The Lucky Treat-Filled Tray that Brings Everyone Together
In the days leading up to Lunar New Year, families break out their Trays of Togetherness to start the new year on the right foot. Here’s how Chinatown shop Wing On Wo & Co. and ceramicist Tiffany Saw put their modern spin on the traditional serveware.
Wing On Wo & Co.
For many families, the Tray of Togetherness makes an appearance once a year. It’s pulled out from storage in the days leading up to Lunar New Year and gradually filled to the brim with an array of treats. Each of the compartments — typically six or eight, both lucky numbers — hold its own auspicious snack: pistachios (whose name translates to “happy nut”), candied lotus roots (symbolizing abundance and wealth), melon seeds dyed a vibrant, bright red (for harvest and fertility).
Sometimes round, sometimes octagonal, the trays are usually made from plastic or lacquer and passed around when family and friends visit. Each person plucks a treat of their choice from the box, a lucky nibble to start off the new year. This meaningful ritual served as the inspiration behind ceramicist Tiffany Saw’s modern Tray of Togetherness made in collaboration with Wing On Wo & Co. (W.O.W.), the oldest operating store in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The beautiful ceramic tray is part of the Artist Line, a modern collection of porcelain that bridges tradition, identity and art.
“Artist Line One was rooted in the idea of ritualizing our every day and drew from personal traditions at W.O.W.,” says Mei Lum, the fifth-generation owner of Wing On Wo & Co, which has specialized in porcelain since her grandparents took over in 1964. “We were inspired to take the traditional, in technique, form and medium and really make it our own with the intention that it could be shared with generations to come and to create and maintain connection and meaning.”
In designing her Tray of Togetherness, Saw thought back to her favorite holiday memories and honed in on one in particular. “For me, when I think of Lunar New Year and candy trays, I think of family dinners when you leave late into the night. I wanted to design a scene that captured the night sky and incorporated traditional Chinese porcelain motifs.”
Her final design features a peach tree with bats flying beneath the branches, a scene she first encountered during a 2019 artist residency at Jingdezhen (the city, located in China’s southeastern province of Jiangxi, is also known as the “Porcelain Capital” and where Wing On Wo & Co. sources much of its wares). The bats are fluttering through billowing clouds that also surround the edge of the lid. Saw worked closely with Lum and Vivian Sangsukwirasathien, the Artist Line’s creative director, to create the tray. It took nine months to produce the initial prototypes, which involved hand-carving the image on the lid, firing the porcelain and placing the finishing gold trim on the six inner dishes.
“It truly was a labor of love,” says Lum. The first edition of the tray was finished glazed in blue in a nod to Wing On Wo & Co.’s roots; a second one released this year came in a peachy-pink color. “The royal blue glaze is one of W.O.W.’s main glazes from our original custom collection including our fish vase and dragon bowls. For a long time, we were playing with the idea of releasing the tray in a Lunar New Year red palette, but we landed on blue as a nod to the Wood element of this dragon year and its symbolism of growth and longevity — all intentions we wanted our Togetherness Tray to embody for this year and beyond.”
Working on products like the Tray of Togetherness has been a way for Saw and Lum to carry on the Lunar New Year traditions they hold most dear. For Saw, that’s returning to her parents’ house, “where my mom has made my favorite steamed fish and there’s plates upon plates of cut fruit waiting for us.”
For Lum, it’s working with her team, including Sangsukwirasathien and Director of Product Nate Brown, to continue her grandparents’ porcelain legacy, while carrying on the day-to-day duties of running a business with her family.
“All of my Lunar New Year memories have been at the shop. I grew up watching my po (grandma) prepare our big Lunar New Year eve dinner in the back kitchen,” says Lum. “To this day, we still keep the tradition of making her secret recipe of prosperity cakes, or fa gao, together and screaming with glee when we see that each cake has opened and flowered in the steaming process, indicating a prosperous year ahead.”
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