Tasty Asian Tonight? is a short film that explores a phenomenon I observed over the course of my residence in the Netherlands. Involving the misrepresentation of Asian cultures found across local supermarkets, it features a documentation of packaging designs of Asian food products by Dutch manufacturers.
As an individual of Asian descent, I was perplexed with how people and cultures of the East were portrayed through a skewed Western lens. Far from representing reality, these brand identities appeared to use exotic stereotypes as well as romanticised images of colonialism.
In this film, I narrate my experiences as an international student as a way to guide my viewers through animated scenes that reveal the historical and cultural contexts behind these images. The telling of a raw and deeply personal narrative, alongside themes of alienation and disillusionment, provides viewers of all backgrounds a better understanding of the complexities surrounding these images which they as consumers may have overlooked.
