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A Cultural Imagination of the Other on Chinese Food Culture:Focusing on the Travel Notes in the Late Qing Dynasty

HwaJin Kim 1

1동국대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Previously, I wrote a paper focusing on Western foods that Chinese people in the Late Qing Dynasty’s Overseas Travel Notes. In this paper, we will examine the aspects of China recognized by the West, focusing on Chinese food seen by Westerners. Through this study, comparative studies on food culture in China and the West will help complement more objectivity. The content of the Late Qing Dynasty’s Overseas Travel Notes is mainly about the advanced Western material civilization that Chinese travelers have seen and felt during their overseas tours. The Qing Dynasty, which was attacked by Western advanced weapons during the Opium War, no longer regarded the West as a backward and barbaric savage tribe. Western countries with advanced technology have become the envy of China, which has long remained reclusive. Whether intentional or unintentional, amid internal and external chaos at the end of Qing Dynasty, the major concerns of the Late Qing Dynasty’s travelers, who had set China’s situation as a framework of “great past and backward present” were all about the future and wealth of the nation. Therefore, the subject of ‘food’ was not a major concern for them. In particular, government officials had to write a travel journal as objectively as possible, so little was recorded about food items that were likely to have subjective tastes involved. Although there is not much recorded, the daily food I see during the trip was the most direct, specific and refreshing experience. In addition, in comparing Chinese and Western foods, the traveler was able to understand the cultural meaning and value of each country’s food culture. The study is valuable in that it allows us to look at the cultural awareness of the Chinese people at the end of the Qing Dynasty and also the Western perception of China.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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