Claiming the Takeaway Counter: How British-Chinese Artists Reclaim Their Identity

Originally published in The Indiependent on 4 July 2025

On a rainy night last year, Harriet Armstrong aka Jing Soeng took the bus in Leyton. She saw a Chinese takeaway shop outside, where hungry customers huddled waiting for their food. Suddenly, she had flashbacks of her childhood – working with parents straight after school, packing prawn crackers, and cleaning the kitchen. “I just thought…wow, that’s beautiful. It is all lit up.” 

She photographed the takeaway shop the next day. That picture became the first of more than 240 images of Chinese takeaways on her Instagram @jing__soeng. It means ‘photography’ in Cantonese.    

Armstrong has been a photographer since 2008. All her Chinese takeaway pictures are outside the takeaway shops. It symbolises her being “outside of [her] Chinese culture most of the time,” which makes her life “interesting.”

While non-whites constitute 18% of the total UK population, they only fill 11% of creative jobs in Britain. Despite the difficult environment, a group of British-born Chinese (BBC) artists has emerged recently. This group includes, but is not limited to: Armstrong, writer Angela Hui, actor Bruce Chong, and podcasters Kevin Lam and Georgie Ma. These artists have explored the loving and painful intersectionality between food, identity, and art.

Due to the exponential influx of immigrants from Southern China to Britain after the Second World War, Chinese takeaway shops emerged across the nation in the mid-20th century. Tucked into neighbourhood corners, they serve localised British Cantonese food — notably sweet and sour chicken and spring rolls.

You may have seen a teenager peeling potatoes in a Chinese takeaway – this is what most takeaway owners’ children did. Armstrong needed to help her parents in the kitchen right after school and could not hang out with friends. Yet, she never rebelled. 

She recalls: “I had no choice. We needed to work to live.” 

Armstrong and her family never rebelled against racism too. In the 20^th century, racism against Chinese was common in the UK. Her classmates said she smelled like soy sauce, and some people rang the shop to say racist jokes. Like most Chinese immigrants at that time, her parents tolerated the injustice and worked hard silently.

She remembers: “You feel reserved being Chinese in a white community. You stop talking Chinese in public, trying to hide that side of yourself and become very British. You feel embarrassed about your culture because people make fun of you.”

Armstrong was not alone. As shown in the documentary Chinese Takeaway Kids (2019), many of them were obligated to help their parents. They could not speak Chinese fluently with their parents or understand their parents’ traditional Chinese values, thus feeling distant from their Chinese heritage. On the other hand, they struggled to feel part of British society as they could not socialise with their peers and were prone to racism. This dilemma makes them neither Chinese nor British, leading to the term ‘Chinese takeaway kids’.

In her award-nominated book Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter, Angela Hui eloquently chronicles her memories growing up in a Chinese takeaway in rural Wales. She was discriminated against by the locals, yet surrounded by the loving home food. She is now one of the most famous food journalists specialising in Chinese food and restaurants. Writing for national titles like The Guardian and Financial Times, she promotes East Asian culinary culture and reverses the stereotypes around it.

Many old Chinese immigrants follow the traditional Chinese saying of ‘the less trouble the better’ against racism – keep their heads down, remain silent, and avoid unnecessary conflicts. Yet, their children are different. Immersed in British culture and armed with better English, they can speak for their cultures in different forms.

Social media also amplifies their voices. Kevin Lam, raised in a takeaway, started the podcast series Bunch of Bananas in 2021 with his friend Eric Huynh. They invite guests with an Asian background to discuss how they embrace cultural differences in the UK. They also posted East Asian restaurant recommendations, which are very popular because of their familiarity with both the authentic flavours and the local appetite. The one about the best instant noodles has hit three million views on Instagram.

There are other BBC podcasters, such as Georgie Ma who shares her struggle growing up in a takeaway in the 1980s in her award-winning series Chinese Chippy Girl. Actor Bruce Chong also created the TV series Wok (2016), based on his childhood, to satirise the racism directed at the Chinese.

From writing to content creation, they gently battle against the injustice the Chinese community faces. Armstrong believes that art is a powerful form of rebellion. She says:

“Like food, everyone can appreciate art. It is on everyone’s radar, so art can connect with all audiences.” 

Armstrong believes art is also “a powerful disrupter,” as people can make content with just a smartphone and social media account. Art makes everyone vocal, empowering the minoritised groups to tell their stories. 

These artists have emerged recently, exploring the interconnectedness between food and identity. Why now, but not earlier?

Unlike most social media influencers, their art is a product of painful identity struggles and heart-warming home cooking. It takes time for them to feel and untangle the complex emotions, thus claiming their unique in-betweenness as Chinese takeaway kids.

“It takes me 30 years to be brave enough to look back [on my childhood],” Armstrong reflects. 

After years of reflection and professional work experience, she now knows how to reclaim her identity through photography. Using low light and composition, she makes the takeaways look identical while highlighting their different colours. She wishes to invite everyone, regardless of their cultural background, to appreciate the beauty of the takeaways.  

“I don’t retouch them to make them look glamorous. I document it as it is, with no shame and no judgment,” she explains.

After the interview, Armstrong asks me about my plan after graduation. I share my struggles to apply for jobs as a foreigner. Sometimes my overseas experience is not recognised, and I do not know if I should put it on my resume.

“Be proud of yourself. This is you,” she tells me firmly.