This post is by Adriana Baird, Moon, Han Lin (Nancy), Alec Hogan, Zoey Zhou Yang
We are the food systems group, investigating the changing nature of food systems and preferences in modern Beijing during this period of rapid urbanization. We are excited to engage in this project through observing people in their environments, interviewing individuals in different places and spaces in Beijing, using other various fieldwork techniques like counting and tracking, and of course, eating the food of Beijing.
What did you do?
We began this workshop as strangers to one another, but have since pushed past the language barrier and are both friends and collaborators. After breaking the initial awkwardness through icebreakers, we got to know each other by sharing experiences. We have shared everything from meals to intimate bike trips and trips to cafes. The two Americans sat on the back of our Chinese collaborators bikes, which drew quite a few looks and laughs across the Tsinghua campus. In sharing these experiences as a group, we are definitely forming a more cohesive unit that will be beneficial in adding enjoyment and productivity to the experience moving forward. We are leaning the idiosyncrasies of our very different cultures, and are going to try and learn a new phrase from each other every day. Hopefully by the end of the seminar Adriana and Alec will be able to say more than “hello,” “goodbye,” and “thank you” in Chinese, and Nancy, Zoe, and Moon will pick up some American slang.
In terms of formal activities, we have done some preliminary fieldwork and practiced a few fieldwork and observing techniques from the Bridge Café in Wudaokou, presented our observations to the rest of the students in the seminar, and have since begun to delve deeper into forming the foundation for our project. Today we explored the topic of food systems in general through a “mind map” in order to come to a more narrow research question that we can use to address the four pillars of sustainability. It took us a while to come to a research question that we all though was relevant and interesting because of the broad spectrum of the topic and an inability to understand one another perfectly. We spent a lot of time discussing and sharing our views over lunch at the canteen and the Paradiso Café during out break. After a few hours of discussion, we ultimately decided on a research question and proceeded to create our action plan for next week–where we are going to go, who we are going to talk to, and when we are going to do it. We all seem to be on the same page and are excited to go into the field and start researching!
Why does it matter? Why do we care?
The research question we ultimately decided to pursue is: what do citizens of Beijing think about the quality of food and how important is food quality in determining food preferences? The answers to this question will provide insight into understanding what qualities of food are most important to the people of Beijing. We believe that this avenue of research is significant because knowing perceptions of food can speak to the affects urbanization has had on Chinese culture. Since food is traditionally very important to individuals and family life, the way that people see food now can shed light on the changing nature of culture in China. In China, food is a distinct representation of culture: Ming i shuwei tian.
How will you move forward? What’s next?
We will begin our research next week! Our fieldwork will consist of traveling to different places individuals in Beijing get their food and interviewing the consumers there. We plan to conduct interviews at three different places, which are an open market, a supermarket, and a canteen (cafeteria) at Tsinghua. We hope to interview people from both the old and new generation to gain insight into how food preferences have altered over time and to increase the depth and breadth of our research. Our action plan for the rest of the seminar is listed below.
Monday Morning — Open Market @ West Gate of Tsinghua
Tuesday Afternoon — Supermarket near Wudaokou & streets vendors of Wudaokou
Wednesday Lunch – Canteen @ Tsinghua
Wednesday Afternoon — TBD (potentials: market near lakes, counting observations for markets v. supermarkets, interviewing family with multiple generations, observe food systems in hutongs)
Thursday – Build Exhibition
Friday – Build Exhibition
Saturday – Exhibition and Final Presentations!
现代社会的快速发展给北京带来巨大的变化，其中食物系统就是其变化之一。我们食物系统组希望通过观察、调研及体验来了解北京食物系统发生了怎样的变化。
我们做了什么？
两位斯坦福的小伙伴和三位清华的同学组成一组，必定要经历从陌生到熟悉的过程。从最先的僵局到分享各自经历，再到清华学生骑自行车带着两位斯坦福小伙伴去咖啡厅，都是让我们感受到不同的文化差异性，而这些差异也成了我们互相学习源泉。
当然，我们也对食物系统做了一些实地考察和调研。在五道口“桥咖啡”观察记录人们的日常活动，在与其他同学交流之后，食物系统的研究也有了雏形。然后通过思维导图来缩小食物系统的研究范围。由于文化和语言差异，在确定彼此都感兴趣的研究内容上花了很长的时间和精力。但最终确定了我们接下来要做的调研内容。
为什么这个问题重要？为什么我们要关心呢？
我们组最终要了解的问题就是：目前北京市民对食物质量持什么样的态度，以及食物质量对人们的食物选择或偏爱上有什么重要影响？俗话说，民以食为天，我们相信，对于这个问题的解答将让我们了解到北京市民对于食物质量哪些方面最为关心，通过对食物质量态度的变化，同时也能映射出北京文化乃至中国文化的变化。
下一步计划？
下周（这周）我们开始实地调研，其中包括三个主流食物消费的场所，即：开放的菜市场，超市，餐厅。同时也希望对比新一代城市居民与老一辈对于食品质量的不同态度。
接下来是我们的调研计划安排：
星期一上午：西苑早市（实际上今天在雍和宫附近的胡同里做了一些访谈）
星期二下午：五道口附近的超级市场以及一些食品供应商
星期三中午：清华大学食堂
星期三下午：待定（可能：湖边的市场，统计市场和超市数量，采访含三代以上的大家庭，胡同里的食物系统）
星期四：准备展示
星期五：准备展示
星期六：准备展示以及最终汇报