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Abstract
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 symbols such as McDonald's and Starbucks have become symbolic markers of globalization. Non-Western commodities such as Chinese food or Japanese sushi, however, have also been associated with globalization. In postsocialist Bulgaria, Chinese food has become very popular and has been considered “exotic,” and paradoxically a symbol of “Western-ness.” This paper traces the changing consumption practices of Chinese food in Sofia, 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 to evaluate their political and economic position within the global hierarchy during intensive social transformation. Chinese food consumption in Bulgaria, therefore, engages with debates on normalcy and authenticity that offer more nuanced understandings of globalization.
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Yuson Jung
Yuson Jung is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University. Her research interests are in consumption, food, wine industry, globalization, postsocialism and EU integration, with a particular focus on the role of the state in the everyday consumption practices of ordinary consumers. Her work has been published in Anthropological Quarterly and Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, and as a chapter in Food and Everyday Life in Postsocialist Europe (ed. Melissa Caldwell). She is presently finishing her book manuscript Balkan Blues: The Poverty of the State. Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University, 3054 Faculty Administration Building, Detroit, MI 48201, USA ([email protected]).
