浅谈中西方饮食文化的差异 -毕业论文
【标题】浅谈中西方饮食文化的差异
【作者】杜吉瑞
【关键词】中西方；饮食文化；差异；跨文化交际
【指导老师】王露陈慧
【专业】英语
【正文】
I. Introduction
With the development of the society, science and technology, the intercultural contact becomes more frequent. It seems the world is becoming smaller, but people from different cultural backgrounds often feel that habits and customs keep them apart in the communication. There may be some conflicts and misunderstandings because of the different cultures in intercultural communication. Culture, in a broad sense, includes beliefs, customs, habits, institutions, techniques, and languages. In a narrow sense, it may refer to local beliefs or customs that are related to our daily life, which can be found in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture etc. It is so inclusive that it permeates every aspect of human life and affects people’s behavior.
Food is one of the most important parts in folk culture. It is the first nece ssity in men’s life, also is one of the fundamental form in social existent. But different backgrounds have different food perspectives and habits, and then take shape of different food culture1. It involves what to eat, how to eat, why to eat etc. The habit of diet in each nation is one of the most important parts in their cultures. Because of the impact of different cultures, such as belief, custom, value and religion, there are different perspectives towards food and eating, contents and eating manners between China and the west, which shows their own food culture. Every nation has its own food culture as everyone has his own interest. There is a proverb that “one’s bear paw is one’s arsenic” in Chinese; and there is also a proverb that “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”2 in English. The Chinese use chopsticks while western people use knife and fork when eating, Chinese eat rice and vegetables while westerners eat meat and bread in their daily life. They all reflect the differences between Chinese and western food cultures. This paper tends to study the differences between Chinese and western food cultures from the perspective towards food, the contents of food and eating manners, and also to explore the cultural aspects causing these differences to help us develop cultural awareness and improve intercultural communication competence.
II. The Different Perspective towards Food
Firstly, the difference between Chinese and western food culture is the different perspective towards food. It forms in the process of preparing and eating food. It involves some problems, such as: why to eat, how to eat, and how to treat eating? Because of being influenced by different philosophical thoughts, value and thinking patterns, the perspective towards food between China and the west differs a lot.
A. The Chinese’s Aesthetic Perspective towards Food
As the saying goes “Food is the essentials to people” and“Man is iron and food is steel”, we can see that food is very important for our Chinese people. Except for avoiding hunger, the purpose for Chinese people is to seek for the delicious food. And in Chinese cooking, color, aroma and flavor share equal importance in the preparation of every dish. Chinese food is full of aesthetic feeling, and thus every dish on the Chinese meal table looks like a piece of art, good looking and delicious. These are the crucial points for good Chinese cooking, the smell of the cooked food must conform to the expectant level of tenderness, crispness or even chewiness. Of these characteristics, taste is the first importance to most Chinese
people. “Flavors”, are the enchantment of Chinese food. They advocate“民以食为天(people regard food as of fundamental importance),食以味为
先”3(taste is preferred), and endeavor to make delicious food. As long as the taste is agreeable to people, a kind of food may be cooked variously according to diverse geography, climate and so on. This leads to the evolution of what is called ‘eight cuisines’, which reflect local preferences and also have own special style of cooking. The seek for aesthetic of Chinese diet obviously overwhelm the rational ones, and it is in line with the traditional philosophical thought. Chinese food reflect the dialectic thought of it: light in summer and autumn, strong in spring and winter. When people taste one dish, they always say this dish is delicious or not. It is clear that people regard the taste of food as first importance. But if you want to know where and why the dish is delicious, I’m afraid it’s very difficult to say clearly. It is proved that the pursing of delicious taste is the artistic mood that can’t express by words. This conforms to the visual, ambiguous features of Chinese philosophical thought and thinking pattern. Chinese people are more subjective in thinking and tend to value intuition a lot, through which they get an insight into things around us. This thinking pattern lies in perceiving directly through the sense, not in the logic analysis, and is also difficult to express by words exactly.
Chinese people especially pursue the taste of food, but pay less attention to the nutrition. I take fish as an example. In China, people usually cook braised fish with many pepper and other seasonings, which suits most Chinese people’s taste. While in the west, people usually cook steaming fish, which can keep the fish fresh. And in the process of cooking steaming fish, the
nutrition of fish may retain maximally. Additionally, even if sometimes Chinese people are over full, they would continue eating because they can’t bear attraction of del icious taste. So one Chinese poet said:“肠满诚好事，余者皆奢侈。”4 But to westerners, it is wasteful and harmful for health.
B. The Westerners’ Rational and Scientific Perspective towards Food Chinese people in general are not concerned about nutrition as westerners. The western culture’s interpretation of food is the rational and scientific perspective. Western people accustom to labeling food as “good”
or “bad” based on the supposed healthy quality. They once pointed out all the functions of food are to remove hunger, enhance strength, make people beautiful, benefit to the development of intelligence and promote the enjoyment of one special sense—each one should improve health, then to keep permanent health. It is evident that the main function of food is to improve health, then to satisfy the taste. In order to reduce the loss of nutrition, most westerners would like to eat half-cooked even raw food. For example, salad is a popular food in the west, which consists of some kinds of fruit and vegetables. When making salad, you only need wash fruit and vegetables, then cut them into pieces, last add salad juice. This method retains most of nutrients. Additionally, half-cooked beef is preferred to most westerners. But Chinese people usually think that the raw or half-cooked food is hard to swallow and is far from the taste that people expect, also it isn’t good for our health.
From the above, we can know western people concern more about nutrition of food than Chinese. They value objectivity, specificity, and precision, which is their thinking pattern. This fosters their analysis of food ingredients in their diet to decide nutrients that they need. This breakdown of food as labels such as fat, carbohydrates and proteins becomes a popular method of describing food ingredients. Most westerners decide the need of fat and nutrients according to The Supply of Nutrients in Daily Diet, and then compute the need of food on the basis of food ingredients in the daily life to arrange food exactly. In the west most families have private dietitians to arrange food for their diet. They usually choose an egg, a cup of milk and some pieces of bread as their breakfast, fast food as their lunch, beef, cheese or fried chicken as supper, which contain enough nutrients, and this is why westerners become fatter and fatter. Because of being affected by their thinking pattern, in the western cooking,“ you are told exactly how much water, how many grams of salt, sugar and other ingredients are needed for a certain dish, how many minutes, how strong the heat, the food takes to be cooked.”5 Just as the seeking for the nutrition, the cooking methods are hardly different in the west. From Los Angeles to New York, the taste of beefsteak is almost the same.
III. The Different Contents of Food
The content of food involves what to eat, especially in our daily life. Food is closed to a nation’s environment and tradition, people’s dining life
is related to the changes in the system of food culture. Because of the different cultural background, the contents of food between China and the west are different. In a word, the choices of the contents of food are influenced by the differences of the geographical surrounding and climate gigantically.
A. The Vegetal Contents of Food in China
The traditional food culture of the main race in China, from the content, is mainly based on the vegetal food. As is well known, China is an agricultural center in the world. The broad territory, the diversified geographical surrounding, the abundant climate terms and the plenty categories of the food, all of these conditions provide the sturdy material base of Chinese food6. The ancient medical classic Suwen recommends“five grains for nutrition, five fruits, five meats for benefit, five plants for fullness”.7 A meal in China is typically seen as consisting of two general components: Zhushi( main food), typically rice, noodles, and accompanying dishes of vegetables, fish meat, known as Cai( vegetable) in the Chinese language. So rice and wheaten food dominate in the Chinese traditional food culture. Meat hardly appears on the table in the Chinese traditional food. Common people eat vegetables and rice in their daily lives, and meat is only offered to the rich, the guests and God. All of these are called vegetarian advocated by Buddhism, because in Buddhist culture, killing lives is a cruel behavior and eating meat is not permitted.
Chinese are fond of hot food. It always begins with a set of at least four cold dishes, to be followed by the main courses of hot meat and vegetable dishes. In Ch inese’s mind, there must be lack of taste if hot food becomes cold, “one hot, three fresh”has the same meaning.
B. The Meaty Contents of Food in the West
But in the west, the barren of land, the lack of water are not good for the development of the agricul ture, people can’t plant rice but wheat and grass, and the west inherits a traditional seafaring and nomadic culture, so they depend on hunting, fishing and aquaculture to get food. It is determined they choose to eat more animal dish and dairy food. Contrast to Chinese meals, meat or animal protein is often considered the main dish, such as beef, ham and fried chicken. Also bread plays a very important role in their meals, just as rice in China.
The difference of contents between Chinese and western food culture also exhibit that westerners like cold food, such as: assorted cold dish, salad, anyway there can’t do without cold food on the table. Westerners like to eat raw vegetable, not only tomato, cucumber, but also cabbage, onion. IV. The Different Eating Manner in Chinese and Western Food Culture From the first two parts, we can see the differences in perspectives towards food and contents reflect the different thinking patterns of Chinese and western people. Meanwhile we need to know about those differences in social customs, behaviors to understand people better in the west and their
culture.
We know both China and the west are particular about the etiquette of eating. As an important part in food culture, the rites of food is the order and conformity of the eating, also are the civilized refinement and the principle of communication in the eating activity. All of the things incarnate “ceremony”, such as: the direction of seat, the arrangement of utensils. The form of etiquette is closely related to the traditional thought of culture, the religion conviction, the thinking pattern and the regional civilization. Each nation has its own standard etiquette during a long-term practice, which can be regarded as the principle of their behavior. In the intercultural communication, the etiquette means courtesy and also refers to a kind of communicative way. It is mostly close to our daily life, and it differs because of different cultures. It reflects on the seating arrangement, table manners and hospitality.
A. The Different Seating Arrangements and the Cause of the Difference Seating arrangement is one of the important ways to indicate the status of a person and interpersonal relationships according to space. People’s concept towards space is not inborn, and it is influenced by different cultures. Chinese lay stress on the seating arrangement because it stands for innumerable meanings. Westerners also pay much attention to it, but the contents are different from China. It is very necessary for us to comprehend the knowledge of seating in China and the west.
1. Chinese Seating Custom
It is well-known China is a nation of etiquette, which begins with eating. The Book of Rites wrote:“夫礼之初，始诸饮食。”8(Husbands’ etiquette begins with eating). So in China, there is a strict seating arrangement in the banquette. As a guest, you may be asked to sit prominently at the table in the so-called honor seat. Women hardly appear in the traditional banquette. Now women in the banquette always sit together. We know the core of the Chinese cultures is hierarchy, which has some relationship with the Confucianism. The ethic principle of Confucianism is the well-known five relationships: ruler-minister, father-son, husband-wife, elder-younger brother and friend-friend. This was explained as that “There should be affection between father and son, righteous sense of duty between ruler and minister, division of function between man and wife, stratification between old and young, and good faith between friends”9 . During the more than two thousand years of the feudal period, the ruling class arranges every thing by these relationships, and then formed a class society. The concept that “men are superior to women” affects the Chinese people all the time. Additionally, the young are supposed to show respect and obedience to old people who receive honor, privilege and satisfaction, since people believe that an old person is a wise man full of experience. The typical example is that the oldest person is the most respected not only in the family but also in the neighborhood. Just as Confucianism shows in Five Relations, the
young should show filial love, obedience and duty to the old in the family, esp. in the relationship between parents and children.
In China, collectivism is a major value. No matter in family dinner or formal banquette, people are all sitting around the table, toasting with each other to show respective, virtue of comity, and the atmosphere of peace and reunion, esp. in festivals, people always meet together by eating. This is an important tradition in Chinese eating culture. These are all influenced by collectivism, which emphasizes cooperation among group members, consideration for others and is believed to be collectivism-oriented where the basic unit of society is the collective, not the individual.
2. Western Seating Custom
There is no special respect for the old, but especially respect for women in the west. There are two important principles to arrange the seating: Ladies First and women and men are cross-seated. Women and men hosts sit facing to each other and women hosts sit prominently the honor seat facing the door. According to the statue, age and the principle that right is superior to left, women and men guests follow to sit by cross-arrangement. But women’s seats are not arra nged according to their ages. One English jurist said that all the ladies are young except the special.
The courtesy “Ladies First” is caused by different sources. First, western culture is deeply influenced by the Christianity, which shows great respect and honor to Notre dam Maria, who gives birth to Jesus. So, now it is extended to respect all the women in the west. Except the influence by Christianity, the Knightly code embodies courage, piety, honor, loyalty and respect for women, which requires men to take care of women in many occasions. So “Ladies First” in the west also displays in the banquette. In the west, most people want to stay young because youth stands for hope and energy, which can help them to make some positive changes in life. Moreover, they do not like to grow old because they will not gain honor, respect or attention as young people.
Also in the west, the value, individualism is probably the most basic. It usually refers to freedom which means the desire and the ability of all individuals to control their own destiny without interference from others. So westerners are expected not to take interest in other’s private affairs. People may walk freely in the dining room to pick up the food. The more important is that people have more opportunity to get new friends and to be direct in interacting with others.
B. The Different Tableware and Table Manners
The obvious difference is the tableware used between China and the west. It is all known that chopsticks are the most common tableware to eat Chinese food, while knife and fork are commonly used in the west to eat food. This difference is mainly caused by different cultures.
1. Chopsticks Used in China
Being influenced by the cultivation of agriculture and Buddhism, Chinese
people tend to choose chopsticks as their tableware, which play an important role in Chinese food culture. Chopsticks are called “Kuaizi” in Chinese and were called “Zhu” in ancient times. Chinese people have been using kuaizi as the main tableware for more than 3,000 years.10 Children are taught to hold chopsticks with their right hands when they begin to eat. The two sticks seem so simple, but they apply to the lever principle of physics when being used to pick up food. They can do everything that is done by human’s fingers. And using chopsticks, you should always keep some courtesies in mind. Such as never insert chopsticks upright onto food in the vessels, as it is a custom exclusively used in sacrifice. Never point at someone with it or don’t use it to prick food in order to pick it up. Do not drum or tap bowls with chopsticks especially when you are a guest, which seems to be a humble behavior of beggars when they beg for food. These are all regarded as impolite and irreverent.
Because of being affected by the collectivism value, in a Chinese meal, each individual diner is given their own bowl of rice while the accompanying dishes are served in communal plates or bowls which everyone sitting together around the round table shares. Each diner picks food out of the communal plates with their own chopsticks.
2. Knife and Fork Used in the West
To compare with China, in the west, the knife and fork are used to eat food appear later and are relevant to the custom of European nomadic nation. In the ancient time, westerners took the knife with themselves as a tool to cut meat or defend them. After people’s settlement in cities, the knife comes into kitchen and is used in eating, but the fork is not used in eating until 18th century. Until that time, the noble preferred to have dinners with a fork. So it gradually becomes necessary tableware to eat food in the west. Most food in the west are big pieces, people may use the knife to cut food into small ones out of their own need, then use the fork to prick food to their mouth.
In western meals, it is customary to have own plate of food and individual serving of the dishes at the beginning of the meal. The big difference between China and the west is the buffet which is popular in the west. People may walk freely in the dining room to pick up the food. The more important is that people have more opportunity to get new friends and to be direct in interacting with others. There may be lack of the atmosphere of reunion like talking and eating together around the table, but they express their own willing and personality more freely, not to tie up others.
C. The Different Ways of Hospitality and the Cause of the Difference Perhaps one of the things that surprise a westerner most is that most Chinese hosts like to put food into the plates of their guests. In formal dinners, there are always public chopsticks and spoons for this purpose, but some hosts may use their own chopsticks. This is a sign of genuine friendship and politeness in China. It is always polite to eat up the food. If you do
not eat it, just leave it in the plate. But for westerners, all of the behaviors above are impolite. “Seeing the bottom” of all the plates is the ideal ending to a meal, it means that the guest has completely enjoyed the meal, but for Chinese, it is a sign that t he hosts haven’t prepared enough. So the Chinese hosts always say “Just have what you like; Help yourself.” Usually when a westerner have a dinner in a Chinese’s home, they have to eat up all the dishes the hosts have prepared to show their politeness, even if they are over full.
Another surprise in the westerners’ eyes is the quality and quantity of dished in the Chinese banquette. Even if in “an ordinary home-cooked meal”, the hosts would prepare a sumptuous dinner for guests. People in China tend to over-order or prepare food, for they will find it embarrassing if all the food is consumed. They not only emphasize the quantity, but also care about the quality of dishes. Especially in a formal banquette, they tend to order dishes like delicacies, seafood with high price. This shows a kind of hospitality, for the more and the better food you offer to the guests, the more generous and hospitable you are. But one American professor once said: “between you and me, Chinese banquette kills westerners.” because westerners usually have to eat up all the dishes to show their politeness, although they are over full. Another reason is that some dishes or dishes cooked with internal organs of fowls and animals are unacceptable to westerners. To Chinese people, these dishes are usually top quality. For instance, Americans never eat the head of fish, which is fed to cats in their opinion. When Chinese people give them these dishes, they have to accept and eat although they may feel uncomfortable.
While in the west the dishes for guests are much simpler except at some important festivals like Christmas and Thanks Giving Day. In some informal parties each guest would like to bring one dish cooked by her or himself to share with each other, which is called “Pot luck”. Or the ho sts only prepare some simple food like fried potato, sandwich and cheese. It is the same even if in a formal occasion.
In China, one proverb says like this: “A person needs face as a tree needs bark.”11 It not only brings out the quantity of food, but als o reflects on the question of paying the bill. In China, when the roles of hosts and guests are clearly defined, as is always the case on formal occasions, this isn’t an issue. When the occasion is less formal, such as when a few friends get together for a meal, the payment of the bill becomes a matter of fact. As the bill is brought to the table, one or more will argue about who have the privilege of paying, which a bystander could have easily mistaken the scene for a quarrel. But to westerners, it is individualism that is not selfishness but rather virtue. They pursue the independence, esp. on money. They believe that each person has his own separate identity and personality, which should be recognized and reinforced, so the payment of “AA” is very popular in western countries. Therefore, Chinese people can’t comprehend
westerners without understanding individualism in their opinions.
V. Conclusion
From all the above, the differences between Chinese and western food cultures in perspective towards food, contents and eating manners are closely related to the different cultures. Through the contrastive study on these aspects of food culture between China and the west, the easier and better can we have awareness and knowledge of other cultures as well as our own, for it would enable us to understand the meaning of the behaviors of others and of ourselves better. Chinese and western food culture always develop along their own ways, they both maintain their own characters, and continually absorb others things to enrich herself. To study these differences, we also can sum up our own food characteristics and discard the dross in food culture to improve our eating quantity. We can imagine if we don’t have awareness and knowledge of other cultures, which influence peop le’s mind and behaviors, we can not know how to understand the different attitudes towards food and different eating manners between China and the west, or how to behave appropriately in the banquette and how to deal with unfamiliar situations in intercultural communication.
To sum up, to analyze and study the differences between Chinese and western food culture, the purpose is not only to understand the truth, but the most important thing is to guide us how to practice in our daily life. It is necessary to appreciate the advanced culture of ours and respect differences between cultures, so that we can appropriately and successfully communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds.