Essay Writing Software

Home Software  Essay Shuffler

Essay Shuffler

Rewritten Text

Moreover, Taiwanese immigrant women like to prepare and cook food with their husband and children while imparting Taiwanese food and cultural values through personal stories. Thus, balancing different taste preferences and arranging daily food menus in intercultural spousal relations and mixed-culture families is not an easy process. Moreover, the above discussions also reveal the special role played by immigrant women in mixed-culture families, especially in terms of everyday and family food arrangements. Home food making, belonging, and identity negotiation in Belgian Taiwanese immigrant women’s everyday food practices

Hsien-Ming Lin, Ching Lin Pang & Da-Chi Liao

Journal of Ethnic Foods volume 7, Article number: 29 (2020) Cite this article

5471 Accesses

3 Citations

2 Altmetric

Metricsdetails

Abstract

This article examines the experiences of (re)producing home food in the daily life and food practices of Belgian Taiwanese immigrant women. Furthermore, by organizing and regularly participating in activities involving sharing and eating food with other Taiwanese immigrant women, these food-sharing events and behaviors also become an important social networking strategy that allows them to make, expand, and cultivate friendships; in addition, food sharing activities also assist the participants to construct a collective social identity of being immigrant mothers/housewives in a foreign land. However, living in different cultural contexts, people may have distinct cuisine cultures, taste preferences, and food systems. Buying Taiwanese food ingredients presents a genuine challenge, as Chinese and Asian supermarkets in Belgium do not carry all Taiwanese food items. The research is based on ethnography—both online and offline—and qualitative semi-structured interviews with seventeen Taiwanese immigrant women/housewives in Belgium. This means that different living circumstances and the level of local residents’ tolerance regarding cultural/ethnic differences and immigrant groups both have further and different impacts on immigrants’ attitude toward their own cultures, ethnic backgrounds, and food consumption habits [13, 14].

In addition, some studies have attempted to examine the roles that home/ethnic foods play in immigrants’ homemaking experiences. Moreover, from the viewpoint of social identity theory, home/ethnic foods are vital resources and references used by people in delineating the ethnic boundaries that ethnically distinguish between “us” and “others,” since different ethnic groups have their own special food cuisine cultures and food consumption habits. They took pan-Chinese immigrant women living in Antwerp as the research subject and examined what consuming traditional Chinese and home foods meant to them during their lives in Belgium. These difficulties and challenges may further result in some negative emotional impacts [5, 6]. In this regard, for some people, eating home and ethnic foods have become the strategy for performing their ethnicity or social group identity [12]. Compared with people who live in their home country, immigrants may face far more challenges and difficulties when making their home/ethnic foods in their migrant life, since it is often difficult to find all of the food ingredients they need in the host society [1]. This downplaying strategy may further lower immigrants’ willingness to consume home/ethnic foods in their immigrant life. This means that home/ethnic foods have become useful tools used by immigrants to cultivate and manage their friendships and social networks in the host society, since foreigners may face more difficulties than their local counterparts in meeting new people and making new friends [15]. Equally diverse is the personal attachment of ethnonational identity toward the notion of home food, as discussions of childhood memories, ethnonational identity negotiation, and cultural markers are accompanied by critical reflection on the social constructed nature of home/ethnic foods in the migration contexts.

Introduction

In this study, the authors take Taiwanese immigrant women in Belgium as the research subject, examining their daily food practices and experiences of making home/ethnic foods while living in a foreign land. However, as noted above, immigrants may face more difficulties and challenges when making and eating home/ethnic foods compared with their local counterparts in the host society. Moreover, these authors noted that immigrant women’s family and power position could be demonstrated through the consequences of whether their family members accept the foods cooked by their immigrant family members, especially when these foods are prepared and presented on the family’s dining table [4].

Accordingly, immigrant women not only play vital roles in their family’s daily diet and food arrangements, but also face more difficulties related to cooking and consuming their home/ethnic foods in the daily food practices than their western and homeland counterparts. Their findings suggested that eating Chinese ethnic/home foods in daily life make these Chinese immigrant women obtain the “home feelings,” letting them feel that they are “being at home” even though they have already left their home countries, and lived in the foreign land of Belgium for years. In addition, by preparing and eating Chinese foods with their Belgian family members and children, the family food arrangements and home/ethnic foods consumption practices not only increase their personal identity of being an immigrant mother in the host society, but also help them to regard Belgium as their “home” rather than a temporary living place [16].

The above discussions have demonstrated several important aspects. The abovementioned discussions provide strong support to authors in the present study of the reason why we take Taiwanese immigrant women in Belgium as the research subject and examine their daily home/ethnic foods practices, as well as other related issues regarding their sense of belonging, the ethnonational identity negotiation, and homemaking experiences.

Home/ethnic foods in the migration context: belonging, identity, and homemaking

In this section, the authors will discuss the notion of home/ethnic foods and other related dimensions regarding belonging, identity, and homemaking, particularly in the migration context. Consequently, many Taiwanese immigrant women and housewives in this study share similar experiences of growing specific foods in their home garden; moreover, by doing so, they also transform their gardens in their private homes into transnational social spaces, and thereby connect their previous lived experiences and homeland memories with their present living circumstances. Moreover, Duruz indicated that people may attach their sense of belonging to, or even construct place-identity with, a particular place or space by utilizing specific foods as their linkages or references [10]. For example, many Taiwanese people construct some part of their “Taiwanese identity” or show their “Taiwanese” ethnicity by drinking the world-wide famous Taiwanese beverage of “bubble teas” (zhēn zhū nǎi chá, 珍珠奶茶) since these beverages already have been regarded as one of the important compositions that constituted the “Taiwanese” cuisine culture [11]. Gunew further argued that consuming home/ethnic foods is a crucial strategy adopted by immigrants to connect their previous life with their present one [9]. Thus, in this study, the authors choose Taiwanese immigrant women in Belgium as the research subject, examining their home food practices in the daily life while living in a foreign land and the meanings ascribed to home food in the migration context. Thus, Weller and Turkon applied the perspective of Tse to examine how different living circumstances in the host society may further influence immigrants’ willingness and attitudes toward making and eating their home/ethnic foods in a foreign land. The behavior of eating home/ethnic foods not only provides immigrants with necessary nutrition; the tastes of home/ethnic foods can also further release and decrease the emotions of nostalgia. In this regard, immigrants refer to foods derived from their home country as “comfort foods” in their foreign life, since these foods provide positive psychological effects and further improve people’s wellbeing. These authors found that when immigrants face discrimination in the host society due to their immigrant or ethnic minority backgrounds, immigrants may increase the possibility of choosing the “downplaying” strategy to decrease the importance of their ethnic characteristics, for example, by insisting on speaking the host society’s local language in front of others rather their mother tongue. For example, Schermuly and Forbes-Mewett found that many immigrants consider sharing traditional or ethnic foods from their home country with friends or neighbors in the host society to be a useful strategy for expanding their social networks and cultivating interpersonal relations in their immigrant life. It is important to note here that the definition of food practice in this article encompasses any kind of activity in which food is involved. Participants’ food practices involve buying, growing, making, and sharing food. In addition, we aim to fill the research gap regarding the Taiwanese immigrant community in Belgium, while considering the fact that immigrant women do constitute the majority in this minority community. However, the process does not only involve a series of negotiation and communication procedures between/among family members; as Bove et al. Moreover, Gu further pointed out that in most intercultural marriages and mixed-culture families, Asian immigrant women take on the majority of the responsibility, including domestic work, raising children, caregiving, and preparing food for the family on a daily basis. Thus, the meanings and functions of home food for immigrants go beyond its status as food and necessary nutrition, however, further encompass some other social and emotional functions. already pointed out, Asian immigrant women take on the majority of domestic and family food arrangement work in the migration context, as well as in mixed-culture families, meaning that immigrant women may experience more pressures than their western spouses (in most cases, western men) regarding this issues [3]. Before entering into the discussion regarding the Taiwanese immigrant community in Belgium, in the next section, the authors will further review and discuss cuisine cultures in Taiwan, particularly through the lens of ethnicity. In this regard, since immigrant women do play special roles as regards their family’s daily food and diet arrangements, Seto-Suh noted that scholars should pay more attention on applying gendered and women’s perspectives when examining the role played by home/ethnic foods during immigrants’ international movement and adjustment journeys [7]. However, what is meant by “Taiwanese” food varies substantially between participants, as do the associated emotional and ethnic meanings. Ore pointed out that consuming home/ethnic foods makes several positive impacts on immigrants. Moreover, Liu and Pang argued that in immigrants’ homemaking processes, home/ethnic foods have a double-sided effect: on the one hand, these foods can assist immigrants to connect their previous and present life experiences, while on the other hand, eating and consuming home/ethnic foods can further help immigrants to construct their new place-identity and sense of belonging in the host society. Firstly, the meanings of “home food” for people are not static but dynamic; when people’s living circumstances change, the meanings of home food for them may also change. In terms of the relations between home/ethnic foods and the sense of belonging in immigrant life, Vignolles and Pichon found that eating home and ethnic foods can successfully reduce immigrants’ sense of loss and up-rootedness and further enhancing their sense of belonging toward their host society and immigrant life [8]. This is the reason why D’Sylva and Beagan indicated that daily food arrangements and the negotiation of different tastes in intercultural spousal relations could be regarded as the reflection of immigrant women’s position and its power hierarchy within the family. Their subjective meaning-making regarding home foods, especially in the immigrant context, is also explored.

Why is making or eating home foods important for immigrants? Many scholars have tried to explain the role that home/ethnic foods play in immigrants’ international movement and adjustment journeys. Thus, arranging family’s daily diet and, in the process, balancing the different taste preferences among family members are two of the vital tasks for immigrant women, especially in intercultural or mixed-culture families [2]. Several things were stated to account for the taste of Taiwanese food, such as using certain condiments or the Ta Tung rice cooker.

Original Text

Home food making, belonging, and identity negotiation in Belgian Taiwanese immigrant women’s everyday food practices

Hsien-Ming Lin, Ching Lin Pang & Da-Chi Liao

Journal of Ethnic Foods volume 7, Article number: 29 (2020) Cite this article

5471 Accesses

3 Citations

2 Altmetric

Metricsdetails

Abstract

This article examines the experiences of (re)producing home food in the daily life and food practices of Belgian Taiwanese immigrant women. The research is based on ethnography—both online and offline—and qualitative semi-structured interviews with seventeen Taiwanese immigrant women/housewives in Belgium. Participants’ food practices involve buying, growing, making, and sharing food. Buying Taiwanese food ingredients presents a genuine challenge, as Chinese and Asian supermarkets in Belgium do not carry all Taiwanese food items. Consequently, many Taiwanese immigrant women and housewives in this study share similar experiences of growing specific foods in their home garden; moreover, by doing so, they also transform their gardens in their private homes into transnational social spaces, and thereby connect their previous lived experiences and homeland memories with their present living circumstances. Moreover, Taiwanese immigrant women like to prepare and cook food with their husband and children while imparting Taiwanese food and cultural values through personal stories. Furthermore, by organizing and regularly participating in activities involving sharing and eating food with other Taiwanese immigrant women, these food-sharing events and behaviors also become an important social networking strategy that allows them to make, expand, and cultivate friendships; in addition, food sharing activities also assist the participants to construct a collective social identity of being immigrant mothers/housewives in a foreign land. However, what is meant by “Taiwanese” food varies substantially between participants, as do the associated emotional and ethnic meanings. Several things were stated to account for the taste of Taiwanese food, such as using certain condiments or the Ta Tung rice cooker. Equally diverse is the personal attachment of ethnonational identity toward the notion of home food, as discussions of childhood memories, ethnonational identity negotiation, and cultural markers are accompanied by critical reflection on the social constructed nature of home/ethnic foods in the migration contexts.

Introduction

In this study, the authors take Taiwanese immigrant women in Belgium as the research subject, examining their daily food practices and experiences of making home/ethnic foods while living in a foreign land. Their subjective meaning-making regarding home foods, especially in the immigrant context, is also explored.

Why is making or eating home foods important for immigrants? Many scholars have tried to explain the role that home/ethnic foods play in immigrants’ international movement and adjustment journeys. Ore pointed out that consuming home/ethnic foods makes several positive impacts on immigrants. The behavior of eating home/ethnic foods not only provides immigrants with necessary nutrition; the tastes of home/ethnic foods can also further release and decrease the emotions of nostalgia. In this regard, immigrants refer to foods derived from their home country as “comfort foods” in their foreign life, since these foods provide positive psychological effects and further improve people’s wellbeing. Compared with people who live in their home country, immigrants may face far more challenges and difficulties when making their home/ethnic foods in their migrant life, since it is often difficult to find all of the food ingredients they need in the host society [1]. Moreover, Gu further pointed out that in most intercultural marriages and mixed-culture families, Asian immigrant women take on the majority of the responsibility, including domestic work, raising children, caregiving, and preparing food for the family on a daily basis. Thus, arranging family’s daily diet and, in the process, balancing the different taste preferences among family members are two of the vital tasks for immigrant women, especially in intercultural or mixed-culture families [2]. However, living in different cultural contexts, people may have distinct cuisine cultures, taste preferences, and food systems. Thus, balancing different taste preferences and arranging daily food menus in intercultural spousal relations and mixed-culture families is not an easy process. However, the process does not only involve a series of negotiation and communication procedures between/among family members; as Bove et al. already pointed out, Asian immigrant women take on the majority of domestic and family food arrangement work in the migration context, as well as in mixed-culture families, meaning that immigrant women may experience more pressures than their western spouses (in most cases, western men) regarding this issues [3]. This is the reason why D’Sylva and Beagan indicated that daily food arrangements and the negotiation of different tastes in intercultural spousal relations could be regarded as the reflection of immigrant women’s position and its power hierarchy within the family. Moreover, these authors noted that immigrant women’s family and power position could be demonstrated through the consequences of whether their family members accept the foods cooked by their immigrant family members, especially when these foods are prepared and presented on the family’s dining table [4].

Accordingly, immigrant women not only play vital roles in their family’s daily diet and food arrangements, but also face more difficulties related to cooking and consuming their home/ethnic foods in the daily food practices than their western and homeland counterparts. These difficulties and challenges may further result in some negative emotional impacts [5, 6]. In this regard, since immigrant women do play special roles as regards their family’s daily food and diet arrangements, Seto-Suh noted that scholars should pay more attention on applying gendered and women’s perspectives when examining the role played by home/ethnic foods during immigrants’ international movement and adjustment journeys [7]. The abovementioned discussions provide strong support to authors in the present study of the reason why we take Taiwanese immigrant women in Belgium as the research subject and examine their daily home/ethnic foods practices, as well as other related issues regarding their sense of belonging, the ethnonational identity negotiation, and homemaking experiences.

Home/ethnic foods in the migration context: belonging, identity, and homemaking

In this section, the authors will discuss the notion of home/ethnic foods and other related dimensions regarding belonging, identity, and homemaking, particularly in the migration context. In terms of the relations between home/ethnic foods and the sense of belonging in immigrant life, Vignolles and Pichon found that eating home and ethnic foods can successfully reduce immigrants’ sense of loss and up-rootedness and further enhancing their sense of belonging toward their host society and immigrant life [8]. Gunew further argued that consuming home/ethnic foods is a crucial strategy adopted by immigrants to connect their previous life with their present one [9]. Moreover, Duruz indicated that people may attach their sense of belonging to, or even construct place-identity with, a particular place or space by utilizing specific foods as their linkages or references [10]. For example, many Taiwanese people construct some part of their “Taiwanese identity” or show their “Taiwanese” ethnicity by drinking the world-wide famous Taiwanese beverage of “bubble teas” (zhēn zhū nǎi chá, 珍珠奶茶) since these beverages already have been regarded as one of the important compositions that constituted the “Taiwanese” cuisine culture [11]. Moreover, from the viewpoint of social identity theory, home/ethnic foods are vital resources and references used by people in delineating the ethnic boundaries that ethnically distinguish between “us” and “others,” since different ethnic groups have their own special food cuisine cultures and food consumption habits. In this regard, for some people, eating home and ethnic foods have become the strategy for performing their ethnicity or social group identity [12]. However, as noted above, immigrants may face more difficulties and challenges when making and eating home/ethnic foods compared with their local counterparts in the host society. Thus, Weller and Turkon applied the perspective of Tse to examine how different living circumstances in the host society may further influence immigrants’ willingness and attitudes toward making and eating their home/ethnic foods in a foreign land. These authors found that when immigrants face discrimination in the host society due to their immigrant or ethnic minority backgrounds, immigrants may increase the possibility of choosing the “downplaying” strategy to decrease the importance of their ethnic characteristics, for example, by insisting on speaking the host society’s local language in front of others rather their mother tongue. This downplaying strategy may further lower immigrants’ willingness to consume home/ethnic foods in their immigrant life. This means that different living circumstances and the level of local residents’ tolerance regarding cultural/ethnic differences and immigrant groups both have further and different impacts on immigrants’ attitude toward their own cultures, ethnic backgrounds, and food consumption habits [13, 14].

In addition, some studies have attempted to examine the roles that home/ethnic foods play in immigrants’ homemaking experiences. For example, Schermuly and Forbes-Mewett found that many immigrants consider sharing traditional or ethnic foods from their home country with friends or neighbors in the host society to be a useful strategy for expanding their social networks and cultivating interpersonal relations in their immigrant life. This means that home/ethnic foods have become useful tools used by immigrants to cultivate and manage their friendships and social networks in the host society, since foreigners may face more difficulties than their local counterparts in meeting new people and making new friends [15]. Moreover, Liu and Pang argued that in immigrants’ homemaking processes, home/ethnic foods have a double-sided effect: on the one hand, these foods can assist immigrants to connect their previous and present life experiences, while on the other hand, eating and consuming home/ethnic foods can further help immigrants to construct their new place-identity and sense of belonging in the host society. They took pan-Chinese immigrant women living in Antwerp as the research subject and examined what consuming traditional Chinese and home foods meant to them during their lives in Belgium. Their findings suggested that eating Chinese ethnic/home foods in daily life make these Chinese immigrant women obtain the “home feelings,” letting them feel that they are “being at home” even though they have already left their home countries, and lived in the foreign land of Belgium for years. In addition, by preparing and eating Chinese foods with their Belgian family members and children, the family food arrangements and home/ethnic foods consumption practices not only increase their personal identity of being an immigrant mother in the host society, but also help them to regard Belgium as their “home” rather than a temporary living place [16].

The above discussions have demonstrated several important aspects. Firstly, the meanings of “home food” for people are not static but dynamic; when people’s living circumstances change, the meanings of home food for them may also change. Thus, the meanings and functions of home food for immigrants go beyond its status as food and necessary nutrition, however, further encompass some other social and emotional functions. Moreover, the above discussions also reveal the special role played by immigrant women in mixed-culture families, especially in terms of everyday and family food arrangements. In addition, we aim to fill the research gap regarding the Taiwanese immigrant community in Belgium, while considering the fact that immigrant women do constitute the majority in this minority community. Thus, in this study, the authors choose Taiwanese immigrant women in Belgium as the research subject, examining their home food practices in the daily life while living in a foreign land and the meanings ascribed to home food in the migration context. It is important to note here that the definition of food practice in this article encompasses any kind of activity in which food is involved. Before entering into the discussion regarding the Taiwanese immigrant community in Belgium, in the next section, the authors will further review and discuss cuisine cultures in Taiwan, particularly through the lens of ethnicity.