Academic Encyclopedias and Reference Sources

Start with introductory articles on foods, nations, cuisines, clothing, architecture - in sum, culture.

• Academic reference articles offer an introduction to a topic, including relevant facts, issues, debates, histories, specialized terminology, stakeholders, and more. 
• They are a good tool for finding ways to narrow a broad starting topic. 
• They also offer leads to additional sources.

To search in the reference collections, start with simple broad terms, such as "food" AND China.