A new commission from Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) and artist Semay Wu exploring Manchester’s language diversity through the common thread of food culture. In December, CFCCA lead a call out for participants to submit audio recordings sharing a recipe and a story connected to it in their native or mother language. Semay Wu will use these to create a Mancunian Audio Cookbook and sound collage to be shared as an online exhibition (and an audio-visual installation at CFCCA if restrictions allow).

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. We will be creating a Mancunian Audio Cookbook, exhibited online as part of CFCCA’s programme. 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. We 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 book a 15 minute slot on the day, choose one of your favourite dishes, and a story that connects you to it. We will record you telling your story in your Mother Tongue, include a photo and the recipe, and these elements will become your ‘page’, in the Mancunian Audio Cookbook.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.