China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History

China in Seven Banquets ranges through 5,000 years of China’s food history in seven iconic meals, from the ancient Eight Treasures fête to the ‘Tail-Burning Banquet’ of the Tang Dynasty and the Qing court’s extravagant ‘Complete Manchu-Han Feast’. We also experience lavish repasts from literature and film, a New Year’s buffet from 1920s Shanghai and a delivery menu from the hyperglobal twenty-first century, even peeking into the tables of the not-too-distant future. Drawing on decades of experience eating his way around China, Beijing-based historian Thomas David DuBois explains why culinary fashions come and go, and recreates dozens of historical recipes in a modern kitchen. From fermented elk to absinthe cocktails, this is Chinese food as you’ve never seen it before.

Table of Contents:
A Note for My Fellow Historians, and for Everyone Else Introduction: What Is Food History? Of Meat and Morality: The Eight Treasures of Zhou By Silk Road and High Sea: New Foods Come to China Gardens of Delight: Imperial China’s High Cuisine Fancy Foods and Foreign Fads ‘Life’s a Banquet’: Food Culture in the Go-Go ’90s Franchise Fever: The Price of Efficiency And Beyond . . . List of Featured Recipes Weights and Measures Timeline of Major Dynasties References Select Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index

About the Author :
Thomas David DuBois is Professor in the Folk Culture Research Center of Beijing Normal University. He is the author of numerous books on China's history and religion.

Review :
China in Seven Banquets is in part a condensed account of Chinese foodways from antiquity to the present, using descriptions of dishes from the menus of actual, fictional and conjectural banquets to illustrate crucial moments in Chinese history. But at least as importantly, it is also an account of how China’s cultural identity has been progressively shaped and reshaped by encounters with non-Chinese geopolitical realities over some four millennia . . . The latter part of the book, which examines the past 150 or so years of Chinese socioeconomic history through the lens of food, [is] . . . energized, focused, incisive. [An] accessible, riveting history of Chinese food. China in Seven Banquets utilizes seven distinct meals to explore different culinary eras of Chinese history, from a lavish Eight Treasures feast of ancient times to a modern delivery menu. China in Seven Banquets is a fascinating book. DuBois promises to provide scholarly insights without the dry prose or interminable footnotes that might stop you from turning to the next page. He succeeds very well in balancing depth and accessibility . . . The text is liberally seasoned with recipes, which give a sense of not just what was prepared, but how, and with what ingredients . . . The food is the focus, of course, but not necessarily for its own sake. DuBois links changes in Chinese cuisine to broader themes. You end up learning a lot more about China (and the world) than you thought you would . . . Thanks to Professor DuBois for a delicious and thought-provoking book. Highly recommended. A magic-lantern show of seven vividly colored and richly animated dining scenes through the ages . . . Thomas David DuBois has written a genuinely original contribution to Chinese food studies in the present era – one that has all the formal accoutrements but none of the sterility of an academic work. It deserves to be read not just for its selective excursions into the history of one of world gastronomy’s most dynamic provinces, but for its reflections on the changing nature of our engagement with food and its political economy, wherever we happen to be. DuBois roots his account in the long-term historical forces that have shaped Chinese society, with special attention devoted to the impact of money and technology on modern China’s relationship with food . . . What he successfully captures are the many ways in which food in China serves as the backdrop to other social, cultural, and political pursuits – perhaps the defining quality of the Chinese relationship with food. A “flavourful history” of 500 years of Chinese cuisine via seven storied dinners. Food historian DuBois shares his findings from decades of travelling around China, revealing the country’s culinary character through meals including the “tail-burning” banquet of the Tang dynasty, plus insights into food featured in Chinese literature and film, a New Year’s buffet from 1920s Shanghai and a twenty-first-century delivery menu. Despite the book’s size it is clear that a great deal of scholarly research has gone into China in Seven Banquets. DuBois’s tone remains reassuringly informal making this book a compelling read, particular for people (and I include myself among them) who are unfamiliar with the country’s diverse culinary history . . . China in Seven Banquets totally (and rightly) upends the concept of "traditional" Chinese food for the uninitiated and is a poignant reminder that culinary history is in a constant state of flux. Thomas David DuBois’ deceptively chatty introduction to China in Seven Banquets artfully digests a bunch of important food-studies concepts for the general reader, including the nature of sources, the metadata of meals, and precedents in the study of foodways . . . With only seven meals to distil the 5000-year span of Chinese history, DuBois takes what I suspect to be a tutorial delight in using different research methods. China in Seven Banquets is a wonderfully pleasurable insight into the long history of Chinese food. Thomas David DuBois’ delightful prose is quite a banquet to feast on. This book will take pride of place in my library of cookery books, as it will in yours! Take a seat at some of the greatest banquets in the history of China! Using resources from the period and first-hand accounts, this book brings the history and culture of China to life. Anyone who wants to understand China's food culture needs to read this book. With the eye of a historian and experience in the kitchen, Thomas David DuBois strips away the myths of China's culinary history, not only showing the evolution of recipes but explaining the problems that modernization has brought to China's diet. Much more than a history of food, this book is a history of China with a seat at the dining table. A brilliant piece of food history by a scholar who knows all about changes in commodities, tastes, values and techniques, but also conveys his love and first-hand experience of cooking in China. It powerfully debunks prejudices and preconceptions that there is one unique Chinese cuisine, and opens worlds of exquisite differences. This book confronts the undoable – it characterizes China through several thousand years of changing foodways. The seven banquets selected – historical, literary, imagined and filmic, even a fast-food delivery feast – make for a micro-history of excess in a culture which famously celebrates its myriad regional cuisines. The writing bristles with menus, recipes and tales of ordinary and unlikely ingredients. DuBois is a great story-teller. What I love the most is his joyous engagement in the kitchen, with records of his experiments with the culinary unknown, both successful and not quite so . . .