Ecocriticism and national image in (A bite of China)

Abstract

In his article “Ecocriticism and National Image in (A Bite of China)” Mingwen Xiao examines the multi-faceted contents of the popular 2012 television series. Instead of exhibiting delicacies made by professional chefs in luxury restaurants, A Bite of China displays local food and dishes made by ordinary people. By focusing on every-day food preparation, the show constructs a performance where class, ethnicity, gender, age, and other social markers are blurred and the geographically and ethnically diverse ways of food preparation and consumption appear as a cohesive Chinese culinary identity. Xiao argues that A Bite of China plays a role in restoring Chinese citizens’ confidence in domestic cuisine and thus aspects of the television show can be understood as an ecocritical perspective of current China.