Critical Readings on Food in East Asia

Since the publication of The Oxford Companion to Food in 1999, encyclopedias in the field of food culture and history have become a mainstream publishing genre, according to Cwiertka (modern Japan studies, Leiden U., The Netherlands). She identifies in her introduction the Euro-centric or Western-centric biases of a number of these publications, some of which go so far as to accentuate the perceived oddity of food practices elsewhere. This three-volume reference consists of the editor's selection of 48 previously published articles related to food in contemporary China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Arranged geographically and then, roughly, chronologically, the readings distribute the focus among regional and local topics and offer a historical overview that leads to emphasis on contemporary issues. For example, the section on China begins with a reading on food in Chinese history and another on Buddhist vegetarianism, and ends with Cantonese cuisine in Taiwan and Taiwanese cuisine in Hong Kong, consumption of duck, and Chinese restaurants in European cities. Sources include The Asia-Pacific Journal, Journal of Social History, and Ethnology, among others. The reference is lightly indexed by name. To limit the scope, this reference excludes coverage of tea and alcohol, which of course would be rich subjects for a future work. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Katarzyna J. Cwiertka is Professor of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University. Her research to date has utilized food as a window into the modern history of Japan and Korea. Cwiertka is the author of Modern Japanese Cuisine: Food, Power and National Identity (Reaktion Books 2006) and Cuisine, Colonialism and Cold War: Food in Twentieth Century Korea (Reaktion Books, forthcoming in 2012). She has also edited two volumes with a larger geographical focus, including Asian Food: The Global and the Local (University of Hawai‘i Press 2002), and Food and War in Mid-Twentieth-Century East Asia (Ashgate, forthcoming in 2013).