The revival of traditional water buffalo cheese consumption: Class, heritage and modernity in contemporary China

Abstract

This article provides an ethnography and analysis of the revival of the tradition of indigenous water buffalo cheese and milk product consumption in Shunde, Guangdong. Contrary to the widely held belief that dairy products are not part of the traditional Chinese diet, water buffalo cheese and milk products have been part of the food systems of Guangdong for centuries. But in the past 30 years, these indigenous milk products have been reinvented as a kind of culinary heritage, supplemented by new forms and practices. The popularity of water buffalo milk products in Shunde today has come about as a result of marketing by various agents, including cheese makers, milk merchants, chefs and the government in post-Mao China. Furthermore, the culture of milk consumption in Shunde today has been shaped by both the forces of post-reform economic development, international cultural institutions, the changing perceptions of members of different social classes, and modernity. The reinvented tradition of milk products provides people of different social classes with new ways of consuming milk products and of conducting social interactions.