Has Chinese cuisine survived six tumultuous decades of Communist rule?
Over his distinguished career, Sidney Mintz, a Hopkins professor emeritus of anthropology, has chronicled cultures and their foodways with the rigor of a scientist and the passion of a gourmet. His deepest expertise may lie in the Caribbean, but he’s spent his share of time in Hong Kong and China. Asked via e-mail to share his impressions, Mintz replied with a crisp 981-word essay. It includes the following: “Among the joys of eating food in China is the variety of restaurants, and the role of family in how the Chinese eat. It is at table that children learn to become adults; at table that babies meet their grandparents; at table that people display their civilization and communicate it. To watch the giver of a restaurant banquet — some paterfamilias welcoming the family of a son’s fiancée, celebrating a grandchild’s birth, or just treating friends — is to get a sober lesson in etiquette, self-discipline, and joy…. “Maoist excesses nearly destroyed completely the glories of Chinese c
