Chinese Restaurant Playground

Event Information

Chinese Restaurant Playground by Steffie Yee 余淑婷, is an exhibition about childhood, imaginative play, and finding joy within the frenetic settings of her parents’ Chinese restaurant.

The exhibition presents a multimedia collection of finished works, and works in progress, exploring the artist’s experience growing up in the regional NSW town of Branxton. Through multilingual animations, videos, illustrations and photographs, Steffie seeks to humanise the people behind the ‘local Chinese restaurant’, whose stories risk being lost due to language barriers and a long record of cultural history that predominantly spotlights Anglo-Celtic and European migration – particularly in regional Australian narratives.

“Having served four generations of customers for over 40 years, my parents’ Chinese restaurant, Yee’s, was the backdrop of my childhood. From rollerblading on the tiles through the restaurant, using pot lids as cymbals, making play dough from spring roll pastry batter, and riding a motorbike in the yard behind the restaurant, this exhibition is an artistic documentation of my memories as a child of Malaysian-Chinese restaurant owners in Branxton.”

– Steffie Yee 余淑婷

Steffie Yee 余淑婷 has been part of our our Residence program – designed to provide a supportive environment for independent artists, collectives, and small to medium-sized organisations to cultivate a vibrant artistic community in the western suburbs.

This exhibition is the outcome of a year within the historic Henderson House studios, where Steffie Yee 余淑婷 was able to elevate their artistic practice and embark on new creative endeavours.

Please join us for the opening event of this exhibition on Saturday 29 June 2024, 2—4pm.

Exhibition Date: 12 June—15 September 2024