The Plan of Going Home Workshop | Milk and Imaginaries of an Island Workshop Review

In early 2026, the Hong Museum will organize and plan a group exhibition related to Wenzhou/food, named The Plan of Going Home. The artistic residency project in the early stage of the exhibition is supported by academic support from te editions and co-initiated with Wenzhou-Kean University Library and the Nastore. The exhibition will focus on local food culture as the creative object, sorting out the ecological limitations and immigration changes under Wenzhou cuisine, or using a certain food/ingredient from Wenzhou as a starting point to touch on a larger cultural context, and translating it through contemporary art methods. The exhibition will be mainly held at the Hong Museum, with Dishbooks and Wenzhou-Kean University Library as sub venues.

To assist students from Wenzhou-Kean University in comprehending and engaging with the exhibition, Wenzhou-Kean University Library has recently organized two workshops under the The Plan of Going Home series. The works completed by students during these workshops will also be exhibited at the exhibition.

In the workshop themed Milky Memories, Rediscovering Women, Community, and Taste, artists Sha Shuang and Dr. Zhou Wenjia explored topics such as eating habits, body cognition, and local culture through the lens of milk taste experience. During the workshop, students sampled various dairy products, recorded their memories evoked by the taste of milk, and participated in the Zine Project. Finally, students collaborated with the artists to craft small installations consisting of their own photos and Inm Milk shell packaging. These works will have the opportunity to be exhibited at the Hong Museum.

In the Imaginaries / Daydream of an Island workshop, artist Zheng Yezhou introduced the social changes of Beice Island, the birthplace of Wenzhou's Yanyi Jelly. The artist believes that Island symbolizes people's imagination of a healthy community - a shared space where people can see and hear one another. Based on this concept, the artist led the students to imitate each other's body language, bridging the distance between them, and together they made radio devices to record their understanding of Home in the radio, forming an island through mutual communication. The radio device made in this workshop will also be exhibited in the upcoming exhibition themed on Beice Island and Yanyi Jelly at the Wenzhou-Kean University Library.

Wenzhou-Kean Library will continue to organize The Plan of Going Home series lecture, exhibitions, and live performance. Students are welcome to follow WKU Library's official Wechat account and actively participate in our activities.