1、On Differences Between Chinese and Western Dietary Cultures Abstract Diet is absolutely necessary in the life of mankind, and even in the existence or development. Because of the differences between Chinese and western cultural traditions, the Chinese and western dietary cultures are different in co
2、ncept, target, pattern, attribution and nature. We study these differences and then find out the points that can be digested, in order to facilitate the communication about cultures between China and the west. Taiwan Professor Zhang Qijun said, “The old saying, Eat, drink, man, woman who wishes grea
3、tly. For such a standard fair, western culture (in particular, modern American culture) can be said to be male and female culture. But the Chinese culture can be said to be a dietary culture. “As the reason of the cultural traditions, the western lives tend to men and women, but because of the narro
4、w gender relations, Chinese people are dumping guidance on life in the restaurants. Thus the diet is rich in culture. Food culture in the west is not developed enough, but this underdevelopment itself is the result of the development of a culture, so it is still significant to study the dietary cult
5、ures of Chinese and Western diet. By the analysis of the differences between Chinese and western dietary cultures, we can comprehend the respective cultural traditions of China and the west. And we can also improve and create the culture of China. Key Words dietary culture; cultural tradition; diffe
6、rences 摘 要 饮食是人类生活、生存 与发展的必需，可是由于中西方文化传统的差异，导致了中西方饮食文化在观念、对象、方式、归属与性质方面产生了差异，研究这些差异，找出可以融会贯通的地方，促进中西文化交流。台湾张起钧教授说过“古语说饮食男女人之大欲存焉。就这样的标准而论，西方文化（特别是近代美国式的文化）可说是男女文化，而中国可说是一种饮食文化。”由于文化传统的缘故，西方人的人生倾向男女关系，而中国人由于对男女关系的褊狭，把人生精力倾泄导向于饮食。由此赋予饮食以丰富的文化内涵，虽然饮食文化在西方不够发达，但这种不发达本身也是一种文化发展的结果 ，所以对中西饮食文化的比较仍有意义。通过对中西
7、饮食文化差异的分析，我们可以了解中西方各自的文化传统；同时能对中国文化进行改善与创新。 关键词 饮食文化 ;文化传统 ;差异 Introduction Once there is a saying that “Food is eating well-deserved for human life”, so food is an indispensable condition for the survival and development of human beings. There are two desires in life: one is feasting them to surviv
8、e; and another is the lust of men and women, which can help the mankind to carry on the family line. Facing the two desires, China pays more attention to the former, while the west tends to the latter. Such phenomenon affects the cultural trend. Diet is actually the contents of our daily lives, but
9、why we call it culture? That is because the diet has special status in the Chinese culture, and it also has a great distinction between China and the west. As one of the world ancient nations, Chinas diet has a history almost as long as that of Chinese civilization. But in western countries, ancient
10、 thinkers devoted less attention to the food problem than the Chinese philosophers did, and there is even not aware of it to the “heaven“ degree. With the opposite, they recognized and interpreted the world in the perspective of the lust or love of men and women more. Whether the awareness of origin
11、al sin of Christianity, Adam and Eve legend, or ancient Greek philosophy (such as Platos dialogue) who considered the personal relationships “love” as the love of ontology of beauty, and regarded it as a reality thinking of philosophy, all these ideas become the basis of western philosophers cultura
12、l thoughts. All these had potential effects on the development of western culture and westerners characters. Receiving the influence of respective cultural tradition, the Chinese and western dietary culture has had different characteristic. The differences in concepts, targets, patterns, attribution
13、 and nature had reflected the different dietary culture in the different state characteristic; such characteristic has enriched the research value of dietary culture. Studying these cultural differences, we can find out a joint enhancing the communication between China and the west through a compreh
14、ensive study of the subject. It may be a great help to the communication of the Chinese and western cultures. I. Differences in Concepts First, the Chinese and western diet have the differences that cannot be ignored in concepts. Nobody will deny that the Western diet is a rational concept, regardle
15、ss of the color of food, incense, flavor and shape, but nutrition must be assured. It cares about the intake of calories, vitamins, protein and so on during a day. Comparing with the Chinese diet, western diet tastes stereotyped, as simple as chewing the candle, but the sense tells them: We must eat
16、 them all because of the nutrition. And then they put it bluntly, just like refueling machine. The concept of western diet is compatible with the whole western philosophy. Metaphysics is the main feature of western philosophy. Such kind of philosophy brings vitality to western culture, so the natura
17、l sciences, psychology and methodology achieve a rapid development. In some other aspects, such philosophy proposition is a significantly obstacle, such as the dietary culture, which is the inevitable thing to drop behind, and just the metaphysics of methodology marks everywhere. In celebration, it
18、stresses tableware, stresses the staple, stresses the servings, and stresses the color and shape mix of raw materials. But no matter how luxurious the grade is; from Los Angeles to New York, only one taste of steak, it is no art to speak of. And as dishes, the chicken is chicken; steak is steak, eve
19、n in groups, which are also conducted in a shallow dish. In a dish of “French Muttonchops“, one side is potato mud, and muttonchops sits next to it, another side is allocation of cooking beans, and plus a few tablets of tomato. Color is on clear, but the tastes of the various materials are separated
20、, not to reconcile, and the entire flavor is also simple and clear. Chinese diet is a sense of beauty diet. When people sample dishes, they often say this dish is “delicious“, and that dish is “not delicious“. But if you ask what is meant by “delicious“, why “tasty“ and what are the aspects of “deli
21、cious“, I am afraid that it will be difficult to answer. This shows that which Chinese people hanker on a diet is just the “mood” that is difficult for one to say anything. Even using the “color, flavor, shape and implement “which people often said to make the“ realm “reification, I am afraid it is
22、still difficult to crown all. The beauty pursuit of Chinese cuisine is clearly overriding the rational pursuit. This concept of diet is also coinciding with the traditional Chinese philosophy. Chinese philosophy as a representative of oriental philosophy, its distinguishing features is the macro, vi
23、sual, vague and evasive. Chinese cooking method is to reconcile, and the ultimate goal is to reconcile out of a beautiful taste. The main stress is measure and the overall co-ordination. It contains a wealth of dialectics of Chinese philosophy, and all these depend on the degree of the wonderful fla
24、vor and harmony of dish. The ever-changing within degrees decides the changeable of Chinese food, and it also decides the characteristics of Chinese food as well as the characteristics on each of the chefs. II. Differences in targets All diet cannot be done without vegetables. The word “dish“ is for
25、 the sound in China, and it always has something to do with the plants. According to a survey of western plants scholar, there are 600 varieties of vegetables, six times more than in the west. In fact, the Chinese dishes, vegetable dish is usual food. Meat dish entered the normal diet only on holida
26、ys or higher living standards, so since ancient times, and there was a saying of “fresh vegetables“. Chu ? Mandarin language: “Common people eat fresh vegetables, fish only offered in the worship.“ It is said that fresh vegetables are mainly to the civilian in general, only being able to eat meat on
27、ly in worship. Vegetarian diet takes the dominant position in the normal structure. Chinese people consider the vegetables as the main dish; it has inextricably linked with the advocacy of Buddhists. They deem animals as “people“ and plants have “no soul.“ So, they advocate vegetarianism. Westerners
28、 do not seem to have such a good habit. They uphold a cultural origin of nomadic, seafaring nation. Living mainly by fishing and hunting, collection and planting are just the complement. There are more meat dishes in their lives. Feeding, clothing, and using are taken from the animals, and even West
29、ern medicine is derived from animals. When the westerners introduce the diet characteristics of their countries, they always feel that their diet is more reasonable on the mix of nutrition than China. The food industry is more developed, such as cans, fast food, although the taste is monotonous, but
30、 it saves time, and it also has good nutrition. Therefore, in their countries: people are generally healthier and taller than Chinese, and the people have strong shoulders and developed muscles; but Chinese people look short, their shoulders narrow and legs thin, their skin yellow and their body wea
31、k. The differences between Chinese and western food for Westerners to judge the merits of the two diet is not justified. Mr. Sun Yat-sen had profound study of the culture of food and incisive exposition. In his composing The Scheme for National Reconstruction, detailing the differences between Chine
32、se and Western diet phenomenon, he concludes: “Chinese ordinary people drink green tea, and eat simple food such as vegetables and tofu for meal. Such kinds of food are the most healthy and beneficial according to the research of hygienist. Therefore, the remote people in china, whose diet are far f
33、rom meat and wine, always live a long life. Also China has a big population, and Chinese people have enormous power to resist disease, but they never try the non-diet. “He added:“ The Chinese vegetarians all eat tofu. Tofu is expected as the real meat in plants, as it has the nutrition that meat has
34、. It is the meat without toxic materials. So the Chinese are vegetarian used to be a custom without the promotion of scholars. It is also a custom that the European and American drink thick Wine, eat meat and fish. So there was science promotion before and a severe law later, such as the United Stat
35、es Prohibition. And the transfer will not carry out in a short time. “Mr. Suns words tell out the scientific benefits of Chinese diet and disadvantages of Western diet. According to the characteristics of the significant differences between Chinese and Western diet targets, the Chinese character is
36、called the plant character, while the Westerners is animal character. In response to the cultural behaviors, Westerners love adventure, exploration, conflict; but the Chinese people only like to live banally. According to American expert on folklore Ruths opinions on the “cultural pattern“ theory, C
37、hinese culture is quite similar to the classical world Apollo-type character and Westerners is similar to the modern world Faust-type. Indeed, the Westerners such as Americans in the development of the west, they put the whole family on the truck, and go out of the city in amid rumbling with the sup
38、plies. The Chinese people are always thinking about “home“ and “roots“, despite the promotion that young people should take the world as home. But after a few decades, the overseas Chinese will come back to the mainland with crutch to seek their roots. This concept of return and such human spirit th
39、at can only be said to cooperate with the accumulation in the diet. Then it brings cohesiveness to the Chinese nation and then makes the human folk full of energy. III. Differences in Dietary Patterns The Chinese and Western dietary patterns can be very different, and these differences affect the na
40、tional character. In China, a celebration, no matter what, there will be only one form, as sitting together, sharing one feast. Banquet uses round table, which has created a unity of form, which is courtesy, comity atmosphere. Cate are in the center of the table. It is the objects for people to appr
41、eciate and taste, and it is also an intermediate of communication. People toast each other and share the vegetables, which reflect the mutual respect between people in the face of the good things, also show the virtues of comity. Although from the health point of view, this approach has obvious defi
42、ciencies, but it is in our national “happy“ mentality, it reflects the classical Chinese philosophy area of “and“ impact for future generations. It is helpful to facilitate the collective emotional exchanges and consequently difficult to reform. The western-style banquets, although the food and wine
43、 are very important, but in fact they are just foil. The core of Banquet is friendship, by the conversation with the guests who sitting next to achieve the purpose of recreation. If making an analogous compare between the recreation of the banquets and dancing, it may be said that the Chinese banque
44、t is like group dance, and the western banquet is like men and women dancing. This shows that communication purpose of Chinese banquet and western banquet are very obvious. Only the Chinese banquet is more popular in the communion, but western banquet shows guests reflected in the friendship between
45、 neighbors. The more obvious differences between Chinese and western dietary patterns is buffet dinner which is popular in the West. This method is to display all food, and everybody is picking not fixed in his or her places to eat. They walk freely. This approach would provide the emotional interac
46、tion between individuals; they never need to put every word on the table. This also shows a western personality and self-respect. However, all the eating without jamming lacks the real affective tone like the Chinese people. Some people want to put the buffet in the Chinese food, but I think it is n
47、ot feasible. Zhang Qijun in the Principles of Cooking tells us the main reason: “First, buffet is not like drinking tea. Drinking tea is just the thing to you before you choose, and displayed in the cafeteria there is a large number of food to eat, so when you want to have it, it is cold yet. Chines
48、e cuisine will serve hot, if cold, nothing to eat. Secondly, buffet dishes only can do hard dishes and beneficial dishes. Then you can access for large plots. And those most representative of the Chinese culinary arts, such as the tender and lighter dishes, are not in this show. Third, the buffet ca
49、n do stewing pot; it means a big pot in terms of food. Any sophisticated cooking of a dish can only be cooked in a pot at two most, and it is not able to cook the dish for dozens of people. So it will not be delicious, never talking of the taste. Under such circumstances, it is clear that the use of buffet dinner will deny Chinese culinary arts. “The Chinese people are drinking around the table to show harmony and unity, but the buffet has broken such pattern. It raises the personal independence and self-mentioned at the first place. This is the opposite of the s
