The Contemporary Dissemination of Qing Tuan and Tang Tuan from China to New Zealand

Abstract

“Food is culture” (Montanari, 2006, p. xi). From the moment humans selectively grow crops in their respective territories to the moment humans choose food according to their own preferences, no matter how natural the original intention is, it is a cultural choice. This dissertation explores the socio- cultural impact of qing tuan (青团) and tang tuan(汤团), two sweets that carry important and distinct symbolic meanings for Chinese people; it also studies the changes in the new cooking environment. Qing tuan is a traditional green glutinous rice ball filled with sweet bean paste. In China, qing tuan is enjoyed by people during the Qing Ming Festival (Tomb-sweeping Day) and the Cold Food Festival. Tang tuan, another white glutinous rice ball, is served during China’s Lantern Festival and has deep cultural roots in Chinese culinary traditions. As these delicacies cross borders, they are transformed by local ingredients, flavours and cultural practices. In my dissertation, I use a relativist ontology, a constructivist epistemology, and a subjectivism paradigm. The autoethnographic methodology and symbolic interactionism approach will be based on my dual identity of growing up in Shanghai, China, and later living and working in Auckland, New Zealand. This allows me to express my emotions, memories, and nostalgia, analysing how qing tuan and tang tuan are perceived, consumed and integrated into a multicultural environment, and this leads to my findings and answers. By exploring the journey of qing tuan and tang tuan from China to New Zealand, this research helps understand how foods act as cultural ambassadors and how they evolve within diaspora communities, and highlights the dynamic interplay between culinary traditions and globalisation. In doing so, this research examines the impact of migration on our personal connection to traditional cultural foods.