China to Chinatown : Chinese food in the West / J.A.G. Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, J. A. G., 1935-

Series:

Globalities

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Food habits--China.

Food habits.

China.

Cooking, Chinese.

Civilization, Western--Chinese influences.

Civilization, Western.

Physical Description:

255 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Reaktion, 2002.

Summary:

Globalities is a series which reinterprets world history in a concise yet thoughtful way, looking at major issues over large time-spans and political spaces; such issues can be political, ecological, scientific, technological or intellectual. Rather than adopting a narrow chronological or geographical approach, books in the series are conceptual in focus yet present an array of historical data to justify their arguments. They often involve a multi-disciplinary approach juxtaposing different subject-areas such as economics and religion or literature and politics.

Since Marco Polo first recorded his responses in 1275, the West's encounters with Chinese food have been a measure of the times. For Jesuit missionaries, eating the exotic food of the people was a way of understanding them; for the British merchants in the 19th-century treaty ports, Chinese cuisine was an object of suspicion. During the Cultural Revolution, food was political: despite widespread food shortages, lavish hospitality was used to influence the views of visiting intellectuals and politicians, while, for some, eating the meagre food of the Communist peasantry was a Western gesture of solidarity.

But how did a cuisine that, to the Western palate, admitted the inadmissible -- sharks' fins, dog's flesh, cats' eyes -- spread to the extent that there is now a Chinese restaurant or takeaway on every high street and a wok in every kitchen? In charting the first immigrant communities, Chinatowns and restaurants in Britain and North America and the gradual domestication of Chinese food, Roberts provides a brilliant analysis of how cultures assimilate and adapt, at times abandoning strict ethnic authenticity, in order to survive. Written in a lively and engaging style, this book will fascinate food gastronomes of every sort as well as specialists in Chinese culture.

Contents:

Part I West to East

1 Chinese Food 15

2 The Western Discovery of Chinese Food 28

3 Nineteenth-century Reactions to Chinese Food 53

4 1900-49: Western Impressions of Chinese Food in China 82

5 Westerners and Food in Communist China 110

Part II East to West

6 The Globalization of Chinese Food

the Early Stages 135

7 The Globalization of Chinese Food since 1945 161

8 On the Globalization of Chinese Food 204.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-244) and index.

ISBN:

1861891334

OCLC:

50214542