As “edible identity,” foodways has played a crucial role in constructing individual and group identities. Designating food as “heritage” introduces additional cultural significance and emotional weight in the global context. Drawing on insights from the disciplines of history, literature, and anthropology, I will show that teaching Chinese food can yield pedagogical models to prepare our students to take active leadership as a “citizen of the world,” and contribute to the expansion of knowledge and understanding about crucial global issues such as food security and sustainability. China can also serve as a dynamic site both for observing shifting culinary and cultural practices and for experiential learning.
Jin Feng 冯进 is Professor of Chinese and Japanese and the Orville and Mary Patterson Routt Professor of Literature at Grinnell College. She has published five English monographs: The New Woman in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction (2004), The Making of a Family Saga: Ginling College 1915-1952 (2009), Romancing the Internet: Consuming and Producing Chinese Web Romance (2013), Tasting Paradise on Earth: Jiangnan Foodways (2019), and The Transpacific Flow: Creative Writing Programs in China (2024); three Chinese books such as A Book for Foodies 吃货之书 (2020); and numerous articles in both English and Chinese. She is currently working on “Grinnell-in-China, China in Grinnell.”