Chinese Food Mania

Food is probably the no. 1 talking point among people, in particular for people living in other completely different (or bizarre?) cultural environment. From CCIV's blog Pulse, Lily, an American exchange student in HK, was asked about her favourite Chinese foods in Hong Kong. "I like '鳳爪' (chicken feet)," caught my eyes. I am a big fan of it. A Greek friend of mine loved it so much and even bought a hugh pack of chicken feet from the Chinatown. However, a German exchange student told me that she did not like it. Yes, not many people enjoy chicken feet, not even native Chinese.

Food can be bizarre to some people indeed. Spam sushi is popular in Hawaii but it never sets foot in Japan. Food is not just about food. It is more than food and it is about culture, identity, lifestyle and many more.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin says "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." (The Physiology of Taste) The British say, "how can you expect the Chinese who cannot, usually, stand the smell of cheese, be able to understand the complex English. But you can argue too, how can the British, who cannot enjoy a succulent chicken's foot for breakfast, understand the Chinese?" 

I was no big fan of Chinese food. Living in the red-brick university campus in Manchester, I shared the same floor with a group of postgraduate folks, mostly international ones. Among the five Chinese of us (excluding one Anglo-Chinese), I was the least Chinese in terms of eating habit. Even my next-door hall-mate, a British, knew how to cook Chow Mein in his own style and serve food with Kung Pao sauce. Amazing! I did not have a wok or a Chinese-must-have rice cooker. Pak Choi and Choi Sum were rare treats on my menu while Chinese dried mushroom with pork was like a feast.

The cruel fact is that it is ridiculously expensive to buy Chinese ingredients in Chinatown, some of which are as much as twice in HK, let alone mainland China a lot cheaper. I always wondered why my mainland Chinese fellows would love to pay as much as ten times of money to buy Chinese veges. It was 3 pounds (GBP-HKD remained 14 at the time) per kg for Pak Choi or Choi Sum. How expensive and ridiculous!

As a poor student like me, I'd rather have local / western food. Pasta and bread were my best friends. Butter and jam were, and still are, my all-time favourites. Potatoes and chips came next. Cod and mackerel caught my stomach. Milk was like water and wine was my soulmate. Cheese and yoghurt were my snack and dessert. Yorkshire pudding was my supper.

Food dominates our lives. So it does to me. Currently food channels have even controled my home TV. Populr chiefs Jamie Oliver, Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Nigella Lawson, Curtis Stone, and Kylie Kwong all have captured my TV channels.

If you will have a chance to drop by a bookstore, you will find some of these names familiar. They are not only restaurateurs and television presenters but also cookbook writers (one of them claimed never read a book himself though).

Chinese food and cuisine have been featured in different degree. Kylie Kwong's programme is primarily devoted to Chinese cuisine, I should say, "in her own way", and she is the author of several Chinese cookbooks written in English. It seems like kind of Chinese food mania emerging nowadays.

Back in the late 1960s, however, there occurred a horrific discovery or panic about Chinese food in the U.S. It was called the Chinese restaurant syndrome. Diners of Chinese restaurants could feel "numbness at the back of the neck, gradually radiating to both arms and the back, general weekness and palpitation", "a most uncomfortable tightness on both sides of the head".

Rumours were going around about possible causes and the funniest one was "simple myopathy of the facial and neck muscles induced when Westerners try to eat with chopsticks." Can you believe it? Readers of this post should be aware of using chopsticks maybe. Seriously, the main cause is excessive use of the common food additive MSG (monosodium glutamate, now sometimes hidden as flavour enchancer [E621]). Are you still a big fan of Chinese food from now on?

(source: Ian Mosby, "'That Won-ton soup headache': the Chinese restaurant syndrome, MSG and the making of American food, 1968-1980," Social History of Medicine, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Feb., 2009), pp. 1-19.)

From Western mind to Western cuisine (Seiyō Ryōri): how Japanese housewives learn western cookery

I have been "excessively" downloading 19th and 20th centuries Japanese materials last week. I was thrilled. Not just because I found very important sources, but also some very interesting ones. Here is bit of it.

Western gunboat came with Western cuisine. Commodore Perry forced Japan to turn away from sakoku to kaikoku for good. Two American ladies, Mrs G. Binford and Miss Sarah Ellis, in the late 19th century, came to Japan to teach authentic western cookery to Japanese housewives.

Mrs. Binford had extensive experience in giving personal instruction to large cooking classes for Japanese women whereas Ellis was formerly a teacher of Domestic Science in America. Dedicated to "the housewives of Japan", The Tokiwa Cook Book 常磐西洋料理 Tokiwa seiyō ryōri (Yokohama: Tokiwasha, 1904) was written by these two competent teachers.

With its aim to provide the eager learners with a guide to foreign cookery which is "simple, practical and hygienic," the bible is divided into two parts: 1) Practical instructions and recipes for home cooking by Mrs. Binford; and 2) Invalid cookery by Ellis.

Starting from illustrating oven and spoons (such as teaspoon and tablespoon), it introduces different kinds of simple recipes with very detailed procedures, from baking bread to preparing cereals, making poached eggs to meat omelet. Mrs. Binford also brought in various kinds of sandwiches all of which are very common nowadays and need no explanation, e.g. meat sandwiches (quite remarkable, because Japanese people started to enjoy meat quite recently), ham sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, jelly and nut sandwiches. Soups are simply several common ones like clam broth and cream of chicken soup.

Meats are one of the most popular recipes (only after vegetables). Wagyu 和牛 today is among the most expensive beef in the world and is being enjoyed and highly praised by many peoples outside Japan. It is almost unimaginable that meat eating was prohibited for more than one thousand years prior to 1868. Buddhist influences were one of the major factors. Others are cultural ones like protecting draught animals in times of famine. Western mind, however, opened the gate for meat.

Like modern day cooking, Mrs. Binford taught the students 1) to season the beef steak with salt, oil and whole meal flour first. 2) fry beef fat and squeeze for oil. 3) fry the seasoned beef steak. 4) turn it over when the bottom side turns brown. 5) serve with warmed plate. Not unlike modern cooking recipes. Besides, she gave elaborate instructions to prepare gravy to serve with potato and meat.

Have to stop here for beef steak myself.

為何物喪志

有人專攻NDS，年青人（熟女熟男亦有）對之專注熱情，不離不棄，地下鐵上「雖千萬人吾往矣」的態度足令多少犬儒慚愧。有人痛恨PSP，文化人（置己於知識和／或道德高地者）見之鞭撻，視之玩物喪志，卻又只見樹木不見樹林，更不自知五十步笑百步。斗轉星移，清末名士李慈銘也曾一度玩物喪志。清朝同治十二年（1873）正月二十二日，李氏寫下這樣的日記：

近日以手指瘃裂，不能校書，且心氣忽忽，時若虛耗，憚於讀經，因繙閱雜書，且以其暇，欲仿劉貢父漢官采選格為唐升官圖，以消遣閑寂，為讀史者之助。而案頭無唐代一書，乃先取國朝升官圖，校其遷隆，別其清濁，正俗刻之誤，今日遂至盡晷。此真飽食之博奕，群居之小慧，不特玩物喪志而已。嗣當切戒，勿再為之。（《越縵堂日記》（台北：文海，1963），桃華聖解盫日記，庚集，同治十二年正月二十二日壬寅條）

American [official] images of Chinese girls

Excerpts from War and Navy Departments, Washington, D.C., Pocket Guide to China (1943), prepared by Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army.

"The modern Chinese girl, in her long, closely fitting gown, her bare arms and short hair, is often very pretty. Yet it is well to remember that in China the attitude toward women is different from ours in America. Chinese women in some ways are more free than they are here in America - that is, they do some things which American women don't yet do. They are in the Army, for instance, and they fight side by side with the guerrillas. But in their relations with men they haven't the same freedeom as women have in America." (p. 15)

"There are Chinese girls in cabarets and places of amusement who may be used to free and easy ways. But the average Chinese girl will be insulted if you touch her, or will take you more seriously than you probably want to be taken. A mistake in this may cause a lot of trouble." (p. 15)

The lesson is be serious with modern Chinese women, they are either warriors (see traditional fairy tale Hua Mulan) or fair ladies. 

搔癢：重讀征服王朝

近讀兩篇有關征服王朝的文章（見下），作者都是資深學人，一是蕭啟慶，一是葉高樹。蕭啟慶是我十分敬仰的蒙元史學人和中研院院士。猶記本科生時初讀其一篇蒙元史的文章（應是討論蒙元帝國在中國歷史上的意義和重要性），其立論高贍，史識深遽，令人歎為觀止；用字精鍊，文筆流暢，讀來趣味盎然。由是對蕭氏留下深刻的印象，雖非習蒙元史，但每逢偶遇蕭氏的文章和論著，都難忍翻一翻的搔癢，又總能讀到新意來。久違蕭氏的文章，好一段日子沒有細讀之。此篇雖非石破天驚，但對於不太熟悉南宋金元史研究的我而言，仍然覺得獲益良多，最少知道了當前學界的爭議論點和研究成果。

蕭啟慶：〈近世前期南北發展的歧異與統合：以南宋金元時期的經濟社會文化為中心〉，載氏著：《元代的族群文化與科舉》（台北： 聯經, 2008），頁1-22。（台灣師範大學歷史系主辦「近世中國的社會與文化國際學術研討會」主題演講，2005年12月16日。先收入《臺灣師大歷史學報》，第36期（2006年12月），頁1-30）

葉高樹：〈“參漢酌金”：清朝統治中國成功原因的再思考〉，《臺灣師大歷史學報》，第36期（2006年12月），頁153-192。

Western origin of the early Chinese civilisation?!

From the mid-nineteenth century, during the heyday of British imperialism, a group of orientalists argued the alleged western origin of the early Chinese civilisation, such as Babylon and Assyria. Among them, Terrien de Lacouperie (1845-1894), Professor of Indo-Chinese Philology at University College, London, was a prominent and prolific figure who spent more than a decade of hard work in developing this notorious claim. Below is quoted from his Early History of the Chinese Civilisation (1880)

"The discovery of a foreign origin in the rudiments of their civilisation, oddly enough, confirms the opinion asserted so many times that want of originality and of imagination is one of the characteristics of the Yellow race. We mean in no way to reproach them with their want of imagination. This, in our own opinion, contributes but little towards real happiness. By their conservative spirit, their respect for old customs, their parental love, their life cast in that of their forefathers, the Chinese have resolved the long-sought-for problem of a life without cares, without want of comfort, which would be relative happiness to the majoiity of the human race. But the best of things have an end, and, even in China, a change must come." (p. 34)

Quick bites

1. Cultural bias / diversity on foods of different traditions

From Dan Waters:

"How can you expect the Chinese who cannot, usually, stand the smell of cheese, be able to understand the complex English. But you can argue too, how can the British, who cannot enjoy a succulent chicken's foot for breakfast, understand the Chinese?" (from Eve Lam's "The Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch): The Faces, The Stories and the Memories", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 42, 2002, p. 142)

This humorous remark reminds me of my favourite (but not quite sometimes) Discovery travel channel's Anthony Bourdain No Reservations and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. I think the way we Hongkongers / Chinese see bizarre Latin-American / African (less known anyhow) foods is just nothing different from how Europeans see Chinese foods.

2. HK historical photos lost

Tim Ko had done some researches at the Housing Authority office. He accidentally found 20,000 negatives dating to 1962 in a back room of the office. As a semi-professional and well-known HK photographer who has been snapping HK history in the past few decades, he then proposed to catalogue the entire collection to the HA but, not surprisingly, ended with disappointment because of short-sighted bureaucratic practices. A staff of the Government Information Service even told him that a lot of photos had been discarded in the past decade, "because the less they possess, the less they will need to do". (also from from Eve Lam's "The Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch): The Faces, The Stories and the Memories", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 42, 2002, p.151-2.)

周聚康西書社 Chow Tzu Kong

1915年，浙江鎮海人周聚康以本金100元於四川路111號成立周聚康西書社，售賣英文、法文、德文及意大利文等西書（如Modern Library、小說、哲學、科學、字典等）、報紙、雜誌（如電影雜誌）、文具、辦公室和學校用品，甚至是玩具，一應俱全。

據《張元濟日記》1919年8月22日所載：＂叔良告一九一九新版韋白司脫大字典、周聚康只售十一元＂（頁634）

F. Max Muller

This great orientalits received numerous honours and the title page of his Rig-Veda-Sanhita (1874) presents his honours in an absolutely awesome way. (You may need to adjust your font size view setting to better enjoy this post)

Knight of the Order Pour le Merite, Foreign Member of the French Institute, of the Royal Sardinian Academy, of

the Royal Bavarian Academy, of the Royal Hungarian Academy, of the Royal Irish Academy, of the Royal

Society of Upsala,  of the American Philosophical Society;  Honorary Member of the German Oriental

Society, of the Royal Asiatic Society, of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, of the Royal Batavian Society

of Arts and Sciences, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Royal Society of

Literature of England, of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, of the Royal Academy of

Sciences at Amsterdam, of the Literary Society of Leyden, of the Anthropological

Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, of the Ethnographic Society of Paris, of

the American Oriental Society, of the Archaeological Society of Moscow,

of the American Philological Society; Corresponding Member of

the  Royal  Academy  of  Berlin,  of  the  Royal  Society  of

Gottingen, of the Royal Academy of Lisbon; Honorary

Doctor of Laws in the Universities of Cambridge

and Edinburgh; Professor of Comparative

Philology, and Fellow of All

Souls College, Oxford,

&c. &c.

note: taken from Norman J. Girardot's The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge's Oriental Pilgrimage (2002), p. 149. (how many institutions and countries listed?)

As a sequel of the post on May 10, 'What a girl should learn', which displays a list of virtues in a right triangle shape, this inverted pyramid also appeals to specutacular visual impact on readers in the late Victorian Britain. It was indeed a period of creative visual innovation and design in print, e.g. newspapers, books, and posters.   

Let's UrBAn

The theme of this week is urban. Been busy with preparing classes in the past few weeks. Now I am coming back to my hobby, reading scholarly articles, which is great fun to me. Here is a list of the articles I have in hand, some of which remind me of going back to Edward H. Parker (when he was in Liverpool and Manchester, the two great industrial cities of Victorian England) and Kelly & Walsh (W. Brewer as well), and the solitary days in Manchester.

America:
1. Huping Ling, '"Hop Alley": Myth and Reality of the St. Louis Chinatown, 1860s-1930s,' Journal of Urban History, Jan 2002; vol. 28: pp. 184 - 219.
2. Timothy Fong, 'Epidemics racial anxiety and community formation: Chinese Americans in San Francisco,' Urban History, Volume 30, Issue 03, Dec 2003, pp 401-406.
3. Shirley J. Yee, 'Dependency and Opportunity: Socioeconomic Relations between Chinese and Non-Chinese in New York City, 1870-1943,' Journal of Urban History, Jan 2007; vol. 33, pp. 254 - 276.

Britain:
1. Colin G. Pooley and Jean Turnbull, 'Commuting transport and urban form: Manchester and Glasgow in the mid-twentieth century,' Urban History, Volume 27, Issue 03, Dec 2000, pp 360-383.
2. Martin Hewitt, 'Confronting the modern city: the Manchester Free Public Library 1850–80,' Urban History, Volume 27, Issue 01, May 2000, pp 62-88.
3. Hannah Barker, '"Smoke cities": northern industrial towns in late Georgian England,' Urban History, Volume 31, Issue 02, Aug 2004, pp 175-190.
4. Harold L. Platt, 'From Hygeia To the Garden City: Bodies, Houses, and the Rediscovery of the Slum in Manchester, 1875—1910,' Journal of Urban History, Jul 2007; vol. 33: pp. 756 - 772.

China
1. Qinghua Guo, 'Changchun: unfinished capital planning of Manzhouguo 1932–42,' Urban History, Volume 31, Issue 01, May 2004, pp 100-117.
2. Marjorie Dryburgh, 'National city human city: the reimagining and revitalization of Beiping 1928–37,' Urban History, Volume 32, Issue 03, Dec 2005, pp 500-524.
3. Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, 'A Big Ben with Chinese characteristics: the Customs House as urban icon in Old and New Shanghai,' Urban History, Volume 33, Issue 01, May 2006, pp 65-84.
4. Zwia Lipkin, 'Modern Dilemmas: Dealing with Nanjing’s Beggars, 1927-1937,' Journal of Urban History, Jul 2005; vol. 31: pp. 583 - 609.
5. Kwan Man Bun, 'Order in Chaos: Tianjin’s Hunhunr and Urban Identity in Modern China, Journal of Urban History, Nov 2000; vol. 27: pp. 75 - 91.
6. Seth Harter, 'Hong Kong’s Dirty Little Secret: Clearing the Walled City of Kowloon,' Journal of Urban History, Nov 2000; vol. 27: pp. 92 - 113.
7. Richard Belsky, 'The Urban Ecology of Late Imperial Beijing Reconsidered: The Transformation of Social Space in China’s Late Imperial Capital City,' Journal of Urban History, Nov 2000; vol. 27: pp. 54 - 74.
8. Randall A. Dodgen, 'Salvaging Kaifeng: Natural Calamity and Urban Community in Late Imperial China,' Journal of Urban History, Sep 1995; vol. 21: pp. 716 - 740.

Others:
1. Wonsik Jeong, 'The Urban Development Politics of Seoul as a Colonial City,' Journal of Urban History, Jan 2001; vol. 27: pp. 158 - 177.
2. Katja Zelljadt, 'Presenting and Consuming the Past: Old Berlin at the Industrial Exhibition of 1896,' Journal of Urban History, Mar 2005; vol. 31: pp. 306 - 333.