(Re)membering and (Re)claiming in My Mama’s Kitchen: A Decolonial Feminist Video-Cued Qi Ethnography

Abstract

In this study, I draw upon Endarkened Feminist Epistemology (Dillard, 2012) and Decolonial Feminist Research (Rhee, 2020) to explore the epistemology of my mother, a first-generation Chinese immigrant. Based on data generated from the video-cued qi ethnography methodology, I pay attention to my Mama’s ways of knowing as she cooks in the kitchen. Qi is a Chinese concept that means breath, spirit, and life force. I draw on qi as the ongoing connectivity toward wholeness and movement toward harmony in the way I collected and analyzed data. I share my findings as a series of interconnected poetry, images, and narratives to (re)member my mother’s life as well as mine as we (re)claim what we have forgotten and (re)turn to a place of wholeness. I conclude the article by exploring the implications for the Asian American Pacific Islander community and beyond, as we conduct the work of collective rememory.