The French epicure and gastronome Brillat-Savarin declared, "Tell
me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are." Wenying Xu
infuses this notion with cultural-political energy by extending it
to an ethnic group known for its cuisines: Asian Americans. She
begins with the general argument that eating is a means of
becoming-not simply in the sense of nourishment but more
importantly of what we choose to eat, what we can afford to eat,
what we secretly crave but are ashamed to eat in front of others,
and how we eat. Food, as the most significant medium of traffic
between the inside and outside of our bodies, organizes, signifies,
and legitimates our sense of self and distinguishes us from others,
who practice different foodways. Narrowing her scope, Xu reveals
how cooking, eating, and food fashion Asian American identities in
terms of race/ethnicity, gender, class, diaspora, and sexuality.
She provides lucid and informed interpretations of seven Asian
American writers (John Okada, Joy Kogawa, Frank Chin, Li-Young Lee,
David Wong Louie, Mei Ng, and Monique Truong) and places these
identity issues in the fascinating spaces of food, hunger,
consumption, appetite, desire, and orality. Most literary critics
perceive alimentary references as narrative strategies or part of
the background; Xu takes food as the central site of cultural and
political struggles waged in the seemingly private domain of desire
in the lives of Asian Americans.
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