By documenting, analyzing, and interpreting the transformations in the local diets of Asian peoples within the last hundred years, this volume tries to pinpoint the consequences of the tension between homogenization and cultural heterogenization, which is so characteristic for today's global interaction. By focusing on Asian foodways, the contributors demonstrate how the local and global forces negotiate new hybrid lifestyles, how new commodities become embedded in new cultures and how new identities are embraced through the acceptance and rejection of new forms of consumption.
Contributors: Helen Bush, Cheng Sea-ling, Pat Caplan, Katarzyna Cwiertka, Adel P. Den Hartog, Robert W. Pemberton, Anneke Van Otterloo, Boudewijn C. A. Walraven, Merry I. White, Rory Williams.