'Taiwan Travelogue' Review: A Culinary Journey Through Colonial History and Desire
A review of Yang Shuang-zi's award-winning novel 'Taiwan Travelogue,' which uses food and culinary art as a lens to explore colonial history, desire, language, and translation in Taiwan. The review praises the novel's emotional and intellectual depth, noting that every dish carries the weight of history and power dynamics within it.
Key quotes
Not because this novel is merely mouth-watering prose, nor because it revels in the very culinary exoticism that it so ruthlessly dismantles, but because here, food is never just food.
Every soup, every fruit, every marinade, every banquet carries history within it; not as a side dish, but as a slowly simmered stock in which colonialism, desire, language, translation
Yang Shuang-zi's award-winning novel 'Taiwan Travelogue' blends colonial history, desire and culinary art with as much emotion as intelligence – and every dish is allowed to tell a story of power
From the article
You might also wanna read
Nos héritages culinaires : le pouvoir mémoriel de l'assiette
Book Review: "Born to Explore" — Leroy Chiao's Astronaut Memoir Serves Space Stories with a Dining Twist
A book review of Leroy Chiao's memoir "Born to Explore," which chronicles the journey of one of the first Asian American astronauts. The boo
leonarddavid.com·13d ago
史國威：真實的幻象
Historical Accounts of Korea's Abundant Food Culture Through the Centuries
This article explores the historical tradition of massive meals in Korea, using the 1592 Japanese invasion as a starting point to illustrate
atlasobscura.com·8mo ago
The internet's obsession with food authenticity: Why we fight over carbonara and chicken rice
This article explores the concept of food authenticity in the internet age, using examples like carbonara gatekeeping and chicken rice debat
iza.ac·24d ago
Comments
Sign in to join the conversation.
No comments yet. Be the first.