Abstract

Foods are changed not only by those who produce and supply them, but also by those who consume them. Analyzing food without considering changes over time and across space is less meaningful than analyzing it in a global context where tastes, lifestyles, and imaginations cross boundaries and blend with each other, challenging the idea of authenticity. A dish that originated in Beijing and is recreated in New York is not necessarily the same, because although authenticity is often claimed, the form, ingredients, or taste may have changed. The contributors of this volume have expanded the discussion of food to include its social and cultural meanings and functions, thereby using it as a way to explain a culture and its changes.

Kwang Ok Kim, D.Phil. Oxon. is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Seoul National University, Yongje Distinguished Professor at Yonsei University and also Distinguished Chair Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Shandong University, China. He has conducted fieldwork on the politics of culture in Korea, the Chinese mainland, and Taiwan. His publications include Ethnicity: Beyond the Myth (2006), Politics of Culture and Power Structure of a Korean Local Society (2012), and China in Everyday Practice (2017).

“Overall, this volume provides rich ethnographic and descriptive material for any scholar interested in Asian foodways. This work is a welcome addition to the ever-growing cannon on food scholarship in Asia.” · Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute

“The chapters provide thought-provoking ethnographic material and theoretically rich insights into cuisine, place, identity, authenticity, borders, and taxonomy in Asian foodways in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries…[They] are ethnographically rich, analytically sharp, and cover a wide range of topics to ensure that this book will be read, taught, and cited by scholars interested in food, identity, globalization, and regionalism.” · Journal of Anthropological Research

“Overall, this book will be a useful addition to the shelf of books about material culture (what culture is not material?), migration, identity and politics, East Asia, and of course food studies. The chapters are of pleasing lengths and provide a useful variety. They are not aiming for timelessness, but rather timeliness, and on that basis they succeed quite well.” · Anthropos

“This volume has much to contribute to discourses on East Asian foodways, and would be useful for scholars interested in food and globalisation, and food safety, and also those with an interest in Korean food and foodways.” · Social Anthropology

“[The book] is very informative, and introduces material that might lead to very interesting debates in culture and foodways, as well as in the classroom.” · Merry White, Boston University

"This book is unique in that it covers Eurasia as a system, linking East Asia to Europe in an interesting and creative ways." · James L. Watson, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University