Most complex societies codify their foods investing in them a significance beyond satisfying hunger. Culinary technology in China, through the manipulation of the potencies attributed to flavour, links to a history of nutritional ideas that begins in pre-imperial times and has echoes today in everyday life for over a billion people, and many more if we are to count those Chinese living overseas. People in China are still inclined to have a view about the effect on their bodies of what they eat, and to have an opinion about the techniques of adjusting the individual ingredients in a dish to the individual constitution and appetites of the consumer. They think about their food in unique ways. This module will be dedicated to understanding how this knowledge came about historically, to explaining the background assumptions that have informed the collective practices that surround us. It is not only a historical and ethnographic survey aimed at understanding ‘other’ people. It also considers how the legacy of Chinese nutritional ideas might remain relevant today for those who are interested in Chinese cuisine and Chinese medicine, and among those who care about the relationship between local and global attitudes to health and patterns of consumption. The content of the course will be grounded in history but will also draw from anthropological and ethnopharmacological approaches to the tailoring of tradition.