Asian Ethnology Podcast

Interview with Thomas David DuBois: Studying Food in China

Interviewer: Ben Dorman, co-editor Asian Ethnology

Recorded 23 March 2020, Nagoya & Beijing

This episode features Chinese historian Thomas David DuBois, who is currently Professor of Humanities at Beijing Normal University. Thomas discusses his original reasons for studying China, the application of historical anthropology in his work, his interest and work in Chinese food, the effect of the death of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain had on his thinking about human relations and food, and finally thoughts on living under the current circumstances of coronavirus and quarantine in Beijing.

Publications discussed in this episode

Monographs and edited volumes

Empire and the Meaning of Religion in Northeast Asia: Manchuria 1900–1945., 2017, Cambridge University Press.

DuBois, Thomas David, and Jan Kiely, eds. Fieldwork in Modern Chinese History: A Research Guide., 2019. Routledge.

Feng, Jin. Tasting Paradise on Earth: Jiangnan Foodways , 2019. University of Washington Press.

Music used with kind permission of the performer, shamisen master Koji Yamaguchi.