BAN-TO — The Table as a Social Structure

This project is based on Ban-To, a traditional communal banquet practice in Chinese society. Four garments correspond to four temporal stages of the banquet—welcoming, opening, toasting, and departure—treating clothing not as a static visual object but as an active participant within a social ritual. Each garment reflects how individuals shift roles as the shared event unfolds.

Ban-To historically functioned as a community-based social structure. Through shared tables, assigned roles, and embodied interaction, participants established and reaffirmed relationships. Beyond eating, the banquet created a collective environment in which people were acknowledged through presence and participation. As dishes were served in sequence, a shared temporal order guided behavior, forming a short-lived yet highly structured social space.

Embroidery motifs reference specific dishes associated with each stage: shrimp as the cold appetizer, crab representing sticky rice, a spoon symbolizing thick soup, and siu mai marking dessert. These elements are not decorative symbols but temporal markers that translate the rhythm of the banquet into wearable form. Cultural memory is embedded into the garments through this coded visual language.

The project is presented across two spatial contexts. Studio images emphasize proximity and interaction around the table, highlighting the intimate dimension of the ritual. Temple images situate the garments within a public communal environment, reconnecting them to shared space and collective memory.

In contemporary urban life, digital communication and individualization have weakened face-to-face interaction, causing communal rituals to gradually disappear. This work revisits Ban-To as a fading social structure and uses fashion as a medium to reflect on how collective practices once shaped social connection. By transforming ritual into wearable form, the project frames clothing as a site where cultural continuity and social participation can still occur.