Tag Archives: food

Guest Blog: The Chile Pepper: Mao’s Little Red Spice

Brian Dott received a Master’s degree in Chinese Studies from the University of Michigan and his PhD in Chinese History from the University of Pittsburgh. He teaches in the History Department and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies Program at Whitman … Continue reading

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Making popcorn

The Historical Photographs of China project team were delighted to see in a recently digitised album a sequence of three photographs showing popcorn being made the Chinese way, c.1938:   When this blogger was in Shanghai in 2011, I photographed … Continue reading

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Mid-day meal at a street food kitchen, Peking, 1915-1920

The Historical Photographs of China project was recently kindly given a copy of ‘The Pageant of Peking’.  Published in Shanghai in 1920 and bound in exquisite gold blocked turquoise silk, this coffee (or tea) table book is introduced by Putnam … Continue reading

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Seasonal greetings!

Compliments of the season to all friends of ‘Visualising China‘.  

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Boy with silk animal face hat, Kunming, 1945

Traditionally, animal face hats were made by a maternal grandmother for her grandson. The animal face – especially the large teeth and eyes – would frighten evil spirits away and so protect the infant. The fruit being sold at the … Continue reading

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Drying noodles between sticks

There is an account of the traditional way of making  (‘swinging’) noodles by hand in ‘Classic Food of China’ (1992) by Yan-Kit So:  from dancing the dough to splitting it into noodle strands takes a noodle master about fifteen minutes, … Continue reading

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