Welcome Aboard

Boarding passes as Chinese New Year souvenirs.

Description

Welcome Aboard transforms the boarding pass into a souvenir of homesickness, migration, and cultural return. I feel the distance from home most intensely during Chinese New Year, when reunion defines the holiday, and the most immediate cure has always been food. No matter which U.S. city I am in, Chinatown is the first place I go to recover the taste and atmosphere of home, and the place I bring friends when introducing them to Chinese culture. To translate this ritual into form, I designed four boarding passes that connect U.S. cities whose Chinatowns I have visited with corresponding cities in China. The front replicates a realistic airline ticket, using actual flight numbers and real departure gates from flights leaving the U.S. on Lunar New Year’s Eve and arriving in China on the first day of the new year. The back introduces each Chinatown and highlights a specific restaurant and dish that evokes the destination city, allowing food to stand in for travel. Subtle details such as traditional patterns and zodiac references are embedded throughout, reflecting how cultural memory persists within systems of movement. Through this familiar object, I share how food becomes my closest route home, and how each meal momentarily completes the journey.