Culinary Nationalism in Asia
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Abstract
Food and cuisine have had an exceedingly significant place in Chinese culture for centuries, yet little critical attention has been paid to foodways in the formation of its modern national identities. This conference proposes to grapple with the question of modern Chinese “culinary nationalism” by placing it in a comparative Asian context, bringing together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars in the fields of history, anthropology, sociology, literature, media and cultural studies, with research interests in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and India. Collectively, the papers will address these questions: What is gained or lost by discussing Chinese cuisine as a cultural vs. a national phenomenon? How have foodways contributed to the formation of cultural, regional and national identities in different Asian locations? How do foodways transgress national boundaries? How has culinary nationalism served as a form of nostalgic recovery and creative reinvention among overseas diasporas?