Traumatic Terroir: Food, Memory, and the Cultural Revolution in Hunan, China

摘要

Terroir is a term used for foods with unique tastes, properties, and values based on their origins in particular landscapes and production methods. Contrary to the usual marketing of terroir based on idyllic images of peasant life, constructions of terroir in contemporary Hunan, China, make reference to the traumas of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and to the unforgiving landscape of the region. The collective identity and consumerist ideology of modern Hunanese terroir is expressed through culinary tourism in communal canteen-themed restaurants, literary works by Han Shaogong, a noted survivor of the Cultural Revolution, and everyday food practices among peasants. The essay uses the methodologies of history, ethnography, and literary criticismto contribute to debates on historical memory in modern China by showing how the identities of this "traumatic terroir" seek not a nostalgic return to a better past but rather help people navigate the challenges of contemporary market society and anxieties about food safety.