Main Venue: Lee Ping Yuen Chamber (D801), 8/F, Lee Quo Wei Academic Building (Block D), The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong
9:15am – 9:45am
Registration and Reception
D801
9:45am – 10:05am
Opening Ceremony
D801
10:05am – 10:15am
Group Photo
D801
10:15am – 12:00nn
First Panel Discussion
Humanities in Food: Past and Present
Chairman: Professor Scarlet Tso (Professor and Dean of School of Communication, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong)
Presenters:
—Narratology: singular or multiple? As part of a newer study of socio- cultural history on the daily life, of ordinary people, at the micro level, culinary history tends to adopt simple narratives rather than complex theories. In the case of Taiwanese cuisine, it soon becomes clear that the same set of historical developments can be treated to more than one simple depiction in way of explanation. That is, it can certainly choose to describe as understandable byproducts of the process in documenting waves of migration . Or alternatively, as multiple threads happening at the same time in different even opposite directions, yielding similar phenomena ( breakfast, street foods, spreading growth and development?)
— Longitudinal approach (but how long?) If instead of taking early modern and modern history as familiar thereby convenient conceptual instruments, the contents of Taiwanese eating culture invites scholars to consider including native food habits thus the Austroasian environment as a constant interplayer , over not centuries but tens of thousands of years, what kind of culinary pictures would be allowed to unfold?
— Trans regional Culture vs National Categories: Even though the national discourse conventionally employed can be productive in presenting observers a comprehensible story of how things get from the ways they were to the world we have, still its shortcomings in limiting references and profiling to the relatively recent and dogmatic nationalist agenda is obvious. Now that transnational, transcultural studies are widely accepted, it seems appropriate to drop the sort of Taiwanese culinary analysis following the national line to an open discussion, not due to cultural politics. Awaringly or not.
— Identity ( and memory), necessary yet frivolous? Likewise, identity and memory studies can be useful intellectual instruments, but at the risk of being stale and rigid, at the expense of facing lively ,ongoing, fluid dynamics that people continue to experience and create everyday. As the case that postwar Taiwanese materiality showcased, which may provide a revealing example for many other instances , that food cultures are best to testify, far exceed the fields of high culture and traditional historical studies.
I have examined and analyzed domestic dietary writings such as novels, essays and cookbooks in postwar Taiwan in order to explore the dialectical relationship between food memories as well as national and ethnic identities of the mainland Chinese from the 1960s to the 1990s. The article shifts to explore the dialectical relationship between food memories and on-going changing national identities of the Taiwanese students overseas by a close reading of the novels and autobiographical narratives of the students who studied in the United States of the 1960s from the perspective of cultural memory. Thus, first of all, it offers a brief analysis of the fiction writings by YU Lihua, JI Zheng, Meng Si, OUYANG Tzu, PAI Hsien-yung, PENG Ge and LOU Shiu-ming in an effort to define their fiction writings about Taiwanese students studying abroad as truthfully historical narratives from the theoretical perspectives of public history and historiophoty. Secondly, it moves to demonstrate the people, places, and occasions with significances of ritual bodily practice and ethnic marker related to the Madeleine Moment of the Taiwanese students overseas. Finally, it addresses the the dialectical relationship between food memories and the changing identities of the Taiwanese students overseas and their children.
Hong Kong, renowned for its profound appreciation of Japanese culture, ranks as the third-largest consumer of sake globally, following only Mainland China and the USA. Despite this strong cultural affinity, many consumers in Hong Kong are not fully acquainted with the subtleties of sake, including its diverse varieties, traditional brewing methods, and its deep cultural significance. This study examines the innovative strategies employed by a Hong Kong-based sake wholesaler who not only markets but also culturally reinterprets sake through thoughtful brand redesigns and informative pamphlets.
These redesigns serve both to maintain the inherent “Japaneseness” of the product and to educate consumers. The educational aspects not only transmit the original cultural content but also involve a creative reinterpretation that aligns with local cultural preferences and understandings.
This dual approach effectively presents the authenticity of the Japanese product by making its cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts accessible and relevant to Hong Kong consumers. By analyzing this glocalization strategy, the paper illuminates the complexities of cultural adaptation and consumer education in global markets.
D801
12:00nn – 2:00pm
Conference Lunch
The Always, HSUHK
2:00pm – 3:30pm
Second Panel Discussion
Ideologies of Food: Discourse and Praxis
Chairman: Professor Philip Buckley (Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, McGill University; McGill UNESCO Chair in Global Asia and Humanities)
Presenters:
This paper examines the importation of western-style cooking in relation to translation, its concept, process and amplifications such as authenticity, power, resistance, transposition, transformation and the nature of translation. We will look at the metaphoricality of nonlocal cooking and translation to problematize Hong Kong culture and its response to colonialism.
When people travel they invariably take their food cultures with them. Exploratory travel, migrations, colonialisms, refugeedom have long served as the source of circulating foodstuff, cuisines, recipes, often changing in ways large and small along the way. As one of the oldest cultures of basic and staples foods and recipes, China has fueled a considerable history of food movement.
My talk will ask how a particular well-known dish, widespread across Asia, found its way onto South African dining tables and cookbooks well before the establishment of apartheid in the mid-20th century. Tracing this history may offer suprising details to the Asian influence and impact on world food culture.
In antiquity, the transhumance, that is the moving of floks from Central Southern Italy and back for the sheep health, was a process that ensured a generalised subsistence economy, providing food, but also the expansion of exchanges of traditions, cults, cultures, crafts.
D801
3:30pm – 4:00pm
Coffee Break
D801
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Third Panel Discussion
Food and Space: The Gaze of Modernity
Chairman: Professor Luiz Oosterbeek (President, International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH); Professor, Polytechnic Institute of Tomar)
Presenters:
This ethnographic study explores the intricate relationship between agrofood production and identity formation among an urban family who migrated from Tokyo to Kunisaki (Oita Prefecture) in Kyushu, Japan. The study adopts an anthropological approach to examine how the family’s immersion into agricultural life serves as a means of constructing their own new rural identity. Through participant observation, interviews, and involvement in day-to-day farm operations in two fieldworks, the paper captures the relational dynamics between the family and the rural community (both city governments and rural neighbourhood) in the process of agrofood production and sales.
The family’s journey into agrofood production is revealed as a transformative process that extends beyond economic activity, encompassing a renegotiation of identity and a reconfiguration of their place within the social and cultural fabric of the countryside. This research highlights how the agricultural activities are not merely practical tasks but are imbued with cultural significance, contributing to the family’s sense of belonging and self-definition in a novel context. By focusing on the symbolic and material dimensions of agrofood production, the study elucidates the complex negotiations that occur as the family integrates their urban lifestyle and business traditions and expectations of rural life.
The analysis also addresses the broader socio-economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-2022, examining how the family’s agrofood practices adapt to changing circumstances, and how these adaptations reflect and eventually reshape their identity. The family’s response to these challenges underscores the role of agrofood production as a nexus of identity rearticulation during times of crisis.
In sum, this study contributes to the understanding of the complex interplay between agrofood production and identity among urban-to-rural migrants. It offers insights into the ways in which families leverage agriculture as a platform for cultural expression and identity construction, and how these processes are influenced by broader societal transformations.
Dining is one of the most popular travel activities for visitors of all ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds, according to the International Culinary Tourism Association. According to the association, culinary tourism has been popular as it provides an engaging opportunity to experience local cuisine and gain insight into the culture of the destination.
The concept of “culinary tourism” was coined by Scholar Long in 1998 to refer to the food and tourism practice that is “the intentional, exploratory participation in the foodways of another culture –participation including the consumption, preparation, and presentation of a food item, cuisine, meal system, or eating style considered to belong to a culinary system not one’s own” (Long, 1998, 21).
In this study, the concept of ‘Digital Colinary Tourism’ is proposed to conceptualize the online food blogging practices documenting the culinary experiences of international and local tourists. Given ‘Cha Caan Teng’ being one of the important cultural symbols of Hong Kong, presenting a wide variety of food listed on the Intangible Heritage list of the city, the study will examine how Instagram and Openrice Food blogs represent Hong Kong’s ‘Cha Caan Teng’ Food to practice Digital Culinary Tourism.
D801
5:30pm – 6:00pm
Travel Arrangement to Conference Dinner
6:30pm
Conference Dinner
Main Venue: Lee Ping Yuen Chamber (D801), 8/F, Lee Quo Wei Academic Building (Block D), The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong
9:30am – 10:00am
Registration and Reception
D801
10:00am – 11:15am
RoundTable Discussion
Food Culture in Asia: Theory and Practice
Chairman: Professor Desmond Hui (Professor and Head of Department of Art and Design, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong)
Co-Moderators and Discussants:
D801
11:15am – 11:30am
Closing Remarks by
Professor Gilbert Fong (Co-Director of Global Humanities Initiative (GHI); Professor and Dean of School of Translation and Foreign Languages, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong; President of Asian New Humanities Network (ANHN))
and
Professor Hsiung Ping-chen (Co-Director of Global Humanities Initiative (GHI), The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong; Secretary-General of International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences; CIPSH-UCI Chair on New Humanities, University of California, Irvine; UNESCO Chair on Global Asia, McGill University)
D801
11:30am
Break
D801
12:00nn
Travel Arrangement to Closing Lunch
12:00nn – 2:00pm
Closing Lunch
By Bus
Tate’s Cairn Tunnel bus stop
Bus:
272S, 277X, 286M, 307, 307P, 373, 680, 680A, 680X, N680, 681, 681P, 682, 682P 74X, 75X, 80X, 82P, 82X, 83X, 84M, 85C, 85M, 89C, 89D, 89X
HSUHK (Kwong Sin Street) bus stop
Mini-bus:
65A, 65K, 808, 808P,
Bus:
83K, 83S, 86, N182
Driving Route
Please refer to the instructions here: https://www.hsu.edu.hk/en/visitors/campus-map/
