Chinese Food Culture

Chinese food culture

As an old Chinese saying goes,‘人是铁，饭是钢’. It indicate the significant meaning food has towards our human beings. However, is Chinese cuisine produced only for the reason to satisfy hunger and provide power? The answer is definitely NO. It is a board and profound science and splendid art that worth the highest respect.

Throughout the long history of Chinese brilliant culture, the food culture played an important role in people’s daily life since records began. Not only civilians but also emperors and noblemen paid attentions to the food they ate. Many scholars made a deep research and wrote many well-known works on food culture throughout the food culture history of 7000 years to 10000 years. For example, in the time as early as Qin dynasty, two famous works named Sheng Nong's herbal classic and Inner Canon of Huangdi?Plain Questions have mentioned the food therapy which has far-reaching influence on successive dynasties. Also in the modern time, the famous scholar Lin Yutang wrote regimen and how we eat which demonstrate the development of Chinese food culture. That’s why food in China is a science and art that attract many scholars to study.

Many scholars devote their whole lifetime in studying the knowledge of food and have their own views on the food culture According to Professor Zhao Rongguang, the chairman of Asian Food Forum who specialized in Chinese food culture, the long history of Chinese food culture can be divided into four periods. The first period is described as ‘man with knowledge and high status should be far away from kitchen’. The second period can be described as ‘sublime words with deep meaning’. During this time, Dr. Sun Yat - sen said that our Chinese had our own unique creativeness in understanding, appreciating and pursuing delicious food. The third period began from the middle decade of 20th century. During this time, our advanced Chinese food culture attracted attentions from many other countries in the world. Korean scholars led by Li shengyu are the pioneers of the international attention towards Chinese food culture. They find out some rare Chinese classics and documents that even unavailable in the domestic to study the brilliant Chinese food culture and combine it with their culture. Japan had also went through a great upsurge in studying Chinese food. And then there were many researchers and scholars from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao who wrote many well-known works on Chinese food. The American and European countries had also focused on this hot topic. The overseas Chinese scholar Zhang

Guangzhi wrote a book named Food in Chinese Culture that demonstrate the Chinese food culture in system. The forth period is the popularization of food culture in China. The cooking and food culture got a profound development both home and board. The concept of Food Culture is well accepted and understood by the common people.

There are many people who are not familiar with the deep meaning of food in our dinning table. They may think the long history of food culture has nothing to do with themselves. But actually, the profound culture background is involved in every day life and we are influenced by it unconsciously.

One good example is the selection and cooking skills of food materials for every meal. According to research, Chinese people’s intake of vegetables is absolutely lager than that of Americans because we have the traditional awareness that vegetables is full of vitamin which is beneficial to our health. Not only the vegetables but the grains, fruits and meat are also welcomed in China. This kind of food preference could be traced back to the early Qin Dynasty. It is recorded in Inner Canon of Huangdi?Plain Questions that“五谷为养，五果为助，五畜为益，五菜为充”. Therefore, we are following our ancestors in food culture and influenced greatly by their theories.

Another example is the serving order of the dishes. Have you

ever noticed the order cuisines delivered in a formal dinner? There are many inner meanings in the order by which we eat. Before the main courses, there are always some appetizers dish available which can make people appetitive to the following dishes. Then, there should be the main dishes that delivered by the combination of meat and vegetables, light and greasy dishes, sweet and spicy dishes. This order can help people have a comfortable Various kind of soup are served as an ending of the main courses. After serving the main courses, there are some staple foods and desserts such as cooked rice,cakes and patties. This order can help to protect the stomach of people. As the old saying goes ‘吃饭先喝汤，不用开药方’, the staple food should be at the end of the meal. To close the dinner, there are some fruits for people to dissolve fat and greasy food in the dinner and similarly protect their stomach.

From the above examples, we can know that Chinese people’s diet focus a lot on good health rather than fulfill the hungry. The awareness of pursuing healthy diet started as early as Qin Dynasty. Scholars in that time believe the combination and accordance of food and medicine. This thought is one of the four fundamental theories of Chinese food culture. They thought our daily eating behaviors had the functions of both nourishing lives and curing diseases. The food can serve as medicine materials and the medicine

can also serve as food. Another fundamental theory is actually covered in the first one that is food can nourish lives and build healthy bodies. Chen Lifu from Taiwan who has lived 103 years has published a book called How Can I Live to 100 where he stated his eating habit that helped him to be a centenarian. From his statement, we can know that the diet has great influence on people’s health and there do exist some methods to keep healthy by appropriate diet.

To conclude the above mentioned points, we can come to the conclusion that eating behavior in China is a symbol of brilliant food culture instead of the essential of well being. As Chinese people, we should inherit this good traditional culture and make full use of those theories to live healthy lives.

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