FUNNY FEELING

The 1000 year old egg is a delicacy for the Chinese. The eggs are preserved by "covering them with a mixture of clay, lime, salt, tea, and straw" and then burying them into the ground until the chemicals turn the inside of the eggs to black (from the Global Gourmet). When cracked open, you start to see that it looks like a rare stone and the discoloration in each egg is really unique in each egg. The preserving chemicals create rings of color in the yolk and sprout-like patterns in the egg white.

Every culture has their unique dishes and the dish that brings back childhood memories is the 1000 year old egg. The memory I have is being eleven and trying to explain it to my friend who is convinced that my family eats rotten eggs. Besides the embarrassing part, I formed the idea that the 1000 year old egg is like the Chinese heritage that is steeped in mysticism and tradition of a 5000 year old culture. In the essay by Andrea Codrington called "Contours and Colonies", she writes about the work of de Geuzen which addresses Dutch colonization in Indonesia. Their work uses a dress of a Dutch woman as a platform to raise issues of tolerance, dominance and assimiliation on a social level. In my response, I've chosen to use an egg to convey the idea of culture conditioning on a more personal level. My traditional parents and my environment create a mix of American and Chinese values that makes me reflect about my cultural make-up.