Fall 2015

C. Usui

ANTH 4005 Practicum in Cultural Research Methods

SOC 4040 Survey Research Practicum

Reading: Shun Lu and Gary A Fine (1995). The Presentation of Ethnic Authenticity:
Chinese Food as a Social Accomplishment The Sociological Quarterly 36(3): 535-553.

Discussion 1(September 1, 2015)

There are five discussion sessions in the course and each discussion is worth 3% of the
final grade (15 points). Please be sure to finish the assigned reading, have your written
answers, and be ready for discussion! You must earn your points.

Questions

What is the leading question (or questions) the authors address in the article? In
other words, what is their research question?
The authors ask the question of how ethinic food is produced and
marketed in contemperary American society (p536). More specifically how the
food is authentically framed. how this authenticity affects the dishes presentation
and taste. as well as how different geographic markets affect the authenticy
(p539).

What literature or stream of literature did the authors include?

Lu and Fine refrence "Staged Authenticity" by Dean MacCannell (p539).

Who: Is there a central actor? There may be more than one.

There are two sub-groups of actors. The first are the customers at the
resturant. These included students, staff, and those who lived in the town. The
second are the buisness. In this study there happen to be four chines resturants
studied. China fast-food, China boat, Sichuan, and Guangdong. within these
buisnesses some of the people interviewed include the owners and the cooks.

What: What are the behaviors/attitudes that are being carried out by the actor(s)?
The first group, the customers, are buying and consuming the food in each
of the resturants. Some of the establishments are quick in and out places and
othesr are nicer sit down resturants.
The second group, the resturants, are preparing and serving the food. In
some cases the owner is the one cooking for patrons and in others they have hired
chefs.

Where: What is the space occupied by the actors? How are the actors situated in
the space?
The space occupied were the four different resturants. Since each resturant
had a different layout participants were situated differently in each. Some were sit
down places and others were more take out resturant.

Time: What is the time or historical period of observations? What are the hours of
the day, day of the week, specific months or seasons of the year?
The study took place from April 1992- August 1992. Resturants were
visited at multiple different times, including those that are not as busy and those
that tend to have more of a rush. Observations were done on both weekdays and
weekends.

What kind of research methodology did the author use? Explain why. Be sure to
refer to the class readings and page numbers.
The researchers use participant observation and surveys. Participant
oberservation can be argued because the researchers went to the resturnats and
watched people but they also order and consumed food (p537). There were also
interviews conducted. These were done with owners, chefs, and patrons to obtain
multiple view points. In total there were 26 interviews.

What are the major findings of the research?

There are two major findings in my oppinion. The first is that every owner
and cook interviewed said that it was NOT possible to serve authentic chinese
food to American customers (p540). The other major finding was that most people
interviewed said that they did not care how authentic the food was.