¹ Shenbao (hereafter SB), 26 May 1912.

² SB, 24 May and 26 May 1912.

³ Wu, X. and Zheng, J. (eds) (1954). Xiandai guonei Shengli xuezhe zhig gongxian yu xiandai Zhongguo yingyangxue shiliao (Modern Chinese physiologists and their contribution as well as the historical documents of nutrition science), Shanghai: Zhongguo kexue tushu yiqi gongsi, p. 82Google Scholar.

⁴ The yangsheng (literally, ‘nourishing life’) texts originated from traditional Chinese medical texts and Daoist classics, and were widely published and have circulated continuously from the early years of the Ming dynasty (1392–1644) thanks to the development of print. For a brief summary of the late Imperial yangsheng tradition, see Chen, H. (2008). Nourishing life, cultivation and material culture in the late Ming, Asian Medicine, 4, pp. 29–30Google Scholar; Rogaski, R. (2004). Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 46–47Google Scholar; Swislocki, M. (2011). Nutritional governmentality: food and the politics of health in late Imperial and Republican China, Radical Historical Review, 110, pp. 16–18Google Scholar.

⁵ This is not necessarily a phenomenon peculiar to modern China. Nutrition science and dietetics entails such a tendency generally. See Shapin, S. (2007). ‘Expertise, Common Sense, and the Atkins Diet’ in Phillips, W. B.Public Science in Liberal Democracy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 174–175Google Scholar; Scrinis, G. (2008). On the ideology of nutritionism, Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, 8:1, pp. 40–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ On the role of war in the development of nutrition science and the changes in dietary trends, see Collingham, L. (2012). The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food, New York: Penguin PressGoogle Scholar. For particular cases from Europe, the United States, and Japan, see Spiekermann, U. (2006). ‘Brown Bread for Victory: German and British Wholemeal Politics in the Inter-War Period’ in Trentmann, F. and Just, F.Food and Conflict in Europe in the Age of the Two World Wars, New York: Palgrave MacmillanGoogle Scholar; Teich, M. (1995). ‘Science and Food During the Great War: Britain and Germany’ in Kamminga, H. and Cunningham, A.The Science and Culture of Nutrition, 1840–1940, Amsterdam: Rodophi, pp. 179–212Google Scholar; Mintz, S. W. (1996). Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursion into Eating, Culture, and the Past, Boston: Beacon Press, p. 25Google Scholar; Cwiertka, K. J. (2002). Popularizing a military diet in wartime and post-war Japan, Asian Anthropology, 1, pp. 1–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ As early as 1933, Chiang Kai-shek and the Guomindang leaders began to consider wartime food security as a key agenda point for wartime preparations in the wake of increasing military tensions with Japan. See ‘Zhongguo Guomindang zhongyang jixing weiyuanhui mishu chu gonghan’, Liangzheng shiliao (Historical documents of food policy) (6 vols), Guoshi guan (eds), Taipei: Guoshiguan, 1988–1992 (hereafter LZSL) 4, pp. 1–4.

⁸ See Lee, S. (2011). Gourmets in the Land of Famine: The Culture and Politics of Rice in Modern Canton, Stanford: Stanford University Press, Chapter 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹ Before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, nutrition research was conducted mostly in the academic or medical institutions affiliated to Western medical missions in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou (Canton). The War brought Chinese experts together in Guomindang-controlled areas and galvanized nutritional research, which eventually laid the foundation for the formation of the Chinese Nutrition Society in 1945. See Chinese Nutrition Association (2008). Zhongguo Yingyang Xuehui Shi (The History of the Chinese Nutrition Association), Shanghai: Jiaotong Daxue Chuban She, pp. 10–11Google Scholar; Fu, J. (2009). ‘Society's Laboratories: Biomedical Nutrition and the Modern Chinese Body, 1910–1950’, PhD thesis, Yale University, pp. 152–154.

¹⁰ Dikotter, F. (1992). The Discourse of Race in Modern China, Stanford: Stanford University PressGoogle Scholar; Rogaksi, R. (2005). Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China, Berkeley: University of California PressGoogle Scholar; Yip, K. (1995). Health and National Reconstruction in Nationalist China, Ann Arbor, Michigan: Association for Asian StudiesGoogle Scholar.

¹¹ Exceptions are the pioneering work on nutrition science of Jia-chen Fu (2009) and Mark Swislocki (2011).

¹² Golinski, J. (1992). Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760–1820, New York: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar.

¹³ Dikotter, F. (2006). Exotic Commodities: Modern Objects and Everyday Life in China, New York: Columbia University PressGoogle Scholar; Gerth, K. (2003). China Made: Consumer Culture and the Creation of the Nation, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia CenterCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lean, E. (2007). Public Passions: The Trial of Shi Jianqiao and the Rise of Popular Sympathy in Republican China, Berkeley: University of California PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Yeh, W. (2007). Shanghai Splendor: Economic Sentiments and the Making of Modern China, Berkeley: University of California PressGoogle Scholar.

¹⁴ Lee, Gourmets in the Land of Famine; Swislocki, M. (2008). Culinary Nostalgia: Regional Food Culture and the Urban Experience in Shanghai, Stanford: Stanford University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ Nakajima, C. (2012). ‘Healthful goods’: health, hygiene, and commercial culture in early twentieth-century Shanghai, Twentieth-Century China, 37:3, pp. 250–274Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Wu, T. and Li, X. (trans) (2006). Yi ge Dongfang waijiaoguan yan zhong de Meiguo (The United States in the Eye of an Asian Diplomat), Shanghai: Xuelin chubansheGoogle Scholar; Liu, W. (2009). ‘No Smoking for the Nation: Anti-Cigarette Campaigns in Modern China, 1910–1935’, PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, pp. 93–98.

¹⁷ SB, 24 October 1910.

¹⁸ The Yili bakery was located on Burkill Road in the International Settlement. Its unique selling point was that a ‘foreign pâtissier himself made breads with French style’. SB, 26 October 1910.

¹⁹ This booklet, published in Shanghai in 1917, was a translation of the work of the contemporary Japanese agriculturalist, Inoue Masayoshi. However, the translator, Liu Renhang, added his own commentaries, annotations, and popular analogies from Chinese history. Japan also shared the notion of ‘health preserving techniques’, using the same Chinese characters (yōjō). Liu, R. (1917). Jun min baoshu cushi mengjian fa (The Treasured Book for the Military and Civilians: The Healthy Way of a Coarse Diet), Shanghai: Luotian xiuyang guan, Vol. 1, p. 8.

²⁰ This appears in Liu's annotation. Liu, Jun min baoshu cushi mengjian fa, Vol. 2, p. 20.

²¹ Kiple, K. F. and Ornelas, K. C. (eds) (2000). The Cambridge World History of Food, New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 1166Google Scholar.

²² Dikotter, Exotic Commodities; for the specific case of Guangzhou, see Lee, Gourmets in the Land of Famine, Chapter 2.

²³ Anderson, E. N. (1988). The Food of China, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 159–160Google Scholar; Hsu, V. Y. N. and Hsu, F. L. K. (1977). ‘Modern China: North’ in Chang, K. C.Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, New Haven: Yale University PressGoogle Scholar; Anderson Jr., E. N. and Anderson, M. L. (1977) ‘Modern China: South’ in Chang, Food in Chinese Culture.

²⁴ Based on his field research in 1933, Buck drew a demarcation line slightly North, but roughly parallel with the Yangzi River. The North was the ‘wheat region’, and the South was the ‘rice region’. Buck, J. L. (1968). Land Utilization in China, 3^rd ed., New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp, p. 25Google Scholar.

²⁵ SB, 15 May 1912.

²⁶ See Worboys, M. (1988). ‘The Discovery of Colonial Malnutrition between the Wars’ in Arnold, D.Imperial Medicine and Indigenous Societies, Manchester: Manchester University Press, p. 211Google Scholar; Arnold, D. (1994). The discovery of malnutrition and diet in colonial India, Indian Economic and Social History Review, 31:1, pp. 12–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vernon, J. (2007). Hunger: a Modern History, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, pp. 104–117CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁷ Wu and Zheng, Xiandai guonei shengli xuezhe zhi gongxian yu xiandai zhongguo yingyangxue shiliao, pp. 58–61.

²⁸ Swislocki, Nutritional governmentality, p. 21; Fu, ‘Society's Laboratories’, p. 218.

²⁹ Wu, X. (1932). Wuguoren zhi chifan wenti (Eating problems in our country), Duli pinglun, 2, p. 15.

³⁰ Wu, Wuguoren zhi chifan wenti, p. 16.

³¹ Wu, Wuguoren zhi chifan wenti, pp. 15–16.

³² Dikotter, The Discourse of Race in Modern China, p. 178.

³³ Zhang was not a professional eugenicist by any means. He taught anthropology at Jinan University in Shanghai, having studied psychology at Columbia University in the 1920s. However, his personal interests in anthropology and eugenics led him to become one of the most popular advocates of pseudo-scientific ‘race improvement’. Pan Guangdan, the leading eugenics advocate, also studied at Columbia University in the 1920s. For a brief biographical background, see Zhang, J. (1935). Zhongguo minzu zhi gaizu (The Remake of the Chinese Race), Shanghai: Zhonghua Shuju, p. 134Google Scholar; Sun, L. (2002). The Chinese National Character: From Nationhood to Individuality, Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 159, 170–176Google Scholar.

³⁴ See Zhang, Zhongguo minzu zhi gaizu, pp. 122–123; Zhang, J. (1937). Woguo nanfangren ji beifangren zhi yingyang gaikuang (The general nutritional survey of southerners and northerners in our country), Minzu, 5:4, p. 747Google Scholar.

³⁵ Zhang, Zhongguo minzu zhi gaizu, p. 2.

³⁶ Xu, X. (1936). Mi chi ruole Zhongguo shuo, Shanghai manhua, 1, p. 4Google Scholar.

³⁷ Zheng, J. (1934). Zhongguoren de shanshi wenti (Chinese people's eating problem), Guangbo zhoubao, 6, pp. 8–9Google Scholar.

³⁸ Chen, G. (1935). Zhongguo liangshi de ziji (Self-sufficiency in China's food supply), Zhongguo shiye zazhi, 1:6, p. 1009Google Scholar.

³⁹ Lee, Gourmets in the Land of Famine, pp. 113–114.

⁴⁰ All of the detailed programmes for this grandiose plan included genetic plant experiments, selecting better seeds and distributing them to peasants, the reclamation of more arable land, and so on. See: (1937). Guangdong quansheng zaliang gengzhong duchu jihua dagang (The basic plan to plant miscellaneous grain throughout the province), Nongsheng, 110/111. Reprinted in (1942). Kanton shokuryō mondai (The Food Problem in Guangdong), Guangzhou: Kōain Kanton haken’in jimusho, pp. 247–249.

⁴¹ Sun Xingdong, professor of horticulture at the National Central University at Nanjing, obtained his Bachelor's degree in agricultural science from the University of Illinois. Sun, X. (1936). Minshi ziji yu guofang, Guangbo zhoukan, 92, pp. 14–15Google Scholar.

⁴² SB, 15 March 1917.

⁴³ (1918). Jiaoqizheng shipin zhi zhuyi (Paying attention to foodstuffs related to beriberi symptom), Guanghua weishengbao, 1, p. 74.

⁴⁴ Bu, N. and Shu, W. (1932). Jiaoqibing (Beriberi), Nanjing: Neizhengbu Weisheng shu, pp. 12–14Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Feng, G. (1931). Jiaoqibing yu baimi, Dazhong yikan, 3, pp. 41–43Google Scholar; Wu, Z. (1936). Caomi (coarse rice), Zhejiang qingnain, 2:9, pp. 100–102Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Ying, Y. (1934). Yinian lai Guangxi junyiyuan zhi jiaoqibing (Beriberi treated in the Guangxi Military Hospital over the past one year), Nanjing: Guangxi Junyiyuan Jianshe, p. 1Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ Two of 37 cases, or 5.4 per cent, died in the physician's ward. See (1929). Junyi Gongbao, no. 1, Appendix.

⁴⁸ Zhongshan ribao, 19 December 1937. Cited in (1938). Baowei da Guangdong (Defend Great Guangdong), Guangzhou: Zhongshan ribao she, p. 71.

⁴⁹ Huang, L. (1940). Kangzhan sannian zhi liangshi xingzheng (The management of food supply for the three years of the Resistance war against Japan), Dongfang zazhi, 37:14, p. 7Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Guangdong sheng liangshi weiyuanhui (1938). Zaliang shipu (Miscellaneous grain recipe), Guangzhou: Guangdong Sheng Jiansheting Nonglingu and Guangdong sheng quansheng weisheng Chu, pp. 31–33; Wu, T. (1938). Jieyue liangshi yundong (Food saving movement), Xinshenglu yuekan, 3:1, p. 3Google Scholar.

⁵¹ SB, 16 September 1938.

⁵² Xinhua ribao, 28 October 1938.

⁵³ Guangdong sheng liangshi weiyuanhui, Zaliang shipu, p. 3.

⁵⁴ Lao, B. (1938). Cong zaliang yundong shuodao renti yingyang wenti, Xinshenglu yuekan, 3:1, p. 8Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ Here, I translate nüshi into the female prefix ‘Ms’. Liang Ruwen's biographical background is unknown. See Guangdong sheng liangshi weiyuanhui, Zaliang shipu, p. 4.

⁵⁶ Wu, T. (1938). Jiating liangshi jieyue zhi zhongda shiming (Food saving in each family household and its important task), Xinshenglu yuekan, 4:1, p. 3Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Ling, D. (1938). Baowei Guangdong yu zaliang yundong zhi zhongyaoxing (Defending Guangdong and the significance of miscellaneous grain movement), Xinshenglu yuekan, 3:1 November, p. 9Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ After the fall of Guangzhou in October 1938, Japanese authorities collected related materials about the Committee and Corps and translated them into Japanese. See Seimubu, Kōayin (1939). Kanton senji ryōshoku jikyū undō nit suite (On the Wartime Food Self-Reliance Movement in Guangdong), Tokyo: Kōayin SeimubuGoogle Scholar. In December 1939, the Japanese authorities promulgated the Rice Polishing Restriction Regulation which prohibited the sale of white rice and established a mandatory polishing rate on rice. Subsequently, a similar food-saving campaign was conducted in the name of the National Moral Mobilization in Japan. See Johnson, B. F. (1953). Japanese Food Management in World War II, Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 198–199Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Although it is impossible to obtain accurate demographic data, Chongqing's population increased from roughly 380,000 before the War to slightly more than a million in 1945. See Chen, J. (1941). Chongqing zhi mishi (Rice markets in Chongqing), Jingji huibao, 3:11/12Google Scholar. Reprinted in LZSL 4, pp. 475–476; Li, X. (1939). Chongqing shi de nianmiye (Rice husking business in Chongqing), Jianshe zhouxin, 8:7, p. 1Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ For more discussion about the cultural contrast between ‘downriver people’ and Chongqing natives, see McIsaac, L. (2000). The City as Nation: Creating a Wartime Capital in Chongqing’ in Esherick, J.Remaking the Chinese Cities: Modernity and National Identity, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘iGoogle Scholar.

⁶¹ For example, when the city of Yichang (the trans-shipment point for the rice-producing provinces of Hunan and Hubei) fell to the Japanese in June 1940, the Chongqing rice market panicked. Rice prices skyrocketed 500 per cent between May and the end of the year. Eastman, L. E. (1984). Seeds of Destruction: Nationalist China in War and Revolution, Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 47–48Google Scholar.

⁶² Juxing yingyang yanjiu huiyi bingqing ge weiyuan an (On the nutrition research conference and invitation of participants), Academia Historica Archives, Taipei (hereafter AHA), 028000003166A; Dagongbao (hereafter DGB), 14 December and 17 December 1940; Fu, ‘Society's Laboratories’, pp. 247–248.

⁶³ Not until wartime did nutritionists and dieticians, previously affiliated as a branch of the Chinese Physiology Association, have their own association. This later developed into the Chinese Nutrition Society. See Chinese Nutrition Association, Zhongguo Yingyang Xuehui Shi, p. 12.

⁶⁴ The National Irrigation Bureau, for example, was one of the government bureaus that dispatched a staff member to take the Summer Special Training Class for Meal Management in June 1942. Zhongyang weisheng shiyanyuan wunian gongzuo baogao (The five-year report of the Central Hygiene Experimental Institute), AHA, 02800000025A; Paiyuan canjia shanshi guanli xunlianban shouxun an, Institute of Modern History Archives (hereafter IMHA), 25–06–21–141.

⁶⁵ Ren, B. and Lin, G. (1941). Xinshipu (New Recipe), Chongqing: Xingzhengyuan, p. 22Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ Chen, F. (1943). Zaliang yingyang shipu (Nutritious Cookbook with Miscellaneous Grains), Chongqing: Zhongyang Xunlian Tuan, p. 1Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Chongqing shi weisheng ju guanyu gaijin shipu zhi shehui ju han (A letter from the Hygiene Bureau of the Chongqing Municipality to the Social Affair Bureau on the improved cookbook), Chongqing Municipal Archives, Chongqing (hereafter CQMA), 60–01–540–000; Chongqing shi shehui ju guanyu chaosong yingyang shipu gei ge gonggong shitang de xunling (The Bureau of Social Affairs of the Chongqing Municipality instruction for coping and distributing of nutritious recipe to each public canteen), CQMA, 60–01–540–000.

⁶⁸ Quanguo shengchan huiyi jueyi youguan yingyang gaijin (The resolution for nutrition improvement passed in the national production conference), AHA, 028000003172A.

⁶⁹ Weng, D. (1941). Kuoda tichang caomi yundong (Broaden coarse rice movement), Kexue, 52:1 and 2, p. 4Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ Zhang, J. (n.d.). Zhongguo jianjun yu xuesheng yingyang (China's Military Building and Student Nutrition), Chongqing: Shangwuyin Shuguan, p. 1Google Scholar.

⁷¹ DGB, 6 May 1941, 14 June 1941.

⁷² The Company was built to minimize untrustworthy private merchants’ manipulation of rice prices and quality in the market in October 1941. The Nationalists’ distrust of rice merchants dated to the 1920s. Along with their intransigent distrust of merchants, the instrumental understanding of rice was deeply rooted in their mindset. The Company's management focus was on the mechanized milling factories. DGB, 4 September 1942; Zhongliang gongsi 3, nianmi chang (The 3^rd milling factory of the Rice Industrial Processing Company), AHA, 119000004593A.

⁷³ Chi gesheng yilü gaishi caomi (Each province should adopt less-husked rice with no exception), AHA, 11900001817A.

⁷⁴ For example, the ‘Science Field’ section of Jiefang ribao (Liberation Daily), controlled by the Communist Party, specialized in issues of nutrition and food. Jiefang ribao, 18 April 1941.

⁷⁵ For war preparations led by the New Life Movement, see Felanti, F. (2010). The New Life Movement in Jiangxi Province, 1934–1938, Modern Asian Studies, 44:5, pp. 961–1000CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁶ For 43 months, from January 1938 to September 1941, while Japanese air forces diverted their attention to the Pacific, Chongqing was raided by air 193 times by roughly 5,553 Japanese bombers that dropped more than 12,000 bombs. See The Chinese Ministry of Information (1943). China Handbook: A Comprehensive Survey of Major Developments in China in Six Years of War, 1937–1943, New York: Macmillan, p. 818.

⁷⁷ Liangzheng xiejinhui juxing liangshi jieyue yundong (Food-saving movement conducted by the association for united effort for food supply), AHA, 119000006564A.

⁷⁸ This single bombing operation caused the deadliest damage to Chongqing. Civilian casualties amounted to roughly 3,700 deaths and 2,650 injuries; approximately 4,900 buildings were burned and destroyed, leaving more than 10,000 homeless refugees. See Tow, E. (2011). ‘The Great Bombing of Chongqing and the Anti-Japanese War, 1937–1945’ in Peattie, M. et al. The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945, Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 260–261Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ Chen, L. and Kong, X. (2002). Xinshenghuo yundong cujinhui zonghui xingwang shi (The rise and fall of the New Life Movement General Association), Chongqing wenshi ziliao, 50, p. 217Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Huang, R. (1984). Huang Renlin Huiyilu (Huang Renlin memoir), Taibei: Zhuanji wenxueshe, p. 61Google Scholar.

⁸¹ Liangzheng xiejinhui juxing liangshi jieyue yundong (Food-saving movement conducted by the Association for united effort for food supply), AHA, 119000006654A.

⁸² DGB, 2 June 1942.

⁸³ Zhongyang ribao (hereafter ZYRB), 4 June 1942.

⁸⁴ DGB, 4 June 1942.

⁸⁵ Chen and Kong, Xinshenghuo yundong cujinhui zonghui xingwang shi, p. 219.

⁸⁶ ZYRB, 3 June and 4 June 1942.

⁸⁷ Chongqing shi shehui ju, Zhongguo liangzheng xiejin hui guanyu ge gonggong shitang yilu gaishou caomifan de gonghan (The decree issued by the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Social Affairs and the Association for united effort for food supply on serving only less-husked rice in each public canteen), CQMA, 0060–0001–00538–0000.

⁸⁸ Jolliffe, L. J. (1942). ‘Life in Free China Cities’ in Price, F. W.Wartime China as Seen by Westerners, Chungking: The China Publishing Co., p. 119Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ Yingyang yanjiu huiyi gexiang tian (The various items of the nutrition research conference), AHA, 028000003182A.

⁹⁰ The Chinese Ministry of Information, China Handbook, pp. 682–684.

⁹¹ Jolliffe, ‘Life in Free China Cities’, p. 119.

⁹² All new milling factories constructed during the post-war building projects were literally called ‘healthy rice milling factories (jiankang michang)’. Chouban jiankang michang (Preparing for building healthy rice milling factories), AHA, 119000000304A; Jiang Qianding jiaoshou tichang shiyong jiankangmi yanjiu (Professor Jiang Qianding advocated ‘healthy rice’ research), IMHA, 20–22–096–08; Jiang Qianding tichang shiyong jiankangmi zengjin guomin jiankang yijian shu (Professor Jiang Qianding's report on the improvement of national-citizen's health through eating ‘healthy rice’), IMHA, 20–22–096–09.

⁹³ It is not known when the Society determined this standard. Zhang, L. (2000). Zhang Jian Yu Junyi Xuexiao: Jian Shu Kangzhan Shiqi Junyi Jiaoyu (Zhang Jian and Military Medical School: With Narration About Military Medical Education During the Wartime Period), Hong Kong: Tiandi Tushu, p. 241Google Scholar.

⁹⁴ For a good exemplar of the public interest in science vis-à-vis cultural experience, see Fyfe, A. and Lightman, B.Science in the Marketplace: Nineteenth Century Sites and Experiences, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 42Google Scholar.

⁹⁵ The original title was ‘An Opinion for the Improvement of the National Nutrition (Gaijin guomin yingyang chuyi)’. The new article acknowledged the original authors but also mentioned that the current article was published without Wu Xian's agreement because he had left Beijing. On the same page, the Daily introduced the Communists’ resolution to the nutrition problem: ‘Given the disastrous situation caused by the dual exploitation of both feudalistic Guomindang bureaucrats and imperialists, improving people's physical strength was more important than anything else to revive agriculture and industry.’ Renmin ribao (hereafter RMRB), 30 August 1949.

⁹⁶ In April 1950, for example, the Saving and Relief Committee was organized in Shanghai to promote popular participation in the food saving campaign. RMRB, 17 April 1950.

⁹⁷ See Wakeman, F. (2007). ‘Clean Up: the New Order in Shanghai’ in Brown, J. and Pickowicz, P. G.Dilemmas of Victory: The Early Years of the People's Republic of China, Cambridge: Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar.

⁹⁸ On efforts by the People's Republic of China to popularize scientific knowledge, see Schmalzer, S. (2008). The People's Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in Twentieth-Century China, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹⁹ Yi, M. (1950). Jiuer mi he Bayi mian (Ninety-Two Rice and Eighty-One Wheat Flour), Shanghai: Shangwuyin Shuguan, pp. 4–7Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ Fan, G. (1955). ‘Zhengfan haochu duo’ in She, B.Zenyang Jieyue Liangshi (How to save food), Shanghai: Shanghai Wenhua Chuubanshe, pp. 14–15Google Scholar. For a discussion of the reputation of the Xinya Cantonese Restaurant in Shanghai from the 1920s, see Swislocki, Culinary Nostalgia.