750B Ethnographic Locations: East Asia

Special Theme 2023/24: The Cultural Politics of Chinese Food

In this module we explore key themes in the anthropology of Chinese societies through the lens of food and its cultural politics.

In China, food figures prominently in the formation and expression of cultural identities, majority-minority interactions, political power, religious practice, and everyday social relations. Longstanding concerns about food security have increasingly given way to anxieties about food safety and dietary health and renewed interest in culinary tourism and heritage. Food also mediates the relationship between China and the world and shapes the experiences of Chinese in the diaspora.

The module addresses current issues and debates surrounding food systems and food practices, as they pertain to Chinese societies and peoples. Topics will include:    

• Cooking Chinese: Transnational Migration, Restaurants, and Cultural Identity
• Contested Chineseness: Culinary Nationalism and Heritage-Making in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan
• Feeding the Family: Food Safety, Social Trust, and Inequality
• Meat-Eating and Vegetarianism: Industrial Farming, Religious Resurgence, and the Cultural Politics of Meat
• Lactophobia and Lactophilia: Dairy, Nutrition, and Body Politics

The module will appeal to students interested in anthropological perspectives on contemporary Chinese societies and cultural politics in national and transnational frameworks, and to those wishing to deepen their knowledge and understanding of current debates in the anthropology of food through a sustained exploration of Chinese contexts.

The module does not presuppose prior knowledge of Chinese history or language, but students may wish to explore some of the suggested readings in preparation for the course.  

Prerequisites

No prerequisites. This module is also a School-wide Open Option. 

Guided option for students on:

• MA Social Anthropology
• MA Social Anthropology + Intensive Language
• MA Anthropology of Food
• MA Anthropology of Food + Intensive Language
• MA Anthropology of Global Futures and Sustainability
• MA Medical Anthropology and Mental Health
• MRes Social Anthropology
• MRes Social Anthropology + Intensive Language

Suggested Readings

• King, Michelle T. (ed.) (2019) Culinary Nationalism in Asia. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
• Ho, Hao-Tzu (2020) ‘Cosmopolitan locavorism: global-local food movements in postcolonial Hong Kong’, Food, Culture & Society, 23 (2): 137-154.
• Oxfeld, Ellen (2017) Bitter and Sweet: Food, Meaning, and Modernity in Rural China.  Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Siu, Lok (2008) ‘Chino Latino restaurants: converging communities, identities, and cultures’, Afro-Hispanic Review, 27 (1): 161-171.
• Yan, Yunxiang (2012) ‘Food safety and social risk in contemporary China’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 71 (3): 705-729.

• Klein, Jakob A. (2020) ‘Transformations of Chinese cuisines’, in Kevin Latham (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Chinese Culture and Society. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 376-394.

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules