The Department of French and Italian will host a Zoom lecture series entitled New Directions in Italian Studies: Migration and Mobility in the Autumn 2025 semester. Led by Assistant Professor of Italian Studies, Qian Liu, the series will focus on a variety of topics surrounding language, culture, race, diaspora, migration, and movement. Each speaker will give unique insights into current Italian cultural phenomena. All are welcome and encouraged to attend this exciting new series!
Our second speaker will be Professor Gaoheng Zhang. His new book, Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities (Fordham, 2025), addresses China-Italy food cultures against the backdrops of two epoch- making socioeconomic processes. During the 1980s, Chinese cuisine became the first non-European food widely available in Italy, thanks to the widespread presence of Chinese eateries. Only American fast food, which established itself in Italy around the same time, enjoyed comparable popularity as a destination for Italian culinary tourism. Meanwhile, in the early 1990s, together with American hamburgers and fried chicken, the American food chain Pizza Hut’s pizzas and spaghetti were the first non-Asian foods that post-Mao Chinese customers recognized as “Western.” The book proposes a critical framework that analyzes transcultural food mobilities by seriously assessing the confluence of diverse mobilities and their impact on food cultures. Ultimately, the study shows that a sophisticated interpretation of transcultural food mobilities can help address alterity and build understanding in a world of increasing political and cultural polarization. We will discuss this book and Professor Gaoheng Zhang's research more broadly and invite you to be part of the conversation.
Gaoheng Zhang is Associate Professor of Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia. His recent books include three monographs, Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities (Fordham, 2025), Fashion Communications Between Italy and China: Unfolding a Sartorial Relationship (Bloomsbury, 2025), and Migration and the Media: Debating Chinese Migration to Italy, 1992–2012 (Toronto, 2019), and a co-edited volume, Cultural Mobilities Between China and Italy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
To ask questions about accessibility or request accommodations, please contact Matt Lang.650@osu.edu. At least two weeks' advance notice will help us to provide seamless access.
