幸運指南 Make Your Own Fortune
單頻道錄像、幸運餅乾、現成物
Single-channel video （8′25″）、Fortune Cookie、Found Object
Directed and Edited by
Chih Kai Lu, Miao Ying Lu
Concept
Miao Ying Lu, Chih Kai Lu
Screenplay by
Miao Ying Lu, Chih Kai Lu
Photography
Chih Kai Lu
Colorist
Chih Kai Lu
Main–role
Leonardo Cattaneo, Miao Ying Lu
Voice-over
Leonardo Cattaneo
German Translation
Leonardo Cattaneo
Brochure
Miao Ying Lu
Special Thanks to
Anna Proissl, Finn
2025
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幸運餅乾是一種文化產品。在西方社會中，它們經常被視為東方文化的象徵，然而實際上，它們與東亞傳統毫無關聯。這種文化錯位激發了我們創作以幸運餅乾為主題的計劃，探索其象徵背後的文化誤解。Single-channel video （8′25″）、Fortune Cookie、Found Object
Directed and Edited by
Chih Kai Lu, Miao Ying Lu
Concept
Miao Ying Lu, Chih Kai Lu
Screenplay by
Miao Ying Lu, Chih Kai Lu
Photography
Chih Kai Lu
Colorist
Chih Kai Lu
Main–role
Leonardo Cattaneo, Miao Ying Lu
Voice-over
Leonardo Cattaneo
German Translation
Leonardo Cattaneo
Brochure
Miao Ying Lu
Special Thanks to
Anna Proissl, Finn
2025
我們曾讀到一篇關於幸運餅乾工廠工人的報導，其中大多數工人是來自亞洲的女性移民。她們每天的工作包括重複的手工勞動：製作餅乾、印刷籤紙、將籤紙放入餅乾內，並將餅乾包裝成一種看似充滿智慧的產品。這樣的工作環境不僅揭示了移民女性的勞動處境，也反映了幸運餅乾背後的文化建構。餅乾內的箴言和祝福被呈現為神秘的哲學語句。作為移民商業零食的一部分，幸運餅乾反映了亞洲移民社群在異國生存中的韌性與適應力。
自19世紀殖民時代以來，西方對東方的想像充滿了異國情調。東方女性常被描繪為神秘、順從且充滿誘惑的形象。這種敘述至今仍在某些媒體中延續，通過影像、文本和語言表達，將東方女性簡化為帶有 “異域魅力” 的符號，而非真實的個體。
因此，我們希望通過這件作品來解構這種文化現象。影片以 “烹飪教學” 的結構為框架，批判性地探討文化與性別問題。在影片中，亞洲女性默默地製作幸運餅乾，並在餅乾中插入關於文化誤解的訊息。同時，男性旁白則以權威的“指導者”身份出現，形成了一種性別主題上的對比。影片中還有一個西方男性角色，扮演一位 “風水大師”。他象徵了對東方文化的西化挪用。他試圖用德語版的風水工具來改造廚房內部，進一步強調東方文化符號的誤用。當他品嚐由亞洲女性製作的幸運餅乾後，他進入了類似“被附身”的狀態，開始唸出餅乾中的籤詩。
幸運餅乾並不真正代表東方智慧；相反，它們隱喻了一種消費的過程，其中東方符號被去脈絡化，以滿足西方的幻想。這種現象在性別層面上也得到了映射，東方女性如同可以被消費的物件，與可食用的餅乾一樣被物化。通過這個項目，我們希望挑戰圍繞幸運餅乾的文化敘事，並重新思考其背後的複雜性。在食物、文化和性別的交界處，幸運餅乾成為文化誤解的縮影，提供了一個重新審視西方對東方態度的視角。
Fortune cookies are a cultural product. In Western societies, they are often regarded as symbols of Oriental culture, yet they bear no actual connection to East Asian traditions. This dissonance inspired us to do a project on fortune cookies, exploring the cultural misunderstandings underlying their symbolism.
We once read a report about the workers in a fortune cookie factory. Most of them were Asian female immigrants. Their daily labor involved repetitive tasks: crafting the cookies by hand, printing the fortune slips, placing them inside the cookies, and packaging them as products imbued with apparent wisdom. This working environment highlights the labor conditions and the reflection on the cultural construction behind it. The short aphorisms and blessings inside are presented as mystical philosophical statements. As part of immigrant commercial snacks, fortune cookies reflect the resilience and adaptability of Asian immigrant communities in foreign lands.
Since the colonial era of the 19th century, the Western imagination of the East was infused with exoticism. Oriental women were portrayed as mysterious, submissive, and seductive figures. This narrative persists in some of the media now, where visual, textual, and linguistic representations continue to reduce Oriental women to symbolic icons of "exotic allure" rather than acknowledging them as real individuals.
Against this, we want to deconstruct this cultural phenomenon through a video project, which takes the structure of a cooking tutorial and critiques cultural and gender issues. In this video, the Asian woman silently cooks fortune cookies and inserts messages with cultural misunderstandings into them. Meanwhile, the male voice-over is an authoritative guide, contrasting gender topics. There is also a Western male character as a "feng-shui master,” who represents a Westernized appropriation of Oriental culture. He wants to manipulate the kitchen interiors, holding feng shui tools of the German version, further emphasizing the misuse of Eastern cultural symbols. After tasting a fortune cookie made by the Asian woman, he enters a trance-like state and begins reciting the fortunes inside the cookies.
In this film, fortune cookies do not truly represent Oriental wisdom; instead, they metaphorize a process of consumption, where Eastern symbols are decontextualized to fulfill Western fantasies. This phenomenon also resonates on a gendered level, reflecting how Oriental women are similarly objectified and commodified just like edible objects.
Through this project, we aim to challenge the cultural narratives surrounding fortune cookies and rethink the complexities behind them. At the intersection of food, culture, and gender, fortune cookies serve as a microcosm of cultural misunderstanding, offering a lens through which to examine Western attitudes toward the East.