Episode summary
In sixty years China moved from catastrophic famine to feeding 1.4 billion people. This episode asks how that transformation happened - and what it set in motion.
About the guests
Michelle King
Michelle T. King is a Professor and Director of Departmental Culture and Climate. Michelle specializes in modern Chinese gender history and food history. She is the author of Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food (W. W. Norton, 2024) and co-editor of Modern Chinese Foodways (MIT Press, 2025).
Zhang Hongzhou
Zhang Hongzhou is an Assistant Professor, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where his work spans the governance of emerging technologies including AI and biotechnology, and regional and global resource conflicts. He is the author of Securing the Rice Bowl: China and Global Food Security, and published widely in leading journals including the China Quarterly, Global Food Security, and Marine Policy.
Fengwei Liu
Fengwei Liu is Director of FOLU China, the China platform of the Food and Land Use Coalition - a global network working to advance sustainability, equity, and resilience in food and land use systems. She oversees the platform's strategy and programmes, bringing together leading Chinese institutions to strengthen the evidence base for food system policy reform. Prior to FOLU, Fengwei held senior roles at WWF China, the World Food Programme in Myanmar, and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation.
Recommended resources
Securing the Rice Bowl: China and Global Food Security (Zhang Hongzhou, 2019)
Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-Mei and Making of Modern Chinese Food (Michelle King, 2024)
63 Chinese Cuisines: The Complete Guide (Chinese Cooking Demystified, 2024)
(From the Substack: Chinese Cooking Demystified. Link to full article here.)
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