About Us
Cold Rice Collaborative (CRC) is an ever-evolving creative community and platform committed to uplifting the narratives and experiences of Iu Mien, Khmu, and diasporic indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia (iSEA). CRC is a multifaceted, project-based collaborative. We are grown and sustained in partnership with fellow iSEA community members, collaborators and creatives.
In understanding our long lineages as community-centered peoples, our work is grounded in our relationships and our responsibility to one another as we hold sacred the connections we have to our communities, relatives (human and non-human) and our Earth.
Our Purpose
Through collaborative projects, we work to serve as a creative community platform and a site of connection for Iu Mien, Khmu and diasporic indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia. In the ways of our peoples, we use storytelling as a primary tool in reclaiming our narratives while cultivating spaces to loudly celebrate and fully be iSEA. We strive to foster opportunities for radical (un)learning + reflection, celebration, and movement toward manifesting collective joy, care, and liberation.
Why Cold Rice?
Fuqc jueiv hnaangx namx
[noun fuh-tchway hnangh nahm]
Direct Translation: cold rice kid
Ex. // (janx-daic fuqc jueiv hnaangx namx)
In Iu Mien culture, the term "fu'jueiv hnaangx namx" or "cold rice kids" comes from the age-old practice of parents giving children cooled leftover rice to eat during meals while they ate fresh, warm rice, believing that young folks couldn't enjoy it the same because they're unable to tell the difference to begin with. Iu Mien elders will often use the term to describe those of younger generations navigating life in non-traditional ways because they "don't know any better", or are assumed to lack knowledge and experience.
As diasporic indigenous people of Southeast Asia with deep lineages of forced diaspora, the Cold Rice Collaborative reclaims and understands the symbolism of cold rice to be representative of our peoples across generations and geographies breaking, building, and transforming traditions without a blueprint, in the face of ever-changing environments. For us, we fu'jueiv hnaangx namx serve as bridges in between the multiple worlds we navigate, relying on our ancestral wisdom to guide us while embodying new possibilities of being indigenous and Southeast Asian.