Dr Eona Bell
BA (Cantab), MA, MSc, PhD (London)
Overview
SOAS Food Studies Centre
Postdoctoral Research Associate
- Name:
- Dr Eona Bell
- Email address:
- eb38@soas.ac.uk
Biography
I am a social anthropologist specialising in the anthropology of China, especially Chinese communities overseas. My wider research interests include the anthropology of childhood and learning, language use and the anthropology of emotion. I received a PhD in 2012 from the London School of Economics for a study of inter-generational relationships and the reproduction of culture in the family lives of Hong Kong Chinese people in Scotland, most of whom worked or had worked in ethnic restaurants or takeaway shops. This ethnographic study considered both the implicit learning about ethnicity which takes place in everyday interactions within the family and wider friendship groups, and the explicit performance and learning of cultural practices such as language, handcrafts and festival celebrations particularly in complementary Chinese language schools.
I am now working on a new project concerning the role of food in diaspora formation and identity for Chinese migrants in Britain. Following on from my doctoral research I am interested in the relationship between food as a commodity and public signifier of ethnic identity, and the domestic practices of consumption and exchange of food.
Research
I am a social anthropologist specialising in the anthropology of China, especially Chinese communities overseas. My wider research interests include the anthropology of childhood and learning, language use and the anthropology of emotion. I received a PhD in 2012 from the London School of Economics for a study of inter-generational relationships and the reproduction of culture in the family lives of Hong Kong Chinese people in Scotland, most of whom worked or had worked in ethnic restaurants or takeaway shops. This ethnographic study considered both the implicit learning about ethnicity which takes place in everyday interactions within the family and wider friendship groups, and the explicit performance and learning of cultural practices such as language, handcrafts and festival celebrations particularly in complementary Chinese language schools.
I am now working on a new project concerning the role of food in diaspora formation and identity for Chinese migrants in Britain. Following on from my doctoral research I am interested in the relationship between food as a commodity and public signifier of ethnic identity, and the domestic practices of consumption and exchange of food.
Publications
- (in preparation) ‘Holidays or homecoming? Return visits and the domestic practices of transnationalism among Hong Kong Chinese women in Edinburgh’
- (in preparation) ‘Chinese New Year celebrations in Edinburgh: preserving tradition or celebrating integration”
- (book chapter under review) ‘The tie that binds: folk arts and the reproduction of culture in Hong Kong Chinese families in Scotland’.
- (in press) “Heritage or cultural capital: ideologies of language in Scottish Chinese family life”. Asian Anthropology.
- 2013. ‘Ethical dilemmas for Hong Kong Chinese parents bringing up children in Scotland’. In Charles Stafford (ed.), Ordinary ethics in China, London: Berg.
- 2011. ‘Getting away from the takeaway: the meaning of work for young Chinese people in Scotland’. pp. 17-26 in Sine, March.
- Pharoah, R., Bell, E.M., Zhang Hui & Fan Yeung (2009) ‘Migration, integration, cohesion: new Chinese migrants to London’. London: Chinese in Britain Forum.
