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…
My hometown of Liquan, a county in Shaanxi province, is best known for its apples. There was even a saying that “to see China”s apples, look to Shaanxi; to see Shaanxi’s apples, look to Liquan’. In the past, nearly every farming household in the area grew apples, supplementing them…
1 To Farm, First Chop the Straw “The village said they couldn’t handle it! Just chop it into the field!” Zhao Hai (pseudonym) recalled that following last autumn’s harvest, he had told the village officials he hoped for straw removal (off-field processing), which involved hiring…
In the spring of 2024, as a city office worker with absolutely no farming experience, I began tending a plot of land in the Beijing suburbs on and off, tentatively embarking on my agricultural journey. When I told people around me, their reactions generally fell into two camps: some…
As a durian enthusiast, I had long heard that Penang in Malaysia is home to hundreds of different durian varieties. This year, I joined a durian tour group and sampled more than twenty distinct kinds, and while working alongside local farmers, I tasted the day’s randomly fallen durian “blind…
This summer, Malaysia is experiencing a veritable durian glut. Bumper harvests across major growing regions such as Johor, Penang and Perak, compounded by a recent surge in supply from mature orchards, have driven prices sharply down. According to the Sin Chew Daily, some lower-grade Musang King fruit has…
