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Xu, G. (2021)

Pepper to sea cucumbers: Chinese gustatory revolution in global history, 900-1840

Doctoral Thesis
In this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namely: Why did two seemingly irrelevant edibles, pepper and sea cucumbers, feature so prominently in Southeast Asian exports to China in the early modern period? I approach this question through an intersection of Chinese cultural history and Asian maritime history. I argue that pepper and sea cucumbers represented two distinct Chinese food cultures, which became important in two different stages. Pepper became a popular hot spice in Chinese cuisine during the Mongol Yuan period, when the Mongol Conquest of China and Persia created a trans-Indian Ocean empire and facilitated the circulation of pepper from South India to China. Sea cucumbers became a coveted sea delicacy in Chinese high cuisine in a much later stage, roughly from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, in association with the expansions of the Manchus, the Dutch, and the British in the areas around the China...Show moreIn this study, I aim to address a long-standing question in Southeast Asian historiography, namely: Why did two seemingly irrelevant edibles, pepper and sea cucumbers, feature so prominently in Southeast Asian exports to China in the early modern period? I approach this question through an intersection of Chinese cultural history and Asian maritime history. I argue that pepper and sea cucumbers represented two distinct Chinese food cultures, which became important in two different stages. Pepper became a popular hot spice in Chinese cuisine during the Mongol Yuan period, when the Mongol Conquest of China and Persia created a trans-Indian Ocean empire and facilitated the circulation of pepper from South India to China. Sea cucumbers became a coveted sea delicacy in Chinese high cuisine in a much later stage, roughly from the late sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, in association with the expansions of the Manchus, the Dutch, and the British in the areas around the China Seas. Between these two stages, there was a gustatory revolution energised by debates in Chinese medicine from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Through that revolution, a transformation from the world of pepper to the world of sea cucumbers took place.
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Spices and Aromatics
Warming the Centre
Trans-Indian Ocean Perspective
Jin-Yuan Medical Masters
Nourishing Yin
Warming and Replenishing
Marine Products
Broth with a Xian Flavour
Cross-China Seas World
The Marege and the Kayu Jawa
All authors
Xu, G.
Supervisor
Gerritsen, A.T.
Co-supervisor
Lin, F.
Committee
Bian, H.; De Weerdt, H.; Gommans, J.; tagliacozzo, E.
Qualification
Doctor (dr.)
Awarding Institution
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
Date
2021-11-10

Funding

Sponsorship
The Ph.D. project is financed by the Hulsewé-Wazniewski Foundation (Hulsewé- Wazniewski Stichting, HWS) for the advancement of teaching and research in the archaeology, art, and material culture of China at Leiden University.