Traditional markets, food circulation and supply, market transformation, and urban food ecologies.
Foodthink Says As May arrives, it is once again the season for foraging mushrooms in the mountains of Yunnan. In recent years, wild vegetables and wild fungi have become increasingly popular. Not only are various premium wild greens and mushrooms appearing in mainstream supermarkets, wet markets, and online fresh produce…
Foodthink’s Perspective Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity. This year’s theme is “Biodiversity for Sustainable Development” (Be part of the plan). For the average person, the most direct way to get involved is through eating. By doing so, we can appreciate the beauty brought by biodiversity, but we…
The Spring Festival holiday has come to an end. What tastes of home did you rediscover this year? In this episode of Food Talk, the team at Foodthink gather to share their culinary memories of the New Year. From Shaanxi to Hainan, and Harbin to Beijing, each region brings its…
In 2016, I had a few failed attempts at grocery shopping at Sanyuanli Market. I only returned recently to visit an exhibition and found that the market had long since found its true calling: as an art installation. Returning after seven years, Sanyuanli has become polished and glamorous. To promote…
Before flowing east into the urban areas of Beijing, the Yongding River forms several U-shaped bends following the mountain terrain; Longjiazhuang and Shuiyuzui villages are situated on opposite banks of the river. A road bridge connects the two villages. Between 29 July and 2 August, extreme rainfall across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei…
“Whenever I arrive in a foreign land, the first thing I do is ask the locals where the market is.” In June this year, mirroring the experiences of food writer Han Liangyi in *Wandering Through the World’s Markets*, I embarked on a journey of markets in Barcelona, Spain. Of the…
Key Takeaways Food safety issues can arise at any stage of the chain. If regulation in other areas fails to keep pace, relying solely on heavy fines for individual vendors is merely treating the symptoms rather than the cause and cannot solve the root problem of food safety. For a…
Over the last forty years, and particularly the last decade, China’s food system has undergone seismic shifts. Many of us have observed and experienced this: traditional wet markets are quietly vanishing from mainstream life, replaced by fresh-food e-commerce and online shopping as the primary sources for urban dwellers; cheap delivery…
In this episode, the Food Talk hosts are joined by an old friend, Shu Meng, who holds a PhD in Sociology from Cornell University. Our discussion takes its starting point from Shu Meng’s popular article, ‘The Bigger the Fridge, the Worse the Diet? The Food System in American Middle-Class Fridges’.…
Nestled among the countless trendy restaurants and cafes of the bustling Fenghuanghui commercial street on Beijing’s East Third Ring Road, there is a vegetable shop called “Ji Shi”. If you have ever passed by, you may have been drawn in by its rustic storefront and understated displays. In this episode,…
