"The Birthday Tradition"
2023 / Digital Illustration
There are so many food traditions in the world and I'm going to share a little personal one that I had growing up. As a Chinese-Korean, my brother and I grew up with a mixture of Chinese and Korean foods. This illustration shows the birthday version. In Korea, the traditional meal is "Miyeok-guk" which is a seaweed soup. It's to symbolise honour of mothers, who has given birth and then go through several months of postpartum. In Chinese culture, the traditional meal is "Chang Shou Mian" which is noodles, signifying a long life. I also add an additional one into the mix, which is "an egg". This is a nod to my own family tradition, that started with my grandma.
