The MUTEK Recorder
Episode 05: Xiaowei Wang
Speakers:
Claire L. Evans
Xiaowei Wang
Profile:
Xiaowei Wang
Writer and designer Xiaowei R. Wang is driven by beliefs in the “political power of being present, in dissolving the universal and categorical.” They are the Creative Director of Logic, and author of Blockchain Chicken Farm, a book that looks to rural China—not their homefront Silicon Valley—as a locus of tech-innovation. Wang’s recent artistic works include Future of Memory (2019-), an exploration of language and algorithmic censorship, and Shanzhai Secrets (2019), which explores consumption and copyright by way of Shenzhen.
Soundbite:
Blockchain Chicken Farm is a book about tech in China’s countryside that looks at a series of contemporary moments. At blockchain chicken farm, this actual farm that I visited, for example, all the chickens wore chicken fitbits that tracked their movements—they were heavily surveilled—and blockchain was used in order to guarantee food safety and track provenance.”
Xiaowei R. Wang, on looking to rural China rather than North American or European consumer electronics as the locus of tech innovation
Soundbite:
“In terms of recording, in the book I have a lot of speculative recipes. Recipes are a format that I see as a way of recording in the field. Whenever I visit people, I try to share meals with them and gather recipes.”
Xiaowei R. Wang, on breaking bread as research ritual
Project:
Published last year, Blockchain Chicken Farm is not specifically about any of the things mentioned in its title but a sustained analysis by Wang that looks to rural China as the locus of tech innovation. Decentering the white North American or European tech consumer as ‘the subject’ of innovation, the book looks to food, agriculture, and the East Asian (agrarian) citizen as sites where new technologies are integrated into the fabric of everyday life. Leaning into the centrality of food, Wang includes a number of ‘sinofuturist recipes’ that extrapolate different futures, based on shifting norms and scarcity.
Soundbite:
“I want to quickly show you some of the things I have in my kitchen right now. I have some osmanthus flower—I’m going to make a tea with it. It’s a lovely cooling drink to which I’ll add licorice root, some hawthorn slices, and some hibiscus.”
Xiaowei R. Wang, sharing a fragrant kitchen inventory with MUTEK Recorder viewers
Soundbite:
“I really love thinking about the kitchen as a studio or gallery. There’s always something that’s really feminized about the kitchen and often ignored. Recipes are often discredited because it’s seen as a form of feminized labour.”
Xiaowei R. Wang, on resisting the erasure of the kitchen—by foregrounding it
Choice Recipe:
Following the MUTEK Recorder conversation, Xiaowei shared the following recipe with HOLO readers.

RED-BRAISED PIG TAILS

In large scale hog farming, stressed piglets bite each others tails off. Pig tails are a delicacy in the age of genetically modified, industrial hog farming where pig tails are being engineered out.

Ingredients:

1/2 inch stick of licorice, 1 tbsp of ginger, minced finely, 2 cloves of garlic, minced finely, 1/2 stick of Chinese cinnamon (cassia bark), 1 tbsp green Szechuan peppercorns, 3 star anise, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 bay leaf, 1 cup of soy sauce, oil, 1 pig tail, 2 eggs, cilantro, scallions

Preparation

  1. First, make eggs (for ludan, or soy eggs), boil eggs for 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Remove from heat and immediately put eggs in a cooling ice bath. Peel eggs, set aside.
  2. Fill a large wok with water and bring to a boil. Place the pig tail in boiling water and poach the pig tail for a minute. Remove the scum that floats at the top of the water. Remove pig tail and set aside.
  3. Dump the water out from the wok, making sure to dry the wok. In the dry wok, pour some oil. Put the pig tail into the wok, along with 1/2 a tbsp of sugar. Turn the heat to medium to carmelize the pig tail on both sides. Remove the pig tail once exterior has turned brown.
  4. In the wok, keep the oil at medium. Add in the minced garlic and ginger. Stir for a few minutes, until ginger and garlic become fragrant.
  5. Put the oil, ginger, and garlic into a clay pot. Add the pig tail, the two peeled eggs and the rest of the spices: cinnamon, licorice, Szechuan peppercorn, anise and bayleaf. Add the other 1/2 tbsp of sugar and soysauce. Put clay pot on stove and cover. For a soft boiled egg with jammy yolks, don’t put the soft boiled eggs into the pot—use the seasoning liquid as a cold bath and steep the eggs in the soy sauce mixture for up to 2 hours.
  6. Simmer at medium just until slightly bubbling, then turn heat to a low simmer for up to 2 hours. The longer you simmer for, the more flavorful the meat and eggs will become.
  7. Remove tail and eggs from heat, plate and garnish with scallions and cilantro.

$40 USD