Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities

Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities

Zhang, Gaoheng

Paperback

Series: Critical Studies in Italian Migrations

AnthropologyGeneral Political ScienceItalian History

ISBN10: 1531512178
ISBN13: 9781531512170
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Published: Oct 7 2025
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.81
Height: 0.61 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

WINNER, 2026 AUPresses BOOK JACKET, & JOURNAL SHOW, JACKETS & COVERS

Designs a novel analytical framework to approach transcultural food mobilities, a culinary phenomenon that has been with us for decades as a result of colonialism and globalization

Why is it surprising for some of us to read the pairing of Chinese with pizzas and Italian with dumplings, such as proposed in the book's title? After all, in some regions of the two countries, Italians eat frequently dumplings, and Chinese frequently make baked, steamed, or fried flatbread with toppings or fillings. Furthermore, when dumplings are made in Italy by Chinese migrants or Chinese Italians, or when pizzas are made in China by Italian migrants, Chinese Italians, or Chinese without apparent ties with Italy, are these culinary products Chinese, Italian, Chinese-Italian, or something else? Why do we need to care for such labeling dilemmas?

This book shows how China-Italy food mobilities relayed in popular culture helped forge Chi-nese and Italians' socioeconomic identities in recent decades by fundamentally shaping contempo-rary Chinese and Italian consumer cultures. This book addresses China-Italy food cultures against the backdrops of two epoch-making socioeconomic processes. During the 1980s, Chinese cuisine became the first non-European food widely available in Italy, thanks to the widespread presence of Chinese eateries. Only American fast food, which established itself in Italy around the same time, enjoyed comparable popularity as a destination for Italian culinary tourism. Meanwhile, in the early 1990s, together with American hamburgers and fried chicken, the American food chain Pizza Hut's pizzas and spaghetti were the first non-Asian foods that post-Mao Chinese customers recognized as Western. The book proposes a critical framework that analyzes transcultural food mobilities by seriously assessing the confluence of diverse mobilities and their impact on food cultures. Ulti-mately, the study shows that a sophisticated interpretation of transcultural food mobilities can help address alterity and build understanding in a world of increasing political and cultural polarization.

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