OOPS: Oh-Onion-Pomegranates


重新摆盘 | Replay & Re-plate the Colonial History
2025






A plate is a space and a platform that holds food, reflection, conversations, memories, love, pain, history and the present.

In the summer of 2025, supported by the Goethe-Institut China and the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen(Germany), I completed a three-month research-focused residency in Germany . My project traced plants within colonial histories to explore historical connections between Germany and China and reflect on contemporary issues. Research centered on Chemnitz, a former industrial hub of textiles and mining, ultimately converging on the Meissen porcelain factory, supplier to the Kingdom of Saxony since the 18th century. 

Meissen’s signature “onion pattern” plate—a copy of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain(青花瓷)—ironically reappropriated the original pomegranate motif, a symbol of fertility and fortune, with an onion due to artisans’ unfamiliarity and ignorance, exemplifying cultural appropriation and colonial flattening.

In response, I again reappropriated Meissen’s plate, recreating the motif with Chinese plants that were planted in Chemnitz today and historically looted by colonial botanical hunters, identified in archival research at Leipzig University’s oldest botanical garden. The plate therefore became a platform where food, cultures, and shared history intersect. At the exhibition, it was used for a signature fusion dish, a pomegranate-and-onion dessert, not displayed as a luxury object. The plate was also sold for €289—the current Meissen price—with proceeds donated to the local art space Klub Solitaer, promoting sustainable cultural exchange.



Re-Plate: To Replay the History
A response, a reaction and a reexamination

Ceramics, two sizes
21x21x3cm
28x28x3cm









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