According to the author, in his introduction, this book has two main focus questions: "How did chile peppers in China evolve from an obscure foreign plant to a ubiquitous and even “authentic” spice, vegetable, medicine, and symbol? And how did Chinese uses of chiles change Chinese culture?" I found the answers interesting and unexpected. The book is full of interesting cultural asides and unexpected quirky history.
The author is an academic and this is what I would call a layman accessible academic treatise of the chile pepper in all its incarnations as they intersect with Chinese culture and history. As an academic work, it is *full* of tables and statistics and maps and minutiae (in a good way). The author definitely "shows his work" in full. I loved poring over the notes from pharmacopeia published in the 16th century along with an exhaustive bibliography and full chapter notes and annotations (did I mention that this is an academic work?). The notes and references are likely worth the price of admission for anyone interested in the subject and there's obviously been a faint-inducing amount of time spent on research and resource gathering on the part of the author. There's an exhaustive glossary (including many of the Chinese hanzi) suited for western readers - no Chinese language proficiency is needed to read and enjoy the book.
I found the entire book quite interesting and fascinating. It is admittedly a niche book and will appeal to readers interested in cultural anthropology, but might not appeal to readers looking for recipes or an easy read. I found this one so interesting that I'm going back to try to acquire some earlier volumes in the series.
Five stars. This is well and deeply researched and interesting.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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