Though cooking a meal may seem like a solo act, in reality meals are never truly made by one person working alone. Writing a book is much the same. It requires financial, logistical, intellectual, and emotional support to go from a vague idea to a finished product that you can actually hold in your hands.
The writing and research of this book was generously supported by a Henry Luce Foundation and American Council of Learned Societies Program in China Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014–15), a University of Texas at Austin Institute for Historical Studies Research Fellowship (2016–17), the Carolina Women’s Center Faculty Scholar Program (2017–18), a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Grant (2021), and a University of North Carolina (UNC) Institute for Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship (2023). The UNC History Department, UNC Carolina Asia Center, and UNC Asian American Center also provided funds for a book manuscript workshop. My sincere thanks to all these institutions for their financial and logistical support; all of the viewpoints expressed in this book remain solely my own.
Thank you to the generous librarians and staff at the National Central Library of Taiwan and the UNC Chapel Hill Libraries, where I conducted the bulk of my research. UNC’s Hsi-chu Bolick was marvelous, cheerfully answering every question, tracking down difficult to find sources, and suggesting others that came her way. The Schlesinger Library at Harvard University also generously supplied scans of sources. Thanks to Wen-Li Yeh and Fashion Chou for arranging access to Taiwan Television, where I spent several weeks in 2014 watching videos of Fu’s cooking programs before they were available online.
Scholarly and public audiences at the following institutions gave generous feedback and shared their enthusiasm for my project: Academia Sinica in Taipei; University of Texas at Austin Institute for Historical Studies Research; University of Michigan Liberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies; Emory University; University of Toronto; University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; University of California, Davis; Association for Asian Studies; Association for the Study of Food and Society; North American Taiwan Studies Association; and the North Carolina Taiwan Professional and Scholarly Society. Participants in the 2017 Culinary Nationalism in Asia conference and the 2022–23 UNC Institute for Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellows also offered feedback on specific chapters in this volume. My thanks to all for their ideas and suggestions.
In particular, I’d like to thank my cohort of UNC IAH Faculty Fellows, including Janet Downie, Oswaldo Estrada, Shakirah Hudani, Heidi Kim, David Lambert, Chérie Ndaliko, Antonia Randolph, Eliza Rose, Ana Maria Vinea, Ben Waterhouse, and Brett Whalen, who thoughtfully commented on parts of the manuscript and encouraged me to go forth. Food studies colleagues around the world, including Dan Bender, Yujen Chen, Wendy Jia-chen Fu, Jakob Klein, Seung-joon Lee, Jeffrey Pilcher, Krishnendu Ray, Françoise Sabban, Jayeeta Sharma, Pin-tsang Tseng, and James Watson, have inspired me with their work and scholarly generosity. Hearty thanks to Seth Garfield, Madeline Hsu, and Courtney Meador for making my stay in Texas both warmly welcoming and intellectually productive.
Sincere thanks to my agent, Lucy Cleland, who worked with me for more than a year to polish the book proposal and then deftly sealed the deal. Huge thanks go to my editor, Melanie Totoroli, whose patient good sense has helped give shape to the book. Beibei Du prepared a database of all online episodes of Fu Pei-mei’s videos and transcribed several interviews; Daniele Lauro hunted down and translated Japanese sources for me in Tokyo; Gabriel Moss designed the map; Annabel Brazaitis helped with the logistical details of production. My thanks to all of you for bringing the manuscript ever closer to book form.
I am deeply grateful to all the people I interviewed, whose words pepper the pages of this book. I was not able to include material from every interview I conducted, but this does not diminish my appreciation for the time everyone took to speak to me. Without their stories and insights, this book would be much the poorer: John Chen, Sean Chen, Chen Yingzhou, Andrew Coe, Nicki Croghan, Christina Cruz, Lawrence David, Jennifer Dearth, Michael Drompp, Cathy Erway, Wendy Jia-chen Fu, Jaline Girardin, Denise Ho, Hsiang Julin, Frank and Paula Hsu, Harrison Huang, Wendy Hubiak, Kian Lam Kho, Jenny Kim, Ellen Huang King, Stanley S. T. King, Lee Hsiu-ying, Lee Lin-huei, April Lee, Nancy Lee, Theresa Lin (Lin Huiyi), Tiffany Liu, Angie Ma, Oscar Ma, Carolyn Phillips, Françoise Sabban, James Tou, Jane Tou, Edna Tow, Linus Tsai, Luke Tsai, Maika Watanabe, Leslie Wiser, Ya-Ke “Grace” Wu, and Angie Yuan. Others provided some of the crucial textual and visual sources used in this book: “Cybie” Fang Ling, Dominic Meng-hsuan Yang, the late Frank Zeck, Jr. Joanna Handlin Smith generously mailed me copies of other mid-century cookbooks she acquired in Taiwan.
In particular, I’d like to extend my deepest thanks to Fu Pei-mei’s three children, Cheng An-chi (Angela), Cheng Mei-chi (Maggie Hsu), and Cheng Hsien-hao (Michael), whose support for this project and generosity in sharing their memories and photographs of their mother made this book possible. I’d also like to give special thanks to the wonderful women who were the subjects of the extended Kitchen Conversations, Catherine Chen, Christy Fu, Huang Minlin, as well as Susanna Foo, whose story appears elsewhere in the book. Their life stories as working women and mothers, who met every challenge with aplomb, continue to serve as an inspiration to me.
I have deeply appreciated the support of my colleagues in the UNC History Department, which I have been fortunate enough to call my professional home for the past seventeen years. Many have heard me talk about my research in our departmental colloquium, a wonderful sounding board for knotty questions in one’s manuscript. Several colleagues read and commented on drafts or chapters of my work at different stages, and I thank them warmly for their time and insights: Karen Auerbach, Flora Cassen, Emma Flatt, Heidi Kim, and Katie Turk. My thanks also to Molly Worthen, who exchanged weekly check-ins with me during our mutual year of research leave. A huge shout-out to Kathleen DuVal, who has been a great role model, mentor, and friend. Kathleen first encouraged me to try writing a book for a public audience, then followed her words with action, offering feedback on the proposal and connecting me to her agent.
A special thank-you goes to commentators who read a draft of the entire manuscript and participated in the book manuscript workshop: Yujen Chen, Eileen Chow, Wendy Jia-chen Fu, Jakob Klein, and Luke Tsai. Wen-hsin Yeh has supported and championed my work for my entire career, including writing countless letters, putting me in touch with her extensive contacts in Taiwan, reading and commenting on the manuscript, and participating enthusiastically in the book workshop. It has meant everything to have your continued guidance and encouragement through these many years. My whole-hearted thanks to all these colleagues for their time and input; any remaining infelicities in the text remain my own.
I am especially grateful for the ongoing, weekly support of my writing group, which originated as part of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity 2019 Summer Bootcamp. A shout-out to Janice Pata, Cabeiri Robinson, and Theresa Runstedtler: four years, ladies, and still going strong! Other friends and family generously commented on the entire manuscript despite their busy schedules: Erica Johnson, Laura King, Stuart White. Many dear friends, all amazing women in their own right, have sustained me through writing and life in general: Karen Auerbach, Flora Cassen, Sara Chaganti, Charlotte Cowden, Wendy Jia-chen Fu, Stefanie Griffin, Stephanie Heit, Denise Ho, Wendy Ma Hubiak, Jenny Kim, Betsy Lee, Tina Ong, Avani Pendse, Berta Rodriguez, Claire Lasher Tetlow, Edna Tow, Maika Watanabe, Sandy Yu, and Angie Yuan. I am so grateful to have all of you in my corner.
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my family. Thank you to my parents-in-law, Michael and Margaret King, for their love and support. Thank you to my brother, Todd King, for all of his sage advice, even though the cover is not scratch-and-sniff. Thank you to my sister, Laura King, for her sharp-eyed guidance on all things visual. I could not ask for better siblings; this shared history is yours, too. Enormous thanks go to my mother, Ellen Huang King, whose presence and story undergird this entire book. Thank you, Ma, for everything you have ever done for me, which represents so much more than I can express in words. This book is ultimately a celebration of the life you and Ba built here together. Sadly, my father Stanley S. T. King passed away before he could see this book in print, but his beloved scallion pancakes live on in memory and in deed. We miss him terribly. My biggest thank-you goes to my loudest cheering section, Ian, Penelope, and Hamish, who happily traveled with me to far-flung places, all in search of the best bowl of noodles ever. Ian, thank you for cooking countless meals and washing so many dishes, for paddling as hard as you can to keep our canoe afloat, and for encouraging me always to just kick the can down the road. Penelope and Hamish, thank you for your cartoon Fu Pei-mei book cover, pictures of jumping toast, and most enthusiastic hugs. You have all given me the best reasons ever to keep trying to perfect those dumplings.