Options
Milk and modernity : Health and culinary heritage in South China
Author(s)
Date Issued
2012
Publisher
Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Description
255 pages
Type
Thesis
Abstract
This thesis is an ethnographic study of the change in the production and
consumption of indigenous and imported cow milk in South China, particularly
Shunde and Hong Kong, during the post-Mao period. Contrary to the popular view
that cow milk consumption in China is a result of Western influence, the milk
production and consumption in South China is actually a continuation of the Chinese
tradition. This thesis shows that the popularity of milk consumption in Shunde and
Hong Kong is driven by the forces of colonialism, globalization, capitalism, and
modern state-building. Milk consumption in these two places is mainly promoted
through three kinds of agents - the market (global and local milk companies,
financial investors, food-packaging companies), medical professionals and the State.
I illustrate how these forces and agents affect the classification, meanings and values
of health and culinary heritage, and how this results in a reinvention of tradition and
a change in the concept of morality, amidst concerns over food safety. By examining
the transformation of the values associated with milk in the process of production
and consumption, I show how health and culinary heritage become the contested
ground in the reconfiguration of modern identity and social relationship, while
complying with the vision of the government in the building of national pride.
Availability at HKSYU Library
