Fu early in her career
Fu Pei-mei's beloved cookbook series
Fu on TTV
Students were asked to select a Chinese cookbook of their choice, from any historical period, in any language, and analyze it as a historical source. This meant delving into the general historical context of its production, as well as probing the specific content of the cookbook in order to glean ideas about its overall purpose, intended audience, and unspoken culinary assumptions.
This project has been directly inspired by my own recent research into the broader historical context of Taiwan's beloved cookbook author and television personality, Fu Pei-mei (1931-2004), pictured above.