In a small, rural village called Moonshadow Pond (a pseudonym) in southeastern China, food interlinks the past and the present in the memories and practices of villagers. Food can still be seen as part of a gift economy but, at the same time, food has also penetrated into the heart of a highly commodified market economy. A few members of the older generations still vividly remember that they were paid in kind for their work as tenant farmers during the Republican era, while the younger generations prefer locally grown foodstuffs because of their concerns over food safety. Villagers describe what they ate during the collective era with “bitterness.” Yet this memory of “bitterness,” to some villagers, turns comparatively into “sweetness” when contrasted with the paradox of food choice during the current reform era, in which food abundance coexists with the high risk of food adulteration, if not poisoning.
As Ellen...
