Instructor: Assoc. Prof. Michael Stanley-Baker
Email: msb@ntu.edu.sg
Office: 05-12 SoH, by appointment

Mondays 09:30-12:30
Hive 02-01, LHS-TR+47 (May change)

Course Aims

Food constitutes a vital aspect of Chinese culture both in China and beyond. It forms a significant aspect of heritage identification for many ethnic communities in Singapore.

This course uses the lens of food to explore Chinese history and various historical methodologies.  Students will assess the complex ways that food connects not only to daily life, through cooking and eating, as spice and as medicine, from the expression and formation of the self to the mediation of social relationship, but to larger histories of trade, ecology, medicine, religion, agriculture, travel and ethnic identity.

You will analyse the deep history of food in China from antiquity to the present, exploring the rich culture of food within China, its longer-durée migration through East and SE Asia, and its rapid spread to the rest of the world in recent past. As you study food through the lenses of: agriculture, medicine, flavoring and sensory history, the history of practice such as techniques of cooking (which we may try ourselves), religion, cosmography, regional features, food trade, and Chinese food in the world, you will come to understand food not as an object on the tongue, but as a doorway to analyzing the world around you, past and present. Capitalizing on the sensory qualities of food, you will produce multi-media assignments describing how the past survives in, or has been transformed by, the present.

The course uses the study of dishes and drinks in China as a gateway to not just understand the variety of historiographical approaches to Chinese society but also illuminate how our dietary habits and ways of living here and now are themselves forms of received historical practice.

Content and Structure

In this course, you will study Chinese history from the perspective of food and food practices.  You will learn and apply critical perspectives from which to analyse the social, and ethnic importance and function of Chinese foodways.

The course will progress chronologically from pre-Imperial China to modern times, highlighting different periods of transition. However the course is about more than different time periods of China. Each lesson uses different theoretical and critical approaches, which will help you reflect not only on changes in Chinese foodways over time, but also different historical methods suitable to different primary sources and topics. Classes will cover pre-imperial, imperial, early modern and modern periods, and themes such as agriculture, ecology, religion, medicine, recipe cultures, regional history, technology, migration and globalisation. Some attention will also be given to regional cuisines including SE Asia. The course will also draw on a wide variety of primary sources.  By reflecting on these you will learn how to interpret different primary source materials. You will present food as foci of historical reflection, and will make multi-media presentations.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Through this course, you (as a student) will:

1.      Investigate and describe the history of food in China, and compare various historical methods to study food in China, e.g. material culture, agricultural history, history of science, gender, economics, class, ethnicity– and how they draw on different data to approach a common subject.

2.      Develop critical analytical skills such as assessing relevant sources (both primary and secondary) and extrapolating from historical knowledge to interpret contemporary experience.

3.      Develop your writing skills to present scholarly research with convincing arguments that draw on varied and relevant and high-quality data, with proper citations.

4.      Create innovative research presentations (multimedia) in the manner of online food blogs.

5.      Coordinate with others to create a combined presentation based on your individual work.

Assessment

• Class Participation                  15%
• Multi-media Presentation     10%
• In-class Writing                      15%
• Food with Footnotes               25%
• Final Project                            30%
• Research Proposal       5%

Class Participation (15%)

This covers your contribution to class discussions both in the classroom and online, and how you follow discussion and raise related themes. Do you volunteer new ideas, suggestions, or ask penetrating questions of your peers or the instructor? Do you push the conversation in useful new directions?

In addition to in-class discussion, you will also be expected to participate online on the course page by 11:59 pm the night before class starts. Post 1 question or comment about the readings (primary or secondary sources) on the Facebook entry for that week (see below).  Late posts will not be counted.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/886808620391557

Multi-media presentation: Due Mar 15 (10%)

Prepare a short video clip (2 minutes) that analyses an image from the readings or lectures in the Thematic portion of the syllabus. Due by Sunday March 15 11:59 PM, the beginning of week 9. 

The video should roll the bibliography as credits at end of film, and it should also be listed in the description of the video.

Upload a transcript of your script to NTULearn, with footnotes and bibliography.

In-class Writing Exercises (15%)

You will be given open-book writing exercises in class, which will allow you to practice argument construction, basic research, writing style and bibliographic citation.  One of these will be a blog about your Food with Footnotes presentation.

Research Proposal, Due Mar 23, 08:00am (5%)

Submit a summary proposal of your final project (max 1 double-spaced page, 300 words) including the research question, background, and tentative argument.  Cite your sources to show how they will support your argument. In addition to the summary, append a bibliography with 10 or more items from outside the syllabus, divided into primary and secondary sources.

Use this link to upload:
https://www.dropbox.com/request/OD03rCqOaCJBNCQ4PlyN

Once you’ve submitted your proposal, use this link to make an appointment to discuss your proposal:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zx_npBtKi237MSzrEBhV5zF1cpOlB5dhbu79qDECZmk/edit?gid=830684891#gid=830684891&range=A1

Final Project, Due Apr 17, 23:59 (in NTULearn) (30%)

The research project combines course readings/lectures and your own research to explore a specific topic on the history of food in China. The major project should be a polished piece that demonstrates your skills in research and critical analysis. It should include interpretation of several primary sources, whether in translation or original.  An excellent project will also position the argument in relation to different approaches to the study of Chinese food history.  Please use the referencing style posted in Blackboard.

It may take either of the following forms:

1. A written paper of 10 double-spaced pages (2500 words)
2. A 6 minute video, with full bibliography. The script (annotated with footnotes and bibliography) should be uploaded to NTU Learn.  The video should be posted on the course site.

Food with Footnotes: Presentation and Blog (25%)

• Team Presentation: SIGN UP HERE
• PDF of Presentations:  UPLOAD  TO NTULearn (Use filename:  HH2031.26_WeekX_YourName)
• Course Blogsite (This Site)
  https://ntu-hh3002.shorthandstories.com/hh2031-main-homepage-2026/index.html

Once during the semester, students will make a group presentation in teams of three to four. Each student will present the history of one food item. You should coordinate a menu with each other for that day.  The food must be relevant to the day’s reading, and during the presentation you must make an argument for why the food is relevant to the readings of the day. 

You and your team should bring the food to class, and serve to the class as the first activity each class.  Present while everyone is sampling your meal.

Your presentation should describe the food’s history and why you found it an interesting case. You will be individually graded on:

1. Relevance: Why is it relevant to the week’s readings? What historical topics does it speak to?
2. Historical Contextualisation:
   _{i. Describe the differences between the food we are eating, what your historical evidence describes of the food’s history.  Is it the same species of grain?
   ii. How have preparations changed?
   iii. How has access to the food or to the ingredients changed?
   iv. Does it show any regional characteristics?
   v. How has the meaning of the food, or consumer’s experience of it, changed?}
3. Use of Sources
   _{i. Provide a bibliography.
   ii. Discuss the primary sources you’ve used.  A recipe? Poem? Biography or tale? Why did you choose them? What do they tell you? What do they conceal?
   iii. Are there any arguments ongoing in historical literature about this food?}
4. The audience should come away with a sense of the history of the food itself, and also of the variety of sources you’ve drawn on to discuss it.

Your group grade will be based on the coherence and group organisation.

5 minutes presentation per person max, the entire presentation should not exceed 20 minutes. A timer will be used. No repetition of dishes allowed, so sign up to the google sheet by the end of class in week 2 (First come first served!). Nonya or Peranakan food must demonstrate a clear historical linkage to earlier Chinese versions from the mainland, and focus must be on their development both historically and locally.  Indonesian food must demonstrate a relationship to Chinese food.

Primary sources in Indonesian are allowed, but .pdfs of these must be submitted as secondary appendix, with a google translation for the prof.

Before class begins on the day of your presentation, you must post the following on the class website.

1. A blog on the class website which we can follow along while you present
2. This should include a linked bibliography – that is your bibliography should include hyperlinks to all the articles.  The bibliography must use the class stylesheet.

Your individual score may vary based on feedback about your contributions to the group project.

How-to post your Food-with-Footnotes Blogpost

Once you have been invited to be a team member in the HH2031 Shorthand, click on a "New Story" at the dashboard, and take it from there.

Once you have published your story, add it to the "Food with Footnotes 2026" collection.

You may refer to this guide to get started.