Syllabus
* Syllabus
The course will begin with a methodological introduction, which will be followed by ten individual lectures focusing on food(s) of particular regional/ethnic areas of Asia (China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Tibet, the Uyghurs and the Mongols) and and will be concluded with two lectures on the topics of the globalization of Asian food. The lectures will be taught online by specialists on the respective regions.
To ensure comparability and to facilitate orientation for students, the area-specific letures will feature a unified structure, consisting of 1. General facts (Main food source and ways of food production, important and typical food items, customs and traditions connected to food) 2. A discussion of area- and culture-specific aspects of food depending on the lecturer’s choice and expertise.
Examination: The course will be concluded with an online test (multiple choice questions). Since this is an overview course, the questions will cover the extent of information provided in the lectures.
* Schedule 15.2. Introduction: Martin Tirala, Ute Wallenböck, Veronika Zikmundová 22.2. Tibet (Ute Wallenböck, Daniel Berounský) 1.3. Mongols (Veronika Zikmundová, Veronika Kapišovská) 6.3. Japan (Jan Sýkora) 15.3. Indonesia (Michaela Budiman) 22.3. India (Martin Hříbek) 29.3. Vietnam (Markéta Lopatková/Barbora Nováková 5.4. Korea (Miriam Löwensteinová) 12.4. Uyghurs (Mukkades Mukhtar) 19.4. China (Lucie Olivová) 26.4. Taiwan (Denisa Hilbertová) 3.5. The Travels of Soy from Manchuria to the Soviet Union (Natalia Ryzhova) 10.5. Asian Food Fusion (Martin Tirala)
Annotation
The course „Asian Foods“ offers an overview of food and food customs in selected Asian regions. To ensure that the selected sample covers various regions accross Asia, the greater part of the lectures will be delivered by specialists in
Asian languages and cultures from the Charles University and the Masaryk University
Food studies have been making rapid progress over the past decades, showing the crucial social, economic, and cultural connections of food. Food has also been a key theme connecting scholars across disciplinary boundaries. In Asian cultures, in particular, food production, preparation and consumption play a key role not only in social interactions, but also in religion, politics, in construction of group identities and many other spheres of life.
The aim of the course is twofold: On the one hand, it provides basic-level information about food and food customs in the
Asian societies, thus broadening the horizon of the Area studies students on Asia in a transregional context. On the other hand, by building on the expertise of specialists in Asian regions, a deeper discussion about aspects of particular relevance for the individual cultures and their importance for the construction of a “national” as well as ”ethnic” identity will be provided.
Due to the different theoretical and methodological approaches of the lecturers, the students will obtain a good sense of the necessary anthropological, sociological and historical tools for the analysis of all aspects of food.
The course will be held in English via MS Teams. No specific knowledge of Asian languages and cultures is required. The course will be useful not only for students of Asian Studies, but also for all students who desire to broaden their knowledge of world cultures. It will be concluded with an examination.