In recent years, Food Studies has emerged as a dynamic interdisciplinary field, blending insights from multiple disciplines in exploring the pivotal role of food in shaping societies. The upcoming CCS webinar offers an opportunity to delve into how food culture has both historically and contemporarily operated in China. This panel will bring together two scholars to discuss their research projects into the significance of food in Chinese religious and social practices. By examining food as a lens to understand broader cultural and social transformations, this webinar promises to contribute new perspectives to the growing discourse on China’s vibrant food culture. Dr. Feng’s “Eat Bitterness,” Process Trauma: Two Novels by Wang Anyi and Ge Liang,” in which I argue that the two novels affirm the life-sustaining efficacy of food that defies the gravity of inherited traumas in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Greater China. Dr. DuBois’s presentation, “Exploring Taste in Chinese Food Writing” will examine the Chinese word for “taste” (wei 味) spans a range of distinct, but related ideas. His talk will use the idea of taste in Chinese food writing to explore the key relationship between the foods you crave and the ones you need. 

Speakers

Jin Feng 冯进: Professor of Chinese and Japanese and Orville and Mary Patterson Routt Professor of Literature at Grinnell College. She has published five English monographs: The New Woman in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction (2004), The Making of a Family Saga (2009), Romancing the Internet (2013), Tasting Paradise on Earth (2019), and The Transpacific Flow (2024); three Chinese books such as A Book for Foodies 吃货之书 (2020); and numerous articles in English and Chinese.

Thomas DuBois 杜博思: A historian of modern China and professor at Beijing Normal University. After two decades (and three books) on the topic of religion, he decided to study China’s food systems, a topic which has taken him from cattle ranches to cooking school. His new book, China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History was published by Reaktion books in 2024 and is set for release in Chinese and Japanese translations.

Moderator

Nancy K. Stalker, Soshitsu Sen XV Professor of Japanese History and Culture, University of Hawai’i at Manoa