Ambivalent Regionalism and the Promotion of a New National Staple Food: Reinventing Potatoes in Inner Mongolia and Yunnan

Main author: Klein, Jakob A.
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-32950
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
topic DS Asia
GN Anthropology
description This article addresses the relationship between national, regional, and local dimensions of Chinese culinary cultures and identities through the prism of the potato. Specifically, I explore how the central government’s strategy to transform the potato from a marginal food into a Chinese national staple opened new possibilities for actors in some marginalized inland regions to reimagine their potato foods as recognized elements of local and wider regional cuisines and culinary identities. In doing so, I also draw attention to the constraints that actors faced in their attempts to reimagine local potato foods, including the sense of ambivalence that continued to surround foods once widely associated with poverty. I discuss these processes of culinary reimagining with reference to potato-growing areas in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China and Yunnan Province in the southwest.
format Journal Article
author Klein, Jakob A.
author_facet Klein, Jakob A.
authorStr Klein, Jakob A.
author_letter Klein, Jakob A.
title Ambivalent Regionalism and the Promotion of a New National Staple Food: Reinventing Potatoes in Inner Mongolia and Yunnan
publisher Taylor and Francis
publishDate 2020
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/32950/