Dai Food, from the series “We are Tiger Dragon People”
Close up of Dai Food, from the series “We are Tiger Dragon People”


Colette Fu’s pop-up Dai Food references the Dai people, one of the ethnic minorities in the Yunnan Province of China. The artist spent three years in the province, photographing the region and its people. Upon returning to Philadelphia in 2009, Fu began to create large-scale pop-up books featuring her Yunnan photography.
In this work, Fu introduces viewers to the cooking of the Dai people, with sour, spicy, salty, and sweet flavors. Fu took a picture of a young Dai woman wearing a long skirt and bodice. Her hair is decorated with flowers, and she is shown with street-food specialties of the region: grilled chicken, fish, and various kebabs, pig tail, fermented eggs, beef with red pepper, snails, pork liver, spicy noodle salad, and more.