So Much More Than Delicious: Towards a Unified Theory of Taste in Chinese Food Writing
Thomas DuBois, Distinguished Professor, Beijing Normal University
Moderator: Victor Seow, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University
This paper emerges from two distinct genres of Chinese food writing: The millennia-old tradition of medicalized diet, and the equally ancient poetics of culinary appreciation. The point of contact between these two types of food writing is taste (味), the same word used to very different ends. Taste first appears in medical texts, which describe the inherent nature of a food ingredient as its “true taste” and correlate five cardinal tastes to a schema of other pentad phenomena inside and outside of the body. The same structure gives shape to the language of the delicious, with odes and poetic references to cuisine balancing textures and tastes in much the same way that a cook would set a table. The resemblance of the body’s alimentary needs to the mind’s culinary desires begs the question of causality between the two. A subtle, often metaphoric thread running through medical, culinary, and narrative food writing affirms a sense that a finely tuned palate craves what the body physically needs as determined by age, season, or health. This taming of desire is itself developed through study and cultivation, resting on a condition of being in tune with the commands and rhythms of nature. The moral grounding of this relationship thus raises a third image of “taste,” the sense of social distinction that derives from the performance of refinement.
Thomas DuBois is a historian of modern China and professor of folk culture at Beijing Normal University. Having spent two decades focused on rural religion, he turned his attention to China’s food systems, an interest that has taken him from Inner Mongolian cattle ranches to cooking school in Chengdu. His new book is China in Seven Banquets: A Flavorful History (Reaktion Books, 2024)