Taiwanese Cuisine" (1895-2008) Chen, Y.J
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Embodying nation in food consumption : changing boundaries of "Taiwanese cuisine" (1895-2008) Chen, Y.J. Citation Chen, Y. J. (2010, June 15). Embodying nation in food consumption : changing boundaries of "Taiwanese cuisine" (1895-2008). Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/15690 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the License: Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/15690 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). Embodying Nation in Food Consumption: Changing Boundaries of “Taiwanese Cuisine” (1895-2008) Yu-Jen Chen © 2010 Yu-Jen Chen Cover design: Joseph Tsai Embodying Nation in Food Consumption: Changing Boundaries of “Taiwanese Cuisine” (1895-2008) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op dinsdag 15 juni 2010 klokke 11.15 uur door Yu-Jen Chen geboren te Taipei, Taiwan in 1977 PROMOTIECOMMISSIE Promotoren: Prof. dr. A. Schneider Overige leden: Prof. dr. P.J. Pels Prof. dr. B.J. ter Haar Dr. K.J. Cwiertka Dr. J. Klein (School of Oriental and African Studies) This research is partially funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. The final writing year was conducted at the Institute of Taiwan History of Academia Sinica, Taiwan. To My Parents Chen Wen-Liang and Chiang Shu-Kuei Acknowledgements This dissertation began from my passion to food and completed as a certain food for thought. This study would not have been completed without the generous help of many individuals and institutions. First of all, I would like to thank all informants who helped me with this research by generously sharing their thoughts, memories, and life stories with me, most of who are Taiwanese cooks, owners of restaurants or stalls, and consumers. I gratefully thank the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation that provided me with writing grants (2008-2009) and the Institute of Taiwan History (ITH) of Academia Sinica that granted me the position of visiting associate (Jan.-July 2008, Sep. 2009-Aug. 2010) to carry out my research and complete this doctoral thesis. My deep gratitude particularly goes to my supervisor at Leiden University, Prof. Axel Schneider, who opened a door and actually started a new life for me. I also thank his sweet family who generously share a great time with me. All the academic input and warmth I received are indispensable. I am indebted to the ITH and the Institute of Sociology (IOS) of Academia Sinica, which provided me with generous academic resources, wonderful colleagues and working space during my fieldwork in Taiwan. My special gratitude goes to Prof. Chang Mau-kuei (IOS), who inspired me from the very beginning and gave me many insightful suggestions. I would also like express my thanks to Prof. Hsu Hsueh-chi (ITH), who encouraged me in many ways and provided me, a new face for Taiwanese historical research, with opportunities to explore the field. In addition, I appreciate many teachers and friends in Taiwan who gave me remarkable help and encouragement. I would specifically like to thank Prof. Lu Shao-li (Cheng-chi University), Prof. Chang Lung-chih (ITH), Prof. Yu Shuenn-der (Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica), Prof. Yang Zhao-jing (Kaohsiung Hospitality College), and the staff at the Foundation of Chinese Dietary Culture. The Leiden Institute for Area Studies, particularly the Sinological Institute, provided me with both material and emotional support during my study in the Netherlands. I appreciate very much the kindness of the teachers, staff and students there. I could not have a great time in Leiden without the kind help and warm friendship of Prof. Ngo Tak-win, Dr. Katarzyna Cwiertika, Prof. Lloyd Haft, Hanno Lecher, Dr. Melody Lu, Lin Chin-hui, Cheng Yi-wen, Chen Yi-chi, Hosen Chan, Aurea Sison, Anna Stiggelbout, Rogier Hekking, Shu Chunyan, Catherine and Yves. I am indebted to Prof. Liu Long-hsin, Dr. Marc Matten and many visiting scholars at Leiden University. I am also grateful to all my seminar members at the CNWS, particularly Guo Hui and Jeroen Groenewegen, whose friendship and support were crucial in assisting me along my journey of writing this thesis. In addition, I appreciate the members of the Cooking Club of the International Center of Leiden University. We enjoyed wonderful talks and interesting dishes full of cultural memories during those cold nights in Leiden. As a student whose major subject changed from International Relations to Journalism then to the interdisciplinary research presented in this dissertation, I am grateful to Prof. Wu Yu-shan (Taiwan University) and Prof. Weng Shieu-chi (Cheng-chi University) who have led and still guide me in my academic training. Moreover, several scholars provided me with helpful comments and suggestions for this dissertation at many conferences in which I presented my paper or which I attended. I would like to express my appreciation to Prof. Murray A. Rubinstein (Baruch College, CUNY), Dr. Mark Harrison (University of Tasmania), and Dr. Tseng Pin-tsang (Cheng-kung University) for their insights and encouragement. In addition, I am grateful to all my Taiwanese friends who have studied in Leiden, particularly Thomas Chiu and Huang En-yu, who never hesitate to provide their stimulating insights. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, my lovely sister and brother. They are always there, providing me with warm arms. It is actually my mother’s wonderful dishes and those days I spent with her in the kitchen that makes this dissertation possible. CONTENTS List of Tables and Figures Iv Note on Romanization Ivii Introduction: Nation, Cuisine, and Embodiment 1 1. Research question: how is “nation” embodied in food consumption? 1 2. Embodiment as a perspective: body, object, and symbol 9 3. Thesis structure 16 4. Methodology 16 Chapter One Presentation of an Elite Culture: iThe Emergence of “Taiwanese Cuisine” in Japanese Colonial Era 23 1. “Taiwanese cuisine” in banquets and exhibitions 25 1.1 “Taiwanese cuisine” served at banquets of Japanese officials 25 1.2 “Taiwanese cuisine” at Japanese Exhibitions 29 2. “Taiwanese cuisine” at dining-out places 33 3. Discourse of “Taiwanese cuisine”: a repertoire 39 3.1 A hallmark Taiwanese restaurant: Jiangshan Lou 39 3.2 Distinction between Taiwanese and Chinese cuisine 42 4. Non-presented dishes: “Food of Taiwanese” 48 4.1 Daily food consumption of Taiwanese 48 4.2 Bando: outdoor feasts 53 5. “Taiwanese cuisine” during Japanese colonial era: presentation of an elite culture 56 Chapter Two Transplantation and Hybridity: Culinary Remapping by the State and Migration after 1945 59 1. Control by the state: from “Taiwanese restaurant” to “Public canteen” 61 1.1 Retreat of the Nationalist government 61 1.2 “Patriotic” public canteens: new restaurant regulations 63 1.3 Clandestine “Taiwanese cuisine” at “liquor house” (jiujia) 67 2. Culinary map transplanted from the Mainland to Taiwan 72 2.1 Mainlanders: the forced migrants 72 2.2 Food in the diaspora: the transplantation of restaurants and food 74 2.3 Symbolic remapping: Fu Pei-mei’s Chinese cookbooks 79 3. “Taiwanese restaurants” during the 1960s and 1970s 82 3.1 Taiwanese cuisine as a Chinese regional cuisine 82 i 3.2 The hybridization of Taiwanese cuisine 86 4. Marginalization and hybridization of Taiwanese cuisine 89 Chapter Three Taiwanese Cuisine as a National Symbol: State Banquets and the Proliferation of Ethnic Cuisine 91 1. Political transformation toward democratization and indigenization i91 2. Post-2000 state banquets relative to indigenization and “ethnic integration” 96 3. The framing of “Hakka cuisine” 108 3.1 Hakka and “Hakka cuisine” discourse 108 3.2 The debate about tradition and modernization 115 4. Aboriginal cuisine: in the center or on the margins? 118 4.1 The Aboriginal movement and “Aboriginal cuisine” 118 4.2 Aboriginal cuisine in restaurants: imagination and adaptation 124 5. “Taiwanese cuisine” as a national symbol and a commodity 130 Chapter Four Taiwanese Cuisine as “Tastes of Home”: Changing identification of home and cultural memory 133 1. “Tastes of home” and food memory i 133 1.1 Home, tastes of home, and cultural memory 133 1.2 Literary works concerning food memoirs in Taiwan 136 2. Tang Lu-sun’s search for the nation in “tastes of home” 137 2.1 Purity of tradition in Chinese cuisine as cultural memory 137 2.2 Diaspora as a loss of home, nation, and cultural memory 144 3. Lu Yao-dong: “tastes of home” change, cultural memory remains 146 3.1 The transformation of “tastes of home” 146 3.2 Re-staged cultural memory in Taipei 149 4. Taiwanese cuisine as the “tastes of home” 154 4.1 Lin Hai-yin: alien home, a familiar “taste of home” 155 4.2 Lin Wen-yue: “home” embodied in people but not in locality 158 5. Home and cultural memory 162 Chapter Five Bodily Memory and Sensibility: Eating habits, culinary preferences, and national consciousness 165 1. National consciousness and bodily memory 165 1.1 National consciousness and social experience 165 1.2 Bodily memory relative to culinary preference and identification 168 2. Informants who had clear definitions of “Taiwanese cuisine” 173 2.1 Perspectives relative to locality and gender 173 2.2 Perspectives relative to ethnicity 178 2.3 Taiwanese cuisine as a national cuisine 182 ii 2.4 Perspectives relative to Chinese cuisine 184 3. Without a clear definition of “Taiwanese cuisine” 187 4. What makes food “Taiwanese” to the respondents? 191 4.1 Social position and social experience 191 4.2 Need for inclusion and exclusion 193 Conclusion: Embodied “Nation” in Commodities and Sensibilities 195 1.