滋養台南 | Nourishing Tainan
Exploring food, stories and philosophy in Tainan
Info
- Project date: Started 2023, ongoing.
- Project location: Tainan, Taiwan
- Project partners: Nanning Literary House | 南寧文學·家, National Tainan Chia Chi Senior High School | 國立臺南家齊高級中等學校
Overview
Tainan is a city of foodies. In a nation obsessed by food, there is no city more obsessed than Tainan. So when, in 2023, we were invited on a writing residency at the Nanning Literary House (南寧文學·家), we decided to launch a project in public storytelling, looking at how our relationships with food reflect our history, our identity, and our everyday philosophies of life.
The project is called 滋養台南 | Nourishing Tainan, and you can see how it is developing on the project website. During our residency, we worked with members of the public to write stories about the things that nourish us: the food that nourishes our bodies, the stories that nourish our spirit, and the ideas that nourish our imagination. As a part of the residency, we held a public afternoon tea event, where we invited passers-by to come and drink tea, eat home-made scones, and share their stories. And we finished the residency with a public workshop at the StableNice Café, to share our insights and stories — as well as to encourage those who came along to share their own stories.
Since then, we have continued working on the project, compiling a mouth-watering set of stories that also, as newcomers to the city, serves as a to-do list for things to eat. We have run workshops with students from the National Tainan Chia Chi Senior High School | 國立臺南家齊高級中等學校, and we are inviting members of the public to share their own stories about food!
As relatively new arrivals here in Tainan, there can be a no more delightful way to make new connections. Because nothing connects like a cup of tea, a shared meal, or a shared story.
