Experiencing the ＂West＂ through the ＂East＂ in the Margins of Europe: Chinese Food Consumption in Postsocialist Bulgaria

10.6641/PICCFC.11.2009.15

Yu-Son Jung

Chinese and Northeast Asian Cuisines: Local, National, and Global Foodways.

第11屆（2009 / 10 / 15）

18 - 1-18-24

英文

Globalization often assumes a directionality that is associated with a one-way flow of commodities and ideas from the ＂West＂ to the ＂East.＂ As a result, Western food practices and food symbols such as McDonalds and Starbucks are often perceived as connecting the local to the global, both of which have become symbolic markers of the globalization phenomenon. Non-Western commodities such as Chinese food or Japanese Sushi, however, have also been associated with globalization. In the aftermath of state socialism, Bulgarian consumers started to have access to denied spheres of consumption such as the consumption of ＂other＂ cuisines. This new access enabled them to imagine themselves as being connected to the world and restore their sense of being isolated. One of the most successful ＂other＂ cuisines in Bulgaria has been Chinese food which was considered ＂exotic＂ on the one hand, and ironically the symbol of ＂Western-ness＂ on the other hand. In this paper, I trace the evolution of Chinese food consumption practices in Bulgaria over the past decade to show that the experience of eating ＂other＂ cuisines is not simply to imagine and romanticize the experience of the ＂other.＂ Rather, Bulgarians use Chinese food consumption practices to evaluate their political economic position within the global hierarchy during intensive social transformation. This sheds light into recent scholarship on globalization and consumption studies where the meanings of diverse food practices tend to be explained in terms of localization or domestication. While such approaches provide insights into the seemingly homogenizing forces of globalization, by favoring the diverse local interpretations in the everyday life, they overlook how food practices are also intimately related to positioning one and one’s citizenship in the global order of space and time. The goal of this paper, then, is to suggest that while non-Western commodities and practices become global symbols, their meanings are nonetheless filtered through a Western lens that offers the hegemonic standards of modern consumption practices.