Rethinking Culinary Authenticity -- How Taiwan Might Help Asian Americanists Reframe the Problem of Cultural Heritage

日期： 2024/05/03

時間： 15:00~17:00

地點： 檔案館第三會議室

主持人： 雷祥麟教授（中研院近史所研究員兼所長）

主講人：董慕達Miranda Brown教授（密西根大學）

主辦單位： 近史所「科技與現代東亞的歷史共構」共同研究專題

※英語演講，問答時使用華語與英語。

Abstract:
General Tso chicken: the signature dish of contemporary American Chinese food. Sold in cheap diners, strip mall buffets, and P.F. Chang’s, this dish is a staple of contemporary American life.
But critics charge that this dish is bad, epitomizing everything that is wrong with American Chinese food. Greasy, sweet, and MSG-laden, General Tso's chicken is a distortion of “real” Chinese cooking, arguably more American than Chinese. In this talk, I will challenge current views of this iconic dish and other staples of Chinese American cuisine by situating this dish -- and Chinese food in America -- by changing the scholarly frame of reference -- to Taiwan, where the dish was born in the post-war kitchen of Peng Changgui.
 
By situating this dish, and many other classics of American  "Mandarin" cuisine, within a larger history of Chinese migration to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, I will argue that the current approach rests on a simple contrast between Chinese food in China and Chinese food in the American diaspora. Such an approach, more importantly, overlooks the highly mobile and labile quality of Chinese culinary traditions in the Asian diaspora -- and ignores the role that the ethnic Chinese diaspora in places like Taiwan -- played in shaping Chinese food in America. 
 
 

活動花絮：