Food and Chinese Culture

“Eating” is a fundamental feature of Chinese popular culture. Approaching the history of food as an archaeologist, the author examines how Chinese cuisine developed and changed over time, placing the subject within the broader field of social history. From dining utensils and cooking methods to culinary anecdotes, the author carefully traces the evolution of each topic and verifies its origins. The result is a popular work with genuine scholarly depth.

This is a richly detailed history of food and its origins, an engaging and erudite culinary journey that is hard to put down. The author’s skill in bringing sources together and writing with such fluency is first-rate. Historical records and anecdotes are woven in effortlessly, never bogging down the narrative, and offer readers one eye-opening, fascinating revelation after another. This new edition adds more than a hundred color illustrations, bringing the evolution of Chinese food culture vividly to life.