Foodthink says Mashu Town, Qiaojia County, Yunnan Province, is the country’s second-largest summer strawberry-growing base. The area was only recently removed from the list of deeply impoverished counties. The author of this piece met a strawberry worker born in the 1990s here — unusual among the mostly middle-aged and…
Food safety news has once again dominated trending searches, with a blogger reporting that someone was found dipping Chinese cabbage in formaldehyde. On 22 August, the People’s Government of Kangbao County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, issued a public notice stating that, following preliminary verification, the reports were confirmed: a buyer…
Foodthink Says Wet markets today appear to be undergoing a remarkable ‘restoration’: what was once nothing more than the mundane daily errand of elders lugging bags of groceries has now become a destination young people flock to—a trending hotspot, a window into the city’s character, even a ‘healing space’…
Foodthink Says In *Welcome to the Dragon Restaurant*, Shen Teng plays a Chinese chef who rallies a dozen or so kids into a makeshift troupe, setting up a grand feast in a foreign land. Stir-fried, deep-fried, braised, slow-simmered in a cast-iron pot — you can almost smell the wok…
This Saturday (22 August) anthropologist and Foodthink’s longtime friend Zhong Shuru is coming to Beijing with her new book *China’s Wet Markets*! In the morning, we’ll head to a “special market” together to browse and chat; in the evening, we’ll start from “shopping for food in Beijing” and talk…
As someone born in the 1980s, before I had my daughter Shu’er at thirty, I rarely visited the wet market. I could hardly understand why my mother, rain or shine, insisted on pulling her trolley to the market, why she so relished recounting her market observations to me, or…
“Your father worked his fingers to the bone in the fields to pay for your education, only for you to go to university and follow in his footsteps.” “The way you’re transplanting those seedlings is completely embarrassing your parents.” “You’re doing great, Xiao Xiong, but remember…
Foodthink Says Not long ago, through Foodthink’s ‘Eat Well’ story submission column, we received a great many fresh observations and reflections about wet markets from our readers. So, what do wet markets signify through the eyes of an anthropologist? To grasp the vitality and challenges of China’s wet…
In an era of rapid change, wet markets have found themselves in a difficult position for various reasons. Some have inevitably faced closure, while others have been preserved for the convenience they offer to locals. Wenzhou’s Shuangjingtou Wet Market is one such holdout. This naturally raises a question: in…
I went back to my hometown in southern Hebei this past May to see how straw incorporation is actually playing out. When I explained why I was there, the local farmers would first pause, wearing that familiar “what’s there really to talk about?” look. Whether you call it confusion…
