Festivals, Festival Foods, and Dietary Acculturation: A Journey of Hybridization and Identity Formation for Chinese International Students in Ottawa

Abstract

Through participant observation at the 2018 Ottawa Night Market Chinatown and interviews with fifteen post-secondary Chinese international students in Ottawa about their dietary acculturation, this research aims to answer the following questions: How does hybridity play out in Chinese students' dietary acculturation? What are the impacts of festivals and festival foods on hybridization and identity formation? The findings suggest that Chinese students do become more "hybrid" in their food practices, but this is less so from incorporating Canadian food habits, and more a result of increased consumption of various Chinese regional cuisines and Asian cuisines. However, becoming more hybrid does not weaken the participants' Chinese identity; rather they retain it through attending the Night Market, celebrating traditional Chinese festivals, and maintaining cultural beliefs related to food choices, health and nutrition. This study suggests that hybridization involves multi-cultural and multi-dimensional influences, and confirms that hybridization is distinct from identity formation.

Multiple food vulnerabilities of international students from India in Greater Toronto Area colleges: A pilot study

“…This compromise was particularly challenging for students like Ankit (male, community college), who felt that he was "forced to be with other Desis" in distant ethnic enclaves, and in most cases, this resulted in significantly increased commuting time for the students (from home to college to workplaces), thus leaving less time to prepare healthy meals at home. This finding further nuances previous knowledge that even though some international students wish to adopt a "Canadian" lifestyle, they often end up socializing within their own groups (Alotaibi and Lordly 2016;Liu 2019). Our study also found that by living within ethnic enclaves some participants experienced "blocked mobility" (Portes and Zhou 1993).…”

“…In addition to financial precarity, discrimination (i.e., the utilization dimension) often affects international students' consumption of culturally specific foods in their local environments (Liu 2019). While charitable organizations such as "Meal Exchange" have programs to combat student hunger, international students do not have equal access to such programs (Pereira 2020).…”

Authenticity v/s Glocalization as Represented in the Digital Platforms: A Study on the Food Culture with Special Reference to Tripura

“…In fact, the Chinese cuisines in India met with Indian fusion due to non-availability of Chinese ingredients. As claimed by Nandy (2004) and Liu (2019), Chinese food in India came in through the people of China who settled or came in India for studying or for business purpose. As observed by John W.Berry, diasporic people either assimilate completely with the host land, thus losing their identity; they construct an amalgamated identity, thus adopting to hybrid food habits; or they can completely deject themselves from the hostland resulting in preservation of their rooted culture, but this group then undergoes deculturation from the land they live in (Liu, 2019, p.16-17).…”