[Rachel Wang]

I thoroughly enjoyed all the readings and lectures for today’s unit. They inspired me to visit my nearest Asian grocery—aptly named Mom’s House—to replenish my kimchi supply and to inquire, for the umpteenth time since before Chinese New Year, whether they have been able to restock my favorite childhood snack from Taiwan. “Guai Guai” 乖乖 are crunchy puffed rice better-than-cheetos nibbles and the best flavor is curry, objectively speaking. Instead of dissolving into tears upon their reply: “No, still not yet,” I picked up these Korean sweets—see photo. They taste like fortune cookies ought to—more textured, fresher, and crispier. In the past, I have taken advantage of the hollow center to craft “birthday bikkies” for classmates and students by inserting thin strips of paper inscribed with greetings and wishes. Since the pandemic began, I have discovered they also taste great when filled with green tea ice cream.

Min Joo Lee’s essay Branding Korea is fascinating, easy to read, and insightful. The tension and inherent paradox she outlined between cosmopolitanism and nationalism are useful lenses through which to analyze the strategies and successes of Korean soft power.

Lee and Leonard refer to several foods that embody the extensive mutual influences between China, Korea, and Japan, e.g. soy sauce, or jjampong. On a different note, the traumas these authors describe underscore the deeply emotional impact that food can have on individuals as well as communities.

My heartfelt thanks to Professor Jung-Kim for the relatable readings and engaging presentations!

 

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[Rachel Wang]

Clay's comment about plastic foods reminded me to share this novelty item. Yes, there is an industry devoted to plastic food models and the well made ones command high prices. I suppose it is part of a business's advertising cost. They can serve as templates for how specific dishes ought to appear, thereby shaping expectations for consumers as well as cooks. 

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[Rachel Wang]

I could not upload these earlier, so trying again now. Related to today’s topic, I am attaching two photos that may be of interest to you or your students: one shows a wooden plane used to shave dried bonito fish; the other is a memory game featuring fish used for sushi—the individual cards feature specialized Chinese characters and a decorative paper craft, chiyogami.

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[Rachel Wang]

In the second video, Lecture 2, Eric Rath raised an intriguing question about “how cuisine is defined and who defines them.” The concepts of Kyodo Ryori and Fudo Shoku, for instance, tap into a sense of collective nostalgia and the ideal of being connected to the land (the soil or terroir 土 to be specific) that tie into the “romanticized hometowns” which become tourist attractions. His observation that the central government determines what local cuisines are might feel ironic, but it would make sense in achieving a unifying economic and social agenda. Among the current examples of such intentional marketing (regardless of their driving force) that immediately came to mind is https://visitkochijapan.com/en/taste-of-kochi This page happens to feature the seared bonito Prof. Rath references, as well as yuzu—a citrus for which the area is known; yet, the meticulous segmentation and painstaking curation are by no means unique to this region. In fact, the positioning of certain foods and drinks as special, seasonal, and locale-specific, is promoted in Japan on an impressive scale.

In her insightful paper on Japanese mothers and obentos, Anne Allison analyzes how food can play an important role in constructing identity and advancing ideology, while providing a glimpse of Japan’s education system. I wonder what the teachers out there think about the practice of “judging” their students’ lunches from home….

 

 

[Rachel Wang]

 

This recipe for General Zuo Chicken is from one of Fu Pei-Mei’s cookbooks (the copy I have was published in Taiwan in 1988 but her TV shows and cookbooks date back to the 1960s and there are numerous editions). Among a certain generation, Fu Pei-Mei was regarded as the Julia Child of Chinese cooking. Netflix made a mini series based on her life: What She Put on the Table.

As you can see, this dish seems to have a legendary status outside of America as well.

This recipe for General Zuo Chicken is from one of Fu Pei-Mei’s cookbooks (the copy I have was published in Taiwan in 1988 but her TV shows and cookbooks date back to the 1960s and there are numerous editions). Among a certain generation, she was regarded as the Julia Child of Chinese cooking. Netflix made a mini series based on her life: What She Put on the Table.

This dish seems to have a legendary status even among some Chinese outside of America….

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[Rachel Wang]

From Who Will Feed China, p.32: “It may well force a redefinition of security, a recognition that food scarcity and the associated economic instability are far greater threats than military aggression is.” I would add to this observation the increasing prominence of food—and beverage—in international trade relations as well as diplomacy and geopolitics. For instance, China’s tariffs on Australian wines (up to 200+ percent) and the accompanying grey market, vs. Japan’s recent, highly publicized, decision to eliminate tariffs on Australian wines. These reflect appetites for higher-value items (e.g. lobsters, etc.) beyond the staple foods, and I wonder what percentage of China's population has access to them.

Tangential to my point are the intriguing statistics cited in “China’s Safety Requirements Pose Challenge for Food Exporters” such as the sections titled: U.S. Products Accounted for 7 Percent of Refusals and Smaller Countries See Surge of Refusals in 2020. These conversations and considerations are further complicated by pandemic-imposed supply chain disruptions resulting in processing/shipping/inspection delays and, hence, “shortages.”

Is that leading to relative scarcity, instability, or insecurity? What are some of the current and reliable indicators to which we can refer?

 

[Rachel Wang]

Ping, thanks for mentioning Taiwan's night markets--I miss them! Have you seen Netflix's Street Food: Asia series? 

 

[Rachel Wang]

Our in-class discussion got me thinking about chopsticks as more than prosaic tools for cooking, eating, and certain precision tasks (e.g. fetching difficult-to-reach items). How might they be used to introduce a variety of discussion topics? For example, cultural etiquette: it is rude to point with chopsticks at other people, and impolite to play with chopsticks while dining with others at the table. Furthermore, do chopsticks have a potential role in structured activities or fun experiments that will serve educational objectives? I happened across these research topics which may offer relevant food for thought: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15676839/

https://towardsdatascience.com/chopstick-length-analysis-2c4c7e9b6136

Before seeing this abstract, I had assumed that everyone in my family has different go-to chopsticks due to individual aesthetic preferences, but now I realize there are functional ergonomics involved…. I took these photos (while cooking on a rainy Sunday) for comparative purposes, and welcome your comments and questions.

 

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[Rachel Wang]

What a great story, David—your student is a well-prepared traveler because he was not about to go hungry! Good to know he learned to use chopsticks, though. Do you suppose he now totes something similar (see photo) when out and about?

 

 

 

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[Rachel Wang]

I watched the full length version of the Chopsticks video because I was curious about the spoken language used in each clip. As expected, the first one uses Cantonese and features “baby talk.” In the second one, the mother speaks in Shanghainese while the child responds in Mandarin, demonstrating the mixed usage of vernacular and “standard speech” or Putonghua/Mandarin that is common nowadays. This practice extends to the Chinese diaspora, of course, as seen in the segment featuring San Francisco’s Chinatown.

A related point is the importance of subtitles, whether one is reading the Chinese or English version, because some of the local languages may be difficult to understand for Chinese people who hail from a different region. 

One can extract plenty of subtext, too, such as socio-economic snapshots or urban dwelling vs. rural life in today’s China.

 

[Rachel Wang]

Greetings,

I am delighted to join you as an auditor—many thanks to my NCTA colleagues at USC US-China Institute for hosting me! I am a writer, translator, and book reviewer currently based in western Massachusetts. I have lived in East Asia and have worked in intercultural education for quite some time—as a consultant, community volunteer, and occasional substitute teacher. I love exploring culinary histories and food cultures as they relate to identity and migration, and I look forward to learning together. See you soon!

 

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