KATIE CHAN.

"Histories of Empire: Buddae Jjijae" was a short film created for my AMST 220: The Making of Asian America class. Inspired by Tasty videos, my group decided to research and speak about how food has played a role in building empires, specifically looking at buddae jjigae or "Korea Army Base Stew"

The film required a lot of preparation and this came in the form of researching, gathering ingredients, to the actual production. None of us were film majors or had any previous experience with filming, so it was a huge learning curve for us.

In the process, we learned the history of the dish itself. Buddae Jjigae is just one example of how US military occupation impacted the lives of those across Asia. These were militarized dishes that were created out of necessity - similar to dishes like pork sisig in the Philippines - but their modern-day legacy is often forgotten.

This was a serious feat of coordination and collaboration, but I enjoyed every step of making it. We actually ended up winning our classes (very informal) film festival. I hope to create similar content in the future to serve as educational tools when thinking about imperalism and empires.