Calling all Greater Manchester residents! Be part of a new, exciting project that celebrates language diversity, and have your own page in a Mancunian Audio Cookbook.

As part of International Mother Language Day, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) are excited to be working with artist Semay Wu on a new commission exploring Manchester’s language diversity through the common thread of food culture. They will be creating a Mancunian Audio Cookbook, exhibited online as part of CFCCA’s programme in February 2021. Like a traditional cookery book, each ‘page’ will showcase a chosen dish. This dish will not be described by the instructions on how to cook it, but by the stories and experiences that surround it. They are inviting all residents of Greater Manchester to share their food culture in the form of ‘audio postcards’ submitted in their mother language*.

To be part of this celebratory project, you simply choose one of your favourite dishes, and a story that connects you to it. Using your mobile phone, record yourself telling this story in your mother language. Combine with a photo of yourself with the cooked dish, and a short note to describe the story in both your mother language and in English. These four elements will become your ‘page’, in the Mancunian Audio Cookbook. Food brings us together. It builds up our communities, and encourages our connections with family and friends. The story can be whatever comes up when you think about, make, or eat this dish: it could be about someone, or a poem, a memory, even a feeling. We all have a story to tell about food!

The responses will be exhibited online, portraying the richness of Manchester’s 200+ languages. The Mancunian Audio Cookbook will celebrate the unique mix of voices, food and cultures of people across our city.