Hot Pot on the Move: Culinary Mobility and Identity Negotiation among Chinese Students in padova

This study aims to examine how Chinese students in Padova negotiate cultural identity and cultivate a sense of belonging through hot pot, a traditional Chinese cuisine. It employs autoethnography, semi structured interviews, and literature research as methodology. And it involves a comprehensive examination of my personal experiences from an insider's perspective, complemented by interviews with 21 Chinese students from various regions and disciplines. Hot pot has progressively transitioned from a regional cuisine to a widespread dish, facilitated by contemporary logistics systems and increased population mobility. And through Large-scale transnational migration it has gradually spread worldwide, making some changes and adapting to local culinary customs and tastes. In Italy, hotpot has become less spicy and involved some local special ingredients, with the popular all-you-can-eat model. Through hot pot gatherings, international students not only reconnect with familiar taste but also broaden their social circles and gain valuable information, effectively relieving anxiety and loneliness from cultural disorientation. Hotpot also serves a boundary function: amidst foreign lands, different culinary practice delineate ‘us’ from “others.” Through conversation and observation at hot pot gatherings, students finds their “family” in Padova. In the context of mobility, identity and a sense of belonging are continually constructed and reshaped through repeated dining practices. As a shared dining form with emotional and symbolic significance, hot pot serves as a vital cultural medium for international students to negotiate identity, sustain emotional connections, and reconstruct a sense of “home” in foreign lands.