论中西方饮食文化差异

An Analysis of Difference between Chinese and Western Dietary Culture浅析中西方饮食文化的差异Luojia College of Wuhan University0902 English Major20091050201038WenchengchengInstructor: Liang LiContents Acknowledgement (3)Abstract (English) (3)Abstract (Chinese) (3)Introduction (4)Chapter One Chinese and Western Dietary Culture (5)1.1 Characteristics of Chinese dietary culture (5)1.2 Characteristics of the Western dietary culture (6)Chapter Two Differences in the performance of Chinese and Western Food (7)2.1 Differences between Chinese and Western diet concept (7)2.2 Differences between Chinese and Western diet manner and diet tableware (8)2.2.1 Diet manner (8)2.2.2 Diet tableware (9)2.3 Differences between Chinese and Western dietary patterns (10)Chapter Three Reasons for the differences between Chinese and Western food dietetic culture (11)3.1 The impact of the geographical environment (11)3.2 The impact of the economic system (12)Conclusion (13)Bibliography (14)AcknowledgementHere and now, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all those who have helped me make this thesis possible and better.First of all, my deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Liang Li, my teacher for his constant encouragement and guidance. She has led me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. Without her consistent instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form. Secondly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the teachers, who lead me into the world of English. They instructed and helped me a lot in the past four years.Finally, owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.[Abstract]:People regard food as their prime want. From ancient times, food is the basic material condition of human survival and development. At the same time, dietary culture plays an important role in the world culture.B e c a u s e o f t h e d i f f e r e n c e s b e t w e e n C h i n e s e a n d w e s t e r n c u l t u r a l t r a d i t i o n s,t h e C h i n e s e a n d w e s t e r n d i e t a r y c u l t u r e s a r e d i f f e r e n t i n c o n c e p t,t a r g e t,p a t t e r n,a t t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r e. Knowing these differences is beneficial for us to absorb essence of western dietary culture and expand Chinese cooking culture. And it has significant meaning for developing and running Chinese tourism and catering services. This will have an impact on promoting the communication of culture in the world.[Key Words]: Intercultural communication, dietary culture, culture differences [摘要]:民以食为天。

从古至今，食物就是人类赖以生存和发展的基本条件。

与此同时，饮食文化在世界文化中就扮演着重要的角色。

由于中西方文化习俗的差异，导致了中西方在饮食观念，食材挑选，饮食结构等的不同。

了解这些差异有益于我们吸收西方饮食文化的精髓以发扬中国饮食文化。

而且这对于发展和经营中国的旅游业和饮食服务业具有重要意义，对推动世界文化的交流也有重大意义。

[关键词]:跨文化交际饮食文化文化差异IntroductionConfucius said in The Book of Rites that “food and sex are basic human desires”. And one Chinese saying is “the desire of food and sex is part of human nature”. From these, we can find that from ancient time, Chinese people regard food as their prime want. With the development of economic, the level of life is increasing day by day and the quality of life is promoting, the material life is more and more abundant .Chinese people shows special preference to dietary culture. Generally speaking, people don‟t know extensive and profound of Chinese dietary culture. What‟s more, china‟s long history, vast territory and extensive contact with other nations and cultures have given birth to the distinctive Chinese culinary art. With several thousand years of creative and accumulative efforts, the Chinese cuisine has become increasingly popular among more and more overseas gourmets, virtually functioning as an envoy of friendship in china‟s cultural exchanges with foreign countries. Around the world, the culture background of each religion is made up by a lot of year intravenous drip gathering, they experienced many and then formed a set of cultural system. No exception with dietary culture. In recent years, with the tide of reform and opening up, west restaurants have rushed into Chinese city, western food become popular in China. At the same time, Chinese food is welcome in west countries. Chinese and western dietary culture is changing with the cultural communicationChapter one Chinese and Western Dietary Culture1.1Characteristics of Chinese dietary cultureChinese food stresses color, smell, and taste. The primary element is color because only a good color combination can arouse people‟s appetite. Color is emphasized in home cooking as well.This is why people also refer to food as mei shi .there are eight major culinary styles in China. Color combinations reflect the local features of each style. Although there is no agreement on the precise number of Chinese regional cuisines, those concerned with such matters agree that the four principal culinary regions are Shandong, Sichuan, Canton and Yangzhou, with Fujian- Taiwan most commonly listed as a fifth. It should be pointed out that these designations are not hard and fast geographical boundaries. Beijing food , for instance, falls within the realm of Shandong cooking, but includes some Sichuan dishes and Mongolian-influenced specialties, while the cuisine of the entire densely populated Yangtze River delta area, including Wuxi ,Suzhou ,shanghai, and Hangzhou dishes ,falls under the category of Yangzhou cuisine. Generally speaking, the many types of cuisines across china invariantly emphasize freshness and tenderness of the food, cooked with choice materials and fine craftsmanship. All over china, local delicacies and foods unique to various ethnic groups are in number of sever of several thousands, or simply numerous.The frequent overlapping and borrowing that take place among the regional cuisine leads one to the conclusion that they are most conveniently distinguished by their famous dishes, rather than by any prevailing style or taste.The four major cuisines traditions in china can be roughly distinguished by these generalities: Shandong cuisine is generally salty, with a prevalence of light colored sauces. The dishes feature choice of materials, adept technique in slicing and perfect cooking skills. Shandong cuisine is representative of northern China‟s cooking and its technique has been widely absorbed by the imperial dishes of the Ming and Qing dynasties.Sichuan cuisine features a wide range of materials, various seasonings and different cooking techniques. Statistics show that the number of Sichuan dishes has surpasses 5000.With a rich variety of strong flavors, Sichuan food is famous for its numerous varieties of delicacies, dominated by peppery and chili flavors and best known for being spicy-hot.Cantonese cuisine, the hardest to categorize, emphasizes light cooking with seemingly limitless range of ingredients. Cantonese cuisine took shape in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the process of its development, it has borrowed the culinary essence of northern china and of the western-style food, while maintaining its traditional local flavor.Yangzhou cuisine bases itself largely on the three local cooking styles of Yangzhou, Nanjingand Suzhou, all within Jiangsu Province .While emphasizing the original flavors of well-chosen materials, it features carefully selected ingredients. Also, the artistic shape and bright colors of the dishes add more ornamental value. Yangzhou cuisine is essentially a combination of the best elements of northern and southern cooking.According to some others, the characteristic flavors of china‟s four major cuisines can be summed up in the following expression: “the light southern cuisine, and the salty northern cuisine; the sweet eastern cuisine, and the spicy western cuisine.Modern china enjoys a worldwide reputation as the …kingdom of cuisine‟. The exquisite Chinese culinary art, regarded indisputably as one of the world‟s finest culinary traditions, has prevailed all over the world. The nearly endless variety of natural ingredients and methods of preparation employed in Chinese cuisine stand out unequaled in the world, which may very well account for the universal popularity of Chinese restaurants and Chinese cooking overseas.The three essential factors, or key elements, by which Chinese cooking is judged, are known as …color, aroma and taste‟. The color of Chinese food, the first of these elements which is so evident in a Chinese banquet, includes the layout and design of dishes, best exemplified in particular by the large elaborately prepared cold dish served at the beginning of the dinner. Aroma implies more than what one‟s nose can detect directly; it also includes the freshness of the raw materials used and the blending of seasonings. Taste is the art of proper seasoning , though it also involves the texture of food and fine slicing techniques. These three essential elements ,color, aroma and taste are achieved by the careful coordination of a series of delicate activities: selecting ingredients, mixing flavors, timing the cooking , controlling the heat and finally, laying out the food on the plate for the table.1.2Characteristics of Western dietary cultureYou will find restaurants for every situation in the United States. if you are in a hurry , you may just want to grab some “junk food” at a grocery store ,or you can get a bite to eat at one of the many fast food chains ,like McDonald‟s, Burger King .Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, or Taco Bell. Or you can get a hero or submarine sandwich “to stay” or …to go‟ from a sandwich shop or deli.Some of these places have tables, but many people don‟t eat in their cars or take their food home,to their offices or to parks. If you prefer sitting down but still don‟t want to spend much, you can try a cafeteria. At all of these places, you pick and choose your own food and then pay at a cash register, but you usually have to clear the table when you finish.Coffee shops are usually less expensive and less dressy than fine restaurants. So are pizza places, pancake houses, sandwich shops and family restaurants. But the name of a restaurant won‟t necessarily tell you much about the kind of place it is or the food it serves.Like most fast food restaurants and cafeterias, many restaurants don‟t serve alcoholic beverages. This is often because they want people to feel comfortable bringing their children. Minors can eat at restaurants that serve beer and wine, but they are not allowed to enter pubs, taverns, cocktail lounges or bars. You may be asked to show some id that proves your age before you go into a bar. In the United States, the law forbids people under the age of 21 from drinking alcoholic beverages. In the culture of diet, westerners have the culture descent of nomads and sailing nationality, they hunting, breeding, aided by acquisition and planting, they eat more meet, the eating, wearing and using are took of animals, even the western medicine are made from animals to take. Pay more attention to animal protein and fat intake, in the structure of diet, also with animal figurines in the majority, it is mainly dishes, beef, chicken, pork, mutton and fish. So the meat diet has been very high in proportion. In modern times, planting proportion is increasing, but the proportion in meat still higher than Chinese.Chapter two Differences in the performance of Chineseand Western Food2.1 Differences between Chinese and Western diet conceptFirst of all, the difference between Chinese and western dietary culture that cannot be ignored is in concepts. As we all know that the Western diet is a rational concept, regardless 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. Comparing with the Chinese diet, western diet tastes stereotyped, as simple as chewing the candle, but the sense tells them: We must eat them all because of the nutrition. And then they put it bluntly, just like refueling machine.However, 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 "delicious", I am afraid that it will be difficult to answer. This shows that mood is important in Chinese diet. Chinese use the color, smell, flavor, shape to identify whether the dish is perfect.European is represented the western, also, his culture has a long history. In the middle ages, the European culture has very perfect, during this period; the old western food culture has been formed. Its main features are: most food with flour primarily, raw material also more abundant, its production method is simple, but also in China pays much attention to taste.China's five mixed cookery aims to pursue delicious, its processing process of hot fried and long time of fire, this can make dishes nutrients were damaged. (Lin Lirui, 2009) In western countries, especially in 1960s, appearing the emergence of modern cooking thought, with particular emphasis on health care, reduce weight, thus less oil, emphasize the pursuit of light by fresh materials, emphasizing the cooking process of nutrients and maintain the original taste, so the vegetables are basically raw. So says the heavy nutrition in western diet is universal.2.2 Differences between Chinese and Western diet manner and diet tableware 2.2.1 Diet mannerDue to cultural differences between China and Western countries, the seating arrangements of guests and the host also vary in organizing the banquetIn China, the seat facing south in a banquet is usually regarded as the most honorable, while the seat facing north is comparatively less in importance. It is closely related to Chinese traditional culture. Since China is an old country with a long history of more than 5,000 years, there used to be many kingdoms, dynasties, and emperors. However, whatever the kingdom or the dynasty was; during the ceremony of the royal inauguration or in the process of discussing governmental affairs with ministers, the emperor was always seated with his face toward south.On the other hand, when ministers met the emperor, their faces were all toward north To a great extent, it is just because of this reason that the word south has been gradually elevated into a position relatively high in Chinese people's minds, symbolizing the supreme authority, power, and position. By contrast, the position of the word north, comparatively speaking is much lower. Thisunique and interesting cultural phenomenon can find the best examples in Chinese idioms. However, in Western countries, the situation is quite different. In ancient times, a person used to hold a dagger in his right hand to carry out his assassination .Only when the guest was arranged to sit on the left side of the host, was it inconvenient for an assassin to perform the action, but much easier for the host to subdue the assassin and protect the guest. Therefore, the most distinguished guest was arranged to sit on the left side of the host. Of course, with the progress of civilization, this old style of assassination has long become extinct. Nowadays, when Westerners arrange seats in a banquet, what they concern about most is from the perspective of psychological need instead of physical security, which results in the widely recognized rule that the seat at the right side of the host is much honorable than the one at the left side (ibid.).2.3.2 Diet tablewareAs mentioned above, China is a country that belongs to the second orientation. Actually, since the ancient times, this orientation has always been stressed and put into practice. Under the influence of this orientation, Chinese people attempt a balanced act with nature and try to live in harmony with it. Besides, China is a traditional agricultural country and the old saying “Facing the yellow soil with the back against the sky" is the most vivid description of Chinese people's life in old times. Since Chinese people mainly live on wheat and rice as their staple food by cultivating the farmland, the harvest of the crops depends heavily on nature. Therefore, in such cultural context and natural environment, people tend to live and work in peace and contentment, highlighting the importance of harmony with nature and with each other. Attack or aggression is what they are strongly against and trying to avoid.The application of chopsticks as the chief tableware can be traced back as early as during the Shang and Chou periods, although hands were probably used more often than chopsticks .When Chinese people use chopsticks, usually they appear to be refined and cultivated, with little disgraceful actions like poking or stabbing, and their attitudes toward food are gentle and kind, although Chinese people also like eating meat. Roland Barthes, a well-known French literary critic, once talked about the usage of chopsticks, and he remarked that unlike fork and knife, chopsticks were not used to cut, poke or stab food, therefore, food was no longer the prey under the humanbeings' violence but turned out to be the substance passed harmoniously through them Indeed, in this sense, chopsticks have become the gentle medium between man and food, and moreover, they reflect the harmonious relationship between man and nature.Stewart points out the tendency of "Dividedness Between Man and Nature" in Western countries when he writes, "The early image of the dismal wildness as an enemy was in part replaced during the nineteenth century by a romantic vision，...But the separation between man and nature survived and remains securely in place to this day. Quite different from China, the ancestors of many Western countries lived by hunting due to some ecological or historical factors. Meat, of course, was their basic food source and gradually took the place of staple food. In order to survive on the severe and harsh environment, they had to be good at hunting, i.e., fighting with or killing animals by the use of some weapons like knives, forks, arrows, spears, etc., which in turn resulted in aggressiveness and the sense of adventure in their temperaments.As compared with chopsticks, it is not exaggerating at all to say that knife and fork represent the violence and cruelty, and the devastation to food without any concealment. What is reflected from the way of eating in Western countries actually is human's conquest over nature. Therefore, during the whole process of dining, Westerners perform the action of cutting, poking and stabbing repeatedly, which, to some extent is the recurring of those bloody fighting or killing. Although human long have been lifted out of barbarism and stepped into the age of great civilization reminding today fork and knife are still maintained as the traditional tableware, reminding people of the hardship of grabbing food in old times, and of the "Dividedness Between Man and Nature".2.3 Differences between Chinese and Western dietary patternsThe Chinese and Western dietary patterns can be very different, and these differences affect the national 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. Dishes are in the center of the table. It is the objects for people to appreciate 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 goodthings, also show the virtues of comity. Although from the health point of view, this approach has obvious deficiencies, 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 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 interaction between individuals; they never need to put every word on the table. This also shows a western personality and self-respect. The western-style banquets, although the food and wine 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 banquet 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 neighbors.Chapter Three Reasons for the differences between Chinese andWestern food dietetic culture3.1The impact of the geographical environmentChina is the closed continental geographical, this environment limited the thinking of the Chinese people within the local community, they good at summing up the experiences and lessons from their predecessors, they like “history as a mirror”, and their spatial awareness is weak. (Bian Haoyu, 2004) This mentality of inward-looking led to the Chinese people has the personality of stability and quiet, they lack of curiosity about the new things, and also they lack of interest in the unknown things. So the Chinese diet food is more have the regional characteristics, different places have the different favorite food to eat, the north have the lower temperature than south,especially in the winter, the weather is very cold, so in the diet of the north, a large proportion of fat and protein in the food, especially in pastoral areas, the food of pastoralists is majority of milk and meat, also they like eating noodles. And the food diet of southerners is based on the plant, the residents have the habit of drinking soup and eat porridge, no matter if the food has been put on, they must be the first to eat soup, drink soup before eating a bit, after fond, they also have another bowl of soup to drink, this to be considered as eating a meal. And they mainly eat rice.The majority of western countries are in the open ocean environment of geography, they developed industry and seafaring, since the ancient Greece, they have valued the study of natural objects, and they exploring the mysteries of the natural heritage. At the same time, the marine environment, mountain tsunami, unrest, this all constitutes the personality of the western nation pay attention to the space expansion and military conquest. So westerners have a scientific attitude of the food diet, this also very standard and arbitrary, and they like to eat the meat food3.2 The impact of the economic systemMarx once said: “Ideas of consciousness is initially directly with people produce the material activity, and people's physical contact and the reality of language intertwined production.” (Marx, 1972: 89) This point of view clear expressed the symbiotic isomorphism relations between the cultural and economic activity. Peter, Kieslowski also said that, “the most important economic behavior is decided by the cultural, their cultural engraved with cultural cachet.”(Peter, Koslowski, 1999: 229) The real economic growth depends on the culture. The traditional economy of China is a typical self-sufficient economy. People are more law-abiding and conservative, because they can live for the whole life rely on a piece of land. And their culture is more introverted. Moreover, China‟s ancient civilization originated in the river basin, it belongs to the agricultural civilization, "agricultural civilization character" inspired the Asian emphasis on ethics, and the principle of life is “harmony, and love for the high”. In the ancient China, people are still more poor rather than the western countries, at that time, the lower people just required eat their fill and wear the warmclothes, the Chinese people in the old ancient, because without something to eat and drink, a lot of people and children are being starved to death. You can not image the horror in that time. Followed the progress and development of the social, people have been get the basic meet in terms of food, they do not worried just because they have not enough food to eat, on the other hand, people are paying attention to the nutrition of diet food, and trying to convince themselves to eat more healthy, more nutrition, so now there have been many so-called food therapy.The ancient Greek civilization of the west is originated in the Aegean coast, belongs to the Marine civilization, besides Europe's farming is not far as China's agriculture as important in ancient society, so the Europeans like to explore the world, and their cultural is more comparative extroversion. Lai Anfang is mentioned in the book of <<An outline introduction to Britain and America>>, “pursuit of freedom and equal ity has been the guiding principles and goal of the western culture.”(Lai Anfang, 2004: 229) And through the industrial revolution, the western countries is early enter into the industry economy, "industrial civilization character" contributed to the westerners have stronger struggle spirit and legal consciousness to protect one‟s own flavor. These also can manifest in their eating habits.ConclusionThe differences between Chinese and Western food dietetic culture is obvious, and they have their own strengths. Followed the economic globalization and the accelerated flow of information changes, Chinese and western food culture will be continued integration in the collision, complement each other in the fusion. The impact brought about by economic globalization is stronger and deeper than the internationalization. Economic globalization is a double-edged sword, on one hand, it brings the vitality of economic growth, and on the other hand, the dominant culture is put into other countries through strong economic and infiltrated every corner of the globe. Therefore, the cultural communication focus on how to assimilate advantages of the other countries‟ culture, abandon its shortcoming, and learn how to transform and make it localized, allcountries need to study the issue. So in the face of the dietary cultural exchange problems between China and the West, we should find each other's advantages and draw the mutual advantages, as China can learn from the point that western diet stresses nutrition match, and make the Chinese cuisine more outstanding.China is the country of a long history with an ancient culture, and enriching in cultural traditions. She feeds the 1.3 billion Chinese people, and Chinese culture is very inclusive; in the course of development it absorbs a lot of different cultures. Moreover, now China does more efforts to draw all the outstanding achievements in the World. China's reform and opening up policy create the conditions on international relations and cultural exchanges. Chinese food now has begun focus on food, nutrition, health, the science of cooking, western food also begun to develop from the realm of Chinese food‟s color, smell, taste and meaning. Chinese and western food culture will be developed in common communicate. This will play a significant role to promote the communication of culture in the world.Bibliography:C.W pollard June Almes a survey of the United Kingdom and the United States of America Leslie, White. 1949. The science of culture.Bian Haoyu,Gao Yongchen. A Comparative Study of Differences Between Chinese and Western Food Cultures. Journal of Nanjing Forestry University（Humanities and Social Sciences Edition）,1999林语堂: 生活的艺术. 北京外语教学与研究出版社,1996张吴湖: 筷子与刀叉:中西文化符号的比较. 河南科技大学学报（社会科学版）,1996杨英杰:中外民俗南开大学出版社。