Friends were divided on whether Guan Qi was an introvert or an extrovert. Several people had asked him directly, only to receive a different answer each time. After he passed away, as we gathered together, we realised this was a truth that could never be pinned down. Whenever I recall…
On 4 April last year, Foodthink published a “collection of deleted articles”. Since then, each time a piece was taken down, the team would console themselves with an inside joke: “We’ve already got another ‘404ed 404’ for next year.” But the 404s over the past two years aren’t entirely the…
Foodthink Says As the Qingming Festival approaches, whether for travel or tomb-sweeping, many will head to the countryside for a few meals of “farmhouse food”. This year’s Spring Festival was no different for the author of this piece. This account of dining during a return to the village for the…
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…
At around 7 a.m., 65-year-old Sister Zhen arrives at the sugarcane field. She clips her heavily scratched smartphone to a cane stalk, connects to her neighbour’s Wi-Fi, and opens Douyin. Under her breath, she runs through the steps: “Tap the plus sign, swipe left, go live.” The camera is pointed…
Having left the small village where every household practised fermentation for so long, and drifted too long in the uncertainties of city life, I had lost a measure of my own vitality. This is something I have only recently come to realise. For years, fermentation was nothing more than a…
Foodthink Says This is the third field report from Foodthink’s visits to small-scale fishing communities in southern Thailand. The first two pieces explored how fishermen joined forces to oust commercial trawlers, form a national alliance, and actively engage in legislative and policy advocacy, and how ‘community conservation areas’ empowered locals…
Foodthink Says Why would a girl from the north, who has never even seen sugarcane, head south to grow it? Why would a short-video creator find themselves laughed at by farmers? Why would a PhD candidate refer to themselves as a primary school pupil? Why would a tea research specialist…
Foodthink Commentary This is the second set of field notes from our visit to fishing communities in southern Thailand. This January, Foodthink accompanied Blue Climate Partners into fishing villages along Thailand’s southern coast to observe how small-scale fishers safeguard marine resources. Across three mangrove communities on the Andaman Sea coast,…
Last year, standing by a field edge in Yunnan’s hills, I saw rice for the first time sprouting directly from level soil, with no flooded paddies or irrigation ditches in sight. For many, rice is inextricably linked to flooded paddies. Yet it can just as easily be cultivated on dry,…
