1st Edition
The Language of Food: Through the Lens of East Asian Films and Drama
The Language of Food: Through the Lens of East Asian Films and Drama invites readers into the fascinating world where food culture and language intersect, revealing how each dish communicates beyond mere taste.
Through East Asian films and television shows, this book uncovers the rich tapestry of 'food languages' embedded within East Asian cultures. Divided into three parts—Base, Ingredients, and Seasoning—this book provides a structured exploration of this phenomenon. The Base section offers philosophical and historical context, while the Ingredients section delves deeper into specific themes, using film examples to illustrate the nuanced communication inherent in food culture. Finally, the book is 'seasoned' with linguistic insights and a practical food words glossary, aiding readers in navigating the intricate verbal and cultural nuances at play. This illuminating resource goes beyond the realm of food itself, offering a profound understanding of how each dish carries its language, enriching communication and deepening cultural connections.
This book will captivate students and researchers of East Asian languages, media studies, film studies, Korean Wave studies, and anyone intrigued by the intricate relationship between food and language.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FIGURES
PROLOGUE
PREPARATION, SERVING, AND CONSUMPTION
ARTICULATING FOOD DISCOURSE
INGREDIENTS
RICE
SWEET POTATO
NOODLES
Dumplings
STEW
SOUP
MEAT
VEG
FISH
KIMCHI
PICKLE
TEA
DESERT
FUSION
Omurice and Yōshoku
English Breakfast
Bread and Cake
Fried Chicken
Cha Chaan Teng
Coffee
Matcha Latte
SEASONING
LANGUAGE MATTERS
Japanese
Chinese
Korean
Diverse Forms and Words
FOOD WORD GLOSSARY
FILMOGRAPHY
LITERARY TEXTS
REFERENCES
Biography
Jieun Kiaer is YBM KF Professor of Korean Linguistics at the University of Oxford. She publishes widely in East Asian language and culture. Her research interests are wide-ranging, but she has a particular passion for studying multilingualism and multiculturalism through food. She has published extensively on this topic, with works such as Delicious Words (Routledge 2019) and Womanhood and Cooking in the Inner Chamber (with N.Calway 2023).
Loli Kim is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Loli’s research on East Asian multimodal communication enables her to work across fields of linguistics, gesture, pragmatics, semantics, and food, and fashion, often through the lens of film and media. Her recent publications include winner of the Hendrick Hamel Prize 2023 Understanding Korean Film: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (2021, with Jieun Kiaer) and the forthcoming Interpreting Korean Film (2024). She is also Editor of Bloomsbury’s new series Foodscaping Asia.
Niamh Calway is a PhD researcher in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. Niamh’s research focuses on the comparative history of East Asian food cultures and ethnographic projects relating to East Asian food in Europe. She co-authored the paper Translingual Journey of English Words and Methodological Suggestions (2022, with Jieun Kiaer and Hyejeong Ahn) and the monograph Womanhood and Cooking in the Inner Chamber (2023, with Jieun Kiaer).
"In Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (known in English as Remembrance of Things Past), a mere mention of a simple plain madeleine is enough to send the narrator into rapturous memories of his childhood. If the memory of the tiny clams at the bottom of your dashi broth, the crunch of kurobota pork katsu and shredded or the stiffening sourness of a favoured kimchi jjigae have the same affect on you, then Jieun Kim, Loli Kim and Niamh Calway's The Language of Food will become a favourite of yours. With an invigorating multi-modal approach, the authors explore the intersections and collisions around the language of East Asian food, its technologies and cultures. Combined with a lively visual analysis of cinematic moments of ranging across East Asian cinema from Wong Kar-Wai's beautiful In the Mood for Love to the more recent Apple TV+ series Pachinko, the book's words conjure the flavours of many a delectable edible moment for this reader."
Dr Robert Winstanley-Chesters, University of Edinburgh, UK
