The Newsletter No. 88 Spring 2021 newbooks.asia Asian Studies. Newest Titles. 21 Latest Reviews. The Review

into the past provoking curiosity to research this history further. Haafner glorifies the multi-cultural and multi-religious co-existence in the East by highlighting the stimulating Life under the palms interactions and meetups he had with divergent ethnic, cultural, and racial groups. Although his father was a medical doctor, Anushka Kahandagamage Reviewed title migrating to the from Life Under the Palms: The Sublime World posed the Haafner family with challenging financial conditions. The situation led Haafner of the Anti-colonialist Jacob Haafner and his father to join and work on a Dutch East Company ship, which sailed to the his book is the biography of Jacob Paul van der Velde. 2020. Translated by Liesbeth Bennink East. Haafner's father dies on the journey, Haafner, a Dutch traveler of German Singapore: NUS Press and Haafner becomes an orphan. Due to these Torigin. He spent more than 20 years in ISBN 9789813250826 conditions, he ends up in a lowly position in the South Africa, India, , and . world of colonial masters. The author unearths According to the author, unlike the memoirs the different layers of colonial subjects and of many travelers, entrepreneurs, colonial the colonial masters through the life story of officers, Haafner captured the cruelty and Haafner, going beyond the simple categories oppression of in his writings. a medical doctor. However, he does not sail different jobs. The third chapter, ‘Where can of the colonizer and the colonial subject. Haafner’s narratives shows the cruel side of solely as the doctor's son but as a ship’s boy our Soul Shelter’, is dedicated to his expedition Haafner glorifies the mixed cultural milieu in the the slave trade, the maltreatment of slaves on the vessel. The second chapter is assigned to Ceylon with his young wife and life in colonies over highly hierarchical Dutch society. as animals and the abandonment of colonial to explain the troubled life he had in India. This Ceylon. The penultimate chapter is about He is able to see and depict the oppressive subjects to death by famine. chapter consists of his return to India, and the closing chapter nature of colonization because he is from his interactions with concerns his final sorrowful years in Europe. a lower layer of the colonial endeavor. The book consists of five chapters, including different colonial This title introduces the 19th century What makes the character of this book an introduction. The Introduction maps the rulers who traveled Dutch traveler, Haafner, and his writings to special is that it exposes the reader to a expeditions of Haafner and his writings. Further, to the East, and the world. The book opens a window onto lesser known colonial writer with a markedly the author locates himself in the study and reveals details the 19th century colonial world by including different perspective. In addition, the book within the world of Haafner by elucidating how about famine in excerpts and examples of Haafner's original introduces new sources that can provide he became attracted to Haafner's writings. India, Haffner's writings and his sketches. The book provides the historian with a more nuanced and a The author of the book, Paul van der Velde, is struggles to make an approachable point of view on the available subtle analysis that goes beyond imposing a historian and an expert on the Dutch in Asia. money and survive sources to a learner interested in studying the the present socio-economic and political The book is translated from Dutch to English in these difficult colonial past. Further, the author's expertise structures on the past. by Liesbeth Bennink. times by doing and in-depth research in the field ensure The first chapter is marked as ‘A Wandering an authentic account of Haafner's writings. This is the English translation of Existence’, which includes Haafner's first Haafner practiced drawing from a young age the Sinhala review published on the Patitha website, 4 November 2020. expedition to the East and his experiences and Jacob Haafner in and his sketches can be seen in his written 1805 by Dr. Thomas adventures. As an adolescent, Haafner secures Kohl. Image in Public accounts. By including these drawings in the Anushka Kahandagamage, the opportunity to sail to East with his father, domain on Wikimedia. book, the author subtly draws the reader South Asian University, India

the Macanese and what role does food Foodways of Macao play in their identity? Food is an important cultural marker for most groups of people. To be considered a true Macanese, as the Robert Antony Reviewed title author points out, one must have some The Making of ’s Cuisine: Portuguese ancestry. Like their cuisine, the Macanese people are an eclectic mixture From Family Table to World Stage of different and evolving ethnic groups. aving lived in Macao for over 15 At first the Macanese were the offspring of years, I thought I knew quite well what Annabel Jackson. 2020. the original male Portuguese settlers and HMacanese food was all about. That : Hong Kong University Press females from their colonies in Mozambique, is, until I read Annabel Jackson’s new book, ISBN 9789888528349 Goa, and Southeast Asia. Later, in the 20th The Making of Macau’s Cuisine. Trained in century, the so-called Neo-Macanese are anthropology and a recognized food critic, the progeny of Portuguese or Macanese the author carefully examines the history, fathers and Chinese mothers. Thus, in terms nature, and roles that food has played in of foodways, family recipes included a large Macao and in other Portuguese settlements mixture of different culinary tastes and in Asia. The inclusion of the other Portuguese In recognition of its unique cuisine in 2017 This raises the question of authenticity. techniques yet were nonetheless considered creolized foodways of Goa and Macao became a UNESCO Creative City What is Macanese cuisine? What locals Macanese. As food styles changed over time provides not only useful comparisons but of Gastronomy and its cuisine has since and tourists nowadays eat at home and in so too did perceptions of one’s identity. are also important for understanding the entered the world stage. restaurants is a far cry from what the people Interestingly, today there are more people close interconnections and similarities living in Macao ate several centuries ago. who identify themselves as Macanese who between these cuisines. People and their tastes have continually live outside Macao than inside the city itself. Fusion cuisine changed over the centuries and so have There is a large Macanese diaspora spread Although not well known outside eastern As Jackson explains, because Macanese ingredients, flavors, and cooking styles. across the globe. As a critical part of her Asia and often misconstrued, Macanese food food had its origins in the fusion of many As the author rightly explains, the nature research, Jackson conducted a large number is one of the world’s earliest fusion cuisines. diverse cuisines and has continued to evolve of Macanese food is adaptation. of interviews and surveys of Macanese living When the Portuguese founded Macao over the centuries, it is impossible to pinpoint Cuisines are always evolving. From its in Hong Kong, Europe, North America, and nearly 500 years ago, it was a relatively what exactly constitutes Macanese food. Even origins in the Portuguese colonies, Macao’s Australia. Because many diasporic Macanese barren stretch of sand dunes and low hills, within the Macanese community at large, early foodways followed the spice trade from people have a sense of rootlessness, memories with only one or two fishing villages and an there is little consensus as to what comprises Africa to India to Southeast Asia to Macao of home foods and recipes have become A-Ma Temple. In building the city the early Macanese cuisine. For purists, in fact, it has and Japan. Take the iconic Macanese dish, important identifiers of their common culture settlers, who were all males, needed to import become a lost art, yet for most ordinary African Chicken, which likely was invented and values. In creating an identity, in fact, nearly everything from outside, including tourists, who want to enjoy a different cuisine, only in the 1940s, believed to have been the sharing of recipes and the production food and women from other Portuguese it is simply the food prepared in restaurants created by chef America Angelo at the former of cookbooks have become crucial. As the colonies in Africa and Asia. So right from the in Macao. Indeed, today in most restaurants Pousada de Macao. In its earliest forms, it author explains, today Macanese food has start, Macao’s foodways borrowed from and in Macao, whether categorized as Portuguese was blackened and spicy with a marinade of moved away from being everyday food to adapted to the foods, spices, and cooking or , they all include dishes on butter, garlic, and chilies, but today in most something more symbolic and ceremonial. styles of a large variety of peoples. their menus purporting to be Macanese. versions it is baked in a tomato and peppery How one remembers the aromas and tastes of peanut sauce. It is a typical creolized dish certain foods is as important as the actual foods that combines flavors from Mozambique, themselves. At the same time, with the diaspora Goa, and Malacca, and each of these places Macanese cuisine has diffused around the world also have their own versions of the same in trendy ethnic restaurants. For most Macanese dish with different names. Today Macanese both at home and abroad, food is decisively cuisine has progressed from its traditional embedded in their notions of identity. Portuguese foundations to a creolized mixture In conclusion, this is a concise and of Portuguese and Asian cooking, to what is fascinating book on a little-known and often more recently heavily influenced by Chinese misunderstood fusion cuisine that should be cuisines. For Macao fusion food represents of interest to anyone wanting to learn about something new and distinct. Macao and the dissemination of food culture Above: Portuguese Custard Tarts © Macau in general. There is indeed more to Macao Photo Agency on than merely casinos and gambling. Unsplash. Left: Galinha à Macanese food and identity africana, African chicken © mulaohu on flickr Another topic discussed throughout the Robert Antony, under a CC license. book concerns questions of identity. Who are Shandong University, China