THERESA LIN AND MICHAEL BERRY TO EXPLORE THE DELICIOUS CONNECTIONS BETWEEN LITERATURE AND FOODS
Los Angeles—The third public dialogue as a series under Taste Taiwan: Taiwanese Delicacies x Food Literature will occur on Friday April 13th, from 7-9 p.m. at the Taiwan Academy, entitled A Kaleidoscope of Delicacies. The panel will feature Taiwanese culinary artist Theresa Lin and Professor Michael Berry of UCLA’s Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, who will discuss the diversity of foods through a medley of media.
Theresa Lin is a known chef, author, and appears on mainstream media regularly. For the past three decades, Lin has taught culinary classes, served as a food columnist for China Times and Central Daily News, and provided catering service for film sets including Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee, 1994), Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012), and Silence (Martin Scorsese, 2016). She has also continued to host a culinary radio show, and audiences today can still call in on AM 1300 every morning to hear her suggested daily menus and provide culinary solutions. Lin has integrated the two very different art forms perfectly.
The other panelist in attendance, Professor Michael Berry, is a prolific cultural researcher in the U.S. Michael Berry’s areas of research include modern and contemporary Chinese literature, Chinese cinema, popular culture in modern China, and literary translation. Berry’s approach is transnational and his work addresses the richness and diversity of Chinese art and culture as it has manifested itself in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other Sinophone communities. His impressive body of works include Boiling the Sea: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Memories of Shadows and Light, Modernism Revisited: Pai Hsien-yung and the Taiwan Literary Modernism Movement, A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and Film, as well as book length translations of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai, To Live, The Remains of Life et cetera. In addition to his academic writing, Berry extends the scope of his work through popular writings that appear in American and Chinese mainstream media.
The Taiwanese culinary culture contains history and tradition, and is closely tied to an ethnicity and locality. Yet at the same time, there is ongoing innovation and growth within that tradition. As seen from the variety of experiences of Theresa Lin and Professor Michael Berry, one could observe cultural diversity in practice, which pertains to not only the different roles the two have taken on, but also their extensive readings of and contributions to classical and contemporary literature of the world, all of which will be integrated with the topics of fine food and taste in their conversation at Taiwan Academy.
This event to open to everyone interested on a first come first serve basis; to RSVP, please enter the following link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/taste-taiwan-food-literature-of-jiao-tong-tickets-44427914087. The Taiwan Academy is located at 1137 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024. Call (213) 403-0168 for any questions.
