| Details | Chinese Lunar New Year is a fifteen-day celebration of the arrival of spring, filled with feasts at the homes of relatives and friends. Preparing symbolic dishes that are eaten to bring good luck and fortune in the coming year is one of the most important parts of the holiday. In this talk, join Jan Stuart, the Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art, to explore works from the museum’s collections that can tell us about Lunar New Year food traditions. Restaurant owner and culinary entrepreneur Lydia Chang of the Washington, DC-area institution Peter Chang’s joins to share stories about the celebratory dishes her family has cooked for generations and the memories that preparing these dishes evokes.
Jan Stuart is the Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art at the Freer and Sackler, where she recently curated the exhibition Empresses of China’s Forbidden City, 1644–1912 in 2019. She was head of the Asian art department at the British Museum from 2006 to 2014. Jan began her career after holding a Mellon Fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in Chinese art, language, and culture from Yale and Princeton.
Lydia Chang is the daughter of Peter Chang, the former Chinese embassy chef whose family runs Peter Chang, Q by Peter Chang, and Mama Chang. After receiving a master’s degree in international business from King’s College London, she returned to the DC area to manage her family’s business. Her recent project is NiHao, a contemporary Chinese restaurant in Baltimore.
Register and join the event here: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aNrFsVgsR72ImokKm1IjhA
This program is part of Lunar New Year DC, organized by the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. |
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