More than 100 people attended a potluck that four Crosstown Arts artists-in-residence hosted in their studio in early June.

Through weekly potlucks, MengCheng Collective plans to center and collect stories of the area’s Chinese diaspora. Near the end of the group’s two-month residency, an art exhibition inspired by the potluck events is planned in the studio space, from July 22 to 29.

MengCheng translates to “city of dreams” in English. The collective chose this name because of its similarity to the phonetic Chinese name for Memphis: mèng fei si.

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“The (MengCheng) Collective began as an idea to bring together a group of Asian American creatives who were all from Memphis,” LiLi Nacht said. “...The other main thing was to create a space where we saw a lack of representation.”

“The (MengCheng) Collective began as an idea to bring together a group of Asian American creatives who were all from Memphis.”

LiLi Nacht
MengCheng Collective

Nacht is Berlin-based, Neena Wang is Los Angeles-based and Yidan Zeng is Philadelphia-based. Anna Cai [Thandi] splits time between Chicago and Memphis.

After a year of weekly Zoom meetings, the group decided to apply for the Crosstown residency. 

“We kind of lost touch with each other over the time between when we finished high school and left Memphis,” Nacht said. “...It’s really special that we can come together again in this way.”

“We all grew up together and became artists on our own paths in different cities,” Wang said. “This feels like a homecoming where we all come back to Memphis and really kind of come back to our roots and reconnect with the community here.” 

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“Thandi is working on this documentary and mentioned that this year would be the 150-year anniversary of the first documented Chinese immigrant in Memphis and that felt significant,” Nacht said. “And at some point on, everything came together in this very fluid way.”

Cai, a multimedia artist, is the director of the upcoming documentary “Bluff City Chinese,” which was the recipient of a $15,000 Indie Memphis IndieGrant in 2022. 

“...Being Chinese American in the South feels like a very specific experience. And we’re really interested in exploring how we share that experience with the outside world.”

Anna Cai [Thandi]
MengCheng Collective

“There’s a lot of dialogue about what it means to be Chinese American,” Cai said. “But for us, being Chinese American in the South feels like a very specific experience. And we’re really interested in exploring how we share that experience with the outside world.”

“There’s a huge community in California, also in New York, and a lot of the exhibitions, the dialogue, the conversations, are centered around those areas here,” Nacht said. “And we just felt over the course of the years that it was odd that we were not represented in certain depictions of the story here in the South.”

MengCheng Collective’s potlucks will inform the collective’s July exhibition at which members will display the work they’ve made during the residency.

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The artists will participate in a Tuesday, June 20, artist talk when each will discuss their individual practices and a Thursday, July 20, artist talk where they will talk about their practice as the MengCheng Collective.

The potluck isn’t limited to bringing food; in some potlucks, specific objects are requested. The collective is also collecting photos.

Some potlucks, like the one on June 10, are public-facing, while some will be for more specific groups, including ones for Chinese language students and Asian American creatives.

One planned potluck will feature the artists’ families at which attendees will bring an object they brought with them from China and tell a story about it. 

Another prompt asks for people to email family photos important to their history of coming to America to be printed on fabric for the July exhibition.

“...It wasn’t until I left Memphis that I realized what an amazing space it was to be able to go somewhere safe with people that you knew and grew up with.”

Neena Wang
MengCheng Collective

“Growing up, we would go to potlucks every month and it was something I took for granted,” Wang said. “But it wasn’t until I left Memphis that I realized what an amazing space it was to be able to go somewhere safe with people that you knew and grew up with.”

Zeng said the MengCheng Collective potlucks will offer an opportunity for attendees to bring different types of foods.

“(Potlucks were) also a place where our Chinese and American and also other Asian cultural foods can coexist with each other,” Zeng said. “So we would have plates where there would be collard greens, fried rice, barbecue, Domino’s Pizza. All of that was in a place that really felt like all of us could feel held in. Eating all of these foods that really encapsulated our kind of shared experience. Mixed cultural experience.”

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Wang said that people should come as they are and give what they have to give.

“The idea is that the sum of everybody is greater than the sum of all the random parts,” Wang said. “And that could be with food or anything else.”

Zeng said that while residencies are typically places where artists have a lot of cross-pollination of places and ideas, this one feels particularly unique and powerful because of the collective’s shared experiences in Memphis.

“It’s very affirming to be in connection with people who are of the same generation who are also artists and understand the power of art and change-making,” Cai said. “I also think about the future archive of what this is going to be. So as I’m searching through collections of all my elders and the memories and stories, it’s really fun to imagine how someday we’ll look back on this and tell the stories of what we’re doing. And imagining what that could look like for us in the future. But also whoever the generations are that come after us.”

Zeng is also excited about continuing those shared experiences and getting to know Memphis in its current form:

“There’s been so much change that both the city and all of us have experienced in the past decade plus, that it feels really precious to be here gathering as creatives and sharing our skills and experiences, both in the past and the different cities we’ve been in.”

Yidan Zeng
MengCheng Collective

“There’s been so much change that both the city and all of us have experienced in the past decade plus, that it feels really precious to be here gathering as creatives and sharing our skills and experiences, both in the past and the different cities we’ve been in,” Zeng said.