![]() Cities flourished in the new colony and people of very different backgrounds jostled each other in the streets every day. The French incorporated Vietnam into the larger Southeast Asian colony of French Indochina, along with Cambodia and Laos. That is not to say that Vietnamese people ate French food to assimilate into French society, that a Chinese husband ate his Vietnamese wife’s local dishes to feel Vietnamese, or that French people at a Vietnamese banquet were trying to “go native.” Eating unfamiliar food does not lead to assimilation more often people try new dishes or ingredients out of necessity, curiosity, or in an effort to rise in social status. People saw themselves as having more options than their grandparents, and their choices spoke about their aspirations and anxieties for where they and their children would end up in the colonial order. In Vietnam during the French colonial period, language about food uncovered people’s anxieties about the changing social hierarchy. People also reference food when signaling what they think of others. People send many signals when they talk about what they eat and what they refuse to eat. Since food is a relatively affordable part of everyone’s daily life, food choices signify more than just economic decisions. ![]() Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote in 1825 “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Those first two words, “tell me,” are key: what we say about what we eat reveals so much about how we see ourselves and others (Ferguson 2004, 31–33).
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