Frankfurt Lab

“China Box” is an artistic project featuring food and storytelling. The takeout “China Box” is explored as a cultural object and recontextualized through the voices of the Chinese diaspora in Hesse.
Nine Chinese-speaking people from Hesse – from different generations and with different life paths – have shared their migration stories and everyday experiences. Their stories have now been incorporated into nine Story Boxes. Visitors can open these boxes, read their stories, and listen to their voices.

In addition to the Story Box, there will be continuous cooking and dining throughout both days: an open invitation to gather around the table together.
The installation features three special events, each exploring the connection between food and meaning in its own way:

Kit invites you to “恰流水席” – A Feast That Never Sits Still: a dining tradition that originated at Chinese village festivals. Strangers and acquaintances sit together at long tables; guests come and go in waves, and dishes are served in an unbroken succession. Two such tables will be set up in the garden and foyer of the Frankfurt Lab, where guests can move from one dish to the next, bowl in hand. Kit’s sumptuous menu is also an invitation to reflect: What actually counts as “authentic Chinese cuisine” – and who decides that?

Sichi will host the „不幸运饼干” – Unlucky Cookie Workshop: a twist on the well-known fortune cookie. Instead of words of wisdom, these cookies contain different messages. Together with Sichi, participants will make their own unlucky cookies – and curse together.

Yinfu invites you to 故事盒子：爱我，你怕辣吗? – „Story Box Workshop.” For the project China Box, she interviewed Chinese immigrants living and working in Hesse — each with their own reasons and paths for coming to Germany. Their stories became nine Story Boxes, whose blueprints follow the shape of the China Box takeout container. Guided by Yinfu, participants are invited to fold the printed paper sheets step by step into three-dimensional boxes, until a Story Box installation takes shape.

Yinfu will also open up her own story/food box – telling her own story through “spicy chicken feet,” a snack from her hometown. Feeling brave? Take on the Spicy Chicken Feet Challenge (Don’t say we didn’t warn you!).

03.10.2026:

16.00: A FEAST THAT NEVER SITS STILL with Ling-Kit

17.00: UNLUCKY COOKIE Workshop with Sichi Li

18.00: STORY BOX Workshop with Yinfu Gao

04.10.2026:

13.00: STORY BOX Workshop with Yinfu Gao

14.00: A FEAST THAT NEVER SITS STILL with Ling-Kit

15.00: UNLUCKY COOKIE Workshop with Sichi Li