This project is a documentation of how the Chinese diaspora engages with the homeland’s food culture in everyday practices and communities built around it. The camera was taken to restaurants and supermarkets located in Chinatown, Boston, and provided a close observation of how those places generate spaces for the Chinese diaspora to recall the sense of home, identity, and community that have been left behind on the distant land. It is memories provoked by the five senses, traveling through the storage racks of the supermarkets and tables in the restaurants.

Food is an important part of every diaspora’s life. The project also serves as a portrait of a mere part of their life that is related to the photographer’s own experience of studying abroad, where attending Chinese supermarkets and restaurants is a way to surround them with the familiarities of home. They can shop for sauces, fruits, and vegetables to recreate meals that taste like home and communicate in their mother tongue where they can be understood. The loneliness and loss of belonging in the outside space is a constant reminder of the alienation that the diaspora experienced living in a foreign country while their identity is transforming.This is why attending to those places and building communities around them became an essential part of everyday life, as they can be embraced through foods and community.

在这个项目中，我将相机带入了那些在波士顿留学期间最为熟悉、也最让我感到安心的中餐馆与华人超市。对于身处异乡的人来说，家乡的饮食不仅仅是日常生活的一部分，更是连接身份与情感的重要纽带。这个项目既记录了美东华人社区的生活片段，也折射出我在异国求学过程中的个人经验。

在这些空间里，我们可以买到做家常菜所需的调味料、水果与蔬菜，用熟悉的味道与语言重构“家”的轮廓。身份的认同感在超市的货架间、餐厅的饭桌上、在耳边交错的母语中悄然流动。那些在外部世界中时常感受到的孤独与漂泊感，在踏入中餐馆或华人超市的瞬间，仿佛得以被熟悉的一切温柔包裹，也之所以成为了身份转变中的过渡所。

正因如此，这些空间与围绕它们形成的微型社区，逐渐成为侨胞日常生活中不可或缺的一部分。在这些片刻中，人们得以借由食物与彼此重新建立连接，也重新被世界温柔地拥抱。