Its official: Liu He has made take-out ordering skills. On Saturday, September 23, he ordered a rich and satisfying meal for participants in the second edition of “Singleton Take-out.” What’s more, the selection of Chinese and western foods came with different condiments, meaning that during the handicraft part of the event, there were many different kinds of packaging to use. 

The second part of a “Singleton Take-out” event is using the packaging from our take-out dishes to make components of a mandala. There are three levels of meaning in our “Take-Out Mandala.” First, take-out has become one of the most common features of urban life. Our art practice begins in everyday life and the objects that surround us. Thus, take-out packaging is a logical source of materials for contemporary art. Second, take-out packaging poses one of the great challenges to sustainable urban living; how do we reduce or solid waste footprint, when one take-out meal includes cardboard, plastic wrap, and other kinds of waste materials? Third, mandalas represent an entire world, and making a mandala is a symbolic practice whereby participants remember that together we make the world.Of course, in practice the meaning of the mandala changes and shifts as we work together, using acrylic markers and glue to transform take-out packaging.

One of the first transformations of the theoretical into the practical was a joke. After everyone had finished eating, instead of chatting over tea, Kaiqin and Wu Dan brought out art supplies so that everyone could work on heir object. “No free lunch!” They joked.

However, the joke quickly became an important perspective on the project itself. On the one hand, the expression “no free lunch” reminds us that although Handshake 302 invited everyone to U6 梧桐友会 for lunch, the UABB organizers picked up the tab. On the other hand, the expression “no free lunch” begs questions about Shenzhen’s food geography: Where does our food come from? How is it distributed? How is it prepared? What does it mean to order take-out? The questions become increasingly philosophical and somewhat absurd: if people take food as heaven, what kind of paradise is a take-out meal?

One of the participants started the conversation with a comparison of take-out in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, take-out is expensive its geography is primarily limited to Hong Kong island, where the higher end jobs are located. In fact, take-out can cost 30% more than dining in a restaurant. Consequently, workers who don’t bring their lunch usually eat at nearby restaurants. In contrast, take-out is so cheap and convenient in Shenzhen, that at companies there are not only “lunch groups,” but also “afternoon tea groups.”

The ubiquity of take-out means that “choice” has also become an important element of this culture. Customers not only want to try different types of food, they also want convenience and low prices. In this sense, “choice” seems to mean “I have the choice of making food, of going to a restaurant, or ordering take-out.” In contrast to an older generation where cooking wasn’t a choice, but an obligation, for many of the “singletons,” cooking is now a way of relaxing. It’s almost as if cooking has become a hobby, while eating out or ordering take-out are the new “normal” of Shenzhen’s food geography. In fact, even people who prefer cooking to eating at restaurants or ordering take-out admitted that they often use apps to order food to be brought to the house. 

These simple observations about take-out suggest the counters of Shenzhen’s cultural geography. At the level of the individual, eating take-out in Shenzhen is convenient and relatively inexpensive, allowing young people—especially singletons—to flexibly integrate cooking and eating into their daily life. At the level of society, eating take-out in Shenzhen depends upon widespread delivery systems (such as Meituan or Hungry) as well as a developed network of restaurants and shops. 

So in lieu of a conclusion, a new take on an old expression: we don’t want a free lunch, we want what money can’t buy!