You Are What You Eat: Depraved Food and Chinese Queer Kinship in The River (1997)

Abstract

This article identifies an under-explored connection between queerness and cinematic food, especially focusing on food images in Chinese queer cinema. Queer theories, food studies and philosophy of food are brought together in a discussion of a cinematic text: The River (1997). The discussion explores two questions: (1) Do these food scenes convey different symbols in comparison to Western queer cinema? (2) How do these food images register Chinese family relations and queer kinship? By examining how food is portrayed in this film, this article considers the notion of ‘depraved food’ and further suggests that on-screen food images can be read as a stand-in for Chinese queerness. Consequently, it is proposed that these food images critically depict Taiwan during the 1990s, especially how the traditional Confucian family and Confucian values are challenged by the modern crisis, conversely, the innovative Chinese queer family appears.