Sept. 29 - East Asian Foods in Media

[cgao]

How are East Asian foods depicted in films, television, and the Internet in Asia and beyond? 

 

 

Assignment

• View Tampopo (dir. Juzo Itami, 1985) or Eat Drink Man Woman (dir. Ang Lee, 1994)

[Amy Stamm]

Hi Jennifer,

The link for Tampopo takes you to Eat Drink Man Woman. If there's a way to fix this, that would be great. 

Thanks,

Amy

[Jennifer Smith]

Viewing the wide range of media about food in this week's lecture was interesting. The information about manga popularizing wine was new to me and it made me think about asking students to discuss the different types of foods that they encounter as they read manga or when they watch anime. It would be interesting to hear about the foods they are familiar with through these media sources. While many of the video clips were interesting, they are generally too long to show during a class. I could possibly use some YouTube clips or commercials though. In a different course this past week I read an article about the portrayal of foods in children's books, so it may be interesting to look for children's books that include information about food.

I chose to watch Eat Drink Man Woman. I was in awe when watching the scenes that included food preparation.

[cgao]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Amy Stamm]

The number of shows and films you shared with us in this video lecture was so comprehensive, Jennifer. Thanks for compiling this mini-history. Given what Cervantes pointed to a while back about how chefs in Asian countries weren’t traditionally propelled into the spotlight or given individual attention, it’s interesting that Iron Chef was created in Japan in the first place and then had such a dramatic effect on food culture. I’d like to understand more about these dynamics culturally. Cooking competition shows make sense to me in an American context, the U.S. being such an individualistic and competitive culture, but I’d love to hear from other people about the tension between individual stars and attending to the group in other countries. I’m also wondering how much prestige or status comes with cooking and what the gender dynamics are in Korea, China, Japan, and other Asian countries in the 2020s. I think it would be fun to have students write reviews of their favorite cooking shows, analyzing what creates interest or drama in the shows and what they’ve learned by watching them, as well as how they think about food differently. I like your idea, Jennifer, of having students analyze children's books' depictions of food.

 

[Amy Stamm]

Tampopo was such a weird and interesting film. I don’t remember seeing another film in which so many scenes are unrelated to, or don’t forward, the main narrative of the film, except in this kind of thematic way, as if creating a structure that surrounds the main story and conveys the centrality of food to every stage and aspect of life: childhood, relationships, social structures, love and sex, and death. I loved the humor in the film – all the rivalries, secret-stealing, meta-narratives, references to Westerns and other film-historical moments. I loved the message that eating ramen is as important an art as preparing or cooking ramen. My favorite scenes were of Goro training Tampopo, of her lifting the pot of water from burner to burner and of running to condition her body for the task of becoming a great chef. These scenes reminded me of Rocky. I loved that through watching the film, the viewer learns all these aspects of how to cook a brilliant ramen.

I think it would be interesting to show students the early sequence of the ramen master teaching his disciple how to eat ramen and to ask students what eating rituals or traditions they’ve experienced and also what their reactions to this scene are. I could see showing students excerpts of Tampopo training to cook the perfect bowl of ramen and then analyzing why this process is important and how it shapes people’s relationships to eating.

 

[Amy Stamm]

In Eat Drink Man Woman Ang Lee shows that the essence of life can be found in the four words of the film’s title. All of the subplots revolve around the pursuit of creating the perfect dish, eating elaborate feasts with a perfectly developed palate, building intimacy through drinking, or pursuing love. How students would react to Chu’s meal preparations would say a lot about their cultural backgrounds in terms of the relationship between live animals and the food they become. Some of my students have expressed a real lack of understanding about where food originates, so it would be interesting to look at food systems or farm to table routes in different countries, including statistics about how far different types of food travel before arriving at their final destination.

Gendered roles in relation to food and cooking was another theme in the movie with Jia-Chen’s lifelong passion for cooking suppressed from the time she was a young girl, as Uncle Wen reminisced in the hospital about her following him and her father around the kitchen. Her father kicked her out of the kitchen as a way of guiding her toward opportunities, but it becomes clear through as the story develops that opportunities mean little when they don’t connect to one’s soul, like cooking does to Jia-Chen’s. Her love of cooking was portrayed as her deepest part and the bond with her father that was stronger than all else. Her cooking was the only thing able to break through Chu’s growing loss of taste as he aged. At the same time, the generosity Chu showed in eating Jin-Rong’s inferior cooking was an expression of his love for her and her daughter Sha Sha. I loved the scene of Sha Sha’s friends ordering their lunches and Sha Sha rejecting fried rice and egg, saying, “That’s too simple. He won’t cook that. Order something more complicated.”

 

[Angela Lee]

For someone who loves watching food and cooking shows, the media blast on Asian food in the last few years has been a welcome addition! I remember watching all of the Iron Chefs (the dubbed versions from Japan), and then following all seasons of Iron Chef America.  Although it was seen as a parody, the fact that there were so many seasons of it made it an interesting enough show in its own right. A parody would have only lasted so long, and keyed in on some American sensibilities around food shows. 

I love watching documentary food shows, and when I finally watched Jiro, I remembered that my friend, Jen Che, an award winning food blogger, had actually been to his restaurant, and this is her documentation of the experience: https://tinyurbankitchen.com/sukiyabashi-jiro/.  She's a very interesting follow if you like reading food blogs, since she now lives in Hong Kong and visits many restaurants around Asia.  As a Chinese American, she has an interesting perspective and focus. 

That made me think of the other areas of media that this week's session did not cover as thoroughly, it's the preponderance of food blogs and recipe websites that have come out in recent years, and many have also become YouTube sensations (at least for a season).

Some of my go-to sites:

For Korean: https://www.maangchi.com/

https://www.koreanbapsang.com/ 

For Chinese: https://thewoksoflife.com/

 https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/

https://mychinesehomekitchen.com/

https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/

For Japanese: https://www.justonecookbook.com/

I also follow Kenji Lopes-Alt who used to write for Serious Eats.  He doesn't just focus on Asian food, but has expertise on a broad spectrum of foods, but the recipes I look at (and the ramen recipe I've made) are all by him. 

https://www.seriouseats.com/j-kenji-lopez-alt-5118720

 

[Jennifer Jung-Kim]

Btw, one of my former students from Occidental College won Master Chef UK in 2011 and has become a bit of a celebrtiy chef. I love that chefs don't have to be limited to the cuisine of their own ethnicity. 

https://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Article/2019/07/23/MasterChef-winner-Tim-Anderson-to-double-up-with-a-second-Nanban-Japanese-restaurant-in-London-s-Covent-Garden

 

[clay dube]

Jennifer - thanks for sharing the recognition accorded Tim Anderson. Here's a food writer from the UK who won an award for her food writing which took her back to Japan: https://asiahousearts.org/student-wins-award-memory-leading-exponent-chinese-cuisine/ And here's a competition specifically for non-Japanese who demonstrate mastery and innovation in Japanese food: https://www.washoku-worldchallenge.jp/7th/en/ The photos are tough to take if you're hungry and love Japanese cuisine.

[Bill Hilt]

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whats-the-best-food-movie-ft-binging-with-babish/id1500763931?i=1000519243122

I have recently been listening to this podcast which I enjoy quite a lot.  This episode talks about movies that center on food.  While there were many that sounded interesting, I looked up "The Ramen Girl."  I hope to watch it once I get some time.  I'm wondering how many of you have seen this one?  

I hope you have a chance to check out this podcast though, I think many of you might like it.  I have learned some things for sure.  

[clay dube]

Here's a prize winning food photo by Liao Jianhui from 2019:

BBC report: https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-48092511

The 2021 prize winner for "Food for the Family" was Li Huaifeng. It was taken in 2016 in Shanxi province:

The Li photo and other finalists from across the world (my favorite is from Bangladesh): https://www.pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com/finalists-gallery-2021/

[Bin He]

 

 

Speaking of food in the media reminds me of a documentary eight years ago, A Bite of China.

The series, in general, is pretty good, showing the different varieties of Chinese cuisine, spanning north-south and east-west. The whole show is not just about the food but also the culture and the traditions behind the various dishes. This episode is the most exciting and impressive for me because of the emphasis on the sophistication of Chinese cooking beyond the different types of cooking methods, including intricate knife work. My favorite part is the chef's demonstration of his expert knife skills by thinly slicing silken tofu with a giant cleaver. That's the kind of precision and skill that can only come after years of practice. Later, there were four more seasons produced. But because of more official interference in later documentaries, the content of the food is less, and more reflects the "positive aspects of society."

But this documentary is still worth watching if you are interested in Chinese food. It covers China's eight main cuisines and local specialty snacks and tells the significance of food to contemporary Chinese.

The link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2168980/

 

 

[Ping Pian]

Thanks Angela for sharing all the links! I only watched Maangchi a few times when I was searching for Korean recipes. Will definitely check out the others when I have time.

 

[Bill Hilt]

I had to stop about half way in order to write this for this evening; and I really wanted to keep watching.  I am somewhat entranced by this film.  Right away from the start I could identify with the father.  I think perhaps when I cook, I sometimes have the same set of expressions on my face.  There are a mix of emotions at once.  First, I beieve, like me, he takes great satisfaction in cooking for those he loves.  Additionally there is a sense of determination and pride in the knowledge that it is something he in which he has confidence in doing properly.  He is differnt from me in that he is a professional, which is evident in his every move.  What I lack in professionalism, I make up for in enthusiasm.  

For the father, his Sunday cooking seems to be an escape or release, almost an excersize in mindfulness.  Even at work, he has the confidence that shows he really does enjoy the work.  When people compliment my cooking by saying I should open a restaurant or food truck, I say, "But then it would make it work."  In this chef, I see that it can be both work and joy.  At the same time, he also needs the time by himself, in his own kitchen to center himself. 

A scene I particularly liked was when the eldest daughter is cooking for a man and they discuss the "ancient philosophy:  foodbalanced with energy,flavor, and nature."  I really like that, and it seems to fit well with the East Asian sense of balance in all things.

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