Chinese New Year Series: Clay Fortune Cookie Workshop

Fortune Cookies, one of the most iconic staples in Chinese food in the United States, and a fun treat to look forward to after American Chinese meals. Everyone gets excited at cracking one of these cookies and eagerly discovering the fortune message with its mysterious Far East magic power of telling the future. Despite the generic, sugary crispy cookie itself and the uncertainty of the truth of the fortune within, the entertainment factor is 100%. It is even said that some people won a lottery jackpot by using the numbers on the back of the fortune message!

The lore of the fortune cookie lives in Chinese culture, although perhaps not always in the shape of a cookie. One such example comes as a popular Chinese New Year tradition - the person preparing the New Year Eve’s dumplings inserts a coin into one of the many dumplings prepared for the anticipated dinner. It is said that whoever happens to eat that coin inserted dumpling will have the best luck in the New Year. Fortune cookies hold a similar aura of prophecy, and their fortune messages are even more specific. Varieties include Chinese numerologies, Chinese language learning, Chinese philosophy and more. Some said there are over 15,000 different messages printed on different small slips of paper that eventually end up on a busy restaurant table or in a brown paper carryout bag.

While everyone sees the fortune cookie as part of American Chinese traditions, many are surprised to find out that the cookies were made in the United States or anywhere else in the world but China. What a shock! Despite an ongoing debate on who was the first inventor of these infamous cookies, there is one thing certain about fortune cookies - they are not Chinese, perhaps they belong to the Californians.

Today, fortune cookies have become the symbol of American Chinese food culture in the United States. At Chinese Street Market, we want to include them in our food diplomacy events. A food item that was not born in China but is integral to the Chinese diaspora, it is still an important aspect of tradition and culture. No matter where this little cookie was born, it is now seen as part of the food culture here in the United States and the fortune message itself is seen to spread many deep Chinese philosophies. Now you may wonder why we are placing so much emphasis on this fairly unassuming cultural symbol - well, as we welcome the 2025 Chinese New Year, we are excited to have our host instructor to teach us how to make a clay fortune cookie! In this workshop our special guest Ms Qiqing will be leading us through a step by step tutorial on how to create a clay fortune cookie from scratch! Now you don’t have to eat these cookies but use them like best wish ornaments. We will be preparing four to six clay fortune cookies during the workshop, along with handmade Chinese tassels to thread these clay cookies. The handmade clay cookies make great gifts filled with New Year wishes to share with your friends and family. As your hosts, will prepare the materials and tools for the workshop. There will also be refreshments provided for all participants to enjoy!

About the instructor:
Lin Qiqing 林 绮晴 (pronounced Chi-Ching) is a visual and textile artist based in New York City. As a former award-winning journalist from China, she tells stories about human relationships, gender, immigration, and language through her distinctive figurative weaving with paper yarn and paper collage.

She graduated with a BA in journalism in 2014 and an MFA in Textiles at Parsons School of Design in 2023.
Qiqing was a resident artist at Residency Unlimited(2024), Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild(2024), and the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (2023). Her works have been exhibited at The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition of Brooklyn Museum, All Street Gallery, Surface Design Association, and New York Textile Month. 

Code of Conduct:

 As a participant of this course you agree to follow the Chinese Street Market participant Code of Conduct.