A Study on Cultural Differences in the Habits of Diet between the Eastern and Western Countries

文化差异在中西方饮食习惯中的体现A Study on Cultural Differences in the Habits of Diets between the Eastern and Western CountriesAbstract：With the advancement of economic globalization, the interactions between different cultures have been increasingly intensified. People with different culture backgrounds may inevitably encounter diverse problems. Consequently misunderstandings and conflicts may arise in cross-cultural communication. This calls for our research into different cultures so that we can find out problem-solving methods and strategies. Difference in dietary culture is one of the problems that are worth our attention. Chinese is a country with a long history and boasts a variety of cuisines. Chinese dietary culture has been always in the leading position of the world from the past to now, and it is also the very important part of the Chinese culture. The Western dietary culture has its typical features, being fast, hygienic, nutritious and scientific. Chinese dietary culture pursues the synthetic beauty such as color, smell, taste, flavor, sound and the environment. The comparative study attempted by the author intends to promote the mutual understanding and communication between China and the Western. Nations need to understand each others. In the cooperation, nations gain more benefits from mutual help and make everybody enjoy a happy life. The findings in this thesis will help nations to draw on each others merits and make mutual progress.Key words: cultural; habit; difference; diet 摘要：随着经济全球化的发展，不同文化间的交往也不断加强。不同文化背景、不同世界观价值观的人们在交往过程中不免会发生各种各样的问题，误解和冲突就会产生。这就要求我们对不同文化进行研究，从而找到解决问题的方法和策略。饮食文化的差异就是值得我们关注的问题之一。中国有着悠久的历史与引以为傲的各势各样的烹调技术。直到今天中国的饮食文化一直处于世界的领先位置，它已经成为中国文化中的重要的一部分。西方饮食文化讲究快捷方便、卫生、营养、科学。中国的饮食文化追求色，香，味，行，意和环境。作者希望通过中西饮食文化比较，能增进两种文化间的理解与交流，进而互相学习，取长补短，和谐共处，共同发展。国家开始需要了解彼此。在合作中，帮助彼此得到更多的利益而使每个人享受快乐生活。这是理想，只要大家去做，世界会变得更好。关键词：文化；习惯；不同；饮食ContentsI. Introduction.2II. Literature Review.3III. Comparisons of Diets between the Chinese and Western.3A. What to eat? eat everything or not eat everything.3B. What for in eating delicious or nutritious.5C. How to eat together or separately6D. Differences in dietary habit.71. Differences in tableware.72. Differences in the mood of cooking93. Differences in daily diet9IV. Conclusion10Works Cited12 A Study on Cultural Differences in the Habits of Diet between the Eastern and Western CountriesI. IntroductionFood is necessary for the maintenance of human existence and it is an important part of human life. Food is an indispensable material for developing human and society. In the long course of historical development, the human diet may form the food culture and eventually come into the nations character. Food culture mainly refers to how people process food. Diet is not only to meet the people physical needs, and more importantly, it is a social behavior with rich cultural connotations. Due to the natural environment, geography, climate, economy, politics, religion, philosophy, history, and many other factors, a variety of food cultures are formed. The remedial principles of food in Chinese are very special and complete. Chinese people believe that the food and remedy can be combined, the medicine and food have the same sources. Chinese people also pursue the synthetic beauty in food such as color, smell, taste, flavor, sound and the environment. The vigorous vitality of Chinese dietary culture is embodied primarily in the continuous changes and improvement of new menus and new food remedies.Westerners foods dont pay attention to delicacy, but it pursues nourishment and convenience. The Westerners want to compute nourishment and calories each time over eating food. The Westerners started pursuing the flavor of food now. This is a good beginning, hoping our country advanced food culture can promote the development of western food culture.The comparative study attempted by the author intends to promote the mutual understanding and communication between China and the West. The findings will help both countries to draw on each others merits and raise the level together and to make further progress side by side. There are apparent differences between China and the West in the food-culture. It is beneficial to understand the differences in these two cultures by analyzing the reasons, which can overcome the barriers, cultivate peoples adaptation and avoid misunderstanding in the cross-cultural communication. II. Literature ReviewYi Zhongtian has given a penetrating expounding about culture in China and the West in the book of Food on the Table Culture. He said the ideological core of Chinese culture is the “herd mentality”; and the ideological core of Western culture is “the individual consciousness.” Therefore, when Westerners treat others, they point dishes, the drink of the wine, or other kinds of food for themselves. They do not like to impose their will on others. However, Chinese culture believes that individuals will be subject to the common will of the group. Since the intended purpose of sympathy with the intention of blood, his or her way etiquette naturally in harmony, so the Chinese people love dinner, joy of food, talk about harmony. From the Han Xiaolings book of English-China Idioms and Folk Culture, Jesus told people: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you fast, put oil an you head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.From M.E.Sokoliks book, American cookbook from the 1960s and youre likely to find recipes for Baked Alaska and tuna casserole. In the 1970s, it was Steak Diane and scalloped potatoes. The 1980s brought pasta primavera and quiche. In the 1990s, it was polenta and sorbet. Why does food taste change? One reason it that many people get tired of eating the same food all the time.From English-Chinese Idioms and Folk Culture by Han Xiaotao, the Chinese diet culture owes greatly to the countrys long history and it highlights artistic value and nutritious collocation.III. Comparisons of Diets between the Chinese and WesternA. What to eat? eat everything or not eat everythingChinese diet has luxuriant raw materials. China is a vast country. Each area has a wealth of local specialties. This means that the food of ingredients and cooking styles are incredibly wide and varied. Considering materials, Chinese food is famous for its richness in materials. Haruko Kimura, a Japanese food expert, pointed out the characteristics of eating everything for Chinese in his Characteristics of Chinese Cuisine: “almost anything can be raw materials for Chinese food, including flowers and trees, birds insects and fish that grows in the world. Dishes made from rare birds and animals are most attractive, so are often mentioned. The materials the Chinese eat are a wide range, and Chinese eat anything that flies in sky, runs on the ground, grow in the fields, swims in water. In addition to the common grains, they will eat animals innards, sharks fin, swallows nest other people dont eat, as well as cats, dogs, rats and all kinds of other things that are unacceptable for the Westerners. ” The ways of eating are even more, including breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner and supper. They eat well in usual time, and more extravagant in festivals. But the Western has fewer raw materials.The vegetable that the westerner mainly eat are green bean, choisum, sprout of bean, knife bean, mushroom and so on. The meat mainly includes chicken, fish, pork and beef. The westerner dont love easting pigs knuckles, the chicken claw, sea cucumber, animal internal organs, fat meat and so on. So, compared with several thousands of food material in Chinese diet, the westerner has few.As far as dietary contents are concerned, as China has always been a major agricultural country, coupled with population pressure and presence of a variety of other reasons, Chinese diet has been grain-based, less meat and more grain supplemented by vegetables since Qin dynasty. According to a survey by Western botanists, there are more than 600 kinds of vegetables in Chinese food, which is six times more than in the West. In fact, the vegetarian is common in traditional Chinese cuisine, and meat can only enter normal diet on holidays or under a high standard of living conditions and vegetables usually play an important role in the normal diet.Unlike Chinese view of a diet structure, Westerners as descendants of nomadic and sailing families who lived on fishing and hunting are mostly with animal-based food. Though farming proportion has been increased in modern times, the meat proportion in food is still higher than that of Chinese. Westerners have a lot of taboos in choice of material of food, and the most typical manifestation is the choice of the animal innards. Chinese eat everything and they believe that food can substitute medicine and nourishing can be done by what to eat, almost all internal organs of animals will become a delicious cuisine through the work of cook. Westerners think that the animal innards are unclean, so the animal offal is excluded.B. What for in eating-being delicious or nutritiousChinese culture proposes a sort of eating culture. But eating food is not necessary in the West. The importance of diet has political influence in China. The earliest political thesis on diet is our country. Si Maqian proposed the idea that the food was God for people. Chinese traditional politics has hierarchy, keep this order with etiquette system. The philosophy of western diet is affected by Christianity. Christianity told the people: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” For the pagans run after these things, and you heavenly Father knows that you need them.” So the Westerners dietary philosophy is temperate. Chinese diet is in pursuit of being delicious. Lin Yutang said, “Chinese cooking relies on a variety of harmonization and reconciliation of different tastes. It is different from that of the West in its reconciliation of tastes.” Haruko Kimura has some brilliant statement on Chinese dishs taste: “Chinese food is rather a complex flavor than a single flavor, and of rather overlapping taste from several tastes than a single taste. Chinese food is to mix not only several ingredients, but to reconcile the flavors and other tastes to create a hybrid flavor during the cooking process. ” In short, the ultimate goal of Chinese food relies not only on the taste of raw material itself, but also form the cooking and seasoning factors into a harmonious delicious Chinese people. Si Maqian proposed the idea that Chinese people also pursue the synthetic beauty such as color, smell, taste, flavor, sound and the environment. Unlike Chinese food in emphasizing of taste and reconcilement, the Western diet is in pursuit of nutrition. Christian stresses that people shall be of absolutely obedience to God and respect for the soul and advocates that the human senses shall inhibit the bodys desires. Christian told people to underestimate the value and meaning of carnally life and pay more attention to the afterlife and happiness in heaven. Christianity told us that human ancestors were expelled from the Garden of Eden as a result of eating the forbidden fruit, so human beings were born of original sins, they must believe in God, attend religious services, and continuously repents to purify their mind and can be happy. People need to control their desire for eating. For Westerners, food is to maintain the life and health, not for pleasure. Modern Western science and civilization play an important role in the formation of Western diet today. It is rather simple to analyze food ingredients and supply the bodys nutritional needs. For the Westerners, attention is being paid to what nutrition the food has and how much heat it will produce and taste is always secondary.In brief，compared two different diets, Chinese diet concept focus on taste, and the West is a rational eating. Regardless of food color, aroma, taste, ingest nutrition must be settled, Westerner one day pay attention to have how much calories, vitamins, protein one day and so on. Even the same food has same taste, people must eat - because this food has nutrition. The food concepts in the whole of Western philosophy are compatible. Metaphysics is the main features of Western philosophy. This philosophy has brought vitality to western culture, so in the natural sciences, psychology and methodology achieve a rapid development. But in other connection, this philosophy has reversed significance, such as food culture. In the banquet, you can pay attention to tableware, materials, service, vegetables, raw materials, shape and color with respect, but no matter how luxury is the banquet, steak is only one flavor, no arts to speak. As a dish, chicken is chicken, steak is steak. Even food has other raw material, which is man-made, the flavor doesnt change. A “French-style rack of lamb” while put mashed potatoes, lean lamb chops, cooked green beans, and a few pieces tomato, the color is contrast, but the taste of materials independent of each other, each is different in flavor. This style is simple and clear.C. How to eat - together or separately In Chinese culinary culture, “eating together” is a method of enhancing the relationships between people. In China, people are eating together at any banquet, both host and guests sit around and share the dishes on one table and persuade each other to eat the dishes and toast together. In Chinese custom, as long as people could eat together, they should eat like a family without any estrangement. Eating-together system embodies Chinese traditional philosophy of harmony and the dual complementary concept, and it also meets the psychological needs of the Chinese praying for reunion. Outside the family, eating together with friends or even strangers becomes a method of enhancing ties between people. Culture determines the persons lifestyles and behaviors. We can say that it is Chinese culture that determines Chinese adoption of the way of eating together instead of eating separately. The Westerners favor a “separate-eating system”, they always like eating by themselves. This individualistic behavior embodies the independent personality and respects others in interpersonal relationship. Compared with the eating-together system, it reflects a communion way of interpersonal relationship and emphasizes peoples independence. It forms a relation of equality, and it acquires freedom. A specific form of eating together system is buffet dinner that suits the fast-paced life of modern society and fully reflects an important element in Western culture freedom. What to eat and how to eat is completely a personal freedom. Buffet dinner stresses interpersonal exchange and reflects the concept of hankering individuality. Thus, Chinese style in banquet dinner and the purpose is very obvious, profound friendship is reflected in the seats, but the Western-style dinner reflects friendship between the neighboring guests. Western popular buffet dinner is clearer than Chinese diet in peoples eating intention. This method is: all the foods are listed, guests move freely to eat what they want, and this way facilitates communication between individual emotions. All of these express a kind of respect in dining table. However, Chinese eating-together is more harmonious and unified.D. Differences in dietary habits 1. Differences in tablewareChopsticks, knife and fork are the most representative tableware in China and the West. Their lifestyles represent two different kinds of intelligence in China and the West. Yu Xiuling, the professor in Zhejiang University, says that people in the East and the West use different tableware to eat due to the different environment. Chopsticks are related to bamboo. There are a lot of bamboos in China, so ancestors obtain materials from local sources. Bamboo becomes the most primitive material of chopsticks (Sun 113). The Nobel Prize winner Dr. Tsung Dao Lee, a famous Chinese American physicist, said “Such a simple pair of sticks shows a marvelous utilization of the lever principle. Chopsticks are extensions of the fingers, which are able to do anything fingers do. They can use in heat and freezing cold. They are wonderful”. He also had a very brilliant statement in an interview with a Japanese journalist. He said that China was a very beautiful and civilized nation, Chinese people used chopsticks as early as they were in the Spring and Autumn Period. Such a simple thing has sublime outrageous use of the physics of leverage (Shen 19). In his opinion, chopsticks are an extension of the human finger. It can do everything that fingers can do. Moreover, the chopsticks can resist both high temperature and low temperature. It is very useful. The emergence of knife and fork is much later than chopsticks. According to the study of Professor You Xiuling, the origination of knife and fork is related to the ancient nomadic habits in Europe. People carried knives at any time. They cooked the meat and ate the meat cut into pieces with knife. About 15th centuries, people settled down in city. They neednt carry knife and fork all the time. In order to improve the way of eating, Europeans used the tableware to eat. Chopsticks, knife and fork not only brought about differences in eating habits, but also affected the Chinese people and the Western peoples concepts in life. Professor Yu Xiuling says that knife and fork will inevitably bring about individual eating system, but chopsticks are related to sharing a meal with family members who are sitting around the table. Because of the individual eating system, westerners pay attention to the independence very much. They think that children who have grown up can struggle for the wonderful life by themselves. Different from the West, people in China like eating together. They think that sitting around the table is a happy thing. Moreover, it embodies the strong family values of Chinese people. Some rules should be followed when people use chopsticks or knife and fork. In China, for example, people should do not play with chopsticks or use chopsticks for pointing to the person when they are eating. Of course, inserting chopsticks in rice is one of the greatest taboos in Chinese culture. There are also some taboos when people use the knife and fork, such as do not make any gestures with knives and forks in his hands. When people want to speak or talk, put the knife and fork on the plate first which is the basic etiquette. 2. Differences in cooking methodsViewed from the cooking ingredients, Chinese likes vinegar, ginger, garlic, onions. Peppers and other condiments, they can sterilize, increase appetite, help digestion. Although Western condiments are monotonous, they can also have the advantages in cooking, they dont love using the monosodium glutamate because in the monosodium glutamate has sodium, leading to excessive harmful thing come into peoples body. Many Chinese people are used to buying fresh food, Westerners are used to buying a week food at one time, put them in the refrigerator. Frozen foods and preserve