Pioneering Post-Traditional Narrative of the Historical Geography of Taste—On Ge Liang’s Full-Length Novel Food Is Heaven

Abstract

Time and culture are rivers without banks. The elegance and archaic style of culture is a kind of blood inheritance, and the myriad types of cooked food in the world are also a kind of passing of the torch from generation to generation. Against the vast backdrop of the century-old history of Lingnan (an area south of the Five Ridges in China), Ge Liang’s latest full-length novel, Food Is Heaven, is a wonderful story about the inheritance of four generations of chefs. It describes the cultivation of the industry as well as self-cultivation and conducting oneself in the world. “To see a world in a line of work, and one bodhi in a karma.” This novel reproduces the changes of the times and reveals the profound history and deep patriotism behind the Chinese food culture. It reflects on the inheritance of cooking skills and depicts the extraordinary roots of fine Chinese culture, and studies how the cohesive force of the Chinese nation in different regions has been unconsciously established through those roots.

Key words： Ge Liang, Food Is Heaven, novel narrative, post-traditional narrative