In Search of Rice

In Search of Rice is not your typical Chinatown visitor experience.

There are no stop-and-stare facts or dates to memorise. Instead, this is an artist-led participatory performance experience that invites you to feel Chinatown in a different way.

Guided by three artists you’ll move through London’s Chinatown together as a group - listening to stories, noticing colours and markings, breathing in scents, and responding to the space around you. It offers time to pause, tune into the city, and reflect on our own relationships with food, place, and community.

Along the way, you’ll hear voices and personal memories that reveal how Chinatown was built through migration, hard work, care, and community – often by people whose labour has gone unseen, especially women.

This walk shifts between past and present, asking simple but powerful questions:

What does it mean to belong somewhere?

Who makes a place feel alive?

What stories are hidden in the streets we walk every day?

For many people who have worked in Chinatown, rice symbolises abundance and sometimes life itself. The Chinese phrase 找口飯吃 (Mandarin: zhǎo kǒu fàn chī; Cantonese: zaau2 hau2 faan6 hek3; Hokkien: chhōe kháu pn̄g chia̍h) means “to make a living” and can be literally translated as “in search of rice.”

In Search of Rice is a ritual sequence: gathering rice, washing it, cooking it together, and finally sharing a spoon of rice and performance. We invite you to connect with others and experience the city through your senses. It’s about walking differently, listening closely, and recognising that every step we take helps shape Chinatown’s future - just like individual grains of rice coming together to make something nourishing.

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Production Credits

​Created & Devised by

Arati Kang Ting Ho, Victoria Yuan-Yi Ying , Sean Ting Hsuan Wang

Movement Director

Pamela Ching Yun Tsou

​Cast

Ting-Ting Ma: Victoria Yuan-Yi Ying

​Male Performer: Sean Ting Hsuan Wang

​Female Performer: Arati Kang Ting Ho

​Costume Designer

Han-Xin Zhang

​Voice Cast

Sandy Wan, Amber Lin, Katrina Man, Xiao Ma, Sean Wang, Arati Ho, Victoria Ying, and Michael Chui.

​Poster Designer

Victoria Yuan-Yi Ying

Experience information:

This performance incorporates a 40 minute walk and then a 50 minute conclusion in a restaurant. Seats will be available. The performance is in English.

The walking route covers a small geographical area and audience members will need to be able to stand or sit in their mobility aids for extended periods. There is limited public seating in Chinatown. The route is mostly flat with dropped kerbs. The restaurant part of the performance is up two flights of stairs.

There are no public toilets along the route. Bathrooms are available in the restaurant in the last 50 minutes of the performance.

Chinatown is a busy public area and is often noisy, crowded, and has bright lights and often strong smells.

A symbolic spoonful of rice will be shared with guests during the performance. This is optional. Cooking and serving the rice is the responsibility of the performers and not the host restaurant.

Your ticket includes a £10 voucher, which can be redeemed at Jinli Restaurant. You can collect your voucher at the end of the performance. Kakilang X Chinatown Collective are committed to supporting and nurturing new ESEA artists. We’re excited to share this experience with you, and your feedback is invaluable—please spare 5 minutes to complete the feedback form at the end of the tour.

If you would like to find out more about how you could access this performance, please email hello@chinatowncollective.london