바로가기메뉴

본문 바로가기 주메뉴 바로가기

logo

ISSN : 0023-3900

Article Contents

Prev Next
e-Submission

Vol.50 No.1
Citation Share

Exoticizing the Familiar, Domesticating the Foreign: Ethnic Food Restaurants in Korea

Korea Journal / Korea Journal, (P)0023-3900; (E)2733-9343
2010, v.50 no.1, pp.110-132
https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2010.50.1.110

(2010). Exoticizing the Familiar, Domesticating the Foreign: Ethnic Food Restaurants in Korea. Korea Journal, 50(1), 110-132, https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2010.50.1.110
  • Downloaded
  • Viewed
PDF Download

Abstract

This paper is based on anthropological fieldwork on ethnic food restaurants in Korea that provide international cuisine (except for Chinese, Japanese, and mainstream Western cuisine). In particular, the research focused on Indian restaurants, noticing their rapid increase in today’s restaurant scene in Korea. Through interviews and observations, the author explored how a foreign cuisine is perceived and accepted by local customers, and how restaurateurs strategize their businesses to suit the Korean cultural environment as entrepreneurs. Koreans construct and express their global identities through consuming these ethnic cuisines. Cultural processes of standardization, localization,and hybridization function over the course of the cuisine’s adaptation within Korea. Simultaneously, each ethnic cuisine acquires its own global identity in the process.

keywords
ethnic food, ethnic restaurants, identity, globalization, culture of consumption

Reference

1.

Appadurai, Arjun. 1988. “How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India.” Comparative Study of Society and History 30.1.

2.

Bak, Sangmee. 1994. “Negotiating National and Transnational Identities through Consumption Choices: Hamburgers, Espresso, and Mobile Technologies among Koreans.” Review of Korean Studies 7.2.

3.

____________. 1997. “McDonald’s in Seoul: Food Choices, Identity, and Nationalism.” In Golden Arches East, edited by James L. Watson. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

4.

____________. 2003. “Mat-gwa chwihyang-ui jeongcheseong-gwa gyeonggye neomgi” (Crossing the Boundaries between Flavor and Taste Identities). Hyeonsang-gwa insik (Phenomena and Perceptions) 27.3: 54-70.

5.

____________. 2005. “From Strange Bitter Concoction to Romantic Necessity.” Korea Journal 45.2.

6.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction. Translated by R. Nice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

7.

Counihan, Carole M. 1999. The Anthropology of Food and Body. New York: Routledge.

8.

Douglas, Mary. 1971. “Decipherng a Meal.” In Myth, Symbol, and Ritual, edited by Clifford Geertz. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.

9.

Goody, Jack. 1982. Cooking, Cuisine, and Class. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10.

Han, Kyung-Koo. 2000. “Some Foods are Good to Think: Kimchi and the Epitomization of National Character.” Korea Social Science Journal 27.1.

11.

Ju, Yeong-ha. 2000. Gimchi, hangugin-ui meokgeori—gimchi-ui munhwa illyuhak (Kimchi, Koreans’ Staple Food—Cultural Anthropology of Kimchi). Seoul: Konggan.

12.

Kim, Kwang Ok. 1994. “Eumsik-gwa hyeondae hanguk sahoe: chongnon” (Foods and Contemporary Korean Society: A Brief Overview). Hanguk munhwa illyuhak (Korean Cultural Anthropology) 26: 1-44.

13.

Mintz, Sidney W. 1996. Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom. Boston: Beacon Press.

14.

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. 1993. Rice as Self: Japanese Identities through Time. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

15.

Park, Eun Kyung. 1994. “Jungguk eumsik-ui yeoksajeok uimi” (Historical Significance of Chinese Food). Hanguk munhwa illyuhak (Korean Cultural Anthropology) 26: 95-115.

16.

Robertson, Roland. 1995. “Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity.” In Global Modernities, edited by M. Featherstone et al., 25-44. London: Sage.

17.

Urry, John. 2002. The Tourist Gaze. London: Sage Publications.

18.

Waters, Malcolm. 2001. New World Chaos: Globalizing Cultures. London/New York: Routledge.

Korea Journal

e-Submission OA Policy