Milk and modernity : Health and culinary heritage in South China

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.