{"title":"The Political Economy of Food Import and Self-reliance in China: 1949-2019","authors":"Shaohua Zhan","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.2012082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.2012082","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT China’s growing food imports have aroused anxiety over global food security. Paradoxically the country also maintains a policy of food self-sufficiency as the Chinese leadership reiterates that the country must “hold the rice bowl in its own hands.” Importing large volumes of food while emphasizing self-sufficiency poses a puzzle in understanding food politics in China. This paper examines political and economic forces behind the dual strategy, i.e. seeking food imports and emphasizing self-reliance. The underproduction crisis of food and the neoliberal globalization of the food supply have contributed to rising food imports, whereas the anxiety over national food sovereignty and the need to support rural livelihoods pull China toward food self-reliance. Using statistical and archival data, the paper reveals the critical conjunctures of food imports and self-reliance in China in the past seven decades and the contradictions within the dual food strategy.","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"8 1","pages":"194 - 212"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44731736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Shrimp to Foie Gras: Tales of Food, Gender, and Power in Contemporary China","authors":"Jin Feng","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1982449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1982449","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Why would a Chinese restaurant that claims to be the true heir of local culinary and cultural traditions put Western-style baked goose liver on the menu, next to traditional dishes like stir-fried shrimp? How do Chinese women address power asymmetry in the workplace ? This article uses the cases of five female managers of food establishments, who break into two generations and occupy a spectrum of positions on gender and ideology, to illustrate how women can wrest power from patriarchy by participating in the collective project of food nostalgia in contemporary China. Both beneficiaries and victims of the patriarchal system, they demonstrate in their autobiographical storytelling cultural beliefs and narrative patterns from pre-socialist and socialist China while registering generational differences in gender position. Intersectioning with culture, gender, and politics, food functions as a prism to refract the complex processes of Chinese modernization and Chinese women’s inevitably fraught experiences therein.","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"8 1","pages":"157 - 176"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41419111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Section Introduction: World War II Food Rationing across the United Kingdom","authors":"Kelly A. Spring","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1978264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1978264","url":null,"abstract":"Public crises such as pandemics, natural disasters, and war, stress and reconfigure food systems to support the consumption needs of populations in distress. The global impact of World War II cause...","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42493123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mung Bean Starch Jelly in Chinese Gastronomy: A Historical Approach","authors":"Yan Liang","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1979358","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1979358","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is a case study of the culinary uses of mung bean starch in the history of Chinese gastronomy. Mung bean starch has been mostly valued for the smooth jelly it forms when gelatinized in hot water. This article explores the perception and consumption of the jelly in literati food writings in the Song (960–1279), Yuan (1279–1368), Ming (1368–1644), and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. The primary materials used in this study are written texts: miscellaneous writings about food, recipe collections, and traditional Chinese medical and dietetic classics. The focus of my analysis are the jelly’s gastronomical merits in the literati food culture, including the perceived dietetical value of the starch, the starch jelly’s particular texture and mouthfeel, and the cultural symbolisms it represents. This study showcases the cultural values that affect the perception and consumption of food in Chinese gastronomy.","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"7 1","pages":"202 - 220"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49021463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Little Goodies in His Kit Bag”: British Servicemen, Masculinity, and Feeding the Home Front in World War II","authors":"Kelly A. Spring","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1971928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1971928","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In World War II, the British government called on all able-bodied men to join the forces and defend the country, enabling them to fulfill the role of ideal male in wartime. These men also performed masculinity by provisioning families with gifts of food from their service abroad. Such food added to the overall caloric levels of a population on rations, offered a material form of comfort, and sustained connections between the military and home fronts. This article utilizes written memoirs from the BBC’s WW2 People’s War website to examine people’s memories of servicemen’s work with food. These remembrances illuminate the diverse ways in which men, serving in all branches of the forces (Army, RAF, Navy, and Merchant Navy), helped to support the nutrition and well-being (physical and emotional) of British families. Through the lens of food, this article offers a complex and multifaceted view of wartime masculinity.","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"7 1","pages":"223 - 237"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46363912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture","authors":"Audrey Russek","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1974197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1974197","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"7 1","pages":"260 - 263"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44324598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tastes in the Jade Flagons: Alcohol Tasting and the Reconstruction of Late Imperial Chinese Literati Identity, 15th-18th Centuries","authors":"Jackson Yue Bin Guo","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1947943","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1947943","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Commercialization in the Ming and Qing dynasties caused profound changes to China’s conventional hierarchies in multiple respects. This article examines literati and popular writings about drinking between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries as competing views of good taste for alcoholic beverages emerged among scholars. Many prominent writers, officials, and connoisseurs developed a taste for alcoholic drinks, such as the distilled spirits that were often associated with the non-elite classes. Some literati even operated breweries and distilleries. By focusing on the works of connoisseurs like Yuan Mei, I argue that ordinary people’s taste for food and drinks helped constitute Ming-Qing literati elites’ identities and sensibilities. Contrary to historians Craig Clunas and Wu Renshu, who argue that the dichotomy of literati elegance and non-elite vulgarity preserved social hierarchies, this article presents a more contested history of taste formation in late imperial society and questions the position of literati taste in broader sociocultural transformations.","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"7 1","pages":"181 - 201"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20549547.2021.1947943","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44304760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Food, Thrift, and Experiment in Early Modern England","authors":"S. Werrett","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1942666","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1942666","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay uses the framework of “thrifty science” to highlight commonalities between two early modern endeavours that seem distinct today – experimental science and cookery. Comparing Isaac Newton’s experiments on light using glass prisms with Anne Shackleford’s recipes for fruitcakes I argue that for early moderns the culture of domestic thrift united the two enterprises more than we might imagine. Thrift and frugality were values of “oeconomy” or household management and encouraged householders to diversify the uses of things, a motive for experimentation across various endeavours, including what came to be defined as cookery and natural philosophy. While the home was a common ground for diverse experiments, efforts to institutionalise experiment divided it into more distinct forms, prompting a separation of practices that came to seem self-evident later on.","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"9 1","pages":"225 - 241"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20549547.2021.1942666","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42509596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Every Crumb of Cake: W.E.B. Du Bois, Food, Intimacy, and Patriarchy","authors":"Jennifer Jensen Wallach","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1928999","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1928999","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Intellectual histories of African American luminary W.E.B. Du Bois emphasize his thought at the expense of passing over the rich meanings embedded in his quotidian activities. Du Bois constructed personal food practices with care, using food as a way to communicate beliefs and as a tool to build relationships. In particular, a food history perspective yields insights into the dynamics of Du Bois’s intimate relationships with women and reveals some contradictions between his rhetorical commitment to their empowerment and his daily actions. A shift in focus from Du Bois’s public persona to his domestic, food-related actions also uncovers the influence that Nina Gomer Du Bois—who appears as a cipher in the scholarship about Black political activism—may have had upon her husband’s work and beliefs.","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"7 1","pages":"97 - 114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20549547.2021.1928999","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43557499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Peripheries of Omnivorousness: Vegetarian Canteens and Social Activism in the Early Twentieth-Century Russian Empire","authors":"Julia Malitska","doi":"10.1080/20549547.2021.1923997","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20549547.2021.1923997","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Unlike the British, American, or Central European vegetarian movements, which emerged in the nineteenth century, organized vegetarianism did not emerge in the Russian Empire until the turn of the century. By the 1910s, enthusiasts had formed vegetarian societies and developed an infrastructure in many of the empire’s cities. Drawing on mainstream literature and utilizing a variety of primary sources, this article examines vegetarian eating establishments started by vegetarian activists in the early twentieth century. It uncovers the rationale behind its emergence, ideological framework and disputes, and the mechanisms that brought it to life, showcasing the collective efforts to promote a vegetarian dietary regimen and worldview. I argue that vegetarian canteens appeared as multifunctional venues resulting from a fledgling vegetarian activism. Finally, the study unveils what was served and eaten in the vegetarian canteens of the early twentieth century, shedding light on urban vegetarian cuisine(s) in terms of its form and content in some European parts of the Russian Empire.","PeriodicalId":92780,"journal":{"name":"Global food history","volume":"7 1","pages":"140 - 175"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20549547.2021.1923997","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42784160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}