Luo Zhiqiang, PhD student, Department of Chinese Literature, National Central University

Published in 2000 in the China Times “Human Realm” supplement, “Many Thanks to the Shi Family” is a culinary tour of China’s Suzhou City; the work was later collected in Lu Yaodong’s I Can Eat It All: Essays on Chinese Food Culture (2007). The essay revisits food and friends from the author’s youth. Enjoying the famed cuisine at Suzhou’s Shi Family Restaurant, Lu recalls the past, his taste buds bringing back memories of restaurants he visited in as a young man. Food wards off hunger and keeps us alive; when emotions are involved, eating becomes an unforgettable experience, a vehicle for reminiscences of home.

Lu Yaodong is a gourmand and historian whose erudition is often revealed in his investigations of food origins. “Many Thanks” spotlights the Shi Family Restaurant, located in Suzhou’s Mudu area. Originally known as the Have-a-Chat Teahouse, the establishment first opened for business in the Qing period. Famed for its delicious “barbel lung soup,” the restaurant has been patronized by many noted figures. One was modern-era politician and calligrapher Yu Youren, who celebrated the dish in a poem, paraphrased here: “When the osmanthus blooms, the world is fragrant; boating on Lake Tai, admiring the flowers along the shore; docking at Mudu, a memorable event; many thanks to the Shi family for its barbel-lung soup.” But “barbel-lung soup” is a misnomer – Lu Yaodong cites sociologist Fei Xiaotong, proving that the fish is a variety of grouper, not barbel, and the soup is prepared with fish livers, not lungs. Lu also references other Qing-era sources to determine the cooking method, a variety of stewing.

In addition to the Shi Family Restaurant, Suzhou is also the home of “Eunuch Alley,” one of the author’s old hangouts. Approximately two hundred meters in length, the alley boasts a number of famous restaurants and foods: Red Goose Restaurant’s stewed-pork with noodles; Pine Crane Tower’s soy-stewed duck with noodles, Wang Four Restaurant’s roast chicken; and Moon Tower’s knife fish, are just a few of the offerings. Lu Yaodong also includes anecdotes about seasonal foods and the literati who enjoyed them, celebrating Suzhou’s scenic beauty and culinary richness. 

In Lu Yaodong’s eyes, food is no small matter; it is an integral part of human life and customs, a record of sociological and cultural changes. Those lacking an experienced and discerning palate or a firm grasp of history would be hard pressed to attain Lu’s appreciation for and understanding of food. His discussion elevates food culture from the commonplace to the sublime. Occasionally, however, Lu sadly admits that some of the foods he enjoyed in his youth “don’t taste the same anymore.” Perhaps it was the atmosphere and memory of the past that added to the foods’ unique flavor, reinforcing impressions in the writer’s mind. Although it’s difficult to re-experience tastes of former years, the flavors have become a part of Lu Yaodong’s memory, concrete details of his life, inspiring him to recreate and relive the past in writing.

Luo Zhiqiang, PhD student, Department of Chinese Literature, National Central University

Lu Yaodong (1933-2006) was a native of Feng County in China’s Jiangsu province. He held doctorates from Hong Kong’s New Asia College Graduate Institute and National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of History, and was awarded a doctorate in history by the R.O.C. Ministry of Education. Lu taught at both National Taiwan University and Chinese University of Hong Kong. He specialized in the history of the “Six Dynasties” period, Chinese tradition, modern historiography, and Chinese dietary culture, opening courses in Chinese dietary history and diet and culture. He was the recipient of the National Magazine Association’s Golden Pen Essay Award, and the National Council of Fine Arts Essay Award.

Lu Yaodong was a gourmet. His works delve into the historical and cultural implications of diet; thus, he is considered a modern pioneer in the field of dietary culture. Zhang Xiaofeng said, “Food writing changed with Lu Yaodong,” the statement both an indication Lu’s importance in the history of essays on Taiwanese dietary culture and an affirmation of the new food-writing style he pioneered. Lu broke away from the nostalgia and sentimentality that characterized earlier writing, introducing elements of textual criticism – historical and literary – in an appeal to the intellect. Characterized by an unassuming attitude and scholarly warmth, Zhang’s essays on dietary culture and related phenomena are exercises in self-reflection, contemplation, and criticism, adding depth to the food essay and elevating cuisine to the level of art and culture. Lu’s essay collections include: Time to Come Again (1971), Where Is Shangri-La? (1974), A Wanderer’s Notes (1977), A Husband’s Tears (1977), Reining in a Horse at the Great Wall (1977), Sword and Plum (1983), That Man (1986), Fried Rice Is All That’s Left (1987), A Chinese Onlooker (1989), and It Doesn't Taste the Same Anymore (1992). His literary treatises include: A Tree of Yearning Outside the Window (1998), Visiting the Past (1999), That New Year’s Day (2000), Seems Like Freedom (2000), and A Big Belly Can Hold a Lot (2001). Treatises on history include: The Development and Evolution of Chinese Communist Historiography (1979), A Crisis in Historiography (1987), Hu Shi and Modern Historians (1998), Wei-Jin Historiography and Other Matters (1998), The Social and Intellectual Basis of Wei-Jin Historiography (2000), From Pingcheng to Luoyang – The s Process of Cultural Transformation in the Northern Wei Dynasty (2000), and Depression and Transcendence – the Era of Sima Qian and Emperor Wu of Han (2007).