High Tea | 下午茶

High Tea is part of Shengjia Zhang’s ongoing project Made in England, which originated from his discovery of British chinoiserie Willow Pattern ceramic shards through mudlarking along the Thames foreshore in London. Through food sculpture and installation, this event traces the history of the Willow Pattern and explores its connections to proto-globalisation, Orientalism, and the Industrial Revolution.

On the tea table, a cake stand features food sculptures of pagodas, willow trees, and boats, iconic motifs from the Willow Pattern, arranged alongside historical Willow Ware in the setting of a British afternoon tea. By consuming these jellies, the audience reenacts the long history through which imagined Chinese landscapes have been aestheticised, appropriated, and consumed within British material culture.