@article{ART003397058},
author={Young Kim},
title={Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family},
journal={Cross-Cultural Studies},
issn={1598-0685},
year={2026},
volume={79},
pages={65-96}
TY - JOUR
AU - Young Kim
TI - Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family
JO - Cross-Cultural Studies
PY - 2026
VL - 79
IS - null
PB - Center for Cross Culture Studies
SP - 65
EP - 96
SN - 1598-0685
AB - Through a cross-cultural comparison of Jean-Philippe Gaud’s Tazzeka (2018) and Song Hae-sung’s Boomerang Family (2013), this study explores how food mediates memory, hospitality, and solidarity in the imagining of ‘other worlds’. While Tazzeka depicts an external diaspora shaped by state, racial, and postcolonial borders, Boomerang Family addresses an internal diaspora amid the dissolution of the ‘normal family’ and class boundaries in contemporary Korean society. Despite these divergent contexts, both films show how marginalized subjects challenge such boundaries through cooking and sharing meals.
Drawing on Achille Mbembe’s ‘politics of coexistence’ and Édouard Glissant’s ‘poetics of relation’, this study examines food as a tactical means of transmitting embodied memories, extending unconditional hospitality, and transforming passive subjectivities. The food truck in Tazzeka and the non-hierarchical dining table in Boomerang Family suggest that community transcends fixed territories and bloodlines and instead emerges as ‘utopias in movement’—an ongoing process of relational becoming. Ultimately, this study illuminates the emancipatory potential of imagining ‘other worlds’ at the intersection of Francophone and Asian cinemas.
KW - food;embodied memory;hospitality;external and internal diaspora;utopias in movement;poetics of relation
DO -
UR -
ER -
Young Kim. (2026). Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family. Cross-Cultural Studies, 79, 65-96.
Young Kim. 2026, "Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family", Cross-Cultural Studies, vol.79, pp.65-96.
Young Kim "Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family" Cross-Cultural Studies 79 pp.65-96 (2026) : 65.
Young Kim. Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family. 2026; 79 65-96.
Young Kim. "Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family" Cross-Cultural Studies 79(2026) : 65-96.
Young Kim. Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family. Cross-Cultural Studies, 79, 65-96.
Young Kim. Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family. Cross-Cultural Studies. 2026; 79 65-96.
Young Kim. Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family. 2026; 79 65-96.
Young Kim. "Food, Memory, and Relational Utopias in Motion: A Focus on Tazzeka and Boomerang Family" Cross-Cultural Studies 79(2026) : 65-96.
