ge, Wan Chai Corner and New China.
Leeds Low Carbon Pop-Up
Compass Festival 2024
Hosted in Leeds Kirkgate Market (one of Europe's largest indoor markets) over two-weeks period, the Leeds Low Carbon Pop-Up is an experimental food farm and data showcase, nurturing and stocking food ingredients (locally, regionally grown and globally sourced) that was later used to prepare a large-scale Leeds Low Carbon Supper Club for 60 people hosted at Kirkgate Market on 15 November 2024. The Pop-Up was featured as part of Compass Festival 2024.
Made entirely from recycled materials, the Pop-Up is designed and fabricated with minimum material waste. Every bit of physical waste produced in the project is documented and showcased at the Pop-Up to reflect the actual carbon footprint of a design & art production like this.
– Photography by Jules Lister –
Visitors get to explore the cultural and environmental impact of food ingredients used commonly by Leeds locals, learn about the lived experience of Leeds' Chinese migrants and their climate actions, and acquire resources on how to cook low carbon Chinese dishes at home themselves.
Leeds Low Carbon Pop-Up is designed by Ling Tan, and fabricated by Matthew Sykes-Hooban. With production support from Compass Festival.
– Photography by Jules Lister –
Leeds Low Carbon Supper Club
Compass Festival 2024
Hosted after-hours in Leeds Kirkgate Market (one of Europe's largest indoor markets), 60 guests (including local community champions and politicians), gathered for a communal feast featuring a series of low carbon Chinese dishes developed collaboratively with UK-based East & Southeast Asian community members, data scientists, and acclaimed food writers, as part of Low Carbon Chinatown. The food ingredients (e.g oyster mushrooms, chillis, spring onions) used to prepare the feast were harvested from the preceding Leeds Low Carbon Pop-Up and the Supper Club scene was assembled out of the recycled component parts used to construct the Pop-Up. The Supper Club was featured as part of Compass Festival 2024
– Photography by Jules Lister –
A custom Low Carbon Data Mat is laid across the entire length of the communal tables. Made of reusable woven bamboo fabric, it visualises the carbon footprint of the featured low carbon dishes, compared to its traditional version, overlaid with sentiments of East & Southeast Asian participants' towards the various dishes, and is used to highlight the environmental benefit of having low carbon food.
Leeds Low Carbon Supper Club is designed by Ling Tan, and fabricated by Matthew Sykes-Hooban. With production support from Compass Festival.
– Custom Low Carbon Data Mat developed for Leeds Low Carbon Supper Club.
Each data mat shows the carbon footprint of the 4 low carbon Chinese dishes based on a communal meal shared between 4 people–
– Photography by Jules Lister –
Low Carbon Chinatown Exhibition
Ars Electronica 2024
Low Carbon Chinatown was exhibited at Ars Electronica 2024 as part of the S+T+ARTS Exhibition where the project was nominated for the S+T+ARTS Prize. As part of the exhibition, Low Carbon Food System Workshop was hosted where the audience engaged in discourse about migrant food culture, while learning about the food system through the lens of diverse Chinese food. This includes exploring different low carbon ingredients, cooking techniques and food sources that, in combination, still retain the core essence of authentic Chinese food culture.
Low Carbon Chinatown Residency
Compass Live Art
What motivates us to take action on something like the Climate Crisis, that, as individuals, we feel we can only have a minimal impact on?
Subverting the use of social media to interject complex and, at times, activist messages, these short cooking-documentary films follow 4 Leeds residents: a 79-year-old immigrant from Hong Kong; a 41-year-old immigrant from China; a 25-year-old university student from China; and a 18-year-old high school student from Hong Kong.
In their own home environments, they each prepare their own version of a low carbon Salt and Pepper ‘Prawns’ dish, while talking about their experience living in the UK as migrants, and their relationship to climate change. The films invite the audience to examine how different ages, backgrounds, heritages, and life experiences affect the way people take action in tackling the Climate Crisis. Explore their low carbon recipes using the Low Carbon Digital Cookbook.
The residency project is by Ling Tan, supported by Compass Live Art. Special thanks to film participants Man Chiu Leong, Bei Gao, Haojin Wang and Stephen Wong, Lychee Red Chinese Seniors and Mafwa Theatre & Lincoln Greeners.
– Bei Gao –
– Man Chiu Leong –
Low Carbon Chinatown Supper Club
Manchester Museum, Barking Riverside
The Supper Club brings the Low Carbon Chinatown experience indoors into neighbourhoods and institutions and engages large groups of audience on the environmental impact of our food systems through a communal feast featuring a series of low carbon Chinese dishes developed in Low Carbon Chinatown.
Audiences engage with issues surrounding climate change through an interactive, educative and delicious experience. Before the meal begins, the audience shuffle their seating positions based on a series of questions that help them examine their individual and collective opinions on the climate crisis. As they discuss and negotiate with each other, a live camera feed provides an overview representation of everyone’s collective perspective. Once seated, audiences are presented with the low carbon dishes to taste, alongside the data science behind each dish. While having the meal, they take part in an interactive mini workshop session that helps them better understand the carbon footprint of food, and watch the making of the low carbon dishes on a projected screen.
Low Carbon Chinatown Supper Club is a project by Ling Tan, previously presented in Manchester Museum and Barking Riverside Wild Ecology Centre.
Low Carbon Food System Workshops
Hackney, Newham, Chinatown
The workshop format engages participants in discourse about migrant food culture, while learning about the food system through the lens of diverse Chinese food. This includes exploring different low carbon ingredients, cooking techniques and food sources that, in combination, still retain the core essence of authentic Chinese food culture.
Kicking off in London as our first stop, in the iteration, a group of almost sixty London based East & South-East Asian participants came together over the summer in a series of engagement workshops to experiment with cooking Chinese dishes while reducing its carbon footprint. They collectively develop a set of low carbon (footprint) Chinese food recipes, based on traditional Chinese cuisines that are popular in the UK, with the help of a data scientist Raphael Leung and acclaimed food writers Mimi Aye, Uyen Luu and Shu Han Lee. Visit our Low Carbon Digital Cookbook to learn about the various low carbon dishes that were developed in the participatory process.
Making A Low Carbon Hainanese Chicken Rice
MiMi Aye x Chinatown
How do we cook our favourite dishes using a lower carbon footprint approach? UK-based Burmese Chef and Food Writer MiMi Aye explored cooking low carbon Chicken Rice with a group of participants living in central London, focusing on reducing the carbon footprint using cooking techniques. The result is a low carbon version of the dish – with chicken still included!
Supported by London Chinese Community Centre.
Making A Low Carbon Sweet and Sour 'Pork'
Uyen Luu x Hackney
UK-based Vietnamese food writer and photographer Uyen Luu worked with a group of participants living in and around Hackney to develop a low carbon (footprint) version of a classic and popular sweet and sour pork dish with a reduced carbon footprint through buying and growing locally grown produce. No one misses pork once they taste this!
Supported by Hackney Chinese Community Centre.
Making A Low Carbon Wonton Dumpling Soup
Shu Han Lee x Newham
Who doesn't love dumplings? Traditional wonton dumpling uses pork and prawn in the fillings. In this version, UK-based Singaporean food writer Shu Han Lee worked with a group of participants from Newham to develop a low carbon (footprint) of the wonton dumpling soup with vegetarian fillings that taste like meat and wrappings that are made in London.
Supported by Newham Chinese Association and Royal Docks.
– Food photography by Uyen Luu and styling by Sam Dixon –
Low Carbon Chinatown is a project by Ling Tan, originally commissioned by Kakilang. Leeds Low Carbon Chinatown is commissioned by Compass Festival.
With contributions from data scientist Raphael Leung, food writers MiMi Aye, Uyen Luu and Shu Han Lee, designer Usman Haque, production manager Nick Murray, fabricator Gary Campbell, structural engineer Atelier One, and community film participants Man Chiu Leong, Bei Gao, Haojin Wang & Stephen Wong.
With support from Arts Council England, Compass Festival, Manchester Museum, Barking Riverside & Royal Docks. With community support from London Chinese Community Centre, Hackney Chinese Community Centre, Newham Chinese Association, Mafwa Theatre, Lincoln Greeners & Lychee Red Chinese Seniors.
