Globalisation or Localisation? In Conversation with Documentary Filmmakers and Food System Scholars

The award-winning documentary *Whose Table, Whose Pasture?* will be screened at the Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University this Friday, 12 June 2026.

Following the trail of imported beef and mutton alongside local yak and Tibetan sheep, the film’s director began in Xining’s wholesale and retail markets before heading to street markets, fattening farms and slaughterhouses in Gonghe County. Accompanying livestock buyers to Qinghai Lake, the director travelled around its perimeter to interview herders from various ethnic groups in the surrounding pastoral areas. The film seeks to understand the impact on herders’ livelihoods and ways of life following a sustained drop in local livestock prices and the mass influx of imported frozen meat into the market.

As herders on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau feel the impact of agricultural produce from as far away as Brazil, Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand, how should we understand the food that lands on our own tables?

◉A flock of sheep at the home of Niang’ejia, one of the main subjects of *Whose Table, Whose Pasture?* Photo: Jiao Xiaofang

◉Return visits are a vital component of community documentary practice. In 2025, Jiao Xiaofang returned to the filming location to screen *Whose Table, Whose Pasture?* for the local shepherds. Photo: Jiao Xiaofang

This Friday afternoon from 15:30–17:30 (12 June), Food think will screen the documentary *Whose Table, Whose Pasture?* at the North Reading Room, Building 8, Floor 10, Chengjun Garden, Zijinang West Campus, Zhejiang University. Friends in Hangzhou are invited to join us.

Li Jingsong: Professor, Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University

Zhou Mujun: Tenured Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University

Sun Ruihua: PhD candidate, Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University

Chang Tianle: Founding editor, Foodthink (documentary producer)

 – Film Synopsis – 

*Whose Table, Whose Pasture?* is a documentary based on field research. Supported by Foodthink’s Lianhe Creation Project (联禾创作计划), the director ventured into the pastoral areas around Qinghai Lake to document the impacts brought by the large-scale entry of imported frozen beef and mutton into the local market.

Through visits to frozen wholesale markets and cold-chain warehouses in Xining, and by filming local herding families, butcher shops, and fattening farms, the film realistically portrays how imported meat, leveraging its low-price advantage, has impacted the local beef and mutton market. This has directly caused a sharp decline in the purchase prices of cattle and sheep for herders, reduced incomes, difficulties in repaying loans, as well as razor-thin margins and struggling livelihoods for local meat traders.

The camera delves into the imported beef and mutton market around Qinghai Lake to confront a harsh reality: within the globalised meat supply chain, who benefits from low prices, and who bears the cost?

Jiao Xiaofang｜Documentary director and visual anthropologist, with a long-standing focus on local knowledge, ecological ethics, and women’s experiences in western China and coastal Southeast Asia. Her work blends ethnographic observation with poetic expression, exploring the relationship between people and the natural world, alongside the emotional landscapes of everyday life. The documentary Whose Table, Whose Pasture? (2025) was selected for the 5th World Nomad Film Festival and the 6th China Ethnographic Documentary Film Festival.

Qiongwu Danzeng｜Tibetan documentarian and community activist, long committed to ecological conservation and film education on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. He previously served as coordinator for the Tibetan region project of Village Eye (乡村之眼) in Yunnan, and as regional representative for the Sanjiangyuan Project Centre of Alxa SEE. He is currently the head of the Human–Bear Conflict Project at the Qinghai Province Snow Realm Ecology Education and Research Center. Over the past decade, he has championed film training for herders and community ecology initiatives in regions such as Yushu and Aba, empowering herders to use video to document their own environments and cultures. His work bridges visual media, ecology, and public education, fostering understanding and coexistence between people and the natural world.

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