I. Farm Machinery Memories of the Post-00s As far back as I can remember, my family has worked the land, growing mainly wheat and rice. During school holidays, I would follow behind the combine harvester with my friends, gathering loose ears of grain. Machines were scarce back then; usually only…
I grew up wandering through wet markets. Day to day, I’m just another office worker confined to a cubicle, but come the Lunar New Year, I step into the role of ‘second-in-command’ at a wet market grocery stall. So, what is a wet market? For ordinary people living by the…
Whether Guan Qi was an introvert or an extrovert was a subject of much debate among his friends. Several people had asked him directly, only to receive different answers. After he passed, as everyone gathered together, they realised this was a fact that simply could not be settled. Recalling his…
On 4 April last year, Foodthink published a “Collection of Deleted Articles”. Since then, whenever a piece was censored, my colleagues would share a bitter internal joke: “Next year’s 404 collection already has another entry.” But the 404s of these two years have not been the same. In 2024, most…
Foodthink’s Take With the Qingming Festival approaching, many people head to the countryside—whether for travel or to visit ancestral graves—to enjoy a few “rustic farm meals”. The author of this piece did the same during this year’s Spring Festival. This record of eating and drinking while returning to the village…
How did an organisation focused on insect ecology start caring about farmers’ livelihoods? And how did an organisation focused on livelihoods end up writing a “Song of the Fly“? How did a man from Shanxi become a “male Women’s Director” in a Yunnan village? Why is a top genetic engineering…
Around 7 am, 65-year-old Zhen arrived at her sugarcane field. She wedged her scratched-screen phone between the stalks, connected to a neighbour’s Wi-Fi, and opened TikTok. She whispered to herself: “Tap the plus sign, swipe left, start livestream.” The camera pointed forward, framing two pieces of cardboard hanging from the…
Having left my small village, where every household practised fermentation, for too long, and having drifted for so long through the uncertainties of city life, I lost a part of my life’s vitality. This is something I only recently realised. For many years, “fermentation” was nothing more than a strange…
Foodthink Notes This is the third entry in Foodthink’s field notes from our visit to small-scale fishing communities in Southern Thailand. The previous two pieces discussed how fishers joined forces to drive out commercial trawlers, form a national alliance, and actively engage in legislative and policy advocacy, as well as…
Foodthink says Why would a girl from the north, who had never even seen a sugarcane stalk, head south to grow it? Why would a short-video content creator be mocked by farmers? Why would a PhD candidate refer to themselves as a primary school pupil? Why would a tea research…
