Comparison of eating and food culture between China and western countries

跨文化交际论文

跨文化交际论文

姓名:

学号：

杨杰 20102621 2012年5月31日

跨文化交际论文

Comparison of eating and food culture between China

and western countries

Thesis statement:

This paper is intended to make a comparison between China and West in culture of eating and food to see the differences and similarities, and a tentative explanation is given to enlighten west people about the culture of China.

Outline: 1. Introduction

2. Comparison in different aspects

2.1 Mind of eating

2.2 Diet objects

2.3 Cook methods

2.4 Dinnerware

2.5 Dinner party and social intercourse

2.6 Diversity

3. Conclusion

4. Works Cited

1. Introduction:

In the traditional culture of China, people treasured food the best. In this sense we Chinese people pure much energy into food. As we all

跨文化交际论文

know China has a long history with profound culture including eating and food. With the intensive development of open and reform policy, more and more people became better off, which provide a strong base for the catering industry, thus more and more western restaurant sprang up in the old continent. This kind of culture phenomenon pose impact on the traditional eating and food culture and also make it possible for the communication between the two different cultures. In the sense of Chinese we cherish the view of the consistency between human beings and nature particularly the obedience of human beings to nature, while western people treasured themselves as the most significant factor. It is the different model of thinking and philosophy of life that caused the difference between China and western country in eating and food culture. Of cause, these factors such as areas, climate, and customs still make sense in ingredient, taste, cooking methods and the habit of eating.

2. Comparison in different aspects

2.1 Mind of eating

Western people emphasize nutrition in their food so they often focus on the combination of different food in order to provide full nutrition for their body. As a cook he should fully be aware of whether the food he provided contained enough nutrition such as protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and sorts of mineral element; whether the supply of calorie is

跨文化交际论文

the finest standard. He should care about if nutrition in the food can be fully taken in by the body and the side effect is also the consideration of his cook. As a result the color, aroma and taste are less considered by the cook.

While in Chinese cooking the color, aroma and taste is the highest standard of the food. Unfortunately, sometimes we go beyond too far so as to treasure the taste but ignore the nutrition. Many of our traditional food should be fried or cooked a long time by slow fire that many of the nutritious elements in the ingredient has been destroyed in the course of cooking. This becomes the most weakness in many kind of Chinese food.

2.2 Diet object

It is said that in western country people think the function of food is just to meet the hungry stomach, so their food is often big piece of chicken, large piece of beef and so on. But Chinese people like delicious food for they think eating is not only aim at meeting hungry stomach but a way of enjoy of life. It seems that Chinese cook choose ingredients with at their pleases, many of the ingredients discarded by western cook will included in the recipe of Chinese cook, they are magicians who can create wonder in food, which can fully make use of the ingredients to cook delicious food for customers. The ingredients in Chinese food is very numerous which included from the flying birds in the sky to the creeping insects, every beings as long as can be food will be included in

跨文化交际论文

the recipe of Chinese cook. According the survey taken by western scholars, the variety of vegetables in Chinese food is about to almost six hundred types the six times of the western people. In the past the vegetables is the common item in ordinary family, only in the festival the meat can be provide in the table, so there is ever a saying “vegetable diet” in the past of China. So the main course in Chinese diet is vegetables. Vegetables become the main course in Chinese diet mainly for the doctrine of Buddhism, there once a period of time that the Buddhism is very popular in ancient China. The Buddhist think animals is beings with soul while plants is not beings with soul, so in order not to hurt beings with soul they call for people just take vegetables as their food only.

Western people think they are more awareness than Chinese in nutrition of food and all the ingredients will be well-balanced in order to provide enough nutrition to people. As a result most individuals in western country are tall and strong while Chinese people are short and thin in the size of physique compared to westerns. Someone define Chinese nations as plant while western animal in character according to the difference.

2.3 Cook methods

In China, cooking was regarded as art; it possessed the same status as music, dancing, poem and painting. The culture of cooking contains the

跨文化交际论文

elevation in levels of life. Cook can convert some ingredients which discarded by others into delicious food; this kind of translation standards for the elevation of life. The technique of cooking in China is various and fancy and the dishes are numerous and fantastic. Some of Chinese food is difficult to make for the course is complicated. Besides, some cooking cost many labor and time, they need many decorates and some of them cannot eat. These kind of luxury of vision sense cause many waste of ingredients.

Western people focus on nutrition, the course of cooking must done according to the scientific discipline strictly. The standardization in cooking makes cook a dull and boring job without any innovation. Moreover, people in West Country mainly aim at nutrition, so if the food can provide enough nutrition it can be a qualified meal. Western cooking is much simple without sophisticated courses, many of western has third dimension looks like handcrafts; most of the ingredients in plate is edible; and the decorations are jardinière of main course. The ingredients of western food mainly are fresh, non-polluted, taken from nature and cooked according to the natural taste to maintain the original taste of the food. Besides, milk is the obbligato in their meal.

2.4 Dinnerware

The obvious difference of eating and food culture between China and West Country is in dinnerware. As we all know we Chinese people eat

跨文化交际论文

with chopsticks, soup spoon and the rice was put in to bowl while western people put their food in plate and eat with knife and fork, with aside soup spoon to eat soup. Chopsticks and knife and fork, the most striking differences in dinnerware reflected the difference in aesthetic sentiment, psychology; this kind of difference indicates the feature of the two type of culture.

2.5 Dinner party and social intercourse

In China, any kind of dinner party regardless the motivation only begins at the form that people sit around a table, most times is a round table, to enjoy the delicious food. The uses of round table in order to create a kind of united, polite, happy atmosphere, which indicates the traditional value of Chinese people that we human beings are social animals thus we should united each other, respect each other and help each other. Many delicious food laid on the central table became not only beautiful vision but the media of enjoying life. The food in the table is the main character in the party. Besides, in China we treat the table as a kind of tool to communicate through which we can strengthen friendship. People in around the table toast each other showing the respect to each other, this indicates the most significant factors in Chinese culture about the harmony. Maybe this kind of lifestyle is not healthy, the advantage is more obvious than its weakness that we can enhance the tie among people whatever among relatives or

跨文化交际论文

friends.

In the western dinner party, food and wine are support role even it has its own significance and importance. The main role of the party is the function that people can communicate each other with the help of wine for they can toast some to start a conversation. If we compare the dinner party to ballroom dancing, the Chinese party is social dancing while western party is private dancing between man and woman. We can see that the motivation of party whatever the Chinese party or western party is to provide a media for communication. The difference is that Chinese party is more aims at the communication among a group of people while in west it just aims at the communication between two people at one particular period time.

2.6Diversity

Western people focus on nutrition and the course of cooking is restrained by the discipline according to nutritional science, thus the taste of steak makes no difference from New York to San Francisco. The support ingredients just fixed on potato, tomato, lettuce; the alternative is limited. Moreover, the discipline of cooking requires accuracy to gram in adding the ingredients and time to second. In 1995 the first version of overseas digest published an article food in Holland presented some description that” In Holland, nearly every family equipped with scale, liquid measuring cups, timer, scale pan and in the

跨文化交际论文

spice rack the spices bottle was placed in orders, which indicates more a chemical laboratory than chicken.

In China cooking takes different state compared with West, different style of cooking has its own character in color, aroma, and taste. Even in the same style, the dish will differs according to every individual cook. The cook will take some slight changes according to the season, occasion, and the acquirement of customers. For example, in winter the taste of dishes should be strong, but in summer the taste should be bland; in the wedding the color of dishes should be bright but in funeral the red color are forbidden; if the customer are a group of hungry men the dishes should present contain more meat but vegetables, while the occasion is the party hold by a group of old friends the dishes presented by the cook should be various and particular. Besides, some genius cook will create some new dishes or new technique in cooking according their accidently occurred idea, this kind of innovation is the result of the fundamental surroundings in favor of the development of cooking.

3. Conclusion

The difference of the culture in eating and food between China and West Country was resulted from the way of feeling the world, the nature and our life. Different philosophy leads different way of thinking and way of enjoying life; Chinese seems more perceptual while

跨文化交际论文

Western people are more rational. But as the development of society the communication among different rural places became more and more frequent, the influence posed on each involved side trend to more and stronger. In the blending of culture between China and West the difference blur while the common character become obvious. In big city modern Chinese concentrate more attention on health and nutrition than the color, aroma, and taste. With busy work people have no time to cook for themselves and the Chinese food need a certain time to cook so many people choose fast food as their main meal instead cooking for themselves; as a result the difference in eating and food blur. In the communication among different mind in cooking the Chinese cooking become got strong energy to develop for the broad idea has enlighten our genius cook to created many new fantastic dishes. I believe the communication in culture between China and western country will result in the prosperity of culture and a deep understanding among two sides of their people.

Gained a lot from this significant activity, during this time I learned how to gain useful information and how to employ the available tools to efficiently work for myself; I learned how to use the internet to get information and how to use the resources in library. I even took some survey among Chinese students and the foreign students in our school asking for their idea about eating and food.

跨文化交际论文

4. Works cited

Alice Waters.------Recipes and Lessons from a Delicious Cooking Revolution.

Harold McGee.-----On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the kitchen.

Karen Page, Andrew Dornenburg------The Flavor Bible: the essential guide to culinary creativity, based on the wisdom of America’s most imaginative chefs.

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