Creative Remix- Making that Momo

My research topic was about the Tibetan culture in exile and how the Tibetan people assimilate other cultures with theirs. I had to brainstorm a lot of ideas to come up with a creative way to portray the topic to the class and ended up showing the class how to make one of the famous Tibetan dish called momo. I felt that doing a project which was on hand and fun would really engage my classmates and make them maybe more interested in what i was trying to say with this project. I wanted to sort of inform my classmates a little about my culture and people since Tibet is not well known to people because it really doesn’t have its own country. Momo was a great way to introduce my research topic because it is one of the most famous dish for Tibetan people. The fact that the most famous dish of Tibetan people is literally the same as what the Chinese call dumpling, which is ironic since tibetans don’t like being called Chinese. However, the point is that it has been tibetan culture to take in other culture as they relocate to different parts of the world. Momo is just another dish created by the Tibetans from the influence of Chinese cuisine. Momo also plays another role which is create a sense of community for the Tibetan people in NYC. Every year in Jackson Heights have a event known as momo crawl which allow all the Tibetan restaurants to show who has the best momo and this brings many tibetans together to socialize with each other and feel the Tibetan community which is rare in America. This project has also made me more aware of my culture and introduced me to new things that I thought wasn’t important. One was that in my family we make momo’s only when the whole family is at home so we can make it together, I always thought it was a waste of time. However, after this project I realized its more of a way to see what each of us are up to and how we are doing in our lives and a way to connect with each other because in todays society teenagers barely have time for their parents. Also the Momo Crawl event always stood out to me as another way for people to make money and thought it was useless, but now I see that its a way for Tibetans to show their culture to the world while having a good time amongst Tibetans and non-tibetans as well and bring them together.