# Project Description

BODILY GEOGRAPHY AND OTHER NONSENSES

Qiongyue Hu

Summary

Final work

Instagram handle for casual food posting

since I am a PROFESSIONAL CHEF

for photography please see @fiyoonah_

Cooking spicy content since ----

Instagram handle for casual food posting

since I am a PROFESSIONAL CHEF

for photogra...

College Central Saint Martins

Course BA (Hons) Culture, Criticism and Curation

Graduation year 2025

Everything BIG and SMALL!

Final work

Longing Road Towards Where Cows Shit

My mother grew up by the sand cut off by a fortitude of a mountain, gave birth to me in a hospital named 401 and had a c-section. Raised by formula, my peak of heat was radiated by a glimpse of an ultra-violet lighted cow residing in a factory room.

Dried, processed, I turned out to be a ‘Camel’- by barely intaking any hydration during the day. Maybe it is dependent on the rain flow and an unconscious lack of sunshine. It rains in my hometown like it rains in London, or like anywhere or nowhere else, pavements soaked, sky washed with clumps of cloth dragged trough pointy barriers you write with. Light has been dimmed with hydration, I consume bottled water from Marks&Spencer to preserve my natural clothing. The mineral is different, bruises yellow on my olive-toned arms, something is broken underneath through a sheer of skin seen. Finally, it heals, all colors fade and the mineral makes(takes) part of you.

Water in Paris gives me pimples and the desire for an expensive shampoo, that was the magic of this city- stains leak into your skin and grow there a temple for every little howlable unsaintiness mortally. I gave up my French practice after ‘Une Croissant’ for some one way cultivation in stingy piccolo squeaks.

People lie on grass and wet their pants, as if we are absorbing what has been missing from our cycle- it is always by the river, where water are baptized with dirt and saliva of lives- humping, farting, fleeing, shitting, and becoming the cycle. I went to curse by the river seine, I curse at the terrible marching band I keep running into, I curse at the long wait for a bus that is not coming due to many reasons, I curse under a raining hole of the emptiness where you can see the universe, I curse to be superstitious to believe in what is not to be cursed.

I curse the cows for shitting, I curse the horses for shitting, I curse the human-beings for shitting, I cursed a specific bird for shitting on me. What I had not realized is that it could be washed off. The washing off gives sense to every curse, for it loses its meaning.

I dreamt of a far away cow speaking its mother tongue to me, dry, non-juicable, speaking in all the terms that are as far away as possible from sensible, murmuring legends dry, spitting nothing, spitting no saliva, no milk, no ghee, no cheese, no butter, no cream, no lactose, no protein, pure words afloat in its status, loose to the ground, the eighth miracle, the ninth miracle, the 72 and 89th miracle when numbers lose their apples.

Fermented Milk Tofu:

Sour, gives you frowns, better consume when fresh, tastes like tissue pulled out of toddler’s pocket when hardened.

Lamb:

Better consume when death is still hanging by the tent. Cruelty needed. If not blasphemy on everything the nature builds on. To worship the man-kind.

Be aware.

Of the feces, where stains are left, to be part of the unlimitedness of the grass, to give back the hydration, to be burnt for warmth and scent, to be avoided and cursed at by tourists, to be worshiped by what was worshiped, to redefining what is worshiping and to make deities out of dust and germs.

Wearing masks for germs, or for avoiding them?

Longing with a bowl of a perfect egg-fried rice:

Not with induction stove

OK with my perfect wok

Caramelisation

In memory of a past family member, an investigation of pictorial identity explored by stacking images and risography.

Research and process

Political Fences - Anthropocentrism, Otherness, and Imprisoning Fear

Reflecting on the binary of ‘human’ and ‘non-human,’ the latter in terms of ‘animals,’ from reflections on dog breeding history to social segregation, this essay aims to distinguish ‘anthropocentrism’ and its physicality in view through examples in visual culture and spatial texts.

The methodology is inspired by an ongoing exhibition, Political Animals (2023) at the Pompidou by Gilles Aillaud. From his oil paintings extending into sculptural works from other artists, from the natural position of a human artist and their subject (in this case, animals), the projection of anthropocentrism will be discussed from different angles.

Regarding criticisms of anthropocentric art, an organization named ‘Stuckism’ emerged but appears suspicious. Based on their ground-built lively examples, the fundamental question of the validity of art is brought back to the table. If art is the work of humans, when it documents non-humans, does the subject/object definition collapse upon itself?

This reflection is crucial since it showcases the attitude towards ‘otherness’ in extreme terms, aided by biological classifications.

(First-person pronouns in this essay shall be automatically understood as referring to a biological human.)

Begin with a daily sight: the cover of Renaissance Ugly Dogs Calendar 2024 (2023) — a fluffy white dog with a face that matches the golden ratio face template that YouTube channels use to photoshop celebrities. Watching actual people’s faces being applied to an ideal, making people out of people, this Frankenstein act already tickles a weird self-consciousness. Adjusting the adjusted (acknowledged) showcases a typical mode of objectification, resembling a degrading horrification that may be interpreted as humor. Seeing humanity as ‘established’ and not completely natural, however, reorganizing features of an already objectified species circles back to the weak spot of the definition of the agent. Just as seeing adjusted human features works similarly, gazing upon a dissembled dog further violates the radical border of a mirroring effect. However, an ugly dog is always easier to handle than a gruesomely ugly human. The latter is made into hundreds of significant stories in books, on stage, and on screens, while ugly dogs are merely intimidating enough to be seen as a non-harmful, funny daily sight.

In its context, [fig.1], the ugly dog is part of a portrait in Trakošćan Castle of its young owner, Ivan Drašković, in 1872 in Croatia. The painting came later than the Croatian Renaissance era. This historical inaccuracy places the image in a literal context that totalizes its meaning and likely benefits its merchandising. From a physical aspect, identifying this as a dog leads to two scenarios.

In the first, if we see the dog solely next to Henry Cavill [fig.2]—despite the surprising likeness in their facial features—the fluffiness signifies the animality (dog-ness) of the left figure. Similar examples of animality signification represented with stereotypical facial features include King Frederick’s lion taxidermy [fig.3] and my grandmother’s pandas [fig.4], both created by humans who had not accessed these animals in real life. These works prove the existence of images of animals interpreted in human narrating culture.

Meanwhile, based on the composition of the original painting [fig.1], a comparison is drawn between the two figures: the left appears more non-human than the right. Therefore, given the context, it is the dog—the companion—in this painting.

In conclusion, there are three forms of human-centered perspective in the example of an ugly dog:

Contextual Fulfillment: Altering non-biological information.

(Passively) Norm Reformation: Subjectively being affected by human images through the application of existing signifiers.

(Proactively) Defined Otherness: Deliberately portraying animality by establishing signifiers.

These could also be seen as approaches for cultural creations that are naturally expected to carry meaning. Therefore, they are born with a purpose: to reflect/represent an identity with a temporality (Derrida, 1968). Based on human conceptual desire (Derrida, 1968), this dependence on images of a free-running stereotypical other is at the core of anthropocentrism, expressed under the belief that humans possess the only intrinsic value (Goralnik & Nelson, 2012). This belief allows the agency to modify cognitive reception, abusing the ‘other’ to avoid direct confrontation with ‘human’ as a character.

The relative definition of ‘human’ in anthropocentrism, established through its distinction from ‘others,’ renders the usage of humans as subjects to analyze anthropocentrism inherently self-contradictory. Conversely, studying the other depicts the dark side of the moon. Therefore, dogs—the companion species (Haraway, 2003)—which exist in the grey area between humans and animals, make an excellent subject in this context. The emergence of this species shows a significant influence of human activity: modernization and colonialism.

Modern dog breeds were mostly created during a historical period called the ‘Victorian Explosion,’ which also saw the emergence of the word ‘breed.’ The dogs we see today are artificial visual products representing humanity (and its desires) with biological characteristics that fundamentally fuel animality. Branching out from modernized dogs with systemized beauty standards, what does modification historically signify in terms of hierarchical standardization?

The canon event of modernization that transformed the world from a round and lovely formation into a pyramid—a structure only described but not to be touched upon—is colonization. In discussing dog breeds, even though we still see pre-colonial breeds (e.g., Chihuahua, Shiba Inu), they are highly influenced by colonization through the spread of colonizers’ lifestyles. Bringing their companions into new homes was a moral activity for humans. At a certain point, this species became an industry that offered more than just companionship—it provided spectral beauty and financial profit. A fact remains: pre-colonial dog breeds faced genetic replacement by European dog breeds, necessitating their preservation, while European breeds continued to develop and diversify. The dilution of pre-colonial genetic characteristics in dogs is a general expression of colonization, directly influenced by the companion species—dogs—due to their close relationship with humans while remaining in the clear status of ‘otherness.’

However, while dogs have the cutest and most loyal reasons to be objectified as ‘friends,’ modernization in the form of totalitarian conceptualization of humans is much crueler. A very inappropriate analogy and reference here is Political Animals (Aristotle, 1998). While its original notion concerns the sociality of humans—the ability to become political (through language, culture, and society)—this ability to adapt abstract forms could also be introduced to describe the complex motives of humans in their primitive instincts. In the political, we observe, and in the animalistic, we reside. This is what I believe to be a modern idealization in a dual form, similar to notions in psychoanalysis regarding the ego and the id. However, it is less individually intrinsic since it feeds off grand social features and hierarchically conceptualized economic structures.

For instance, in a postcolonial context, the dilemma of being self-aware while being gazed upon—‘being Black in a racist society’ (Tlostanova, 2017)—is demonstrated by Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks (1967). All humans are entities with biological characteristics that do not fundamentally differ from what composes animals, and yet, physicality is again translated metaphysically—into social status, race, and political beliefs—through positionality. Tlostanova suggests that Fanon’s principle elaborates upon Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness (1903), which can be both realized by individuals upon themselves (as in the example) and projected onto other entities. The subject of anthropocentrism, therefore, is more complex than simply the community that fits the biological definition of humanity. The principle of this ideology is to select and exclude the ‘other,’ which is most explicitly applied to distinguishing animals. By centering humans, anthropocentrism is constructed through a configuration of stereotypes—both broadly inclusive yet deeply exclusive.

The malicious nature of anthropocentrism does not lie solely in the ignorance of non-human features. It is embedded in the mechanism of exceptionalism, which can also be applied to other binaries that continuously prioritize one side over the other. Norms become a leash to mark and regulate the unwanted, but if one behaves, there are always designated dog parks where behaviors (rather than entities) are set free. However, the tendency is for the leash to extend to larger and larger constraints.

In Rescue Me: On Dogs and Their Humans (2022), Grebowicz discusses the difficulties a dog owner might face in applying to adopt a rescue dog of a particular breed. She recounts an instance in which an adoption request was rejected due to the applicant’s lack of a fenced yard, despite having the mobility to walk the dog regularly to meet its exercise needs. This expands the notion of regulation beyond the animals to the keepers themselves, requiring them to accommodate a ‘reasonable’ form of confinement. The subject to be regulated and disqualified here is transferred from the animal to the owner through abstract terms called rules. Grebowicz highlights that, despite her ability to fulfill the dog’s needs through regular walks, the rules remain rigid and unyielding, calling for physical comparisons to justify qualification.

In the abstract terms of confinement, Grebowicz also argues that a fence represents not only security but also a reason to escape, rather than ‘freedom’ (which is self-contradictory in its limitation). Such compulsory disciplines are only relatively valid—they are built upon situations with multiple possible outcomes yet serve as restraints disguised as directions. The intimidation they impose is based on unchangeable metaphysical classifications, such as biological identities, which remain valid regardless of subjective fluidity and its influence on (relatively) objective reality.

From a different perspective, in Abnormal Animals (2020), Chrulew discusses the abnormality of animals in captivity by introducing Heidiger’s observations on zoo animals’ stereotypical behaviors. In terms of zoo biology, Heidiger suggests that domestication should not redefine an animal’s fundamental existence. The standard in zoo biology is to recreate animals’ normal behaviors as they would appear in the wild. Chrulew furthers this debate by arguing for an open-minded approach to transformation when captivity inevitably alters an animal’s experience of existence. The fence, both implicitly and explicitly emphasized in zoo enclosures and Basenji dog adoption policies, serves as an authority. The fence signifies the fundamental establishment of humanity, which, being so fragile in fluid terms, requires physicality to draw the line as a preservation of shaky ideologies.

While the ultimate manifestation of humanity must become political, the weakest yet strongest weapon to pierce through the core of such norms might still come from consciousness. The unalterable gap between animal and human remains language—the very invention of signs alone, which makes little sense to any community other than its centered users. As Berger suggests in Why Look at Animals? (1980), animals’ participation in consciousness began with the earliest known forms of art—cave paintings—where they were depicted with signifying visual features. Later, Berger points to zodiac signs, in which animals make up 8 out of 12 symbols. The historical interest in using animal imagery is highly anthropocentric. However, truthful depictions and documentation might provide more space for animality to cultivate a diverse impact in the world of signs. Berger dedicated this essay to Gilles Aillaud, whose ongoing exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Political Animals [fig.4], coincidentally aligns with these ideas. The works in this exhibition depict animals, painted by an artist, interpreted by Berger, curated by an institution, framed on a wall, observed by a paying audience, and viewed from the outside through glass windows, placing them within the context of a museum.

(img)

Does this exhibition, which centers on animals, show any signs of decolonization? Contextually, Aillaud, a passionate philosophy student before becoming a painter, approaches his work with a discipline reminiscent of Chinese literati painting (which integrates poetry and images in "author paintings") and a strong tendency toward literal and philosophical communication. Therefore, his works are assumed to justify the voices of the subjects he paints. However, using the title Political Animals may suggest an emphasis on political awareness in Aillaud’s approach.

Assuming Aillaud’s animals possess an agency of communication, one could argue that animals are also capable of being ‘political’ through their ability to build connections and societies, as suggested in an essay from the Journal of Animal Ethics (Abbate, 2016, pp. 54–66). However, the traditional depiction of animals is insufficient to convey this agency fully. The expression of agency cannot and should not be assumed if an active border remains between the narrator and the subject. Thus, limitations persist in human artistic representation, given the nature of the practice, which inherently involves creating representations and symbols.

Nonetheless, the perspective in Aillaud’s zoo animal series provides a compelling reflection on anthropocentrism. Compared to wildlife photography, another common art form focused on animals, painting as a medium requires a prolonged gaze upon its subject. Aillaud’s perspective directly visualizes the regulations that construct animality. Does this view ‘challenge’ anthropocentrism? By making the segregation of humanity and animality explicit—through the artist-subject relationship, the frame-wall structure, and the literal fences depicted in the paintings—the artificial boundary that defines spectatorship becomes a clear spectacle of otherness. While remaining within the traditional mode of using animals as pictorial compositions, Aillaud’s emotional and expressive compositions highlight captivity as a subject in itself, illustrating the phenomenon of ‘studying otherness’ through the lens of otherness alone.

Compared to reinterpretations that attempt to eliminate part of the human-centered function of barriers, Natural History by Damien Hirst presents a slightly different depiction of boundaries. Hirst encases taxidermied animals in blue transparent boxes, with an obvious white structure indicating their outline—an artistic execution that reinterprets dead animals as art. The very idea of preserving even deceased animals for aesthetic purposes reflects an artificial value system, as Hirst seems to recognize the horror of displaying immediate biological features.

(img)

In an article criticizing Hirst’s approach, titled A Dead Shark Isn’t Art and published by the Stuckist movement, he is accused of plagiarizing an electrical supply shop owner, Eddie Saunders, who had displayed a large shark he caught in his shop window two years before Hirst did (stuckism.com). The shark was later named the Stuckist Shark and exhibited in the Stuckism International Gallery. But at what point in this evolutionary cycle—caught, dead, displayed, and ultimately "Hirsted"—did the shark become considered art?

The captivity of the shark is implicit from the moment it was caught, and its first boundary violation into the human world occurred through fishing tools—nets, rods. Later, it was placed in a shop window, an environment meant to display items with specific consumerist purposes, making its biological reality its most evident quality.

Transporting it to a gallery window marked its first literal and contextual manipulation, transforming it into a subject of human narration. Connected with other culturally socialized dead sharks—specifically Hirst’s works—the shark’s afterlife reached its peak when it was finally accepted and reinterpreted as a symbol: a sign infused with human-exclusive meanings for circulation. But this sign is not new; it has always existed in other forms. Hirst simply appropriated it, reinforcing his message with aesthetic choices that rendered it "safe" and palatable.

From net to shop window, gallery window to frame, and finally to a tank filled with preserving liquid, the shark underwent numerous transformations before it could be considered socially acceptable, as "artistic" as a fine lady sipping champagne at an exhibition opening.

The visual experience created for the viewer in Political Animals and Natural History differs due to their manipulation of the relationship between animals and ‘the fence.’ In Hirst’s work, the fence is seen first, before the subject, normalizing its presence. By equally depicting both the imprisoned subject and its captivity, the work challenges norms—but only in the sense of revealing the constructed nature of those norms. It does not necessarily challenge the exceptionalism that sustains anthropocentrism. Instead, it highlights the act of simultaneously seeing and not seeing—the passive acceptance of humanity’s presence as an unquestioned reality.

Conclusion

In summary, anthropocentrism is inherently embedded within human consciousness and, therefore, cannot be entirely avoided. It is constructed upon a harmful mechanism of exceptionalism that extends beyond human-animal distinctions and into hierarchical divisions within human society itself. Yet, it is possible to detect the symbols that reinforce this exceptionalism—such as fences—and reconsider their representations within human culture.

In this regard, Gilles Aillaud’s exhibition Political Animals offers an insightful critique by emphasizing not only the gazed-upon object (animals) but also human spectatorship and the security measures that reinforce human presence. However, the exhibition does not fully resolve the question of decolonizing the gaze of a centered community. While it highlights the visual and ideological barriers that separate humans from animals, it does not ultimately dismantle them. Criticism of misplaced subjectivity must continue in order to challenge the arrogance embedded in the anthropocentric gaze, which is often mistaken for granting agency.

At its core, the issue remains: the act of representation, by nature, is a human practice that constructs meaning through signs. The very process of depicting animals—whether in art, exhibition, or documentation—is an extension of human language and perception, making true non-anthropocentric representation an impossible paradox. The question, then, is not whether we can fully escape anthropocentrism, but whether we can recognize its mechanisms and reshape our approach to otherness in ways that minimize harm and exclusion

Excerpt from Dissertation: Generalizing the Scandals! through Historical Gazes on Chinatown

Chinatown, Westminster, London

#### Context: Immigration and Diversity

In the trend of globalization, London, having at least three times larger BAME population than the rest of England, is at the forefront of detecting the influences of diverse culture-fused lifestyles. According to a report and guideline published by London authorities on the prospected scene of retail in Business, an increase in ethnic customers will result in a 50% to 50% percent draw in the shopping demographic of white British and ethnic groups in 2036(2003). However, the trend of migration was slightly slowed down during the pandemic, which is a very important time stamp in the narrative of now and then Chinese nationals who are either migrants/British-born/or prospective migrants to the UK(2024). Being at its lowest point during 2020, the migration rate has not fallen below zero, and according to GLA, ethnic communities have contributed to the consistent increase in population also in fertility. Hence it is evident that migration and non-white and non-British communities have infused this city’s lifeline.

When benefitting from diversity economically, who and how is facilitating the need for diverse cultural localities on the soil of the city that has only been seasoned with vinegar and salt(etc.)? Local economic material abundance brought spice to England, and globalization brought the spice’s people to this foreign residence. Does the ingredient behave differently when cooked, seen as exotic or local?

What this case study seeks is evidence existing in nuances around food for the capability of localizing to produce authentic cultural rhythmics when ground knowledge loses its ground by living under a dominant temporality solidified historically in linearity. Therefore, Chinatown, a high-profile neighborhood of in the middle of London(Chinatown), is selected to be the stage to discuss (1)the minor power structure in the nuanced social production of Chinatown and (2)the performance of Lefebvre’s GMP in describing a space resulting from multiple ideologies under the following hypothetical conditions: 1. Stable in being an oriental spectacle for Westerners 2. Ontologically active and continuously developing to serve also ‘home taste’.

Therefore, this overview will introduce the cultural context in the development of Chinatown’s community and explain the hypothesis in macroscopic terms, considering historical stereotypes in a linear time sequence. The case studies conducted with primary research will try to adopt a de-colonialized perspective to discuss the proactive approaches and non-linear appearances setting a parallel temporality.

#### 1.Spatial Properties of Chinatown in Westminister

Also, Chinatown is formed of a two-dimensional geographical space of a square, much like Lefebvre’s example on “田(tian, ta)”(1991, P), a word meaning field in both Chinese and Japanese, the walking experience in Chinatown is not linear compared to The Bangala town on Brick Lane in London or the Curry Mile in Manchester on Wilmslow Road. Given the advantage of the geographical composition and position, ironically surrounded by theaters, Chinatown sets a stage in various dimensions to display a differentiated temporality.

On the wording here to describe the differently-experienced temporality, I hesitated on ‘foreign.’ Chinatown is, in fact, an establishment consisting of pan-Asian identities. Therefore, ‘China’ here does not refer to the foreign region, but a relative reality from the Western tradition. The otherness of Chinatown is, in fact, built on the abstract perception caused by the distant bodily experience of its Western neighbors of London that has justified immigration by economic benefits to reach a consensus of allowing multi-ethnicity. It might not signify a true and fundamental diversity of mindset and ideology that is easiest to manifest in a solitary uncompromising rhythmical pattern.

#### 2.The First Chinatown in London and the End of Localizing

Liverpool, being a gateway city in the UK, experienced the first significant increase of Chinese migrants in the 1800s by the employees of the Blue Funnel Shipping Line(visitliverpool.com) to have the first Chinatown in Europe. With sparse arrivals of Chinese nationals in the 1780s, the first Chinatown in London was similarly established on London’s waterfront in the late nineteenth history(polarlondon.co.uk). This Chinatown located in Lime House, now part of Poplar, was initiated by shipmen from Shanghai and Hong Kong, who resided on two of the streets in the area close to docklands, which later developed into a neighborhood opening up laundry, restaurants and allegedly opium houses that resulted in many cultural phenomena later on in the Chinese immigrant portfolio. The emergence of Lime House displays a basic pattern of localizing and displays a fundamental need in the livelihood of having premises to make a living by profiting in favor of the very residents of the neighborhood.

Moving on in time, based on the establishment of the first stereotypes of the Chinese community, a Chinese novel, ‘Erma(Mr. Ma and Son)’(Lao She, 1929),In the story of Mr. Ma and his son’s migration to London in the late 1800s, Lao She stresses a spectrum of inequalities at that time in how the father and son duo interact romantically with their British widowed landlady and her daughter, seeking equality in humanity under the then-British stereotype created by then-negative media coverage associating the Chinese community with opium in a post-colonial context.

By testimonies of the character, Chinese restaurants in London then were not seen as affordable by the lower class, elevated from the very livelihood of Chinese immigrants, but made use of its identity for business purposes. Instead of criticizing the appropriated identities to be affected by capitalism, from a decolonial perspective, it shows as a mode of adaptation of the immigrated communities. Also, in Lime House, according to oral histories, seamen came to London alone and chose a local British woman as their spouse. To describe the efforts as localizing alone would be romanticizing the survival challenges to be seen as foreign living in an environment that is foreign to the self. The gap between cultures manifested in a long-term residence has a border in-between that requires two forces to join together to close the gap and make the fusion. However, this border guarantees both parties to maintain their own properties while jointly presenting a unity, in this case formed by a shifting binary of foreign/ home, and a stable joint force of localizing and adapting.

(Briefly, off the topic, this model of having a border in the phenomenal fusion of diversity that resembles the identities generated by uncompromising bits of ground knowledge (locality) might explain the identity crisis of the foreign-born population and colonial mimicry.)

#### 3.Monuments and Symbols of Time

This novel was written before the establishment of the now-known west-end Chinatown, which traveled halfway through the city due to destruction by bombing during WW2(@@) and then developed in the mid-late 20th century. With material gathered during the author’s brief stay from 1925-1928, this fiction might not be entirely accurate, but it depicts a vivid picture of the renting difficulty for Chinese in Bloomsbury in the late 19th and early 20th century due to exaggerated media impact and an overall historical bias on the population. 15 minutes on foot away, according to a council document in the early 2000s for improvements of then Chinatown, this particular area from Gerard Place to Leicester Square represented a poor economic profile with low rents that attracted Chinese immigrants.

Adapting its identity to the local taste, allegedly to serve soldiers who returned from the ‘Far East’ in the World War period, Chinatown developed itself with entertaining businesses and restaurants in an oriental sight. Moving on to the start of this century, the impression of the current Chinatown was dominated by images of massage parlours, linking the area with grey businesses, which was replaced in the past two decades, including the time of the pandemic, by new establishments and openings, resulted by the significant input of the Chinese population, composed of 1. students on a relatively short term stay 2. High-incomed classes(gold.ac.uk, 2016). The demographic now illustrates less need in a rhythmical organization that recreates locality in livelihood, portraying a similar distance to their home food. However, a fundamental change in the demographic, while Chinese food is still considered a luxury compared to work-class meals, the consumption of Chinese food, same with other ethnic cuisines, is now contributed not only by British white communities but also by a diverse of communities which does not portray much restraint from imposed local dining manner that result in changes of paces.

With more food, beverage, and gift shop chains originating from the mainland serving a shifting customer demographic, the place-making trend of Chinatown is continuously changing. However, the change does not entirely portray a chronological pattern, as seen in earlier paragraphs, Chinatown has been caught in the impression of grey businesses, showing a repetition of occurrences of negative images in two different Western historical stages. Hence, the cultural development of Chinatown follows a separate temporality portraying an objectified agency.

While the 2005 West minister proposal still emphasized the physical neighborhood’s impact on supporting Chinese identities, the current ephemeral image of Chinatown in Soho proves itself of not being a center of a single nation-state. Relatively, mini-Chinatowns are emerging across the city with a different profile of immigration that prefers residence in high-end areas. Funnily, migration has come to a position very much like foreign food: the thrill of exotism can no longer be fulfilled by objects that are easily transported by globalized supply chains and the industrialized cuisine of the West(Goody, 2013, p73). The consumption of foreignness developed into a formulation in the grand narrative. This imposed structure influenced Chinatown’s place-making, reflected by an emphasis on G, while the M displays traces of mutual adaptation, and the P supports localizing. However, the diversity achieved in as large as a globalized scale, which could only be consumed by an abstract receiver or abstractly experienced by a physical receiver, removes the agency of the very taste that inspired the dinner, by selling as a set menu and hoping to run into curious customers. In DeBord’s words, the man no longer is producing the distance between him and his product, rather his product is now given a representative agency using the image of the man, to develop in a paradises shaking on top of toothpicks connecting the ground.

#### 4.The Future Answered by Diversity?

So far, we have enough toothpicks. The fear in such a vision is when the toothpicks age and no longer contain the strength to hold the construction above, could people descending from the utopia where trees are green, not wooden still imagine how and why these tiny fractures of flexible fibers are here? Would then the bottom of the construction be mistaken for the actual ground?

But before the coming of this time, we could still discuss if all the toothpicks were going to break at the same time on the assumption that they contain differentiated rhythmics that perform different durational properties. Immigrants, as historically, serve a diversity under the rules(punctual time) of their new host but not to improvise in a way described by cultural rhythmics, and the new temporal development in the motives of emigration of material abundance required much less locality for people to their new home. From the standpoint of a migration destination, this means a taste of blandness diluted by history to seek extreme expressions of foreignness and less active participation in localization from immigrants that manifest diverse ground knowledge. A form of colonization, in a post-colonial trauma that self-corrects by emphasizing diversity, does not appear in its traditional form expressed through political labels. However, there is this typical form of cultural colonization that is colonizing stimulations caused by nuances that are geographical, physical, chemical, visual, etc., by the habitation of higher classifications through metaphysical generalization. Referring to Lefebvre, the colonizing process could be illustrated as removing the durational properties of everyday objects to form a tableau that directs a physical perception of time. These signs also appear in the representational space(39) brought up by Lefebvre, shaped by authority’s perspective from a conceptualized space(38). Hence, this cultural colonization, which happens internally in a societal environment with a consensus that hides visible conflicts, could be concluded as a Perceptive Colonization for regulating the performance of stimulations through overlapping symbolisms giving preformed perceptions. However, different from his perception of power, the challenges of meaning for a space like Chinatown engaging with diversity shall be examined horizontally with temporality.

By suggesting re-realizing and discussing durational properties in the everyday and through microscopic angles of the primary experiences ‘drifting’ without pre-imposed expectations, I hope to discuss the practicality of the perspective decolonization. With a focus on durational activities, the aim is to illustrate Chinatown not as a cultural phenomenon to search for answers of questions and problems addressed in this huge chunk of cultural context via bodily experiences associated with food ingredients and spaces of restaurants.

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