About Jenny Lau

I am a professional communications specialist, and amateur everything else. In my spare time I am a writer, community organiser and Chinese food cheerleader under the persona of Celestial Peach.

I started Celestial Peach in 2018 as a way to investigate health and longevity through a vegan Chinese diet. Over the years it has become a platform to tell stories about Chinese food in the diaspora, and the people and cultures behind it. My output encompasses both personal and collaborative expression — online and offline — in a hyperlocal as well as global environment.

For the past few years I have been curating food-based events for the UK ESEA (East and Southeast Asian) community, from potlucks and supper clubs to congee gatherings. I believe in using food as a technology to bring different communities together, as well as as a tool to explore individual heritage and identity.

Increasingly, my passion is driven by a desire to nourish and connect with people who feel a similar sense of unrooted-ness. In 2021 I started the writing project Lost In Translation: An A-Z Of Chinese Food as a way to deconstruct and interrogate complex ideas around Chinese identity, history and culture, all through the lens of food.

In 2021 I was appointed a voluntary member of the managing committee of Hackney Chinese Community Services. I look forward to working with them in 2022 to deliver a community kitchen in a brand new ESEA centre.

Some people say what I do is eclectic and ‘a lot’. I don’t believe you always need to be hyper-focused when it comes to deciding what your contribution to society should be. We are, after all, multitudes in ourselves. However, I always stick to Celestial Peach’s key principles:

• Start with the hyperlocal

• Connect with and lift up others

• Construct, don’t cancel!

• Create something positive and joyful

• Give away more than you take