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Fu, Jia-Chen, King, Michelle T. and Klein, Jakob A., eds. (2025) Modern Chinese Foodways. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. (Food, Health, and the Environment)

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Abstract

An edited collection that explores the multifaceted experiences of Chinese culinary modernity both within and outside of mainland China from the mid-19th century to present. Modern Chinese Foodways defines some of the major processes by which Chinese food and foodways have become modern, with a focus on the period from the mid-nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The editors, Jia-Chen Fu, Michelle T. King, and Jakob A. Klein, highlight four prominent areas of change: commodification of food production; the scientization of expertise and the development of new food technologies; the creation of new culinary identities based on gender, ethnicity, and nation; and the circuits of migration taking place since the nineteenth century. The collection argues that Chinese food and foodways are very much modern—not a given in the face of the chorus of voices that insists on emphasizing its ancient roots—in ways that both recall the experiences of other cultures, as well as in ways unique to China's own historical trajectory. The book combines incisive, original scholarship by thirteen leading voices in the field with editorial essays on the past and future of Chinese food studies to frame the field of inquiry for the next generation of Chinese food studies scholars. Demonstrating the significance of modern Chinese foodways to the phenomenon of culinary modernity writ large, which is still largely shaped by Euroamerican perspectives and priorities, Modern Chinese Foodways is the first book of its kind.

Item Type: Edited Book or Journal Volume
SOAS Departments & Centres: School Research Centres > SOAS Food Studies Centre
Departments and Subunits > Department of Anthropology & Sociology
ISBN: 9780262551311
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/15518.001.0001
Date Deposited: 17 Mar 2025 06:23
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/43564
Related URLs: https://mitpres ... inese-foodways/ (Publisher URL)
Funders: Other, Other

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