Gastro-generation: Young adults constructing national identity through food consumption in Taipei, Taiwan

While scholarship on food consumption and national identity formation is extensive, the generational dimensions of this intersection remain theoretically underdeveloped. This study focuses on members of Taiwan’s “Natural Independence Generation,” the first cohort born and raised under democracy (born in 1996-2006), to examine how young adults construct national and generational identities through everyday food consumption. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Taipei’s Gongguan shopping district, we identify three key practices for constructing national and generational identity: embracing culinary omnivorousness, which frames Taiwanese food as democratic and inclusive, while distinguishing it from China; boycotting establishments aligned with the People’s Republic of China; and “buycotting” pro-Taiwanese eateries. Drawing on these, we develop the concept of Gastro-generation : the process through which generational cohorts use everyday culinary practices to construct collective identities, articulate belonging, and distinguish themselves from other generations. In Taiwan, culinary consumption spaces emerge as contested intergenerational arenas, where young adults forge a democratic-independence Taiwanese identity vis-à-vis their parents’ generation, shaped by Kuomintang martial law, and China’s imposed national identity. These dynamics reveal how everyday consumption serves as a site of national and generational negotiation, advancing our understanding of how culinary spaces connect nationalism and youth consumer culture in the construction of collective identity.