- Apr 2023
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onlinelibrary.wiley.com onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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foreshadowing the schismsof world war and of internecine conflicts within China
wow, I love the imagery of this scene and how the cake represents the state of the world
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ug-gests food as a substitute for sex,
There are a lot of metaphors mentioned in this chapter! I also agree that food is a substitute for sex/intimacy
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left to the imagery oftheir shared meals and food encounters in the street outside to convey close-ness, and conversely the solitary meals to convey the frustration inherent in thecircumstances and subsequently Chow’s increasing isolation and regret
this is such a good observation!
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intrinsic to the patterns ofmeaning encoded in and generated by his movies
the food scenes are intentional
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serving as markers of continu-ity in Shanghai history continued throughout the Republican period
impt to note the time period this took place in
also the title of restaurants as "markers of continuity" stands out to me
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travelogues and commercial guides.
written sources of evidence present throughout the book
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pattern of continuity,
another theme apparent in the book!
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closer examination of the history of Shang-hai cuisine itself suggests that it has not changed markedly over the last century
critiquing the points made by Lu about Shanghai development and food culture, which are valid points!
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local Shanghai favorite
combination of the many cultures represented in Shanghai
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elf-consciously distinguished Shanghai culture from the more orthodox northern varieties that were especially prominent in Shanghai Cuisine Past and Present233Beijing
this brings up the question, on how Shanghai culture as a whole follows this concept of "inventiveness"?
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crystallization of the collective wisdom of vet-erans of Shanghai food and drink circles with a breath of vision, of chefs, and all the Shanghai people.”
sharing of ideas to create an ideal vision (version of a dish)
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digging deep into a repertoire of several hundred traditional dishes and invent-ing more than a hundred new dishes, becoming the standout of what may be called Shanghai’s “Sichuan-Yangzhou” cuisine.
modifying years-old recipes into something new to appeal to young tastebuds, people looking to try something new
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chefs had created a new va-riety of Sichuan and Yangzhou cookery that warranted the designation Haipai.
chefs were discussed in chapter 5 as a major player in shaping Shanghai food culture, and we see they had major influence in creating a fusion like cookery.
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shoring up a sense of cultural continuity in a period of rapid change
okay, I think I understand the difference between family style restaurants and Old Shanghai theme restaurants.
While this is not familiar, this reminds me of how when there was a period of rapid change with the spread and increased transmission of COVID that my family ate meals together and sometimes played board game, and these meals kept us grounded and connected to our collective values as the world around us was changing.
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time we are proud of, a time we like to remember.
i see another theme present in this reading is pride (pride of one's cuisine or pride about a certain time)
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local and an international phenomenon.
I am guessing the people who are creating these restaurants have some connection to Shanghai, esp Shanghai during the 30s, or at least have family members who do
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1930s
stuck in time
the rise in these restaurants may be connected to nostalgia, reminiscing on the "good times," the 1930s
this brings up the question of why the 1930s?
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focusing on local cuisine in the late Qing, Republican, or Maoist periods of Shanghai’s history separately.
keep these periods in mind!
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China’s most “modern” and cosmopolitan city,
this places Shanghai in a high pedestal in comparison to other cities
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evoked the cultures of, their home regions.
again, this idea of evoking something really ties into nostalgia
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garden city that recalled culturally and politically significant gardens and orchards of the Chinese past.
the image of Shanghai was transformed
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central component of urban culture and identity.
I def feel like the dif regional cuisines represented through Shanghai is reminiscent of urban culture.
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Past and Present
the title signals to me that this is a reflection of time
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1Introduction:
to answer the questions posed, by reading chapter 1 to 5, I came to think of "nostalgia" and "culinary nostalgia" as a sense of loss, and trying to find connection to a place through food (usually by developing restaurants or food resemblance of ones' native place). There is a sense of longing for something that is not existent or existent in low amounts or not to one's ideal perception in a new area. According to the introduction, "nostalgia" and "culinary nostalgia," is "recollection or purposive evocation of another time and place through food." "Nostalgia" is defined as a form of self-deception, a false sense of an idealized place that never was. These definitions do match with my definition, especially since chapter 2 discusses the idea of Penglai, this ideal society that doesn't live up to the expectations people thought of before coming to Shanghai.
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guidebook writer
major player and source of evidence
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ymbol of a neo-traditional Chinese notion of family.
the transformation of Western food as a symbol for modernity and now as a symbol for the Chinese notion of family is interesting
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patrons, travel writers, and social commentators touted them as symbols of Shanghai’s modernity.
i think it is important to consider who attributes Western restaurants as symbols of Shanghai's modernity
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uncertainties of Ming and Qing commodity culture did not predominate.
keep this in mind, the two representations of Shanghai
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under Japanese occupation—
historical context surrounding the revert back to home and regional cuisines
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amiliarize cities for sojourners, while marking sojourners as “other” to the cities through which they traveled.
this was explained when discussing the foreign settlements
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gazetteers (
we saw this written source of evidence appear a lot in the early chapters
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suggests a form of self-deception, a false sense of an idealized place that never was.
this reminds me of how we reflect on memories, and we idealize them, but then as we reflect, we realize that the experience we r thinking about wasn't as beautiful as we thought
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constructing a sense of home and imagining an ideal society
this sense of loss, wanting to go back to your roots (the things you know best), and longing for a paradise. The paradise goes back to Penglai
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builds on recent studies of the city that have challenged the idea of Shanghai’s essentially “modern” or “Westernized” character.
this tells us the sources the book is using to build upon the author's argument
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Old Shanghai
this was mentioned throughout the book, this idea of Old Shanghai vs New Shanghai (modern v traditional)
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culinary nostalgia”
the central theme of this book, refer back to this definition during the discussion
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“proletarianization” of restau-rants and food culture during the political frenzy of China’s Cultural Revo-lution decade (1966–76)
"proletarianization": people move from being unemployed, an employer, or self employed to being employed by a wage labor by an employer
China's Cultural Revolution decade, another historical event to keep in mind
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“opening and reform” after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976,
significant event that took place
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menu consisted of three dishes of inexpensive Shanghai fare: tofu and shredded pork soup, stir-fried baby bok choy, and vegetable rice.
I think it would be interesting to analyze these three dishes in more detail. Why did these three dishes rise in popularity?
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celebrating the labor and talents of Shanghai’s leading chefs as exemplary workers,
this is a key main idea of this section!
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starting to sound more and more like those who had celebrated Shang-hai’s food culture in earlier periods:
That is so true!
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ad-hoc”
when necessary or needed
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activity that people most associated with the “speaking bitterness” (suku) campaigns of the land reform period.
oh wow, the connection of these sessions to Maoist revolutionary practice interests me!
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masses” that the party could now turn for further guidance about how to develop regional food culture.
The "masses" seem to be a key player in reviving regional food cuisine and the peach, it almost seems that Shanghai is reverting back to its old traditions
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Shanghai’s rich history of regional food culture.
this was discussed throughout the book, especially in previous chapters
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ameliorating t
to make better
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business into the Yunnan Road cooperative canteen and des-ignated the original stall a branch canteen.
expansion of business to meet the demands/needs of the working class pop
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waste away.
this choice of words stands out to me
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salubrious
healthy
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negative and highly critical images of Shanghai’s high-end restaurant culture,
representative of Wang, who felt discomfort in Canto and Western restaurants
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even less comfort-able in those establishments, and their different attitudes toward food and eating out becomes the undoing of their relationship.
interesting, I feel like Wang and Mary's relationship is a metaphor for something, possibly a metaphor for Shanghai (the undoing could represent the shambles of Shanghai as the city is clouded with war and famine, esp in regards to the conflicting parties: the BSA and the CCP)
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fond of Cantonese cooking,
which was associated with Western food
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just moved back to Shanghai.
this indicates to me that there may be seem disconnect to Shanghai or not fully aware of the events that have occurred since Mary's departure
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t urban diets need to be improved, but that, at the same time, only the diets of the urban poor provide one with a revolutionary potential to carry out that change
I think I understand why the diet of the urban poor is the diet with revolutionary potential because the diet is not providing enough nutrients for this group of people, affecting the country's overall health
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eing a restaurateur was about providing service to anyone, for a customer was a customer, plain and simple.
this reminds me of the NYTimes article we read about the relationship between the restaurateur and the customer
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important meeting ground
ahh this makes sense why restaurants pose a threat because they could serve as a meeting ground for discussion of counter rev ideas
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orkers who suffered—the very people on whom the economy depended
bottom-up approach, if the foundation is not provided for then the whole city/gov will collapse
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wake of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor,
again historical context which explains why the price of rice rose again
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food as a weapon
I would really like to explore this more.
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blocked the waterways through which Shanghai’s rice was brought to market from the interior.
oof, that is not good. so since rice is not as accessible, more money to bring rice into Shanghai, therefore costs to purchase rice increases
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tre-mendous growth of, among other things, the city’s restaurant industry.
this sort of makes sense to me since there are a larger influx of people moving into this area, a rise in prosperity in the city's restaurant industry makes sense. More refugees = more diverse cultures which leads to more regional cuisines represented
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Japan’s invasion of south China.
historical context (major historical event)
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technological advances in Shanghai rice-husking technology produced a much more highly polished product
ahh the dif in polished rice vs rice that is not polished is interesting to me
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begun in the early 1920s
historical context (answers the question of when did nutritional research into the quality of diets in Shanghai begin?)
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ideas about traditional rural diets provided a benchmark for criticizing the ways of the city
again, this comparison of modern vs traditional in terms of food culture is similar to previous chapters, but now there is added complexity with how food culture in Shanghai compares with traditional rural diets
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tiny portion of rice, burnt pot scrapings, broken rice, and a large portion of the tofu dregs that people in the countryside use to feed pigs!
oh that doesn't sound appetizing at all
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gradually inclined toward industrialization, and prices have shot up accordingly
we discussed how industrialization contributes to high prices and inflation in earlier discussions of this book
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wage a publicity campaign to discredit the Changshu Rice Merchants Guild,
how the media plays a role in lending support for one group and not lending support for another, publicizing their wrongdoings
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drought and pestilence brought bad harvests to most of rice-growing China, presenting the BSA with a food supply crisis and an opportunity to assert its political and moral authority.
consider the context (in fall 1929, there was drought and pestilence), and how this context brought about the opp for the BSA to assert itself
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siphoned off the entire amount for military purposes
a change in the purpose that the money should be used for
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identified notable rice price spikes following the Great War and in the wake of the outbreak of civil disturbances in China
historical context surrounding why the rice prices are so high
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feeling the strains of the rising cost of living
this is interesting because we see how inflation today is affecting many middle class families
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wealthy city residents worked hard to raise money to help the hungry in other parts of China.
this is interesting because I feel like we don't see much of this today, the wealthy serving the poor
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average family of 4.6 members annually consumed more than twelve hundred pounds of rice, but only eleven pounds of pork, the most heavily consumed meat.
this doesn't surprise me because rice is probably less expensive to produce and therefore less money to sell but meat is probably a larger expense
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found the cost of living so high that they had begun to organize offensive strikes for wage increases
i feel like this is common across many places during the early 20th century, a rise in strikes
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state agencies in both the organization and representation of food and city life.
another major player, state agencies
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one where many went hungry, where the rich squandered valuable resources on extravagant and wasteful banquets, and where the time was ripe for revolutionary change.
negative light was shone on the city
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increasingly im-plausible, it was also politically suspect.
implausible means not seeming reasonable or probable
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left-wing writers and activists in the city circulated new kinds of images about urban food culture.
this answers the question of who is telling the narrative?
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apan’s occupation of Shanghai (1937–45) and the years of civil war between the CCP and the Nationalist Party (1945–49)
impt to note when these changes in poverty occured.
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become a luxury good only after the material condi-tions of society were such that all members of society had enough food to meet their basic needs, and that food luxuries could be enjoyed by all.
will this ever be the case? I believe there will always be people who do not have enough food to meet their basic needs, so I am not sure if food can ever become a luxury good
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a period spanning roughly thirty years, the last two de-cades of the Republican period and the first decade of the People’s Republic of China;
a rough timeline (starting pt) of this chapter
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centre of gravity of the party’s work has shifted from the village to the city,”
why this shift in location?
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austerity
sternness or severity of manner or attitude
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city’s fashionable Nanjing Road,
why is Nanjing Road considered fashionable? are there certain elements on this road that are special?
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in celebration of the city’s recent “liberation” by the Communists.
why are they celebrated this "liberation"?
this is also good to highlight because there is a change in the government
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a recent hunger strike,
why is a hunger strike going on? hopefully this is answered later in the chapter
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may 1949
as professor poli mentioned every chapter begins with a date, so keep this in mind when identifying the historical context of this chapter
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Home Gover-nance
written evidence
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women’s educa-tion during the late imperial period took place largely at home,
again impt to notice the dates/historical context
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inaugural eve of their love affair.1
love affairs associated with fancaiguan, which diminishes courtesan culture in Shanghai
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felt that their “values and privi-leged standing were under threat” by a “crass commercialization” that was sweeping the city.
wow, it is interesting to see the shift in mens' view of Shanghai's courtesans, break in their relationship
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fancaiguan is the perfect setting for a tale about men trying to pass off other women as their wives, and about their wives being willing, if unsuspecting, participants in the infidelity.
wow, this is not a good perception to have as an owner or customer of fancaiguan
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failed Westernization, and of the failures of Shanghai and China more generally
wow, this is an interesting argument and contrasts with the idea of Shanghai as a vanguard city in China because of their many fancaiguan
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Westerners rarely patronize them.
I relate this a little bit because if I deem a restaurant not up to my standards or interpretations of a certain cuisine, I will not frequent it, and this ties back into our discussion about authenticity, and what makes a food worth eating and what makes a food not worth eating
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soporific effects, arguing that their “Chineseness,” rather than their “Westernness,” de-terred rather than advanced China’s emergence on the world stage
soporific, tending to induce drowsiness or sleep
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led to a slow down in business in early spring 1899
impt to consider the years this event took place
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together, will-ing to taste a foreign flavor.
it is a communal response, it is shared to taste Western cuisine and this is a group exp (trying the food together)
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documented in the history books, and the food treatises
sources of written evidence
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invited distinguished visitors to Shanghai out to Western restaurants to sample “foreign dishes”
this ties into how Chinese elites saw tasting dif regional cuisines as a source of entertainment
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labored descriptions of how to eat Western food that circulated in texts for men.
a discussion question may center around the differences of how to eat Western food between sexes, men and women, since men were mainly represented in these texts
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Print and visual materials also generally represent courtesans as more dex-terous than men at eating Western food.
visual evidence seems to appear more often than written evidence, which appeared a lot in the previous chapter
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men often did so under a courtesan’s instruction, and thus engaged with the material culture through courtesan tutelage
wow, this is interesting, and this connects to the topic of my paper, so this is something to keep in mind!
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Late-Qing sources
evidence!
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incorporate Western and Cantonese motifs into their style, fur-nishing their rooms with the very same objects that distinguished fancaiguanfrom regional Chinese restaurants.
interesting replicating things seen in public establishments into private ones, their homes
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hard to determine precisely how this material culture, and thereby the fancaiguan, became fashionable and familiar in Shanghai.
the author recognizes the challenges of evaluating evidence to find an answer to a question such as when did fancaiguan become fashionable and familiar in Shanghai
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ab-sence of photographic evidence of the Yipinxiang interior, it is impossible to confirm that this is a faithful rendition.
this is something to note since we only have renditions but not photographic evidence about these differences in cuisine
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curved at the edges but largely rectangular in form
It is interesting because I do notice that many restaurants in Chicago's Chinatown have round tables especially when it comes to seating a large party ordering dim sum, which makes sense since customers can use the Lazy Susan, and share dishes amongst one another.
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The table is round; the chairs Chinese
I wonder what makes chairs Chinese because this description doesn't bring up a clear image in my mind
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among the earliest Chinese establishments to install electric lighting, were clearly an im-portant component of the Penglai image of Shanghai.
this is a reference to the last chapter
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Lingnanlou Fancaiguan
something that strikes me about this menu is the amount of beef and mutton dishes because there are less of these type of dishes in comparison to other meat dishes
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by the late nineteenth cen-tury
a discussion question could be how has beef-eating in Shanghai changed over time, and this information can help answer that question
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?
I like how the author begins with a question and then answers the question to support his argument/analysis
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ops and dandies are always vying to eat exotic things (yiwei) and relish talking about them,” suggesting that some con-sumers made the act of eating unpleasant-tasting Western food into a daring, even competitive, act of one-upmanship.
This is interesting to me because today we see people who try to eat spicy foods even though they are not particular fond of spicy foods, but to provide entertainment for others and challenge their spice tolerance.
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outlandish” means both “of or belonging to a foreign country,” and “going beyond what is considered normal or acceptable; outrageous, extrava-gant,” as well as “far removed from civilization,” in a derogatory sense
this term has dual meanings
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everal bodies of literature, including evidence from late-Qing visual culture.
written evidence
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propensity among the English in China to hold on to a particular image of English food, even as English food was chang-ing back home
again, this relates to Shanghai natives who hold on to a particular image of Shanghai as a serene garden city even as the city is changing to a more urban metropolis (more foreign settlements)
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must be a struggling creature who cannot muster an animal or vehicle of some kind
again, this idea of not having something as an indication that you are struggling. we saw this in terms of the banquets, not having tried a certain dish/snack as an indication that you are not wealthy.
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deemed such spaces essential to the mainte-nance of their own native place cultures and authority in Shanghai
I think the use of the word "authority" is interesting because in the last chapter, foreigners began to change their perspective on Shanghai as a rural and undeveloped city when their settlements grew, almost feeling like they made Shanghai what it is
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cattle were a friend of humankind and should not be slaughtered for human consumption.
this is something we see in Asian cultures such as Indian culture
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remade these spaces into vehicles for exploring and engaging in Western material culture.
this is also similar to how the Shanghai restaurant scene was a way for Chinese elites to sample dif regional cuisines
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shore up a sense of their own hometown, or national, culture, and to carve out spheres of material life as boundaries between the city’s Western and Chi-nese populations.
this is similar to the feeling of loss and feeling a sense of hometown culture by Chinese people who lived in other regions prior to their migration to Shanghai
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rapid growth of the Russian commu-nity in Shanghai after the Russian Revolution.
take note of the rise of a new immigrant pop in Shanghai after some historical event
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merchandise losses
consider the impact of the destruction and how this may impact Shanghai's image
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powerful new consumer base for Cantonese food enhanced the value of Cantonese cuisine and forced a reassessment of the taste of Cantonese food.
Again, there is this idea of "transformation" with an increased appeal of Canto cuisiene as comerical power of Canto merchants rose in Shanghai
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lumbago
mild to severe lower back pain
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metonyms
word used as a substitute for something it is closely associated with
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knowledge of the differences among the regional branches of the restaurant industry to be a measure of urban savoir faire
this reminds me of the tasting of dif regional cuisines by the guidebook writers
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regional food culture was also key to the way Shanghai residents experienced the city.
this idea of experiencing the city through food was discussed last chapter as well!
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Republican period and lasted through the Nanjing Decade (1928–37)
historical context
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national unity and culture relative to the West.
this reminds me of the reading we read about "What is Chinese food" because they mentioned how Chinese food culture is superior to Western culture because of these same characteristics
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form of “Westernization” to onlookers.
onlookers' perspective is impt to consider
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China’s Tai Feng canned goods were superior to products imported from abroad.
pride in ones' food culture
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explain the regrettable existence of prostitutes from his hometown in Shanghai, argued, “because of their separation from their na-tive place, the moral character of these individuals had deteriorated.”
I think this is worth noting, and maybe something to mention in Wednesday's discussion
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he describes many delightful days and eve-nings spent wandering around the county seat soon after the city was opened to foreign residence.
Another piece of evidence on how writers are influence in how Shanghai is perceived by others.
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ot only a refuge from civil unrest, but also commercial opportunities and prospects for employment.
I think again we can connect this to other places, such as America, which provide refuge for many people facing civil unrest in their home countries, but also provides employment to reach the "American Dream"
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larger and more diverse influx of Chinese refugees in the wake of the Taiping Rebellion.
Rise of goods into Shanghai, now we see a rise/influx of immigrants into Shanghai
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city residents used restaurants as vehicles for exploring real and imagined cultural differences among the city’s population and for developing new ideas of the city.
Again, I see this within Chicago, where they are many neighborhoods which serve as ethnic enclaves for the different cultures within the city, such as Uptown, which has many Ethiopian and Vietnamese restaurants, and many of the residents within this community live in this neighborhood or nearby.
A discussion question I could pose is as I was reading about Shanghai food culture, specifically how restaurants became defining elements of this culture, I thought about restaurants back in the city I grew up in. How does the role of restaurants in Shanghai as foreign settlements rose connect to the role you've seen that restaurants play today?
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restau-rants became defining elements of urban food culture.
I feel like we see this today with restaurants which are defining elements of many metropolis cities/neighborhoods.
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mourning the transfor-mation of Shanghai from a serene garden city into a decadent and potentially 68Chapter 2dangerous metropolis.
a common theme I am noticing from this chapter and the previous is transformation. The gardens play a major role in transformation of Shanghai and its culture/identity especially for individuals who associate with this new identity.
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Urban Ideal i
what is meant by the urban ideal?
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- Feb 2023
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sakai.claremont.edu sakai.claremont.edu
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they heard that Americans like shrimp.”
not wrong
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