China Research Seminar public talk

February 13, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Moore Hall 109 Add to Calendar

Announcing a Chinese Studies public talk:

“The Invention of American ‘Pan-China Cuisine’ in Global Politics”

by David Y. H. Wu (吴燕和), Former Chair Professor of Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the East-West Center

Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 12:00 pm, Moore Hall Rm. 109, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

What are the representative “Chinese” cuisines that have dominated the American popular culture of eating-out? What is “Pan-China Cuisine?” Wu tells the story of migration to the United States during the second half of the 20th Century of Chinese graduate students and families. Many stayed due to the global Cold-War, and helped to transform, invent, and standardize a “Pan-China” cuisine in their new restaurants. The new restaurateurs since the 1970s claimed to serve “Northern Chinese” or “Mandarin” cuisine under the banner of Peking, King-Tsing (Beijing and Tianjin), Shanghai, Shichuan (Sichuan), Hunan, Hakka (Kejia), etc. Wu’s story will focus on a 40-year-old “Mandarin” restaurant in Honolulu that was started by some University of Hawaii students.

Professor Wu, former Chair Professor of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is Adjunct Senior Fellow at the East-West Center. Among other affiliations, he is also the Co-Chief Editor of the Journal of Archaeology and Anthropology (Taipei). Educated in Taiwan, Hawaii, and Australia, Wu has conducted fieldwork among Taiwan aborigines; on the Chinese diaspora in the South Pacific and minority ethnicities in China; and on the globalization of food, cuisine, music and dance in East Asia.

Wu’s many books include: The Chinese in Papua New Guinea (1982 HK); The East Paiwan People of Taimali (1988 Taipei); Preschool in Three Cultures (1989 Yale, also published in Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Portuguese); Chinese Culture and Mental Health (1985 N.Y.); From Beijing to Port Moresby (1998 London); The Globalization of Chinese Food (2002 London); Overseas March: How the Chinese Cuisine Spread” (2011 Taipei); Where is Home (2011 Taipei); and Hometown, Fieldwork, and the Train (Japanese translation by Midori Hino, 2012 Tokyo).

The university community and public are cordially invited to attend.


Ticket Information
Free admission

Event Sponsor
Center for Chinese Studies, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-8891, china@hawaii.edu

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