The Language of Food: Through the Lens of East Asian Films and Drama invites readers into the fascinating world where food culture and language intersect, revealing how each dish communicates beyond mere taste.

Through East Asian films and television shows, this book uncovers the rich tapestry of 'food languages' embedded within East Asian cultures. Divided into three parts - Base, Ingredients, and Seasoning - this book provides a structured exploration of this phenomenon. The Base section offers philosophical and historical context, while the Ingredients section delves deeper into specific themes, using examples from film and television drama to illustrate the nuanced communication inherent in food culture. Finally, the book is 'seasoned' with linguistic insights and a practical food words glossary, aiding readers in navigating the intricate verbal and cultural nuances at play. This illuminating resource goes beyond the realm of food itself, offering a profound understanding of how each dish carries its language, enriching communication and deepening cultural connections.

This book will captivate students and researchers of East Asian languages, media studies, film studies, food studies, and Korean Wave studies and anyone intrigued by the intricate relationship between food and language.

About the Author

Jieun Kiaer is YBM KF Professor of Korean Linguistics at the University of Oxford. She publishes widely in East Asian language and culture. Her research interests are wide ranging, but she has a particular passion for studying multilingualism and multiculturalism through food. She has published extensively on this topic, with works such as Delicious Words (Routledge 2019) and Womanhood and Cooking in the Inner Chamber (with Niamh Calway 2023).

Loli Kim is a postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. Loli's research on East Asian multimodal communication enables her to work across fields of linguistics, gesture, pragmatics, semantics, food, and fashion, often through the lenses of film and media. Her recent publications include the 2023 winner of the Hendrick Hamel Prize Understanding Korean Film: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (2021, with Jieun Kiaer) and the forthcoming Interpreting Korean Film (2024). She is also the editor of Bloomsbury's new series Foodscaping Asia.

Niamh Calway is a PhD researcher in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford. Niamh's research focuses on the comparative history of East Asian food cultures and ethnographic projects relating to East Asian food in Europe. She co-authored the paper "Translingual Journey of English Words and Methodological Suggestions" (2022, with Jieun Kiaer and Hyejeong Ahn) and the monograph Womanhood and Cooking in the Inner Chamber (2023, with Jieun Kiaer).

Reviews

"In Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu (known in English as Remembrance of Things Past), a mere mention of a simple plain madeleine is enough to send the narrator into rapturous memories of his childhood. If the memory of the tiny clams at the bottom of your dashi broth, the crunch of kurobota pork katsu and shredded cabbage or the stiffening sourness of a favoured kimchi jjigae have the same effect on you, then Jieun Kiaer, Loli Kim and Niamh Calway's The Language of Food will become a favourite of yours. With an invigorating multi-modal approach, the authors explore the intersections and collisions around the language of East Asian food, its technologies and cultures. Combined with a lively visual analysis of cinematic moments of ranging across East Asian cinema from Wong Kar-Wai's beautiful In the Mood for Love to the more recent Apple TV+ series Pachinko, the book's words conjure the flavours of many a delectable edible moment for this reader."

Dr Robert Winstanley-Chesters, University of Edinburgh, UK

Book Information
ISBN 9781032258461
Author Jieun Kiaer
Format Paperback
Page Count 130
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 270g