英语论文中西方饮食文化差异

2012届本科毕业论文

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2012年5月

The Differences of Dietary Cultures

Between China and the West

Shangqiu Normal University

May 2012

摘 要

饮食是人们生存的根本，中西方都不例外。饮食文化是民族文化的重要组成

部分。随着21世纪全球化进程，跨文化交际日益频繁，其中饮食文化成了东西方文化交流的最基本内容。但是由于长期以来形成的生活环境、风俗习惯、价值观念的不同，中西方形成了各自不同的饮食文化。由于饮食文化的不同，中西方人在交流的过程中有时会产生一些误解。本文主要从中西方饮食观念、烹饪取材、饮食结构、烹饪方式以及上菜顺序等方面来论述中西方饮食文化差异，以促进中西方文化交际的顺利进行。

关键词：饮食；饮食文化；差异

Abstract

Diet is the base of living, with no exception in China or the West. Dietary

culture is an important part of the national culture. With the entrance of the 21st century, cross-cultural communication has become more and more frequent, among which dietary culture has been the most basic content. However, because of the differences in living environments, customs and value concepts China and the West have formed their own different dietary cultures. As a result, there appears some misunderstandings sometimes between Chinese and the Westerners in their communication. This paper will analyze the differences of dietary cultures between China and the West from dietary concepts, raw materials, dietary structures, cooking patterns and the order of serving dishes so as to facilitate the efficient communication between Chinese and Westerners.

Key words: diet；dietary culture; difference

Contents

摘 要.................................................................................................................................... I

1 1Introduction

With the entrance of the 21st century cross-cultural communication has been a more and more popular activity even among common people. However, because of the differences of areas, environments and customs, different nations have formed their specific cultures. Among the four aspects of clothing, eating, housing and behaving, Chinese people have got closer and closer to the Westerners in other three aspects except in eating. It is only in the aspect of eating that Chinese people have the biggest

difference from the Westerners. Dietary culture is an important component of the national cultures. It also plays an essential role in non-verbal cultures in cross-cultural communication. China has a long and rich history on its dietary culture. In China almost everything is closely related to eating. While, Western dietary culture is not as developed as that of China and Western countries are not that particular about cooking as China. Knowing the differences of dietary cultures between China and the West is good for English learners to have more complete understanding of both eastern and western cultures and it also increases the chance of success in cross-cultural communication, and helps people avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.

1 2The Differences of Dietary Cultures Between China and

the West

The different national cultures in China and the West contribute to the differences of dietary cultures between them. These differences come from the different thinking methods, environments, customs and so on between China and the West.

1.1 2.1Differences in Dietary Concepts

As a Chinese saying goes, Min yi shi wei tian (The masses regard sufficient food as their heaven). It shows the importance of eating in the mind of Chinese people. Chinese people take a good meal as a pursuit of art of beauty. This even can be seen from TV programs. In the cartoon Zhonghua Xiaodangjia (A Little Chinese Chef), which was very popular in China about ten years ago, Xiaodangjia treats good meals as his long life pursuit. From this cartoon people can feel the profound dietary culture in China and get to know various kinds of food in China. Now people can watch programs such as Everyday Cate about cooking on TV everyday. Chinese people are particularly interested in eating. The pursuit of enjoyment in food has almost reached to a height that can not be higher.

People try their best to perfect a dish not only from color but also from incense, taste and shape. It means that in the eyes of Chinese people, a dish should look beautiful, smell good and taste delicious. Beauty appearance is a pursuit of beauty from a visual aspect and it contributes to a mental enjoyment. Chinese have high demand of the

appearance of a dinner. They not only stress the beauty of the food but also the beauty of the environment and the tableware. Various kinds of beauty are reconciled in a well-prepared dinner. The chefs match the colors of food carefully, such as the collocation of the main colors and the sub-colors, and the collocation of warm colors and cold colors. This makes the dinner look colorful and stimulates people’s appetite. At the same time many raw materials are engraved into the shapes of flower, bird, mountain and human which are extremely beautiful. In addition, the dietary environment is sometimes full of a kind of elegant and attractive city ambiance sometimes brim with a quiet and beautiful rural atmosphere .For example, the Mexican Restaurant in Beijing Exhibition Center is a building with a Russian style. The TengGeLiLa Cafeteria looks like a big Mongolian yurt. (Xu 2005, 68) Besides, the tableware in these restaurants also looks perfect. The size of the table ware matches with the amount of food, the pattern matches with the shape of the food, and the color of the tableware matches with that of the food. (Li 2011, 25) The appearance of a dinner is very important but Chinese people regard taste as the most important. Therefore, it is no wonder that Chinese people are very interested in the taste of a dish. They try to reconcile the flavor of every ingredient to get an attractive taste. (Zhao 2003, 105)

While the Westerners pay much less attention to eating compared with Chinese people. Lin Yutang, a famous Chinese writer, accepted a strict education on Chinese and Western cultures. He had an incisive discourse on the way how westerners treat food. According to him Englishmen do not treat diet as an important thing; on the contrary they regard it as a tiny business. There used to be no cuisine in their vocabulary but cooking. They had no proper word to name the chefs but only call them cooks. They originally had no word to name a gourmet; therefore, they used greedy gut to take its place. Westerners pay little attention to the form and taste of a dish but focus much more on nutrition. They pay much attention to the amount of protein, fat, heat, and vitamin. They analyze whether the dish has an appropriate collocation of nutrition, whether the amount of calories is moderate, and whether the nutrition can be fully absorbed. (Lin 1998, 68) Westerners emphasize on the original flavor and nutrition of food. Therefore, they adopt fresh raw materials and try to keep their original nutrition and taste as much as possible when they cook them. Even though the dishes are bitter to eat they will eat them provided they contain lots of nutrition.

1.2 2.2Differences in the Use of Raw Materials

Chinese people have a wide interest in eating so they use more kinds of raw materials in cooking compared with Westerners. There is a saying that things in the air except plane, things in the water except submarines and things with four legs except benches are all Chinese people’s food. This saying is not totally in accordance with the reality but it is not far away from the truth. (Lu 2002, 96)There was a case of killing pandas in the 1980s in Sichuan province. When the policemen reached the home of the suspect, panda meat was being stewed in his pot and this pot of meat was perhaps the most expensive meat in the world. Chinese people not only eat those that fly in the air, swim in the water and those that run on the ground but also eat every part of them, from top to toe and from the outside to the inside. Even traditional Chinese medicinal materials can be severed on the dinner table with the name medicinal food, such as Stewed Black-boned Chicken with Chinese Herbs. (Yang 2004, 36)

In the aspect of eating, Westerners lack the spirit of exploration. They treat every food they do not know cautiously. It was said that when tomatoes were first transferred from Arab to the West no one dared to eat them. Later a brave person risked his life to eat one and was still alive after a day and night. Then the westerners accepted tomatoes gradually. (Li 2009, 25) Westerners have a narrow range of food. What they favor the best is beef, chicken and fish. They even do not eat fish which lives in the river. Westerners seldom eat pork and they never eat abdominal organs which can be made into delicious food in China. The European Community made a clear stipulation more than ten years ago that no abdominal organs should be made into food for sale. However, French Fat Goose Liver is an exception because it is too delicious for the gourmets to refuse it. (Li 2003, 134)Westerners also do not eat animal skin because it is high in cholesterol. China exports frozen chicken but imports chickens feet at the same time. Chicken feet contain only bones except skin. The westerners do not eat them so they sell them to Chinese in a low price. Chinese people give a beautiful name to chicken foot that is Fengzhua (phoenix foot). Song Meiling lived up to 103 years old and she loved chicken feet the best during her life-time. (Yang 2004, 36)

1.3 2.3Differences in Dietary Structures

Chinese dietary culture is rooted in the agricultural economy. China has been a great agricultural country since the ancient. Chinese’s main food is mainly made of rice and

wheat. Besides, millet, maize, kaoliang, potatoes and sweet potatoes also occupy a proportion in their main food. Lots of food which made of flour such as steam buns, noodles, clay oven rolls, and fried bread stick; all kinds of porridge, pies and snacks contribute much to people’s colorful life.(Xue 2001, 253) Chinese people do not eat meat everyday. Only when holiday comes or when people have a high level living condition do they eat some meat. According to Western investigators, the vegetables Chinese people eat are more than 600 kinds six times than those of the Westerners. (Guo 2010, 93)

Westerners are developed from nomadic nations, therefore they have a developed animal husbandry. In their diet meat and dairy product are a requisite part and occupy a big proportion on table. They pay lots of attention to the ingestion of animal protein and fat. Dishes made of meat are always seen on their table. (Pang 2011, 268)Thus the Westerners are much stronger than Chinese people. Westerners seldom suffer from bone diseases. While Chinese people not only have short figures but also are easy to get bone diseases since they drink little milk. In China many of the old people turn to humpbacks and many suffer from osteoporosis. Accordingly, orthopedics departments are scattered everywhere in China.

1.4 2.4Differences in Cooking Patterns

The difference in cooking patterns between China and the West is first shown in the use of knife. Chinese Cutting is the most famous in the world. There are more than ten kinds of Cutting in China such as dicing, slicing, mashing, mincing, grinding, filleting, shredding, and flattening and roll cutting. (Jin 2003, 178) Chinese chefs also make beautiful engraves with the raw materials. The Westerners usually choose large pieces of raw materials in their cooking. Chicken and beef steaks that are as large as palms are very common to be seen in the Western countries. (Han 2011, 73)

Second, the cooking methods between China and the west are very different. China has very rich kind of cooking methods, such as braising, quick boiling, scaling, stewing, gradual simmering, slow red cooking, steaming, decoction and so on, up to more than thirty kinds. (Ji 2011, 128) Besides, the dishes cooked with these methods are numerous. That is why Chinese feel it is very interesting to cook, while the Westerners emphasize too much on scientific diet and the collocation of nutrition. They cook according to scientific disciplines all the time, which is mechanized and

monotonous, therefore without any joy. (Han 2011, 74)

The third difference lies in the master of the cooking duration and the amount of ingredients. Chinese dishes are very particular about cooking duration. .A meal can neither be cooked too long to be over-cooked nor be cooked too short to still be raw. The master of the cooking duration lies on the experience of the chefs and has none definite standards. (Li 2009, 25) However, the Westerners have a strict control in their cooking. The preparation of the raw materials is accurate to one gram and the cooking duration is accurate to one second. Many westerners prepare all kinds of cooking tools in their kitchens, such as measuring cups, platform scales, thermometers, elapsed time clocks, not to say forks to separate the egg white and the egg yolk, and cramps to clamp different kinds of food. Some other tools whose names are difficult to call are also common in their kitchens. Stepping into their kitchens is just like entering into chemical laboratories. Chinese people like to be optional, therefore people can often read directions like this “with a little salt, some oil and moderate sugar” in Chinese cookbooks. (Lu 2002, 97)

The fourth difference lies in the taste. Chinese dishes require the reconciliation of tastes. The character of each material is eliminated but the dish is splendid in the whole. With one kind of material the Chinese chefs can cook tens or even hundreds of dishes with different flavors. You may find the taste of fish in tofu, and can feel the flavor of meat in vegetables. The Westerners emphasize on distinction. The original taste of each material can be felt in each dish. In addition, Westerners often eat raw vegetables, not only tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce but also cabbage, onions and broccoli. Not like Chinese, Westerners use fewer kinds of seasonings in their cooking. They seldom use fennels or wild pepper and they eat no monosodium glutamate, because they think it contains little nutrition and may produce side effects. (Zhang 2009, 75)

1.5 2.5Differences in the Order of Serving Dishes

Chinese and Western diet are also different in the order of serving dishes. Take a banquet for example. In a Chinese banquet cold dishes are the first served, next the hot dishes and the main course come with the following of soup, then follows the main food or desserts. Fruits often come the last. In a western banquet the serving order is different. The first course of Western dinner is appetizer. It is divided into

cold dish and hot dish. Appetizers have specific flavors, mainly salty or sour. They are few in amount but high in qualities. Different from Chinese dinners, the second course of Western dinner is soup. Western soup can be divided into four kinds, clear soup, cream soup, vegetable soup and cool soup which can be divided into more kinds. The third course of a Western dinner is non-stable dish. It contains all kinds of fresh water fish and salt water fish, a variety of shellfish and mollusks. Usually, aquatic products, eggs, bread is called non-stable dish. The fourth course of Western dinner is the main course, which contains meat and bird species. They are served with different kind of sauces. The fifth course of Western dinner is dishes made of vegetables. Westerners often eat raw vegetables, so vegetables are often made into salad. But some vegetables are cooked such as cauliflowers, chips and boiled spinach. The six course of Western dinner is dessert, such as pudding, pancakes, ice cream, cheese and fruits. The last course contains beverage, coffee or tea. (Lin 2009, 90)

2 3Conclusion

China and Western countries are very different in dietary cultures but both of them have their strengths. With the progress of globalization, Chinese cultures and Western cultures are reconciling gradually. Now lots of Western foods such as, hamburger and sandwich have entered into Chinese markets. Fast food restaurants like KFC and McDonald are common in every city of China. Chinese food has also entered Western countries. These two cultures are improving in the process of conflicting. Now most Chinese pay more attention to the nutrition of food and cooking methods are becoming more and more scientific. At the same time, Western countries begin to pay attention to the color, incense taste and shape of food, which get closer to Chinese food. Chinese and Western dietary cultures will develop in the continuous communication, and people all around the world will be able to enjoy more delicious and more nutritious food.

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