Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Chinese Language Dr Qingjun Li and Professor and Director of Belmont’s Asian Studies Program Dr. Ronnie Littlejohn were recently joined by senior honors student Jennifer Toppins in presenting a panel entitled “Cuisine, Environment and Culture” at the 24th National Conference of ASIANetwork in St. Petersburg, Florida.
ASIANetwork is a consortium of 170 U.S. liberal arts colleges that strives to strengthen the role of Asian studies within the framework of liberal arts education to help prepare succeeding generations of undergraduates for a world in which Asian societies play prominent roles in an ever more interdependent world.
In the panel, Li presented, ‘Is General Tso Still Liberating? The Role of Chinese Restaurants and Cuisine in Combatting Injustice against Chinese-Americans.” Toppins’s talk was entitled, “Nope, Never Had It In China, So Why Is It Chinese?” and Littlejohn’s presentation was, “Have you Eaten Yet? General Tso’s Dish and Chinese Values.”
