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“Nothing corresponding to it in China”: Asian food at London’s International Health Exhibition, 1884
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Forman, Ross G. (2021) “Nothing corresponding to it in China”: Asian food at London’s International Health Exhibition, 1884. Food, Culture, and Society, 24 (2). pp. 202-226. doi:10.1080/15528014.2021.1897749 ISSN 1552-8014.
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WRAP-Nothing-corresponding-China-Asian-food-Londons-international-Health-Exhibition-2021.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1433Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2021.1897749
Abstract
This paper considers Britain’s first large-scale Chinese restaurant, situated within the 1884 International Health Exhibition in London. It broaches the question of what cultural work did this Chinese restaurant and associated tearoom perform by considering two interrelated factors that governed the relationship between Britain and the British Empire, Europe, and the United States and China in the 1880s: The first is the recovery of exhibition culture’s key role in the globalization of “foreign” food. Restaurants like those at the “Healtheries” presented “high culture” versions of Asian food in stark contrast to eateries catering to working-class populations in Limehouse and American/Australian Chinatowns and camp kitchens. The exhibitions worked to elevate China above stereotyped dog- and cat-eating “universal omnivores.” The second revolves around the situating of China (and Japan) as modern through these exhibition restaurants and their location within an exhibition emphasizing hygiene and industry. I explore how outward-facing displays of culture and aesthetics at such expositions functioned within the networks of diplomacy surrounding Western informal imperialism in China, Qing Dynasty pushback, and intra-Asian competition, alongside new understandings of imperial culture as syncretic and absorptive.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain D History General and Old World > DS Asia R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine T Technology > TX Home economics |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > English and Comparative Literary Studies | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | International Health Exhibition -- 1884 , Health -- Exhibitions -- London-- History -- 1884, Cooking, Chinese, Trade shows -- History -- 19th century, Restaurants -- China, Cooking, Asian, Cooking, British -- History -- 19th century, Food -- Study and teaching | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Food, Culture, and Society | ||||||
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis | ||||||
ISSN: | 1552-8014 | ||||||
Official Date: | 19 April 2021 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 24 | ||||||
Number: | 2 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 202-226 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1080/15528014.2021.1897749 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | “This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Food, Culture, and Society on 19/04/2021, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15528014.2021.1897749 | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 4 March 2021 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 18 October 2022 | ||||||
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