ABSTRACT
Since the publication of Food in Chinese Culture, considerable research has uncovered the enormous amount of mutual influence between China and the world, especially eastern and central Asia. New translations of medieval Chinese sources, as well as ethnographic research, have shown that China was far less isolated than once thought, and that waves of outside influence alternated with less borrowing-prone periods. This influenced, for instance, use of dairy foods and of baking, both of which waxed and waned with west and central Asian influences. The “silk routes” on land and the “maritime silk routes” through the China Sea and Indian Ocean have received increasing attention. Some foods and foodways traveled rapidly and widely; others did not. Placing China in world-systems perspective allows understanding of the economics and cultural tastemaking behind such processes.