Roundtable: Fifty Years of Chinese Food Studies

Dr. Francesca Bray
Professor Emerita of Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh

Dr. Françoise Sabban
Director of Studies, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales

Dr. E. N. Anderson
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside

Dr. James Watson
Professor Emeritus of Chinese Society and Anthropology, Harvard University

Dr. David Wu
Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii

As the first major English-language attempt to think seriously about food in Chinese culture, Food in Chinese Culture (Yale 1977) represented an important milestone for what has become a lively, but also fragmented field of modern Chinese food studies. Francesca Bray, James Watson, E. N. Anderson, Françoise Sabban, and David Wu, will participate in a round-table session that looks back on the past fifty-years of English-language research on Chinese foods and foodways, how it has changed, and what excites them about its future trajectories. All five of these scholars have helped define the field of Chinese food studies through their interdisciplinary contributions to history, anthropology, environmental ecology, and sinology.

 

Watch Roundtable recording:

 

Watch interviews with the panelists: