About the Exhibition

Care-fully Plate-up is a bilingual photography exhibition derived from work package 2.1 of a UKRI BBSRC-funded interdisciplinary research project titled ‘Addressing Micronutrient Deficiencies Associated with the Double Burden of Childhood Malnutrition’, which addresses the interventions, drivers, and challenges of childhood malnutrition in China.

At its heart, the exhibition asks:

• What does ‘good food’ mean?
• How do parents navigate the complexities of providing nutritious meals for their children?
• What impact will the 'Healthy China 2030'
  initiative have on families and health as a
  national priority?

For more information about the exhibition, please contact exhibition leader and project co-investigator Dr Wes Lin at the School for Cross-faculty Studies, University of Warwick.

Overview

“搭配”（Da Pei）的中文意思是把不同的东西、人或资源组合在一起的行为; 也可以理解为一种新产生的形式。我们以 “搭配” 为视角来表达和展现当代中国父母在为孩子们准备食物时，通过协商和创意来叙述日常饮食。

《用心摆盘》（Care-fully Plate-Up）通过研究父母们日常的买菜、做饭和呈现过程，展示了不同地区、经济条件和年龄段的父母如何应对中国育儿和营养观念的变化。

通过这些图片故事,《用心摆盘》邀请大家对照顾, 健康和家庭饮食意义变化进行思考。用多层叠加的影像来呈现每个主题和独立个体对“好食物”多层次的认知, 以展开对“什么是好食物”以及食物作为照顾物质媒介的探讨。

Da Pei (搭配) is a Chinese term that can be translated as the practice of ‘matching up’ or ‘combining’, signifying the act of ‘doing’ by bringing different things, people, and resources together. It can also be understood as a new form of assemblage, representing the concept of ‘becoming’—the negotiation and creativity that modern parents in China practice when constructing food narratives for their children.

By exploring the everyday practices of sourcing, cooking and serving food, Care-fully Plate-Up reveals how parents across different regions, socio-economic backgrounds and age groups negotiate their practices in response to the shifting landscapes of parenting and nutrition in contemporary China.

Through these visual stories, Care-fully Plate-up invites us to reflect on the evolving meanings of care, health, and family food practices, while opening up conversations about different ontologies of ‘good food’ and the layers of meanings of food, as materiality of care, represented by the layers of photographs for each theme and individual group.