In this new parody of a televised cooking class (c.f: Semiotics of the Kitchen), Martha Rosler gives a reading of the user's manual for a new electric wok, a traditional Chinese dish and a manual for exotic cuisine. Dressed in a Mao vest with a red top, the presenter sports all of the clichéd references to Chinese culture exported to the West. Several incongruous details slip into the text, revealing the clearly political character of the manuals. During the Cold War, the imperialist propaganda infiltrates homes, even entering the pages of a user's guide. While boasting the great taste of exotic cuisine, it is its Western appropriation that is highlighted. Speaking of Asian culture, the text reads: “It is refined, but the technology is primitive.” Finally, we are led to understand that as good Westerners, with this electric wok we can transform ourselves into connoisseurs of this exotic culture. This surreptitiously colonialist tone question the Westernisation imposed on other cultures. Given the phenomenon of globalisation that has since developed, this video retains its relevance in the critique of an approach to another culture, normalised by the American lifestyle.

Patricia Maincent