Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works
When the consumption of food items emerges from perspectival constructs, they become foodscapes, and not merely food, transported by and through historical, linguistic, and political contexts. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Western media scapegoated Chinese dietary practices, reinforci...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2025
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25961/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25961/1/Gema_25_1_10.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848816492804571136 |
|---|---|
| author | Hao Ming, Shanthini Pillai, |
| author_facet | Hao Ming, Shanthini Pillai, |
| author_sort | Hao Ming, |
| building | UKM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | When the consumption of food items emerges from perspectival constructs, they become
foodscapes, and not merely food, transported by and through historical, linguistic, and political
contexts. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Western media scapegoated Chinese dietary
practices, reinforcing entrenched Orientalist perspectival constructs as an inner logic. This paper
argues that such predispositions towards Chinese foodscapes can best be understood through a
framework of Sinologism and the cultural unconscious as proposed by Mingdong Gu. To illustrate
this, we use selected samples on Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in the works of Peter
Hessler, an American writer widely acknowledged for countering American Orientalist biases in
his narratives on China. How did Hessler respond to the central role that was accorded to China,
the Chinese people and Chinese foodscapes? In what ways did the historically embedded
stereotypes travel back from an Orientalist past to the globalised present? What implications does
this have for balanced cross-cultural American engagements with China and its people? Our
findings reveal that there is a strong tension between his effort to challenge Western media
depictions of China and his own Orientalist bias, especially considering the prominent role of
foodscapes and discussions about China and the Chinese in shaping narratives around the cause of
the 2020 pandemic. We conclude that the inner logic of Sinologism is so strong that even a writer
like Hessler is not immune to its influence, then balanced cross-cultural engagement in the
Anglophone American context remains a persistent challenge. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T01:06:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | oai:generic.eprints.org:25961 |
| institution | Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T01:06:44Z |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | oai:generic.eprints.org:259612025-10-02T02:25:13Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25961/ Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works Hao Ming, Shanthini Pillai, When the consumption of food items emerges from perspectival constructs, they become foodscapes, and not merely food, transported by and through historical, linguistic, and political contexts. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Western media scapegoated Chinese dietary practices, reinforcing entrenched Orientalist perspectival constructs as an inner logic. This paper argues that such predispositions towards Chinese foodscapes can best be understood through a framework of Sinologism and the cultural unconscious as proposed by Mingdong Gu. To illustrate this, we use selected samples on Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in the works of Peter Hessler, an American writer widely acknowledged for countering American Orientalist biases in his narratives on China. How did Hessler respond to the central role that was accorded to China, the Chinese people and Chinese foodscapes? In what ways did the historically embedded stereotypes travel back from an Orientalist past to the globalised present? What implications does this have for balanced cross-cultural American engagements with China and its people? Our findings reveal that there is a strong tension between his effort to challenge Western media depictions of China and his own Orientalist bias, especially considering the prominent role of foodscapes and discussions about China and the Chinese in shaping narratives around the cause of the 2020 pandemic. We conclude that the inner logic of Sinologism is so strong that even a writer like Hessler is not immune to its influence, then balanced cross-cultural engagement in the Anglophone American context remains a persistent challenge. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2025 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25961/1/Gema_25_1_10.pdf Hao Ming, and Shanthini Pillai, (2025) Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 25 (1). pp. 176-192. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1803 |
| spellingShingle | Hao Ming, Shanthini Pillai, Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works |
| title | Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works |
| title_full | Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works |
| title_fullStr | Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works |
| title_full_unstemmed | Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works |
| title_short | Foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works |
| title_sort | foodscapes and the resurgence of sinologism: chinese dietary and medicinal practices in peter hessler’s works |
| url | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25961/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25961/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/25961/1/Gema_25_1_10.pdf |