Cross-Cultural Representation of China’s Rural Food Image in The Illustrated London News

Cross-Cultural Representation of China’s Rural Food Image in The Illustrated London News | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Cross-Cultural Representation of China’s Rural Food Image in The Illustrated London News Hongcheng Zhou, Bocheng Hong This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8449735/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 11 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The Illustrated London News stands as the earliest and most consistent overseas periodical to document China’s culinary knowledge through news texts, woodcut illustrations, and print reports. Its coverage encompassed regional ingredients, popular dishes in inland China, and the integration of Western cuisine into local food in areas like Hong Kong. By examining Chinese food culture, the publication offered a more authentic and comprehensive reflection of traditional dietary structures in modern Chinese society, thereby challenging and correcting prior Western biases and misconceptions about Chinese foodways. In colonial settings such as Hong Kong, while locals continued to consume traditional everyday foods like “Chow-chow”, they also adapted Western foods such as puddings into their culinary practices. This reflects a stable pattern of “Sino-foreign coexistence” within the local dietary framework. The incorporation of Western elements into Chinese folk cuisine signifies the historical process of “the eastward transmission of Western foodways”, marking an emerging feature of modern China’s culinary landscape. These visually mediated eating practices not only reshaped Western viewers’ sensory and cognitive perceptions but also provided tangible visual annotations for decoding 19th-century cultural flows across the Pacific. Humanities/Cultural and media studies Social science/Cultural and media studies Humanities/Language and linguistics Social science/Language and linguistics Humanities/Literature Chinese cuisine Food images Chow-chow Sino-foreign coexistence Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 1 Introduction Founded in 1842, The Illustrated London News ( ILN ) was the world’s earliest image-centric pictorial. Since its inception, the ILN has conveyed a wealth of up-to-date information about major events in China to the West through text-image reports. Notably, over more than a century, the newspaper maintained a consistent focus on Chinese rural food. From the First Opium War to subsequent major historical events, it continuously documented the dietary landscapes of rural China through text and images. However, existing academic studies (e.g., Meyer-Fong, 2024; Cao, 2024) have mostly focused on the newspaper’s coverage of issues related to China’s military, politics, and diplomacy, while long neglecting the knowledge system of Chinese rural food that it constructed, thus creating a significant research gap. The cross-cultural communication of Chinese rural food in the ILN constitutes the most apt illustration of Homi Bhabha’s theory of “cultural hybridity” (Bhabha, 2004) in the field of exchanges and dialogues between Eastern and Western food cultures. In the visual culture of the West, culinary narratives are consistently woven through the selective extraction and reconfiguration of indigenous cultural elements, thereby exhibiting a quintessential characteristic of hybridity. In depicting China’s local customs, clothing, food, shelter, transportation, and other aspects, although the overall perspective is Western, it inevitably incorporates some understanding and presentation of Chinese cultural elements. Previous studies have neglected the “folk food symbols” in the ILN —which most vividly reflect the authentic images of the majority of Chinese people—and this essentially reflects the theoretical lag of existing research in response to the “visual turn”. Despite the fact that the pictorial, from a Western “outsider” perspective, conducted firsthand on-site reporting on folk rural food in mainland China and colonial regions such as Hong Kong from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century through image technologies like wood engraving and lithography. Covering everything from street snacks and festival feasts to dietary hybridity at colonial dining tables, its narrative mode of mutual verification between text and image constructed a unique “visual dietary archive”. However, existing studies have mostly regarded dietary images as auxiliary explanations for news reports, while neglecting the theoretical perspective proposed by Burke regarding “the use of images as historical evidence” (Burke, 2018)—specifically, analyzing how dietary illustrations, through visual symbols such as Chinese and foreign food images, colonial spaces, and cultural hybridity, shaped the Western “othering” imagination of Chinese food. Drawing on Roland Barthes’ semiotic analysis (Barthes, 1967), the News Illustration and texts in the ILN essentially constitute a sophisticated semiotic system. Each wood engraving and its accompanying textual explanation not only possess a “signified” that refers to specific food objects, but also embed connotative meanings of colonial culture through the coding rules of the “signifier”. The operational mechanism of this semiotic system is precisely reflected in the repetitive use of visual signs in food images: through the constant reproduction of visual elements, the signified of the signs becomes alienated from “objective recording” to “cultural labels”, ultimately solidifying into dietary stereotypes in the cognitive framework of Western public. This precisely corroborates what Burke stated: “Images thus act as both mirrors and moulds of the past” (Burke, 2018). The pictorial’s visual representations of the mixture of Chinese and Western foods on colonial dining tables in Hong Kong, its colonial naming of Chinese foods, and its deliberate highlighting of Western dishes or tableware are not merely visual records of the hybridity of food cultures, but also implicitly embody the British Empire’s attempts to construct cultural hegemony through food symbols. Given that the ILN ’s reports on China were mostly on-site coverage, some of the events and life details it recorded constitute blind spots in Chinese historical records, and its systematicity and continuity are unmatched by many other Western historical materials. Therefore, this publication holds significant value for research on the overseas dissemination of Chinese food culture. 2 Visual Othering: Chinese Folk Food and Differences in Rural Food Between Northern and Southern China in the ILN The ILN was all the rage in 19th-century Europe thanks to its innovative reporting methods, affordable price, and regular, continuous publication cycle. However, with the subsequent popularization of photography technology and the development and evolution of publications featuring professional photographic works, the original advantages of the ILN no longer stood out, and its readership gradually dwindled. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, profoundly influenced by the Cold War structure, ideological confrontation, and geopolitical interests, Western media coverage of China was scarce and strongly ideological. Therefore, this study delimits its research period as 1842 to 1949, aiming to explore the publication’s coverage of Chinese folk food over these more than a hundred years. During this period, the ILN dispatched special correspondents or artists to conduct on-site investigations in China. The images of Chinese social life they depicted from historical and artistic perspectives often involved pictures of the dietary life of China’s underprivileged people. Specifically, these included aspects of Chinese folk food that were of interest to Westerners: the daily family dietary life of ordinary Chinese people, folk eateries, food markets, folk food customs during traditional festivals, and even sacrificial offerings at various folk ritual occasions, among others (see Table 1 ). Table 1 Statistical Table of Relevant Reports on Chinese Folk Food Carried in the ILN (1842–1949) Serial Number Time news headline content 1 1857.02.14 Canton within the Walls Betrothal gifts/dowry in Chinese weddings include fat pigs, dried fish, poultry, tea leaves, candies, preserved fruits, distilled liquor, yellow rice wine, among others. 2 1857.03.21 War in China: The Chinese Vessels of War, Chinese Rebels Queen’s Road West in Victoria City, Hong Kong, was teeming with Hong Kong Chinese small traders and craftsmen. 3 1857.03.28 The Poisonings at Hong-Kong Yixing (Ah Lung) Bakery in Victoria City, Hong Kong. 4 1857.07.11 En route for China: From Ceylon to Hong-Kong On the ship, there was a highly gentlemanly Chinese passenger in the first-class cabin, who ate with a knife and fork and drank sherry (with an illustration of three Chinese people eating Chinese food on the ship). 5 1857.07.25 Sketches from China: Hong-Kong Scenes Indian soldiers of the British army cooking in Hong Kong; among them, Hindus and Muslims ate separately. Chinese picnic. 6 1857.09.19 War in China: A Trip to Manila Dinner in Hong Kong. 7 1857.10.24 Chinese Chow-chow sellers in Manila Chinese vendors selling Chinese food on the streets of Manila and the meat market . 8 1858.01.09 Sketches from China: Hong-Kong Street Markets and Docks Gilman Street, Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong , where sausages hanging outdoors and vendors selling pressed salted duck can be seen on the street. 9 1858.04.17 War in China: British Soldiers Recovering and the Chinese New Year Gifts for the Chinese Lunar New Year, which includes oranges, tea leaves, and other New Year gifts. 10 1858.05.29 Sketches from China: Canton Streets After the Siege Distributing rice as alms on the streets of Guangzhou. 11 1858.11.20 Sketches from China: Canton Street Vendors and Opium Smokers Chinese female fruit vendor. 12 1858.12.11 Sketches from China: The Installation of the Abbot at Honam Temple, Canton British guests, Chinese officials, and the temple abbot dined in the vegetarian dining hall of the temple. 13 1859.09.17 Manners and Customs of the Chinese in 1859: Mourning Dresses of the Chinese and Mourning the Dead At a funeral in Hong Kong, the sacrificial offerings included pastries, roast pork, lamb, among others. 14 1859.09.24 Sketches from China: Manners and Customs of the Han Chinese in Formosa It is recorded that Han Chinese people in Taiwan have habits such as chewing betel nuts, eating cheese, and eating pineapples. 15 1859.11.05 Sketches from China: Manners and Customs of the Han Chinese in Formosa Foreigners engaged in the sugar trade in Taiwan, with an illustration of a “sugar warehouse”. 16 1860.10.13 China: The British Troops at Talien Bay There are illustrations depicting “purchasing eggs and poultry from local people” and “common people in farmhouses in Dalian Bay eating on the kang”. 17 1861.01.12 China: Domestic Life in China There are illustrations depicting “purchasing eggs and poultry from local people” and “common people in farmhouses in Dalian Bay eating on the kang”. 18 1861.01.12 “The China New Year”: The Dragon Feast At Canton—From a Sketch By Our Special Artist Chinese New Year: Dragon Feast in Guangzhou and an illustration of a woman making pastries for the Chinese New Year. 19 1861.02.23 Teahouse At Pekin A teahouse in Beijing, or alternatively referred to as a restaurant. 20 1867.02.02 / Journalists called on people to pay attention to Chinese sweet sorghum and listed various benefits of it. 21 1868.08.08 A Chinese Wedding at Shanghai It is recorded that this sumptuous wedding feast had six people per table, with 26 dishes served at each table. 22 1872.05.04 / Journalists, citing relevant reports, argued that Chinese Shandong cabbage is China’s “national dish”. Cabbage is cultivated throughout northern China; it can be eaten raw directly as a salad, comparable to the best lettuce in the West. 23 1872.11.30 / The article refutes the erroneous view that “Chinese food includes dogs, cats, mice, and other disgusting things”. It points out that dog meat is by no means a national dish in China. It is only in certain local regions such as Guangdong that there has indeed been a history of consuming dog meat. 24 1873.12.20 Making a Christmas Pudding In China Chinese people participated in making Christmas raisin pudding. 25 1876.04.29 Chinese Emigration to America: Sketch on Board the Steam-Ship Alaska, Bound for San Francisco In Meeting the Sun: A Journey Around the World by Simpson, it is described that: on board the “Alaska” cruise ship he took from Yokohama to San Francisco, he saw about 1,200 Chinese immigrant laborers eating “Chinese food” (Chow-chow) — they skillfully used chopsticks, with the rice in their small bowls quickly disappearing. 26 1883.10.27 / The article notes that in northern China, cereals such as wheat and barley serve as staple foods, while in central and southern provinces of China, rice is the staple food. Poultry, meat and vegetables including pork, fish, Chinese cabbage, gourd and cucumber are all main ingredients. Chinese farmers are extremely hardworking, yet they rarely consume beef, mutton or dairy products, except for the wealthy class. 27 1884.7.12 Chinese Edible Dogs The article points out that there is no evidence to suggest that in Chinese cuisine, only certain breeds of dogs are selected as food for humans while other meats are rejected. However, it is indeed said that many people at the bottom of society in China who cannot get enough to eat will cautiously consume dog meat of any breed. Chinese stews and broths are the main cooking methods. Shark fins, various types of fish maws, and bird’s nest can all be made into rich soups favored by the Chinese. The article is accompanied by a photo of the “Chinese Chow-chow” sent to the Crystal Palace Dog Show in Britain last week. 28 1898.12.17 The Worship Of Ancestors In China The report provides an account of the sacrificial offerings used by the Chinese in ancestor worship, such as tea and roast pork, among others (with an attached illustration). 29 1914.01.17 Woman’s Cult Of The Dog: No. x.—The Chow Sometimes dog meat would be used as a substitute for roast mutton: Champion dogs: Chinese Chow Chow (Champion Chows). 30 1927.02.19 Priests at Prayer in a Chinese Temple near Hangchow A strange blend of religion and diet: Monks at Lingyin Temple chant sutras while drinking tea. On the tables in front of their prayer cushions, teacups can be seen placed. 31 1927.04.30 New Photographs From China: Scenes At Nanking And Shanghai Young refugees in Shanghai are eating: A group of Chinese children are eating rice and vegetable salad with chopsticks. 32 1927.09.03 China’s “All Souls’ Day”: A “Charon” and the Bandsmen of Paper The Zhongyuan Festival: Chinese women offer sacrifices such as pastries and fruits, and scatter salt and wine in rivers and lakes for the fallen soldiers to partake of. 33 1928.04.07 Our Unfamiliar World: Curiosities by Photography How does China raise fish? They place baskets in water as a means of storing live fish. 34 1928.04.21 Where Spring Means Renewed Warfare and Starvation in Famine-stricken China Refugees from Shandong, where people had to eat tree bark, leaves, and rice bran: a mother and her child. 35 1930.9.6 How Peking Gets Ice in Summer without Artificial Refrigeration The article systematically introduces technologies such as ice storage in ice cellars in Beijing, as well as how ice is sold monthly to restaurants, food stores, inns, and private consumers’ homes. 36 1931.9.26 Marketing Waist-deep in Water: Life at Hankow during the Chinese Flood That Claimed 80,000,000 Victims Market transactions in waist-deep water; a coolie transporting food standing in neck-deep water. 37 1931.11.21 The Conquest of Asia: Being an Appreciation of Across the Gobi Desert by Sven Hedin Cooking pits in the Mongol camp near Huoteyetu Gol, Inner Mongolia: The Mongol people who use this field cooking method have maintained such nomadic customs since ancient times. 38 1932.12.24 “Good Cheer” in Manchukuo: Bear’s Paws; Bamboo-shoots; Buzzard During Christmas, various exotic foods (including ingredients) from different regions gathered on the dining tables of Manchukuo. For the unfortunate (civilians), they could have beef tripe, field snails, dried sausages, Port wine, and lemons. Additionally, there is a Korean youth holding tender bamboo shoots; Mr. Stotzner holding a “king crab” he bought for lunch. 39 1933.03.11 Types From The “Yellow Republic”: From Coolie To Priest Mobile Kitchen: An elderly man drinking tofu pudding at a roadside stall. 40 1933.08.19 a Modern Chinese Marriage, Proper To Ancient Tradition Banquet at the wedding venue. 41 1937.04.10 Being An Appreciation Of “Four Hundred Million Customers”: By Carl Crow Carl Crow, in his work Four Hundred Million Customers, argues that Chop Suey is not a “national dish of China” and that hardly any Chinese people eat it. He holds that it is a simple mixed dish collected by Cantonese beggars, which became popular in overseas Chinese restaurants along with Chinese immigrant laborers heading to the United States. 42 1938.03.12 The Hospitality Of “Forbidden” Tibet The article records the main diet of Tibetan nobles and the preparation method of butter tea; Tibetan lamas sitting under a tent are leisurely drinking butter tea. 43 1947.10.04 China’s Inflation: $1 Buys 50,000 Chinese Dollars Purchasing a piece of meat requires a large amount of banknotes: an ordinary scene at a butcher shop in Shanghai. 44 1948.12.25 The Unchanging Face of China: Amid Civil War and the Absence of Rationing or Point Systems, the Celestial People Maintain Their Calm A preserved fruit shop in Beijing, where honey-preserved fruits contained in large bowls are for sale; a candy shop on the streets of Chinese cities. As can be seen from Table 1 , folk food served as a crucial reference for Westerners to reflect and construct the image of the Chinese masses. There existed significant differences in the dietary patterns and feasting scenes of the Chinese masses observed and documented by journalists and illustrators in northern and southern China, as well as in concessions or colonial regions such as Shanghai and Hong Kong. This reflects the unbalanced economic development across different regions of China, the drastic changes in social structure caused by internal wars and colonial aggression by foreign invaders, and the clashes and exchanges between Eastern and Western cultures. The ILN published on October 13, 1860, an illustration titled “Common people eating on a kang in a farmhouse in Dalian Bay” (see Fig. 1 ) and another on January 12, 1861, titled “Chinese women drinking tea and eating candies at home” (see Fig. 2 ). These two illustrations, from a Western perspective, freeze-framed the spatial differences in dietary cultures between northern and southern China in the 19th century. The kang, a core living space in the cold regions of northern China, integrates daily living, heating, and dining. Farmers in Dalian Bay, sitting cross-legged around a kang table to share simple meals, reflect the “kang-centered” life logic of northern agricultural societies—where dining, daily living, and production are highly integrated, with a focus on warmth and efficiency. In contrast, southern China, with its mild and humid climate, has no need to rely on the kang for heating. Southern women sit around a round table to drink tea and eat candies. The dining space here emphasizes openness and a sense of ritual, and the round table, in Chinese culture, symbolizes reunion and facilitates social interaction. The carved doors and windows, as well as indoor greenery depicted in the illustration of the south, further reflect the social attributes and aesthetic refinement of southern dietary culture, contrasting with the simplicity of the north. The consumption of non-staple foods such as tea and sugar indicates a relatively affluent material foundation in southern agricultural civilizations. Although the ILN ’s records carry an “othering” perspective, they unexpectedly preserve the original ecological differences of regional cultures. Northern dietary practices are a microcosm of life in cold-region agricultural societies, while those of the south constitute a visual expression of commercial civilization and rural family ethics. Together, they illustrate the spatial diversity of China’s rural dietary culture—from the “practicality of the kang table” to the “ritual of the round table”. Dining is not merely an act of satisfying hunger but a product of the interweaving of the natural environment, social economy, and cultural traditions, providing vivid visual texts for research on the social and cultural history of modern China. In a short article titled “On the Dietary Structure of the Chinese Masses” published on October 27, 1883, the ILN stated: “In northern China, grains such as wheat and barley serve as staple foods. In central and southern provinces, however, rice is the staple, with poultry and vegetables like pork, fish, Chinese cabbage, gourds, and cucumbers as main ingredients. Chinese farmers are extremely hardworking, yet except for the wealthy, they rarely consume beef, mutton, or dairy products”. This observation is remarkably objective and accurate. When Western observers discovered high-quality crops, they actively promoted them to Western society. A report in the ILN on February 2, 1867, highly praised the various merits of Chinese “Sugar-grass (Sorghum Tartaricum)” and called for expanding its cultivation area, emphasizing its status and value as a food crop. “Sugar-grass” here refers to sweet sorghum. This embodies the characteristic of “cultural hybridity” in the pictorial’s reports: describing the lives of Eastern peasants from a Western perspective inevitably incorporates understandings of Chinese cultural elements, naturally categorizing the staple foods of different regions in China and promoting Chinese grains to Western society. However, the term “Sugar-grass” for sweet sorghum may carry a connotation of disdain, imbued with “Orientalist” thinking, reflecting how Western society constructs the East as the “Other”. Moreover, their view that “except for the wealthy, Chinese rarely consume beef, mutton, or dairy products” actually stems from their examination of rural dietary cultures in some Chinese regions through the binary system of “Western superiority and Eastern inferiority” (Gao, 2023, p. 59). They failed to fully recognize the food differences across China’s regions, nor did they acknowledge that beef, mutton, and dairy products are not exclusive to the West—they are also common in the rural food of ethnic groups such as the Mongolians in China. The food aspects of Chinese family life, food in folk customs such as weddings, funerals, and the Spring Festival, as well as scenes of Chinese civilians suffering from famine during wars or floods, were all recorded and reported through images and texts in the ILN . Each composition and character image therein contains rich connotations: it may embody curiosity about Chinese food culture, sympathy for the suffering of Chinese civilians during war-torn times, or the ongoing competitive historical, social, intellectual, and political processes involving both Eastern and Western parties, which aimed to maintain an “other” that is different from the self as a contrast (Gao, 2023, p. 60). 3 The “Sino-foreign coexistence” in China’s Folk Food Structure Since modern times, coastal areas of China such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Northeast China have been profoundly influenced by colonial invaders in multiple aspects including politics and culture. In concessions and colonial ruled areas, foreign populations achieved “Sino-foreign separate governance” (hua yang fen zhi) in terms of political rights, yet this could not block the invisible multicultural exchanges, and food culture was no exception. On January 9, 1858, the ILN reported that on Gilman Street near Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong (see Fig. 3 ), many Chinese migrants to Hong Kong still worked as small traders, laborers, and other such occupations, and they had also brought their traditional Chinese food habits to Hong Kong. As is clearly visible in Fig. 3 : Chinese residents in Hong Kong hung sausages between windowsills, clothes waiting to be dried, and there were peddlers selling dried duck walking along the street, as well as vendors peddling goods with bamboo baskets by the roadside. The traditional Chinese way of life is vividly apparent. Although Hong Kong was in a colonial period and deeply influenced by Western social culture, the traditional culture of local Chinese was equally preserved in Hong Kong; they did not abandon “resistance” due to Western cultural influence. On the contrary, in the markets and villages of Hong Kong, there emerged an “interstice or in-between” where different cultures intersect, or what can be called a cultural “borderline” (Bhabha, 2004). Homi Bhabha’s definition of “interstice” and “borderline” is precisely his own construction and elaboration of the “Third Space” theory. In this “interstice” space, Chinese and Western cultures engage in mutual dialogue and discourse, thereby giving rise to the hybridity of food cultures and food structures where Chinese and Western elements coexist. However, in the November 7, 1880 issue of the French publication Le Journal des Voyages, a correspondent from France documented scenes of Chinese and foreigners coexisting on the bustling streets of Shanghai (see Fig. 4 ). The illustrations depict mobile food vendors, shops bearing signs marked “Foreign Goods”, and numerous restaurants and tea houses where diners could be seen seated by the windows. As one of the early semi-colonial areas in China to become a concession territory, Shanghai demonstrated a notable capacity for accommodating foreign influences while simultaneously preserving its indigenous urban and local culture. Not only Shanghai but also coastal cities like Guangzhou, which were among the earliest in modern China to engage with foreign nations, exhibited the complex phenomenon of “Sino-foreign coexistence” (hua yang bing cun). Under the special historical context of the Anglo-French occupation in 1858, Guangzhou’s street-level culinary scenes continued to reflect the vibrant vitality of local Chinese food culture while simultaneously bearing the “gaze” of colonial rulers. This can be illustrated through a comparative analysis of two illustrations from the French publication L’Illustration . In Fig. 5 , the streets of Guangzhou are depicted as bustling with mobile food vendors and stalls. Attendants in traditional attire are busy serving local rural snacks, with earthenware pots keeping soups warm and bamboo baskets neatly arranged with fresh produce and distinctive local delicacies. Signage bearing Chinese characters vividly highlights an authentic Chinese culinary atmosphere, representing the genuine expression of China’s urban and folk food culture. The roots of “Chineseness” (hua) are deeply embedded in the everyday culinary practices of the people, carrying the memory and resilience of indigenous food traditions. In contrast, Fig. 6 portrays a market scene near a bridge in Guangzhou: local Chinese vendors operate food stalls serving the common people, while foreign soldiers in Western-style military uniforms appear within the scene, their “gaze” fixed upon these daily Chinese food practices. Their presence is forcibly interwoven with the mobile stalls and the bustling Chinese crowd. This so-called “coexistence” was by no means an equal cultural exchange; rather, it represented the tenacious persistence of the “Chineseness” of local food culture under the colonial gaze, while the presence of the “foreign” (yang) served as a direct manifestation of imperialist aggression. External power disrupted the originally pure local culinary ecology, creating an oppressive and distorted coexistence between the invasive “foreign” and the indigenous “Chineseness” on occupied land. This form of “Sino-foreign coexistence” not only testifies to the resilience of China’s local food culture but also bears profound imprints of the historical tribulations endured by regions like Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong under imperialist aggression. The Illustrated Travel News and L’Illustration , contemporary publications from different countries alongside the ILN , collectively provide a transnational and cross-cultural historical record attesting to the characteristic “Sino-foreign coexistence” within the folk foodways of semi-colonial China. In comparison, the coverage of modern Chinese folk foodways in the ILN persistently characterized by a cross-cultural perception intertwining “factual observation and imaginative construction”. Journalists from colonial powers frequently ascribed “Oriental culinary elements” that were not inherently Chinese to the Chinese people. For instance, on December 24, 1932, during the Christmas season, a correspondent for the ILN (see Fig. 7 ) documented an array of exotic foods and ingredients from various regions appearing on the dining tables in the “Manchukuo” . This peculiar culinary phenomenon was directly linked to the aggression and colonial actions of Japan, Britain, and other powers against China, resulting in the hybridization of external food elements into their imagined construct of Chinese culinary tradition. Within the Food cartography interwoven with colonial history, dining tables of different social classes presented distinct gustatory divisions: On the plates of the wealthy and the newly rich, there lay Bombay Duck —this unique ingredient made from dried Bombil Fish from India’s west coast, so named after the British colonizers’ jest (the name may derive from its flattened, duck-breast-like shape when dried, or a mispronunciation of the local Marathi term “Bombil”). It was paired with the luxury of sturgeon roe and truffles, the sweetness of lychees and honeyed peaches, and the robust richness of Haggis , Scotland’s traditional “national dish”. On the other end, amidst the smoky aroma of beef tripe, field snails, and dried sausages, the tartness of Porto wine intertwined with the freshness of lemons, weaving the authentic texture of commoners' food. The aforementioned food elements do not constitute part of the daily necessities within the structure of Chinese folk foodways. When shifting our perspective to modern China’s northeastern region, the colonial-inflected culinary hybridity on the Christmas dining tables of the so-called “Manchukuo” appeared even more spectacular: Among the festive banquets, bear paws—long renowned as “mountain treasures” and regarded as delicacies since ancient Roman times—were prominently featured. Petronius recorded them as a coveted delicacy among the ancient Romans (Shen, 2016, p. 516). Among vegetables, the highly praised tender bamboo shoots gained favor for their fresh and delicate texture, approximating that of asparagus (Shen, 2016, p. 516). Meanwhile, the “Crab King” from the Okhotsk Sea—a bizarre giant crab so named by the Japanese (Shen, 2016, p. 517)—became the crowning highlight of the feast, thanks to the exquisite flavor of its leg meat. On Chinese soil, during the Christmas season in puppet Manchukuo, these geographically transgressive ingredients, within the specific context of colonial rule, pieced together a complex tableau where taste and power intertwined. They encompassed both the transplantation of food symbols from colonial powers and the alienated representation of local delicacies, collectively leaving mottled traces of the fusion of colonial food cultures on the plate of historical reality and cultural imagination. The ILN not only frequently documented the introduction of food items such as Bombay duck, Haggis, and Port wine into China but also recorded classic cases of Westerners preparing Western cuisine within China. The former can be seen as overseas imported foods that entered China through modern East-West trade, which were then assimilated and transformed into “Chinese food” within the context of the illegitimate political power of the time. The latter, however, represents Westerners in China producing classic Western dishes under the “gaze” of the Chinese people. In December 1873, the China correspondent of the ILN spent an unforgettable Christmas in China. The Western residents, yearning for their traditional holiday fare, found that “among the Chinese servants, not a single one knew how to make a raisin pudding. We found ourselves equally helpless and began inquiring about who could prepare this raisin pudding! We discovered that anyone who could make it at that moment had the chance to become a hero in everyone's eyes.” (Shen, 2014, p. 607) The author of this article used a witty and humorous tone to depict the awkward situation: the British living in China longed for and eagerly anticipated a authentic Christmas raisin pudding, while the Chinese servants present, though curious about this Western dish, lacked the knowledge of its preparation method. Then the story took a turn: At that moment, one of the guests present declared that he knew how to make it. The crowd was overwhelmed with exhilaration. Even if an angel had descended from heaven, it could not have brought greater joy. He immediately took off his coat, and the group swarmed into the kitchen, where all the ingredients for the pudding had been prepared. As he proceeded with the preparation, a crowd of queue-wearing Chinese gathered around the table, fixing an unblinking gaze upon his every movement. ​ ​ I have no doubt that they will exercise their ingenuity to produce a closely resembling pudding this Christmas, replicating it with precise accuracy down to the exact number of raisins on the pudding. (Shen, 2014, p. 608) The correspondent also created a sketch titled “Foreigners Making Christmas Pudding in China” (see Fig. 8 ). The British gentleman who mastered the pudding recipe thus became a “hero” in the eyes of the contemporary Western community in China. The pictorial’s correspondent described: “The Chinese servants knew that making pudding was difficult, but seeing how absorbed they were, I believed they would certainly use their minds to imagine and make an identical pudding. The performance of our skilled hero was entirely in line with what Tennyson had recited.” ( ILN , 1873, p. 11)Although Western food was introduced to China in this case, their writings clearly reflected the sense of superiority of Western culture. From a Western perspective, they regarded themselves as the “paradigm of civilization”. They thought the Chinese would certainly venerate the pudding as a Western cultural symbol. The correspondent believed the Chinese would make an identical pudding, but in reality, within the cultural “interstice” of the “Third Space” (Bhabha, 2004), Western pudding, after being introduced to China, was bound to incorporate local and urban folk elements rather than retaining its entirely Western-style appearance. Between the lines, we can perceive the illustrated newspaper journalist’s emotional identification with the European cultural values embodied by Western delicacies such as pudding, even regarding Christmas pudding as a “civilizational paradigm”. The underlying assumption was that the Chinese would imitate and learn from Western culture, eventually producing identical puddings. However, from the understanding of the cultural “interstice” in Bhabha’s (2004) “Third Space Theory”, the Western food pudding—situated within the “in-between” zone of Sino-foreign coexistence—would inevitably undergo Sinicization. This process involves adapting local Chinese ingredients (e.g., flour, cream, sugar, and raisins), incorporating the culinary sensibilities of Chinese chefs, and blending in indigenous urban elements. The outcome would be a Chinese-style Christmas raisin pudding—much like the hybridity and fusion of Eastern and Western cultures, it could never remain an identical replica. In colonial or occupied territories such as Hong Kong and the puppet state of “Manchukuo”, ingredients from overseas and neighboring regions inevitably became integrated into traditional Chinese food practices. Through the lens of food culture, the ILN offers a glimpse into how, despite the persistence of traditional food structures within Chinese communities in modern China's colonial areas, the political policy of “Sino-foreign separate governance” ultimately failed to restrict the phenomenon of “Sino-foreign coexistence” in everyday foodways at the grassroots level. 4 The Stigmatization of Chinese Cuisine by the West in the Colonial Era In May 1857, the special correspondent of the ILN in China recorded his observations during his journey from eastern Europe to Hong Kong, China. The correspondent arrived in Hong Kong aboard a steamship named “Peking”. He documented, through a combination of pictures and text, the scene of Chinese people from Hong Kong eating on the “Peking”, with the title “Chow-chow at Hong-Kong” (see Fig. 9 ). He described: “The Chinese are eating ‘Chow-chow’—a kind of food eaten with chopsticks. These three men are presumably passengers on the ‘Peking’. Their small cooking pot is on the right, tea utensils on the left, bananas hanging on the wall, and pineapples served as dessert.” (Shen, 2014, p. 230) The correspondent defined “Chinese food” by the characteristic of “food eaten with chopsticks”, which is indeed a very straightforward expression. However, such symbolic simplification and exoticized imagination deliberately emphasize the “heterogeneity” of food practices (the use of chopsticks) and food forms. This simplification ignores the richness of Chinese cuisine, reducing it to consumable exotic symbols, which conforms to the narrative logic of Orientalism that “mystifies” and “irrationality” the East (Said, 1979, p. 3, 289). In September 1857, there was a report in the ILN on the everyday dinners of Hong Kong people, accompanied by a vivid sketch entitled “Dinner in Hong Kong” (see Fig. 10 ). The Chinese translation referring to “tian chao zi min de xiao ye” corresponds to the original English text “Petit Suppers of the Celestials” ( ILN , September 19, 1857). We hold that translating it as “tian chao zi min de jia ting wan can” is more appropriate. The original newspaper correspondent referred to the Chinese as “Celestial subjects” in a playful tone here, and it is inappropriate for the Chinese translation to render “Petit Suppers” as “xiao ye”. Considering the content and title of the image, “jia ting wan can” is a more fitting translation. The Western playful depiction of “Petit Suppers of the Celestials” is, in essence, a misinterpretation of the urban folk food ethics in rural China, such as “jia yan (family feasts)” and “wei lu (gathering around the stove)”. When the scene of a family sharing braised pork belly under an oil lamp and using small spoons to ladle soup is reduced to an exotic image of “snatching food with chopsticks”, what lies beneath is the systematic neglect of rural Chinese family bonds and neighborhood warmth. The Chinese translation erroneously rendered the image title “Chow-chow (Chinese Supper) at Hong-Kong” as “Guangzhou de wan yan” (Shen, 2014, p. 261), which should be corrected. The title of this illustration explicitly defines “Chow-chow” as “Chinese Supper,” serving as self-evident evidence that “Chow-chow” was used as a synonym for “Chinese supper”. This mistranslation of geographical information (from Hong Kong to Guangzhou) further exacerbated the distortion of cultural symbols. The term “Chow-chow,” which refers to “Chinese cuisine” or “Chinese-style dinner,” reflects the narrative of power in the colonial era—a process that simplified Oriental culture into exotic symbols and even subjected it to stigmatization. In archaic English, “Chow-chow” also denoted a “miscellany” or “jumble of things” (similar to “Hodgepodge”), likely originating from the colonizers’ vague general term for Chinese goods. In colonial contexts or periods of anti-Chinese sentiment (such as in the 19th-century United States and Australia), “Chow” was once used as a derogatory term for Chinese people. This usage of “Chow” was strongly offensive and is rarely used publicly in modern times. From the 19th century to the early 20th century, “Chow-chow” or “Chop suey” were commonly used in English to generally refer to Chinese cuisine (especially American-adapted Chinese food), carrying a certain exoticizing label. Andrew Coe wrote in his book Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States that the variant of “Chow-chow” on the tables of Chinese Americans is “Chow suey” (Coe, 2016, p. 171), i.e., chop suey. In Four Hundred Million Customers by the renowned American writer Carl Crow, he even explicitly stated that chop suey originated from the simple mixed dishes begged by beggars in Guangdong (beggars’ food), and almost no Chinese ate it (Crow, 2022, p. 166). In the article “Review of Carl Crow’s Four Hundred Million Customers” published in the ILN on April 10, 1937, this view was reiterated, holding that chop suey “became popular in overseas Chinese restaurants along with Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States”. It is worth adding that before Chinese cuisine (“Chow-chow”) spread in Chinese American communities, it was first introduced to places like Malacca and Manila by Chinese laborers or merchants who went to Nanyang (Southeast Asia). In the ILN on October 24, 1857, there was a vivid record—with both pictures and texts—of a vendor selling Chinese food (“Chow-chow”) on the streets of Manila (see Fig. 11 ) and a meat market in the Chinese community. The popularity of chop suey in the United States, on the surface, appears to be the overseas dissemination of Chinese cuisine; in essence, however, it is a deformed product of colonial cultural hybridity. The West attributes it to “the simple food of Chinese laborers” while ignoring its local origins as a home-cooked dish in the rural areas of Guangdong. In essence, this is a reconstruction of food narratives to dispel the subjectivity of Chinese culture. To consolidate colonial power, Western society, through linguistic stigmatization and symbolic simplification, incorporated Chinese cuisine into the “Orientalist” discourse system from an ethnocentric perspective (Said, 1979, p. 207). This served to reinforce the binary opposition between “civilization and barbarism” and “superiority and inferiority”, thereby providing cultural legitimacy for colonial rule. The records in the ILN regarding the dissemination of “Chow-chow” in places where Chinese and Western cuisines converged, such as Hong Kong, indicate that in the dissemination routes of overseas Chinese dishes like chop suey, which later gained popularity in the United States, the transit points were most likely Chinese communities in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia. This is a more scientific and reasonable view than the folk legend that “Hongzhang Li invented chop suey during his visit to the United States”. In Simpson’s Meeting the Sun: A Voyage Around the World, during his travels in Hong Kong, he devoted extensive space to analyzing how the term “Chow-chow” emerged as a combination of English and local Chinese vocabulary. Regarding the term as part of Pidgin English, Simpson also conducted a careful study of the various changes in its meaning during the process of cross-cultural communication (Simpson, 1874, p. 275). The Punch magazine of the same period also exhibited prejudice against Chinese folk food culture, employing stigmatizing rhetoric to distort its image. The depicted scene in a London restaurant—featuring an order for “bird’s nest soup, rat pie and tender puppy”—was not an isolated representation of Chinese food practices by Punch (see Fig. 12 ), but rather a typical paradigm within the magazine's portrayal of Chinese food culture from the mid-to-late 19th century to the early 20th century. This narrative, which deliberately juxtaposes nourishing ingredients like Edible bird's nest with sensationalized and stigmatized items such as rats and dog meat, constituted a common strategy employed to devalue Chinese culinary traditions. By amplifying these dramatized scenarios, Punch created a “cognitive bias” that Chinese food habits deviated from civilized norms. depicts a London dining room where a server repeats the order of a Chinese customer, “very nice Birds’ Nest Soup, Sir! – Yes, Sir! Rat Pie, Sir, Just up. – Yes, Sir! – And a nice little Dog to foller – Yes, Sir!” To the right, an English gentleman with his wife looks startled at the scene before them. Rural cuisine not only carries the simplicity of field-grown ingredients and the warmth of kitchen fires, but also, amid the tide of colonialism, has become a field where urban folk culture and power struggles intersect. The Western stigmatizing narratives about Chinese cuisine, in essence, correspond to Orientalism as expounded by Said; they are even a crude dismemberment of the fabric of urban life in rural China, serving to accomplish the construction of the East as the “other”. The metamorphosis of the original cuisine of transoceanic immigrants when clashing with foreign cultures in a colonial context is not a simple case of “cultural distortion”, but rather a negotiation and contestation between colonial power and local memory at the dining table. By equating “rurality” with “backwardness” and diminishing “urban life” as “chaos”, the West has accomplished the hollowing out of the subjectivity of Chinese cuisine, alienating it into an “other” that serves their own hegemony. This process is not only an example of cultural aggression but also provides a historical mirror for us to understand contemporary cross-cultural food exchanges. Only by transcending Orientalist stereotypes and acknowledging the subjectivity in cultural hybridity can we achieve truly equal dialogue between civilizations. 5 Conclusion: The Rectification of Food Prejudices and the Cross-Cultural Writing of Modern Chinese Food The special correspondents of the ILN mostly focused their reports on China’s southeastern coastal areas, with particular attention to the coverage of folk food in the Guangdong and Fujian regions surrounding Hong Kong. In contrast, reports on food cultures in inland areas were relatively scarce. They also paid attention to the food life of ethnic minorities such as Tibetans and Mongolians in China, as well as that of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian countries. It was precisely because the ILN broke away from the traditional perspective of China itself and reported on and recorded the exchanges of folk food cultures between China and other countries from a unique Western perspective that we can “view China from the periphery” and perceive the unique charm of historical exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign food civilizations. These reports, featuring both pictures and texts, were vivid and lively; the captions were often concise and humorous. This catered to the reading needs of Western readers, especially British ones, who sought to understand Oriental customs, local conditions, and anecdotes. Meanwhile, they also provided rather precious documentary materials for subsequent research related to food culture. The pictorial, as a tool of colonial power, emerged in the historical context of modern Sino-British cultural exchanges marked by distinct colonial overtones and power politics. For 19th-century Western society, the Chinese were often constructed as a barbaric and backward nation. This perception was closely linked to the “stigmatization” of traditional Chinese food by the West. Some traditional Chinese food habits, food types, or food cultures were labeled as “inferior,” “unhealthy,” “barbaric” or “uncivilized” due to social prejudices, stereotypes, or the influence of power structures. Such representations reinforced the Eurocentric colonial perspective, consolidated the unequal power structure, and served as a footnote to Western cultural hegemony. However, from another perspective, the ILN , as an important newspaper founded early with a long time span and significant international influence, held great significance in refuting and rectifying Western prejudices and hostilities toward Chinese food. For instance, in 1872, it published an article pointing out that Western imagination about the Chinese eating dogs and cats was biased—although there were indeed dog meat restaurants in places like Guangdong, it was a misunderstanding to regard it as Guangdong’s “national dish” ( ILN , 1872) . Reporters of the ILN , based on their personal experiences and observations, could promptly rectify food prejudices about China to Western society, which had positive significance for partially eliminating ethnic discrimination or exclusion against the Chinese. Since modern times, cultural exchanges between China and Britain have deepened, a process marked by distinct colonial overtones and power politics. The reports of the ILN on Chinese folk food contain both more authentic and objective knowledge of Chinese cuisine, as well as some content filled with food prejudices and discrimination. Overall, the ILN , from a Western perspective different from the traditional Oriental vision and based on Western culinary traditions and the reading interests of Western readers, recorded such things as China’s characteristic local folk dishes like “Chow-chow” and “Western-style food” such as Christmas puddings made in China. All these are examples of the integration of Chinese and Western food cultures in urban markets or rural areas of modern Chinese society, especially in concession areas like Hong Kong. Moreover, its multiple articles featuring objective reports and defenses of China’s authentic culinary traditions have built bridges for cross-cultural communication, helped eliminate discrimination and prejudice between civilizations, promoted dialogues between different cultures that transcend the colonial context, and left precious pictures of cultural interactions for later generations. News reporting, as a medium of mass communication, not only builds a convenient and solid bridge for exchanges between different cultures but also provides a new approach to eliminating discrimination and prejudice among civilizations. Of course, news reporting is also a double-edged sword, for it can equally disseminate ignorance and prejudice, which entirely depends on how it is utilized by those who wield it. Regarding the ILN ’s coverage of China, this newspaper was more committed to dispelling the erroneous and inappropriate impressions Westerners held about China. Over the more than a century from 1842 to 1949, two articles in the ILN explicitly called, from a food perspective, for improving negative perceptions of China. Moreover, many more articles, from a relatively objective and pragmatic standpoint, reported on China’s authentic food traditions and cultures to Western audiences and defended Chinese cuisine. Such cross-cultural exchanges that transcend physical space have played an important role and held significant meaning in reducing Western prejudices and discrimination against China. Declarations Author Contribution Author ContributionsHZ defines the research topic, collects historical materials, organizes literature, develops the paper framework and drafts the first version; writes and revises the manuscript, and provides supervision. BH supplements historical materials, organizes relevant literature, assists in fact verification, polishes the paper’s expression, and contributes to manuscript writing and revision. Data Availability Data availabilityAll data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. Ethical approval This study did not involve human participants. Informed consent This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by the authors. Notes Unless otherwise specified, all translations in this article are based on Hong Shen’s (2014; 2016) book. The Chinese translation of the illustration caption “Chinese Chow-chow sellers in Manila” as “Chinese vendors selling pickles on the streets of Manila” is inappropriate. According to what is shown in the illustration, there is no indication of pickles being sold. Reporters of The Illustrated London News also repeatedly used “Chow-chow” to refer generally to Chinese food, Chinese cuisine, or Chinese dinners. Thus, changing “selling pickles” to “selling Chinese food” is more accurate and reasonable (Shen , 2014, pp. 272-273). The Chinese translation previously transliterated “Gilman” as “吉尔曼街 (ji er man jie)”. However, Hong Kong officialdom has adopted “机利文街 (ji li wen jie)” as the standard translated name, hence it is directly revised accordingly (Shen , 2014, p. 283). The Chinese translation of “Dragon Feast at Canton” from the original English text of the article as “广州的龙宴” (Guangzhou de Long yan) is unproblematic. However, it should be noted that the “Dragon Feast” here refers more to the folk celebrations (Festival) involving dragon and lion dances in the Guangzhou area on the eve of the Spring Festival. The most prominent scene in the illustration accompanying the original text is a lion dance, not a dragon dance, which can easily cause misunderstanding. As stated in the original text, each celebration lasts for three days, during which the Chinese people integrate purposes such as feasting, celebration, and practicality (Shen , 2014, p. 416). In Simpson’s Meeting the Sun: A Journey All Round the World (Simpson, 1874, p. 346), when recording the voyage of the Alaska bound for San Francisco, he mentions that there were 1,250 Chinese laborers on board, yet he did not explicitly record how they ate during the voyage. This is inconsistent with the content of the brief promotional articles in the ILN . It is a traditional heating facility in northern rural areas, built with bricks and stones, with an internal flue connected to the stove. It can be used for heating and also serves as a place for rest and daily life. Herbert Ingram. A correspondent of the Times calls attention to the Chinese sugar-grass (Sorghum tartaricum) as a valuable addition to our cereal crops ( ILN , February 2, 1867). A puppet regime established by Japan after its occupation of Northeast China. Neither the Nationalist government nor the international community recognized the “Manchukuo” regime, hence it is referred to as the “puppet state of Manchukuo”. When British colonizers first arrived in India, they noticed locals consuming this dried fish. Due to its pungent smell and peculiar appearance, they jokingly called it “Duck”, possibly because its flattened shape after drying resembled duck breast, or due to a mishearing of its local name in Marathi (“Bombil”). Known in English as Haggis, it is a traditional Scottish “national dish”. Essentially, it is a pudding of sheep’s offal — made by mincing sheep’s heart, lungs, and liver, mixed with oats and spices, usually encased in a sheep’s stomach and boiled. The Portuguese renamed their domestically produced Port wine as “Porto” — to avoid market confusion between Port wines produced in many other countries and Portuguese Porto wine. “Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric.” “London Dining Rooms, 1851”, from Punch Almanack , Vol. 20, 1851. William Ingram. It is wrong to suppose in respect of the Chinese that their food consists of dogs, cats, rats, and other garbage ( ILN , November 30, 1872). References Meyer-Fong T (2024) Lo personal y lo global en la guerra civil china de mediados del siglo XIX (The personal and the global in the Chinese civil war of the mid-nineteenth century). Ayer. Revista De Historia Contemporánea 134(2): 49–79. https://doi.org/10.55509/ayer/2197 Cao KJ (2024) Images of Qing Emperors in The Illustrated London News: The Construction of China’s National Image by British Visual News Media in the 19th Century. Art Journal (4): 65–71. Burke P (2018) Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence (2nd ed.). Reaktion Books, London, pp. 1, 85–102. Barthes R (1967) Elements of Semiology (A Lavers & C Smith, Trans.). Hill and Wang, New York, p. 10. Gao X (2023) Double Discourse Discipline: On Said’s Orientalism Theory. Ningxia Social Sciences (2): 58–65. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8449735","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":622608804,"identity":"d8954995-413e-4bdd-946e-d27c669881ba","order_by":0,"name":"Hongcheng Zhou","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tourism College of Zhejiang","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hongcheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhou","suffix":""},{"id":622608805,"identity":"49157bfe-e07b-4b91-916e-3b09e295f670","order_by":1,"name":"Bocheng Hong","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA1ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACfmbmAwYSP2zk5NmbDxCnRbK9LaHAsifN2LDnWAJxWgzOnFH4UMF2OLHhRo4BkS67kcO44QbP4cTGhpyPN94w2MnpNhDQwTgj97DhDIt043aGs5st5zAkG5sdIKCFWSIvzViCx1q2sbF3mzQPw4HEbYS0sEnkmP/+w8bM2HCY5xlxWnh4zhgYSLA5KzYc42EjTosEe1uCgSQ4kNmMLecYEOEX+8OwqJR//PDGmwo7OYJaUK3kITZqkLSQqmMUjIJRMApGBAAAqftEBWZs6EoAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang Gongshang University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Bocheng","middleName":"","lastName":"Hong","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-12-25 14:53:15","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8449735/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8449735/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":107486911,"identity":"ad31cf35-5c52-4d4d-9572-66de7d62bbfd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:39:15","extension":"jpeg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":774111,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eCommon people eating on the kang[i] in a farmhouse in Dalian Bay, from the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, October 13, 1860\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[i]It is a traditional heating facility in northern rural areas, built with bricks and stones, with an internal flue connected to the stove. It can be used for heating and also serves as a place for rest and daily life.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/121bee976e8df7147e316014.jpeg"},{"id":107487969,"identity":"8198bb11-f746-4b73-ab38-cba2b85dfd28","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:43:16","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":992060,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eChinese women drinking tea and eating candy at home, from the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, January 12, 1861\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/d612353aa046228d46b5b085.jpeg"},{"id":107487966,"identity":"b47915d4-7373-47b2-bb06-8e6c64e85ab0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:43:16","extension":"jpeg","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":790997,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eStreet View of Gilman Street, Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, from the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, January 9, 1858\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.3.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/64418bac6d2075969c0d7d36.jpeg"},{"id":107485281,"identity":"71eb4cc0-5c4f-4aa8-80eb-1ac728781ffa","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:34:07","extension":"jpeg","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":864070,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLe Retour des Courses à Shang-Hai, from\u003cem\u003e The Traveler’s Pictorial\u003c/em\u003e, November 7, 1880\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.4.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/f64c61601ca6777ad7422012.jpeg"},{"id":107363379,"identity":"49372889-3aaf-427f-9a95-b522210493d2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-20 18:57:23","extension":"jpeg","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1256911,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eCuisiniers et restaurateurs ambulants à Canton From\u003cem\u003e L’Illustration\u003c/em\u003e, April 3, 1858\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.5.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/d89a486b54375fe4c59a3795.jpeg"},{"id":107484983,"identity":"1d2a1c25-d632-4512-b3ec-a3290334e9b6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:33:26","extension":"jpeg","order_by":6,"title":"Figure 6","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1260162,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eMarché à Canton. D’après les de M. Aug. Borget, From \u003cem\u003eL’Illustration\u003c/em\u003e, April 3, 1858\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.6.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/917506f3f1ed1394a9d518ca.jpeg"},{"id":107486774,"identity":"c786d805-b572-47dc-a983-e78cad977e33","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:38:56","extension":"jpeg","order_by":7,"title":"Figure 7","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1358441,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eA Korean Chinese youth holding tender bamboo shoots and Mr. Stotzner holding a “king crab” he bought for lunch, from the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, December 24, 1932\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.7.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/19f75be550b9515ff230ef6a.jpeg"},{"id":107363386,"identity":"b9dbd49d-2789-4a6d-a754-4ce56328b8da","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-20 18:57:23","extension":"jpeg","order_by":8,"title":"Figure 8","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1593834,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eForeigners making Christmas pudding in China, from the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, December 20, 1873\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.8.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/11fb0d913df9aefb5821b226.jpeg"},{"id":107484981,"identity":"dee14542-2a01-461a-bcd6-de5fc4d58313","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:33:26","extension":"jpeg","order_by":9,"title":"Figure 9","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1027929,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eChinese people in Hong Kong having a meal, from the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, July 11, 1857\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.9.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/24028f3b86f51aada3e99046.jpeg"},{"id":107486452,"identity":"d3f340fc-483a-4d20-b25b-d78167f41450","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:38:17","extension":"jpeg","order_by":10,"title":"Figure 10","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1655760,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDinner in Hong Kong, from the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, September 19, 1857\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.10.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/fdd0892527663c8e85ed03d5.jpeg"},{"id":107363388,"identity":"a9ff5cff-7132-4a58-924e-3c7becf88c92","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-20 18:57:24","extension":"jpeg","order_by":11,"title":"Figure 11","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1135266,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eChinese vendors selling Chinese food (Chow-chow) on the streets of Manila, from the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, October 24, 1857\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.11.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/0a46c429268ab7a6c553799b.jpeg"},{"id":107488100,"identity":"75179072-d469-44e2-be0b-3c1edcd4a047","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:43:35","extension":"png","order_by":12,"title":"Figure 12","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":899245,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLondon Dining Rooms, from \u003cem\u003ePunch\u003c/em\u003e, 1851\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig.12.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/4e2013e8df5eb789167ba1d7.png"},{"id":109249358,"identity":"aa1f545f-18d3-4672-bf19-d744eab30f3c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-14 08:49:16","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":13867671,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8449735/v1/3cd4a158-1b39-47b1-8c7d-8841261c9fcf.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Cross-Cultural Representation of China’s Rural Food Image in The Illustrated London News","fulltext":[{"header":"1 Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eFounded in 1842, \u003cem\u003eThe Illustrated London News\u003c/em\u003e (\u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e) was the world’s earliest image-centric pictorial. Since its inception, the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e has conveyed a wealth of up-to-date information about major events in China to the West through text-image reports. Notably, over more than a century, the newspaper maintained a consistent focus on Chinese rural food. From the First Opium War to subsequent major historical events, it continuously documented the dietary landscapes of rural China through text and images. However, existing academic studies (e.g., Meyer-Fong, 2024; Cao, 2024) have mostly focused on the newspaper’s coverage of issues related to China’s military, politics, and diplomacy, while long neglecting the knowledge system of Chinese rural food that it constructed, thus creating a significant research gap.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe cross-cultural communication of Chinese rural food in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e constitutes the most apt illustration of Homi Bhabha’s theory of “cultural hybridity” (Bhabha, 2004) in the field of exchanges and dialogues between Eastern and Western food cultures. In the visual culture of the West, culinary narratives are consistently woven through the selective extraction and reconfiguration of indigenous cultural elements, thereby exhibiting a quintessential characteristic of hybridity. In depicting China’s local customs, clothing, food, shelter, transportation, and other aspects, although the overall perspective is Western, it inevitably incorporates some understanding and presentation of Chinese cultural elements. Previous studies have neglected the “folk food symbols” in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e—which most vividly reflect the authentic images of the majority of Chinese people—and this essentially reflects the theoretical lag of existing research in response to the “visual turn”. Despite the fact that the pictorial, from a Western “outsider” perspective, conducted firsthand on-site reporting on folk rural food in mainland China and colonial regions such as Hong Kong from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century through image technologies like wood engraving and lithography. Covering everything from street snacks and festival feasts to dietary hybridity at colonial dining tables, its narrative mode of mutual verification between text and image constructed a unique “visual dietary archive”. However, existing studies have mostly regarded dietary images as auxiliary explanations for news reports, while neglecting the theoretical perspective proposed by Burke regarding “the use of images as historical evidence” (Burke, 2018)—specifically, analyzing how dietary illustrations, through visual symbols such as Chinese and foreign food images, colonial spaces, and cultural hybridity, shaped the Western “othering” imagination of Chinese food.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDrawing on Roland Barthes’ semiotic analysis (Barthes, 1967), the News Illustration and texts in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e essentially constitute a sophisticated semiotic system. Each wood engraving and its accompanying textual explanation not only possess a “signified” that refers to specific food objects, but also embed connotative meanings of colonial culture through the coding rules of the “signifier”. The operational mechanism of this semiotic system is precisely reflected in the repetitive use of visual signs in food images: through the constant reproduction of visual elements, the signified of the signs becomes alienated from “objective recording” to “cultural labels”, ultimately solidifying into dietary stereotypes in the cognitive framework of Western public. This precisely corroborates what Burke stated: “Images thus act as both mirrors and moulds of the past” (Burke, 2018). The pictorial’s visual representations of the mixture of Chinese and Western foods on colonial dining tables in Hong Kong, its colonial naming of Chinese foods, and its deliberate highlighting of Western dishes or tableware are not merely visual records of the hybridity of food cultures, but also implicitly embody the British Empire’s attempts to construct cultural hegemony through food symbols. Given that the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e’s reports on China were mostly on-site coverage, some of the events and life details it recorded constitute blind spots in Chinese historical records, and its systematicity and continuity are unmatched by many other Western historical materials. Therefore, this publication holds significant value for research on the overseas dissemination of Chinese food culture.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e "},{"header":"2 Visual Othering: Chinese Folk Food and Differences in Rural Food Between Northern and Southern China in the ILN","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e was all the rage in 19th-century Europe thanks to its innovative reporting methods, affordable price, and regular, continuous publication cycle. However, with the subsequent popularization of photography technology and the development and evolution of publications featuring professional photographic works, the original advantages of the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e no longer stood out, and its readership gradually dwindled. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, profoundly influenced by the Cold War structure, ideological confrontation, and geopolitical interests, Western media coverage of China was scarce and strongly ideological. Therefore, this study delimits its research period as 1842 to 1949, aiming to explore the publication’s coverage of Chinese folk food over these more than a hundred years.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring this period, the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e dispatched special correspondents or artists to conduct on-site investigations in China. The images of Chinese social life they depicted from historical and artistic perspectives often involved pictures of the dietary life of China’s underprivileged people. Specifically, these included aspects of Chinese folk food that were of interest to Westerners: the daily family dietary life of ordinary Chinese people, folk eateries, food markets, folk food customs during traditional festivals, and even sacrificial offerings at various folk ritual occasions, among others (see Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" class=\"colspec\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eStatistical Table of Relevant Reports on Chinese Folk Food Carried in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e (1842–1949)\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn1\" id=\"#FNLinkFn1\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSerial Number\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTime\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003enews headline\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003econtent\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1857.02.14\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCanton within the Walls\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBetrothal gifts/dowry in Chinese weddings include fat pigs, dried fish, poultry, tea leaves, candies, preserved fruits, distilled liquor, yellow rice wine, among others.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1857.03.21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWar in China: The Chinese Vessels of War, Chinese Rebels\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eQueen’s Road West in Victoria City, Hong Kong, was teeming with Hong Kong Chinese small traders and craftsmen.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1857.03.28\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Poisonings at Hong-Kong\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eYixing (Ah Lung) Bakery in Victoria City, Hong Kong.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1857.07.11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEn route for China: From Ceylon to Hong-Kong\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn the ship, there was a highly gentlemanly Chinese passenger in the first-class cabin, who ate with a knife and fork and drank sherry (with an illustration of three Chinese people eating Chinese food on the ship).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1857.07.25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSketches from China: Hong-Kong Scenes\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndian soldiers of the British army cooking in Hong Kong; among them, Hindus and Muslims ate separately. Chinese picnic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1857.09.19\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWar in China: A Trip to Manila\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDinner in Hong Kong.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1857.10.24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChinese Chow-chow sellers in Manila\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eChinese vendors selling Chinese food on the streets of Manila and the meat market\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn2\" id=\"#FNLinkFn2\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e .\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1858.01.09\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSketches from China: Hong-Kong Street Markets and Docks\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGilman Street, Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn3\" id=\"#FNLinkFn3\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, where sausages hanging outdoors and vendors selling pressed salted duck can be seen on the street.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e9\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1858.04.17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWar in China: British Soldiers Recovering and the Chinese New Year\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGifts for the Chinese Lunar New Year, which includes oranges, tea leaves, and other New Year gifts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1858.05.29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSketches from China: Canton Streets After the Siege\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDistributing rice as alms on the streets of Guangzhou.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1858.11.20\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSketches from China: Canton Street Vendors and Opium Smokers\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eChinese female fruit vendor.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1858.12.11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSketches from China: The Installation of the Abbot at Honam Temple, Canton\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBritish guests, Chinese officials, and the temple abbot dined in the vegetarian dining hall of the temple.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1859.09.17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eManners and Customs of the Chinese in 1859: Mourning Dresses of the Chinese and Mourning the Dead\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt a funeral in Hong Kong, the sacrificial offerings included pastries, roast pork, lamb, among others.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e14\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1859.09.24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSketches from China: Manners and Customs of the Han Chinese in Formosa\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is recorded that Han Chinese people in Taiwan have habits such as chewing betel nuts, eating cheese, and eating pineapples.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1859.11.05\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSketches from China: Manners and Customs of the Han Chinese in Formosa\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eForeigners engaged in the sugar trade in Taiwan, with an illustration of a “sugar warehouse”.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1860.10.13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChina: The British Troops at Talien Bay\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are illustrations depicting “purchasing eggs and poultry from local people” and “common people in farmhouses in Dalian Bay eating on the kang”.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1861.01.12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChina: Domestic Life in China\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are illustrations depicting “purchasing eggs and poultry from local people” and “common people in farmhouses in Dalian Bay eating on the kang”.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1861.01.12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“The China New Year”: The Dragon Feast At Canton—From a Sketch By Our Special Artist\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eChinese New Year: Dragon Feast in Guangzhou\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn4\" id=\"#FNLinkFn4\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e and an illustration of a woman making pastries for the Chinese New Year.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e19\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1861.02.23\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTeahouse At Pekin\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eA teahouse in Beijing, or alternatively referred to as a restaurant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e20\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1867.02.02\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e/\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eJournalists called on people to pay attention to Chinese sweet sorghum and listed various benefits of it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1868.08.08\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Chinese Wedding at Shanghai\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is recorded that this sumptuous wedding feast had six people per table, with 26 dishes served at each table.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e22\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1872.05.04\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e/\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eJournalists, citing relevant reports, argued that Chinese Shandong cabbage is China’s “national dish”. Cabbage is cultivated throughout northern China; it can be eaten raw directly as a salad, comparable to the best lettuce in the West.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e23\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1872.11.30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e/\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe article refutes the erroneous view that “Chinese food includes dogs, cats, mice, and other disgusting things”. It points out that dog meat is by no means a national dish in China. It is only in certain local regions such as Guangdong that there has indeed been a history of consuming dog meat.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1873.12.20\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMaking a Christmas Pudding In China\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eChinese people participated in making Christmas raisin pudding.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1876.04.29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChinese Emigration to America: Sketch on Board the Steam-Ship Alaska, Bound for San Francisco\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn\u0026nbsp;\u003cem\u003eMeeting the Sun: A Journey Around the World\u003c/em\u003e\u0026nbsp;by Simpson, it is described that: on board the “Alaska” cruise ship he took from Yokohama to San Francisco, he saw about 1,200 Chinese immigrant laborers eating “Chinese food” (Chow-chow) — they skillfully used chopsticks, with the rice in their small bowls quickly disappearing.\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn5\" id=\"#FNLinkFn5\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e26\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1883.10.27\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e/\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe article notes that in northern China, cereals such as wheat and barley serve as staple foods, while in central and southern provinces of China, rice is the staple food. Poultry, meat and vegetables including pork, fish, Chinese cabbage, gourd and cucumber are all main ingredients. Chinese farmers are extremely hardworking, yet they rarely consume beef, mutton or dairy products, except for the wealthy class.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e27\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1884.7.12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChinese Edible Dogs\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe article points out that there is no evidence to suggest that in Chinese cuisine, only certain breeds of dogs are selected as food for humans while other meats are rejected. However, it is indeed said that many people at the bottom of society in China who cannot get enough to eat will cautiously consume dog meat of any breed. Chinese stews and broths are the main cooking methods. Shark fins, various types of fish maws, and bird’s nest can all be made into rich soups favored by the Chinese. The article is accompanied by a photo of the “Chinese Chow-chow” sent to the Crystal Palace Dog Show in Britain last week.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e28\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1898.12.17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Worship Of Ancestors In China\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe report provides an account of the sacrificial offerings used by the Chinese in ancestor worship, such as tea and roast pork, among others (with an attached illustration).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1914.01.17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWoman’s Cult Of The Dog: No. x.—The Chow\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSometimes dog meat would be used as a substitute for roast mutton: Champion dogs: Chinese Chow Chow (Champion Chows).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1927.02.19\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePriests at Prayer in a Chinese Temple near Hangchow\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eA strange blend of religion and diet: Monks at Lingyin Temple chant sutras while drinking tea. On the tables in front of their prayer cushions, teacups can be seen placed.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e31\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1927.04.30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew Photographs From China: Scenes At Nanking And Shanghai\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eYoung refugees in Shanghai are eating: A group of Chinese children are eating rice and vegetable salad with chopsticks.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e32\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1927.09.03\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChina’s “All Souls’ Day”: A “Charon” and the Bandsmen of Paper\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Zhongyuan Festival: Chinese women offer sacrifices such as pastries and fruits, and scatter salt and wine in rivers and lakes for the fallen soldiers to partake of.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e33\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1928.04.07\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOur Unfamiliar World: Curiosities by Photography\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHow does China raise fish? They place baskets in water as a means of storing live fish.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1928.04.21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhere Spring Means Renewed Warfare and Starvation in Famine-stricken China\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRefugees from Shandong, where people had to eat tree bark, leaves, and rice bran: a mother and her child.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e35\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1930.9.6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow Peking Gets Ice in Summer without Artificial Refrigeration\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe article systematically introduces technologies such as ice storage in ice cellars in Beijing, as well as how ice is sold monthly to restaurants, food stores, inns, and private consumers’ homes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e36\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1931.9.26\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarketing Waist-deep in Water: Life at Hankow during the Chinese Flood That Claimed 80,000,000 Victims\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMarket transactions in waist-deep water; a coolie transporting food standing in neck-deep water.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e37\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1931.11.21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Conquest of Asia: Being an Appreciation of Across the Gobi Desert by Sven Hedin\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCooking pits in the Mongol camp near Huoteyetu Gol, Inner Mongolia: The Mongol people who use this field cooking method have maintained such nomadic customs since ancient times.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e38\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1932.12.24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Good Cheer” in Manchukuo: Bear’s Paws; Bamboo-shoots; Buzzard\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDuring Christmas, various exotic foods (including ingredients) from different regions gathered on the dining tables of Manchukuo. For the unfortunate (civilians), they could have beef tripe, field snails, dried sausages, Port wine, and lemons. Additionally, there is a Korean youth holding tender bamboo shoots; Mr. Stotzner holding a “king crab” he bought for lunch.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e39\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1933.03.11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTypes From The “Yellow Republic”: From Coolie To Priest\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMobile Kitchen: An elderly man drinking tofu pudding at a roadside stall.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e40\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1933.08.19\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ea Modern Chinese Marriage, Proper To Ancient Tradition\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBanquet at the wedding venue.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e41\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1937.04.10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBeing An Appreciation Of “Four Hundred Million Customers”: By Carl Crow\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCarl Crow, in his work\u0026nbsp;Four Hundred Million Customers, argues that Chop Suey is not a “national dish of China” and that hardly any Chinese people eat it. He holds that it is a simple mixed dish collected by Cantonese beggars, which became popular in overseas Chinese restaurants along with Chinese immigrant laborers heading to the United States.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e42\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1938.03.12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Hospitality Of “Forbidden” Tibet\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe article records the main diet of Tibetan nobles and the preparation method of butter tea; Tibetan lamas sitting under a tent are leisurely drinking butter tea.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e43\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1947.10.04\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChina’s Inflation: $1 Buys 50,000 Chinese Dollars\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePurchasing a piece of meat requires a large amount of banknotes: an ordinary scene at a butcher shop in Shanghai.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e44\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1948.12.25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Unchanging Face of China: Amid Civil War and the Absence of Rationing or Point Systems, the Celestial People Maintain Their Calm\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eA preserved fruit shop in Beijing, where honey-preserved fruits contained in large bowls are for sale; a candy shop on the streets of Chinese cities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs can be seen from Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, folk food served as a crucial reference for Westerners to reflect and construct the image of the Chinese masses. There existed significant differences in the dietary patterns and feasting scenes of the Chinese masses observed and documented by journalists and illustrators in northern and southern China, as well as in concessions or colonial regions such as Shanghai and Hong Kong. This reflects the unbalanced economic development across different regions of China, the drastic changes in social structure caused by internal wars and colonial aggression by foreign invaders, and the clashes and exchanges between Eastern and Western cultures. The \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e published on October 13, 1860, an illustration titled “Common people eating on a kang in a farmhouse in Dalian Bay” (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) and another on January 12, 1861, titled “Chinese women drinking tea and eating candies at home” (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e). These two illustrations, from a Western perspective, freeze-framed the spatial differences in dietary cultures between northern and southern China in the 19th century. The kang, a core living space in the cold regions of northern China, integrates daily living, heating, and dining. Farmers in Dalian Bay, sitting cross-legged around a kang table to share simple meals, reflect the “kang-centered” life logic of northern agricultural societies—where dining, daily living, and production are highly integrated, with a focus on warmth and efficiency. In contrast, southern China, with its mild and humid climate, has no need to rely on the kang for heating. Southern women sit around a round table to drink tea and eat candies. The dining space here emphasizes openness and a sense of ritual, and the round table, in Chinese culture, symbolizes reunion and facilitates social interaction. The carved doors and windows, as well as indoor greenery depicted in the illustration of the south, further reflect the social attributes and aesthetic refinement of southern dietary culture, contrasting with the simplicity of the north. The consumption of non-staple foods such as tea and sugar indicates a relatively affluent material foundation in southern agricultural civilizations. Although the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e’s records carry an “othering” perspective, they unexpectedly preserve the original ecological differences of regional cultures. Northern dietary practices are a microcosm of life in cold-region agricultural societies, while those of the south constitute a visual expression of commercial civilization and rural family ethics. Together, they illustrate the spatial diversity of China’s rural dietary culture—from the “practicality of the kang table” to the “ritual of the round table”. Dining is not merely an act of satisfying hunger but a product of the interweaving of the natural environment, social economy, and cultural traditions, providing vivid visual texts for research on the social and cultural history of modern China.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a short article titled “On the Dietary Structure of the Chinese Masses” published on October 27, 1883, the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e stated: “In northern China, grains such as wheat and barley serve as staple foods. In central and southern provinces, however, rice is the staple, with poultry and vegetables like pork, fish, Chinese cabbage, gourds, and cucumbers as main ingredients. Chinese farmers are extremely hardworking, yet except for the wealthy, they rarely consume beef, mutton, or dairy products”. This observation is remarkably objective and accurate. When Western observers discovered high-quality crops, they actively promoted them to Western society. A report in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e on February 2, 1867, highly praised the various merits of Chinese “Sugar-grass (Sorghum Tartaricum)” and called for expanding its cultivation area, emphasizing its status and value as a food crop.\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn7\" id=\"#FNLinkFn7\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e “Sugar-grass” here refers to sweet sorghum. This embodies the characteristic of “cultural hybridity” in the pictorial’s reports: describing the lives of Eastern peasants from a Western perspective inevitably incorporates understandings of Chinese cultural elements, naturally categorizing the staple foods of different regions in China and promoting Chinese grains to Western society. However, the term “Sugar-grass” for sweet sorghum may carry a connotation of disdain, imbued with “Orientalist” thinking, reflecting how Western society constructs the East as the “Other”. Moreover, their view that “except for the wealthy, Chinese rarely consume beef, mutton, or dairy products” actually stems from their examination of rural dietary cultures in some Chinese regions through the binary system of “Western superiority and Eastern inferiority” (Gao, 2023, p. 59). They failed to fully recognize the food differences across China’s regions, nor did they acknowledge that beef, mutton, and dairy products are not exclusive to the West—they are also common in the rural food of ethnic groups such as the Mongolians in China.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe food aspects of Chinese family life, food in folk customs such as weddings, funerals, and the Spring Festival, as well as scenes of Chinese civilians suffering from famine during wars or floods, were all recorded and reported through images and texts in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e. Each composition and character image therein contains rich connotations: it may embody curiosity about Chinese food culture, sympathy for the suffering of Chinese civilians during war-torn times, or the ongoing competitive historical, social, intellectual, and political processes involving both Eastern and Western parties, which aimed to maintain an “other” that is different from the self as a contrast (Gao, 2023, p. 60).\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"3 The “Sino-foreign coexistence” in China’s Folk Food Structure","content":"\u003cp\u003eSince modern times, coastal areas of China such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Northeast China have been profoundly influenced by colonial invaders in multiple aspects including politics and culture. In concessions and colonial ruled areas, foreign populations achieved \u0026ldquo;Sino-foreign separate governance\u0026rdquo; (hua yang fen zhi) in terms of political rights, yet this could not block the invisible multicultural exchanges, and food culture was no exception.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn January 9, 1858, the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e reported that on Gilman Street near Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e), many Chinese migrants to Hong Kong still worked as small traders, laborers, and other such occupations, and they had also brought their traditional Chinese food habits to Hong Kong. As is clearly visible in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e: Chinese residents in Hong Kong hung sausages between windowsills, clothes waiting to be dried, and there were peddlers selling dried duck walking along the street, as well as vendors peddling goods with bamboo baskets by the roadside. The traditional Chinese way of life is vividly apparent. Although Hong Kong was in a colonial period and deeply influenced by Western social culture, the traditional culture of local Chinese was equally preserved in Hong Kong; they did not abandon \u0026ldquo;resistance\u0026rdquo; due to Western cultural influence. On the contrary, in the markets and villages of Hong Kong, there emerged an \u0026ldquo;interstice or in-between\u0026rdquo; where different cultures intersect, or what can be called a cultural \u0026ldquo;borderline\u0026rdquo; (Bhabha, 2004). Homi Bhabha\u0026rsquo;s definition of \u0026ldquo;interstice\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;borderline\u0026rdquo; is precisely his own construction and elaboration of the \u0026ldquo;Third Space\u0026rdquo; theory. In this \u0026ldquo;interstice\u0026rdquo; space, Chinese and Western cultures engage in mutual dialogue and discourse, thereby giving rise to the hybridity of food cultures and food structures where Chinese and Western elements coexist.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, in the November 7, 1880 issue of the French publication Le Journal des Voyages, a correspondent from France documented scenes of Chinese and foreigners coexisting on the bustling streets of Shanghai (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e). The illustrations depict mobile food vendors, shops bearing signs marked \u0026ldquo;Foreign Goods\u0026rdquo;, and numerous restaurants and tea houses where diners could be seen seated by the windows. As one of the early semi-colonial areas in China to become a concession territory, Shanghai demonstrated a notable capacity for accommodating foreign influences while simultaneously preserving its indigenous urban and local culture.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNot only Shanghai but also coastal cities like Guangzhou, which were among the earliest in modern China to engage with foreign nations, exhibited the complex phenomenon of \u0026ldquo;Sino-foreign coexistence\u0026rdquo; (hua yang bing cun). Under the special historical context of the Anglo-French occupation in 1858, Guangzhou\u0026rsquo;s street-level culinary scenes continued to reflect the vibrant vitality of local Chinese food culture while simultaneously bearing the \u0026ldquo;gaze\u0026rdquo; of colonial rulers. This can be illustrated through a comparative analysis of two illustrations from the French publication \u003cem\u003eL\u0026rsquo;Illustration\u003c/em\u003e. In Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e, the streets of Guangzhou are depicted as bustling with mobile food vendors and stalls. Attendants in traditional attire are busy serving local rural snacks, with earthenware pots keeping soups warm and bamboo baskets neatly arranged with fresh produce and distinctive local delicacies. Signage bearing Chinese characters vividly highlights an authentic Chinese culinary atmosphere, representing the genuine expression of China\u0026rsquo;s urban and folk food culture. The roots of \u0026ldquo;Chineseness\u0026rdquo; (hua) are deeply embedded in the everyday culinary practices of the people, carrying the memory and resilience of indigenous food traditions. In contrast, Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e portrays a market scene near a bridge in Guangzhou: local Chinese vendors operate food stalls serving the common people, while foreign soldiers in Western-style military uniforms appear within the scene, their \u0026ldquo;gaze\u0026rdquo; fixed upon these daily Chinese food practices. Their presence is forcibly interwoven with the mobile stalls and the bustling Chinese crowd. This so-called \u0026ldquo;coexistence\u0026rdquo; was by no means an equal cultural exchange; rather, it represented the tenacious persistence of the \u0026ldquo;Chineseness\u0026rdquo; of local food culture under the colonial gaze, while the presence of the \u0026ldquo;foreign\u0026rdquo; (yang) served as a direct manifestation of imperialist aggression. External power disrupted the originally pure local culinary ecology, creating an oppressive and distorted coexistence between the invasive \u0026ldquo;foreign\u0026rdquo; and the indigenous \u0026ldquo;Chineseness\u0026rdquo; on occupied land. This form of \u0026ldquo;Sino-foreign coexistence\u0026rdquo; not only testifies to the resilience of China\u0026rsquo;s local food culture but also bears profound imprints of the historical tribulations endured by regions like Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong under imperialist aggression. \u003cem\u003eThe Illustrated Travel News\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eL\u0026rsquo;Illustration\u003c/em\u003e, contemporary publications from different countries alongside the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, collectively provide a transnational and cross-cultural historical record attesting to the characteristic \u0026ldquo;Sino-foreign coexistence\u0026rdquo; within the folk foodways of semi-colonial China.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn comparison, the coverage of modern Chinese folk foodways in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e persistently characterized by a cross-cultural perception intertwining \u0026ldquo;factual observation and imaginative construction\u0026rdquo;. Journalists from colonial powers frequently ascribed \u0026ldquo;Oriental culinary elements\u0026rdquo; that were not inherently Chinese to the Chinese people. For instance, on December 24, 1932, during the Christmas season, a correspondent for the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e) documented an array of exotic foods and ingredients from various regions appearing on the dining tables in the \u0026ldquo;Manchukuo\u0026rdquo;\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn8\" id=\"#FNLinkFn8\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e. This peculiar culinary phenomenon was directly linked to the aggression and colonial actions of Japan, Britain, and other powers against China, resulting in the hybridization of external food elements into their imagined construct of Chinese culinary tradition.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWithin the Food cartography interwoven with colonial history, dining tables of different social classes presented distinct gustatory divisions: On the plates of the wealthy and the newly rich, there lay Bombay Duck\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn9\" id=\"#FNLinkFn9\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u0026mdash;this unique ingredient made from dried Bombil Fish from India\u0026rsquo;s west coast, so named after the British colonizers\u0026rsquo; jest (the name may derive from its flattened, duck-breast-like shape when dried, or a mispronunciation of the local Marathi term \u0026ldquo;Bombil\u0026rdquo;). It was paired with the luxury of sturgeon roe and truffles, the sweetness of lychees and honeyed peaches, and the robust richness of Haggis\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn10\" id=\"#FNLinkFn10\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, Scotland\u0026rsquo;s traditional \u0026ldquo;national dish\u0026rdquo;. On the other end, amidst the smoky aroma of beef tripe, field snails, and dried sausages, the tartness of Porto wine\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn11\" id=\"#FNLinkFn11\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e intertwined with the freshness of lemons, weaving the authentic texture of commoners' food. The aforementioned food elements do not constitute part of the daily necessities within the structure of Chinese folk foodways.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen shifting our perspective to modern China\u0026rsquo;s northeastern region, the colonial-inflected culinary hybridity on the Christmas dining tables of the so-called \u0026ldquo;Manchukuo\u0026rdquo; appeared even more spectacular: Among the festive banquets, bear paws\u0026mdash;long renowned as \u0026ldquo;mountain treasures\u0026rdquo; and regarded as delicacies since ancient Roman times\u0026mdash;were prominently featured. Petronius recorded them as a coveted delicacy among the ancient Romans (Shen, 2016, p. 516). Among vegetables, the highly praised tender bamboo shoots gained favor for their fresh and delicate texture, approximating that of asparagus (Shen, 2016, p. 516). Meanwhile, the \u0026ldquo;Crab King\u0026rdquo; from the Okhotsk Sea\u0026mdash;a bizarre giant crab so named by the Japanese (Shen, 2016, p. 517)\u0026mdash;became the crowning highlight of the feast, thanks to the exquisite flavor of its leg meat. On Chinese soil, during the Christmas season in puppet Manchukuo, these geographically transgressive ingredients, within the specific context of colonial rule, pieced together a complex tableau where taste and power intertwined. They encompassed both the transplantation of food symbols from colonial powers and the alienated representation of local delicacies, collectively leaving mottled traces of the fusion of colonial food cultures on the plate of historical reality and cultural imagination.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e not only frequently documented the introduction of food items such as Bombay duck, Haggis, and Port wine into China but also recorded classic cases of Westerners preparing Western cuisine within China. The former can be seen as overseas imported foods that entered China through modern East-West trade, which were then assimilated and transformed into \u0026ldquo;Chinese food\u0026rdquo; within the context of the illegitimate political power of the time. The latter, however, represents Westerners in China producing classic Western dishes under the \u0026ldquo;gaze\u0026rdquo; of the Chinese people. In December 1873, the China correspondent of the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e spent an unforgettable Christmas in China. The Western residents, yearning for their traditional holiday fare, found that \u0026ldquo;among the Chinese servants, not a single one knew how to make a raisin pudding. We found ourselves equally helpless and began inquiring about who could prepare this raisin pudding! We discovered that anyone who could make it at that moment had the chance to become a hero in everyone's eyes.\u0026rdquo; (Shen, 2014, p. 607) The author of this article used a witty and humorous tone to depict the awkward situation: the British living in China longed for and eagerly anticipated a authentic Christmas raisin pudding, while the Chinese servants present, though curious about this Western dish, lacked the knowledge of its preparation method. Then the story took a turn:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt that moment, one of the guests present declared that he knew how to make it. The crowd was overwhelmed with exhilaration. Even if an angel had descended from heaven, it could not have brought greater joy. He immediately took off his coat, and the group swarmed into the kitchen, where all the ingredients for the pudding had been prepared. As he proceeded with the preparation, a crowd of queue-wearing Chinese gathered around the table, fixing an unblinking gaze upon his every movement.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e​\u003cb\u003e​\u003c/b\u003eI have no doubt that they will exercise their ingenuity to produce a closely resembling pudding this Christmas, replicating it with precise accuracy down to the exact number of raisins on the pudding. (Shen, 2014, p. 608)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe correspondent also created a sketch titled \u0026ldquo;Foreigners Making Christmas Pudding in China\u0026rdquo; (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig8\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e). The British gentleman who mastered the pudding recipe thus became a \u0026ldquo;hero\u0026rdquo; in the eyes of the contemporary Western community in China.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe pictorial\u0026rsquo;s correspondent described: \u0026ldquo;The Chinese servants knew that making pudding was difficult, but seeing how absorbed they were, I believed they would certainly use their minds to imagine and make an identical pudding. The performance of our skilled hero was entirely in line with what Tennyson had recited.\u0026rdquo; (\u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, 1873, p. 11)Although Western food was introduced to China in this case, their writings clearly reflected the sense of superiority of Western culture. From a Western perspective, they regarded themselves as the \u0026ldquo;paradigm of civilization\u0026rdquo;. They thought the Chinese would certainly venerate the pudding as a Western cultural symbol. The correspondent believed the Chinese would make an identical pudding, but in reality, within the cultural \u0026ldquo;interstice\u0026rdquo; of the \u0026ldquo;Third Space\u0026rdquo; (Bhabha, 2004), Western pudding, after being introduced to China, was bound to incorporate local and urban folk elements rather than retaining its entirely Western-style appearance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBetween the lines, we can perceive the illustrated newspaper journalist\u0026rsquo;s emotional identification with the European cultural values embodied by Western delicacies such as pudding, even regarding Christmas pudding as a \u0026ldquo;civilizational paradigm\u0026rdquo;. The underlying assumption was that the Chinese would imitate and learn from Western culture, eventually producing identical puddings. However, from the understanding of the cultural \u0026ldquo;interstice\u0026rdquo; in Bhabha\u0026rsquo;s (2004) \u0026ldquo;Third Space Theory\u0026rdquo;, the Western food pudding\u0026mdash;situated within the \u0026ldquo;in-between\u0026rdquo; zone of Sino-foreign coexistence\u0026mdash;would inevitably undergo Sinicization. This process involves adapting local Chinese ingredients (e.g., flour, cream, sugar, and raisins), incorporating the culinary sensibilities of Chinese chefs, and blending in indigenous urban elements. The outcome would be a Chinese-style Christmas raisin pudding\u0026mdash;much like the hybridity and fusion of Eastern and Western cultures, it could never remain an identical replica.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn colonial or occupied territories such as Hong Kong and the puppet state of \u0026ldquo;Manchukuo\u0026rdquo;, ingredients from overseas and neighboring regions inevitably became integrated into traditional Chinese food practices. Through the lens of food culture, the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e offers a glimpse into how, despite the persistence of traditional food structures within Chinese communities in modern China's colonial areas, the political policy of \u0026ldquo;Sino-foreign separate governance\u0026rdquo; ultimately failed to restrict the phenomenon of \u0026ldquo;Sino-foreign coexistence\u0026rdquo; in everyday foodways at the grassroots level.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"4 The Stigmatization of Chinese Cuisine by the West in the Colonial Era","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn May 1857, the special correspondent of the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e in China recorded his observations during his journey from eastern Europe to Hong Kong, China. The correspondent arrived in Hong Kong aboard a steamship named \u0026ldquo;Peking\u0026rdquo;. He documented, through a combination of pictures and text, the scene of Chinese people from Hong Kong eating on the \u0026ldquo;Peking\u0026rdquo;, with the title \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow at Hong-Kong\u0026rdquo; (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig9\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e9\u003c/span\u003e). He described: \u0026ldquo;The Chinese are eating \u0026lsquo;Chow-chow\u0026rsquo;\u0026mdash;a kind of food eaten with chopsticks. These three men are presumably passengers on the \u0026lsquo;Peking\u0026rsquo;. Their small cooking pot is on the right, tea utensils on the left, bananas hanging on the wall, and pineapples served as dessert.\u0026rdquo; (Shen, 2014, p. 230) The correspondent defined \u0026ldquo;Chinese food\u0026rdquo; by the characteristic of \u0026ldquo;food eaten with chopsticks\u0026rdquo;, which is indeed a very straightforward expression. However, such symbolic simplification and exoticized imagination deliberately emphasize the \u0026ldquo;heterogeneity\u0026rdquo; of food practices (the use of chopsticks) and food forms. This simplification ignores the richness of Chinese cuisine, reducing it to consumable exotic symbols, which conforms to the narrative logic of Orientalism that \u0026ldquo;mystifies\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;irrationality\u0026rdquo; the East (Said, 1979, p. 3, 289).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn September 1857, there was a report in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e on the everyday dinners of Hong Kong people, accompanied by a vivid sketch entitled \u0026ldquo;Dinner in Hong Kong\u0026rdquo; (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig10\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Chinese translation referring to \u0026ldquo;tian chao zi min de xiao ye\u0026rdquo; corresponds to the original English text \u0026ldquo;Petit Suppers of the Celestials\u0026rdquo; (\u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, September 19, 1857). We hold that translating it as \u0026ldquo;tian chao zi min de jia ting wan can\u0026rdquo; is more appropriate. The original newspaper correspondent referred to the Chinese as \u0026ldquo;Celestial subjects\u0026rdquo; in a playful tone here, and it is inappropriate for the Chinese translation to render \u0026ldquo;Petit Suppers\u0026rdquo; as \u0026ldquo;xiao ye\u0026rdquo;. Considering the content and title of the image, \u0026ldquo;jia ting wan can\u0026rdquo; is a more fitting translation. The Western playful depiction of \u0026ldquo;Petit Suppers of the Celestials\u0026rdquo; is, in essence, a misinterpretation of the urban folk food ethics in rural China, such as \u0026ldquo;jia yan (family feasts)\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;wei lu (gathering around the stove)\u0026rdquo;. When the scene of a family sharing braised pork belly under an oil lamp and using small spoons to ladle soup is reduced to an exotic image of \u0026ldquo;snatching food with chopsticks\u0026rdquo;, what lies beneath is the systematic neglect of rural Chinese family bonds and neighborhood warmth.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Chinese translation erroneously rendered the image title \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow (Chinese Supper) at Hong-Kong\u0026rdquo; as \u0026ldquo;Guangzhou de wan yan\u0026rdquo; (Shen, 2014, p. 261), which should be corrected. The title of this illustration explicitly defines \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; as \u0026ldquo;Chinese Supper,\u0026rdquo; serving as self-evident evidence that \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; was used as a synonym for \u0026ldquo;Chinese supper\u0026rdquo;. This mistranslation of geographical information (from Hong Kong to Guangzhou) further exacerbated the distortion of cultural symbols.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe term \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow,\u0026rdquo; which refers to \u0026ldquo;Chinese cuisine\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;Chinese-style dinner,\u0026rdquo; reflects the narrative of power in the colonial era\u0026mdash;a process that simplified Oriental culture into exotic symbols and even subjected it to stigmatization. In archaic English, \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; also denoted a \u0026ldquo;miscellany\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;jumble of things\u0026rdquo; (similar to \u0026ldquo;Hodgepodge\u0026rdquo;), likely originating from the colonizers\u0026rsquo; vague general term for Chinese goods. In colonial contexts or periods of anti-Chinese sentiment (such as in the 19th-century United States and Australia), \u0026ldquo;Chow\u0026rdquo; was once used as a derogatory term for Chinese people. This usage of \u0026ldquo;Chow\u0026rdquo; was strongly offensive and is rarely used publicly in modern times. From the 19th century to the early 20th century, \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;Chop suey\u0026rdquo; were commonly used in English to generally refer to Chinese cuisine (especially American-adapted Chinese food), carrying a certain exoticizing label.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAndrew Coe wrote in his book Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States that the variant of \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; on the tables of Chinese Americans is \u0026ldquo;Chow suey\u0026rdquo; (Coe, 2016, p. 171), i.e., chop suey. In Four Hundred Million Customers by the renowned American writer Carl Crow, he even explicitly stated that chop suey originated from the simple mixed dishes begged by beggars in Guangdong (beggars\u0026rsquo; food), and almost no Chinese ate it (Crow, 2022, p. 166). In the article \u0026ldquo;Review of Carl Crow\u0026rsquo;s Four Hundred Million Customers\u0026rdquo; published in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e on April 10, 1937, this view was reiterated, holding that chop suey \u0026ldquo;became popular in overseas Chinese restaurants along with Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States\u0026rdquo;. It is worth adding that before Chinese cuisine (\u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo;) spread in Chinese American communities, it was first introduced to places like Malacca and Manila by Chinese laborers or merchants who went to Nanyang (Southeast Asia). In the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e on October 24, 1857, there was a vivid record\u0026mdash;with both pictures and texts\u0026mdash;of a vendor selling Chinese food (\u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo;) on the streets of Manila (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig11\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e11\u003c/span\u003e) and a meat market in the Chinese community.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe popularity of chop suey in the United States, on the surface, appears to be the overseas dissemination of Chinese cuisine; in essence, however, it is a deformed product of colonial cultural hybridity. The West attributes it to \u0026ldquo;the simple food of Chinese laborers\u0026rdquo; while ignoring its local origins as a home-cooked dish in the rural areas of Guangdong. In essence, this is a reconstruction of food narratives to dispel the subjectivity of Chinese culture. To consolidate colonial power, Western society, through linguistic stigmatization and symbolic simplification, incorporated Chinese cuisine into the \u0026ldquo;Orientalist\u0026rdquo; discourse system from an ethnocentric perspective\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn12\" id=\"#FNLinkFn12\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e (Said, 1979, p. 207). This served to reinforce the binary opposition between \u0026ldquo;civilization and barbarism\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;superiority and inferiority\u0026rdquo;, thereby providing cultural legitimacy for colonial rule.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe records in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e regarding the dissemination of \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; in places where Chinese and Western cuisines converged, such as Hong Kong, indicate that in the dissemination routes of overseas Chinese dishes like chop suey, which later gained popularity in the United States, the transit points were most likely Chinese communities in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia. This is a more scientific and reasonable view than the folk legend that \u0026ldquo;Hongzhang Li invented chop suey during his visit to the United States\u0026rdquo;. In Simpson\u0026rsquo;s Meeting the Sun: A Voyage Around the World, during his travels in Hong Kong, he devoted extensive space to analyzing how the term \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; emerged as a combination of English and local Chinese vocabulary. Regarding the term as part of Pidgin English, Simpson also conducted a careful study of the various changes in its meaning during the process of cross-cultural communication (Simpson, 1874, p. 275).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003ePunch\u003c/em\u003e magazine of the same period also exhibited prejudice against Chinese folk food culture, employing stigmatizing rhetoric to distort its image. The depicted scene in a London restaurant\u0026mdash;featuring an order for \u0026ldquo;bird\u0026rsquo;s nest soup, rat pie and tender puppy\u0026rdquo;\u0026mdash;was not an isolated representation of Chinese food practices by \u003cem\u003ePunch\u003c/em\u003e (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig12\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e12\u003c/span\u003e), but rather a typical paradigm within the magazine's portrayal of Chinese food culture from the mid-to-late 19th century to the early 20th century. This narrative, which deliberately juxtaposes nourishing ingredients like Edible bird's nest with sensationalized and stigmatized items such as rats and dog meat, constituted a common strategy employed to devalue Chinese culinary traditions. By amplifying these dramatized scenarios, \u003cem\u003ePunch\u003c/em\u003e created a \u0026ldquo;cognitive bias\u0026rdquo; that Chinese food habits deviated from civilized norms.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003edepicts a London dining room where a server repeats the order of a Chinese customer, \u0026ldquo;very nice Birds\u0026rsquo; Nest Soup, Sir! \u0026ndash; Yes, Sir! Rat Pie, Sir, Just up. \u0026ndash; Yes, Sir! \u0026ndash; And a nice little Dog to foller \u0026ndash; Yes, Sir!\u0026rdquo;\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn13\" id=\"#FNLinkFn13\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e To the right, an English gentleman with his wife looks startled at the scene before them.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRural cuisine not only carries the simplicity of field-grown ingredients and the warmth of kitchen fires, but also, amid the tide of colonialism, has become a field where urban folk culture and power struggles intersect. The Western stigmatizing narratives about Chinese cuisine, in essence, correspond to Orientalism as expounded by Said; they are even a crude dismemberment of the fabric of urban life in rural China, serving to accomplish the construction of the East as the \u0026ldquo;other\u0026rdquo;. The metamorphosis of the original cuisine of transoceanic immigrants when clashing with foreign cultures in a colonial context is not a simple case of \u0026ldquo;cultural distortion\u0026rdquo;, but rather a negotiation and contestation between colonial power and local memory at the dining table. By equating \u0026ldquo;rurality\u0026rdquo; with \u0026ldquo;backwardness\u0026rdquo; and diminishing \u0026ldquo;urban life\u0026rdquo; as \u0026ldquo;chaos\u0026rdquo;, the West has accomplished the hollowing out of the subjectivity of Chinese cuisine, alienating it into an \u0026ldquo;other\u0026rdquo; that serves their own hegemony. This process is not only an example of cultural aggression but also provides a historical mirror for us to understand contemporary cross-cultural food exchanges. Only by transcending Orientalist stereotypes and acknowledging the subjectivity in cultural hybridity can we achieve truly equal dialogue between civilizations.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"5 Conclusion: The Rectification of Food Prejudices and the Cross-Cultural Writing of Modern Chinese Food","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe special correspondents of the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e mostly focused their reports on China\u0026rsquo;s southeastern coastal areas, with particular attention to the coverage of folk food in the Guangdong and Fujian regions surrounding Hong Kong. In contrast, reports on food cultures in inland areas were relatively scarce. They also paid attention to the food life of ethnic minorities such as Tibetans and Mongolians in China, as well as that of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian countries. It was precisely because the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e broke away from the traditional perspective of China itself and reported on and recorded the exchanges of folk food cultures between China and other countries from a unique Western perspective that we can \u0026ldquo;view China from the periphery\u0026rdquo; and perceive the unique charm of historical exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign food civilizations. These reports, featuring both pictures and texts, were vivid and lively; the captions were often concise and humorous. This catered to the reading needs of Western readers, especially British ones, who sought to understand Oriental customs, local conditions, and anecdotes. Meanwhile, they also provided rather precious documentary materials for subsequent research related to food culture.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pictorial, as a tool of colonial power, emerged in the historical context of modern Sino-British cultural exchanges marked by distinct colonial overtones and power politics. For 19th-century Western society, the Chinese were often constructed as a barbaric and backward nation. This perception was closely linked to the \u0026ldquo;stigmatization\u0026rdquo; of traditional Chinese food by the West. Some traditional Chinese food habits, food types, or food cultures were labeled as \u0026ldquo;inferior,\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;unhealthy,\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;barbaric\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;uncivilized\u0026rdquo; due to social prejudices, stereotypes, or the influence of power structures. Such representations reinforced the Eurocentric colonial perspective, consolidated the unequal power structure, and served as a footnote to Western cultural hegemony. However, from another perspective, the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, as an important newspaper founded early with a long time span and significant international influence, held great significance in refuting and rectifying Western prejudices and hostilities toward Chinese food. For instance, in 1872, it published an article pointing out that Western imagination about the Chinese eating dogs and cats was biased\u0026mdash;although there were indeed dog meat restaurants in places like Guangdong, it was a misunderstanding to regard it as Guangdong\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;national dish\u0026rdquo; (\u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, 1872)\u003ca class=\"FNLink\" href=\"#Fn14\" id=\"#FNLinkFn14\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e. Reporters of the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, based on their personal experiences and observations, could promptly rectify food prejudices about China to Western society, which had positive significance for partially eliminating ethnic discrimination or exclusion against the Chinese.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince modern times, cultural exchanges between China and Britain have deepened, a process marked by distinct colonial overtones and power politics. The reports of the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e on Chinese folk food contain both more authentic and objective knowledge of Chinese cuisine, as well as some content filled with food prejudices and discrimination. Overall, the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, from a Western perspective different from the traditional Oriental vision and based on Western culinary traditions and the reading interests of Western readers, recorded such things as China\u0026rsquo;s characteristic local folk dishes like \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Western-style food\u0026rdquo; such as Christmas puddings made in China. All these are examples of the integration of Chinese and Western food cultures in urban markets or rural areas of modern Chinese society, especially in concession areas like Hong Kong. Moreover, its multiple articles featuring objective reports and defenses of China\u0026rsquo;s authentic culinary traditions have built bridges for cross-cultural communication, helped eliminate discrimination and prejudice between civilizations, promoted dialogues between different cultures that transcend the colonial context, and left precious pictures of cultural interactions for later generations.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNews reporting, as a medium of mass communication, not only builds a convenient and solid bridge for exchanges between different cultures but also provides a new approach to eliminating discrimination and prejudice among civilizations. Of course, news reporting is also a double-edged sword, for it can equally disseminate ignorance and prejudice, which entirely depends on how it is utilized by those who wield it. Regarding the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e\u0026rsquo;s coverage of China, this newspaper was more committed to dispelling the erroneous and inappropriate impressions Westerners held about China. Over the more than a century from 1842 to 1949, two articles in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e explicitly called, from a food perspective, for improving negative perceptions of China. Moreover, many more articles, from a relatively objective and pragmatic standpoint, reported on China\u0026rsquo;s authentic food traditions and cultures to Western audiences and defended Chinese cuisine. Such cross-cultural exchanges that transcend physical space have played an important role and held significant meaning in reducing Western prejudices and discrimination against China.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor ContributionsHZ defines the research topic, collects historical materials, organizes literature, develops the paper framework and drafts the first version; writes and revises the manuscript, and provides supervision. BH supplements historical materials, organizes relevant literature, assists in fact verification, polishes the paper\u0026rsquo;s expression, and contributes to manuscript writing and revision.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eData Availability\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eData availabilityAll data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eEthical approval\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis study did not involve human participants.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eInformed consent\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by the authors.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eNotes\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUnless otherwise specified, all translations in this article are based on Hong Shen\u0026rsquo;s (2014; 2016) book.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Chinese translation of the illustration caption \u0026ldquo;Chinese Chow-chow sellers in Manila\u0026rdquo; as \u0026ldquo;Chinese vendors selling pickles on the streets of Manila\u0026rdquo; is inappropriate. According to what is shown in the illustration, there is no indication of pickles being sold. Reporters of The Illustrated London News also repeatedly used \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo; to refer generally to Chinese food, Chinese cuisine, or Chinese dinners. Thus, changing \u0026ldquo;selling pickles\u0026rdquo; to \u0026ldquo;selling Chinese food\u0026rdquo; is more accurate and reasonable (Shen , 2014, pp. 272-273).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Chinese translation previously transliterated \u0026ldquo;Gilman\u0026rdquo; as \u0026ldquo;吉尔曼街 (ji er man jie)\u0026rdquo;. However, Hong Kong officialdom has adopted \u0026ldquo;机利文街 (ji li wen jie)\u0026rdquo; as the standard translated name, hence it is directly revised accordingly (Shen , 2014, p. 283).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Chinese translation of \u0026ldquo;Dragon Feast at Canton\u0026rdquo; from the original English text of the article as \u0026ldquo;广州的龙宴\u0026rdquo; (Guangzhou de Long yan) is unproblematic. However, it should be noted that the \u0026ldquo;Dragon Feast\u0026rdquo; here refers more to the folk celebrations (Festival) involving dragon and lion dances in the Guangzhou area on the eve of the Spring Festival. The most prominent scene in the illustration accompanying the original text is a lion dance, not a dragon dance, which can easily cause misunderstanding. As stated in the original text, each celebration lasts for three days, during which the Chinese people integrate purposes such as feasting, celebration, and practicality (Shen , 2014, p. 416).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn Simpson\u0026rsquo;s Meeting the Sun: A Journey All Round the World (Simpson, 1874, p. 346), when recording the voyage of the Alaska bound for San Francisco, he mentions that there were 1,250 Chinese laborers on board, yet he did not explicitly record how they ate during the voyage. This is inconsistent with the content of the brief promotional articles in the \u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIt is a traditional heating facility in northern rural areas, built with bricks and stones, with an internal flue connected to the stove. It can be used for heating and also serves as a place for rest and daily life.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHerbert Ingram. A correspondent of the Times calls attention to the Chinese sugar-grass (Sorghum tartaricum) as a valuable addition to our cereal crops (\u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, February 2, 1867).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA puppet regime established by Japan after its occupation of Northeast China. Neither the Nationalist government nor the international community recognized the \u0026ldquo;Manchukuo\u0026rdquo; regime, hence it is referred to as the \u0026ldquo;puppet state of Manchukuo\u0026rdquo;.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhen British colonizers first arrived in India, they noticed locals consuming this dried fish. Due to its pungent smell and peculiar appearance, they jokingly called it \u0026ldquo;Duck\u0026rdquo;, possibly because its flattened shape after drying resembled duck breast, or due to a mishearing of its local name in Marathi (\u0026ldquo;Bombil\u0026rdquo;).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKnown in English as Haggis, it is a traditional Scottish \u0026ldquo;national dish\u0026rdquo;. Essentially, it is a pudding of sheep\u0026rsquo;s offal \u0026mdash; made by mincing sheep\u0026rsquo;s heart, lungs, and liver, mixed with oats and spices, usually encased in a sheep\u0026rsquo;s stomach and boiled.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Portuguese renamed their domestically produced Port wine as \u0026ldquo;Porto\u0026rdquo; \u0026mdash; to avoid market confusion between Port wines produced in many other countries and Portuguese Porto wine.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u0026ldquo;Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u0026ldquo;London Dining Rooms, 1851\u0026rdquo;, from \u003cem\u003ePunch Almanack\u003c/em\u003e, Vol. 20, 1851.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWilliam Ingram. It is wrong to suppose in respect of the Chinese that their food consists of dogs, cats, rats, and other garbage (\u003cem\u003eILN\u003c/em\u003e, November 30, 1872).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMeyer-Fong T (2024) Lo personal y lo global en la guerra civil china de mediados del siglo XIX (The personal and the global in the Chinese civil war of the mid-nineteenth century). Ayer. Revista De Historia Contempor\u0026aacute;nea 134(2): 49\u0026ndash;79. https://doi.org/10.55509/ayer/2197\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCao KJ (2024) Images of Qing Emperors in The Illustrated London News: The Construction of China\u0026rsquo;s National Image by British Visual News Media in the 19th Century. Art Journal (4): 65\u0026ndash;71.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBurke P (2018) Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence (2nd ed.). Reaktion Books, London, pp. 1, 85\u0026ndash;102.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBarthes R (1967) Elements of Semiology (A Lavers \u0026amp; C Smith, Trans.). Hill and Wang, New York, p. 10.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGao X (2023) Double Discourse Discipline: On Said\u0026rsquo;s Orientalism Theory. Ningxia Social Sciences (2): 58\u0026ndash;65.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBhabha HK (2004) Interrogating Identity: Frantz Fanon and the postcolonial prerogative. In: The Location of Culture (2nd ed.). Routledge, London, pp. 53\u0026ndash;56.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShen H (ed) (2014) Lost Chinese History in the West: The Illustrated London News Recorded Late Qing Dynasty 1842-1873, Vol.1. Beijing Times Huawen Publishing House, Beijing.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eShen H (ed) (2016) Lost Chinese History in the West: The Illustrated London News Recorded Republic of China 1926-1949, Vol.2. Beijing Times Huawen Publishing House, Beijing.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFei ZQ (ed) (1991) Foreign Scholars on the Opium War and Lin Zexu, Vol.2. Fujian People\u0026rsquo;s Publishing House, Fuzhou.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCoe A (2016) Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in America. Beijing Times Huawen Publishing House, Beijing, p. 171.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCrow C (2022) Four Hundred Million Customers. Jiuzhou Publishing House, Beijing, p. 166.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSaid EW (1979) Orientalism. Vintage Books, New York.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSimpson W (1874) Meeting the Sun: A Journey All Round the World. Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, London.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChristopher H (1975) Illustrated London News: Social History of Victorian Britain. The Book Service, London.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReban S (2008) Political Ideas and Audiences: The Case of Arthur Bryant and the Illustrated London News 1936\u0026ndash;1945. Wiley-Blackwell, Malden.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJackson M (1885) The Pictorial Press: Its Origin and Progress. Hurst and Blackett, London.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYang WY (2022) Reports and Discussions on the Debate of Sino-British Opium Trade and War in British Newspapers. Journal of Yulin Normal University 43(3): 26-31. https://doi.org/10.13792/j.cnki.cn45-1300/z.2022.03.012\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWu Y (2021) The Illustrated London News and Images of Modern China. Doctoral dissertation, China Academy of Art. https://doi.org/10.27626/d.cnki.gzmsc.2021.000001\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJi N (2019) On the Images of Late Qing Chinese in The Illustrated London News (1842-1876). Doctoral dissertation, Xiangtan University. https://doi.org/10.27426/d.cnki.gxtdu.2019.001677\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJi N (2018) A Review of Foreign Studies on The Illustrated London News. Journal of Xiangtan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) 42(6): 156-161. https://doi.org/10.13715/j.cnki.jxupss.2018.06.033\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLiu ZC (2018) The Tea Culture of Late Qing China in The Illustrated London News. Agricultural Archaeology (5): 25-28. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLi M (2018) Image Narrative Research on Late Qing Reports in The Illustrated London News. Master\u0026rsquo;s thesis, Southwest University. \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eZhao SW, Zhang X, Li XY (2018) Xiyang Jing: French Illustrated Newspapers\u0026rsquo; Records of the Late Qing Dynasty (1846-1885), Vol.2. Guangdong People\u0026rsquo;s Publishing House, Guangzhou.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMatthewson, A. (2022) Cartooning China: Punch, Power, \u0026amp; Politics in the Victorian Era. Routledge, London. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003025573\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBolin (1858) Correspondence on the Qing Dynasty (from Guangzhou, February 14, 1858). In L\u0026rsquo;Illustration, April 3, 1858. Reprinted in Zhao SW (ed), Zhang X, Li XY (2018) Xiyang Jing: French Illustrated Newspapers\u0026rsquo; Records of the Late Qing Dynasty (1846-1885), Vol.1. Guangdong People\u0026rsquo;s Publishing House, Guangzhou, p. 106.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnonymous (1880) Le retour des courses \u0026agrave; Shang-Hai. In Journal des Voyages, November 7, 1880. Reprinted in Zhao SW (ed), Zhang X, Li XY (2018) Xiyang Jing: French Illustrated Newspapers\u0026rsquo; Records of the Late Qing Dynasty (1846-1885), Vol.2. Guangdong People\u0026rsquo;s Publishing House, Guangzhou, p. 422.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIngram, H. n.d. The Illustrated London News. British Newspaper Archive. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"humanities-and-social-sciences-communications","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"palcomms","sideBox":"Learn more about [Humanities \u0026 Social Sciences Communications](http://www.nature.com/palcomms/)","snPcode":"41599","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41599/3","title":"Humanities and Social Sciences Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Nature AJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Chinese cuisine, Food images, Chow-chow, Sino-foreign coexistence","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8449735/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8449735/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Illustrated London News\u003c/em\u003e stands as the earliest and most consistent overseas periodical to document China\u0026rsquo;s culinary knowledge through news texts, woodcut illustrations, and print reports. Its coverage encompassed regional ingredients, popular dishes in inland China, and the integration of Western cuisine into local food in areas like Hong Kong. By examining Chinese food culture, the publication offered a more authentic and comprehensive reflection of traditional dietary structures in modern Chinese society, thereby challenging and correcting prior Western biases and misconceptions about Chinese foodways. In colonial settings such as Hong Kong, while locals continued to consume traditional everyday foods like \u0026ldquo;Chow-chow\u0026rdquo;, they also adapted Western foods such as puddings into their culinary practices. This reflects a stable pattern of \u0026ldquo;Sino-foreign coexistence\u0026rdquo; within the local dietary framework. 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