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Theme: 9. Foodscapes: Cultivation, Livelihoods, Gastronomy
Robert Winstanley-Chesters
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Loli Kim
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Niamh Calway
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Vivien Chan
Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Samuel Dic Sum Lai
SOAS University of London, United Kingdom
Hardian Nurseto
Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia
As a part of the Foodscaping Asia research venture and forthcoming Bloomsbury book series, we are bringing together two panels of interdisciplinary scholars who, following a cross-sectional format of macro-, micro-, and nano-scapes, each examining the layers of a particular Asian food environment. Foodscaping is based on original fieldwork through which the omnipresent multimodal discourses of food are deconstructed, revealing elusive cultural semantics for which a bespoke interdisciplinary approach is indispensable. The Metropolitan panel focuses on foodscapes embedded and enmeshed in large cities and other urban areas. Analyses of multisensory and multimodal evidence extracted from urban foodscapes by the presenters’ original research come together to facilitate an examination of the negotiations at the heart of urban Asian food environments: between the traditional and the contemporary; the convenient and the desirable; the indulgent and the accessible; the local and the transnational.
The panelists assume a multi-levelled perspective on the foodscapes at hand. For example, zooming into the macro-scapes of Seoul, Tokyo, or Hong Kong reveals innumerable micro-scapes, from tented street stalls, to busy drinking alleyways, and 1970s tower blocks arrested in time. Within each of these sit finer-grained nano-scapes: the pojangmacha tented restaurants of Seoul’s Jongno-3-ga district known as a meeting and cruising spot for one of the city’s most important “gayborhoods”; the packed Izakayas of Tokyo’s omoide yokocho (or “memory lane”) alley of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, packed with hungry (and thirsty!) office workers, friendship groups, couples, and tourists alike; or the hectic Cha chaan teng restaurants of Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po neighborhood, which lie nestled between mid-century tower blocks, serving pineapple buns and strong milk tea to aging local residents. Within these nano-scapes, the individual interactions, expressions, and behaviors that occur alongside and as a result of the food-based event at hand can be explored in detail. Dividing scapes into their constituent parts in this way allows presenters to deconstruct and consider the entangled web of interactions, expressions, and sensory experiences that come together to form a foodscape. Contributors on this panel all use this conceptualisation of macro-, micro-, and nano-scapes to deconstruct their chosen food environment, allowing listeners to contrast and compare different the urban Asian food contexts under consideration.
Presenter: Niamh Calway – University of Oxford
Presenter: Vivien Chan – Nottingham Trent University
Presenter: Samuel Dic Sum Lai – SOAS University of London
Presenter: Hardian eko Nurseto – Universitas Padjadjaran