abstract
With the development of economy, people's living standards are improving day by day. China people have always been "food is the most important thing for the people", so they naturally have a soft spot for food culture. China has a history of several thousand years, and its cultural background is quite profound, including food culture. The cultural background of each region is composed of thousands of years, so there are great differences. This paper focuses on the differences between Chinese and western food cultures, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of China's food culture through the differences, and predicts how to develop and integrate with people's views on the differences between Chinese and western cultures.
With the development of economy, people's living standards are improving day by day, the quality of life is gradually improving, and material life is becoming more and more abundant. China people have always been "food is the most important thing for the people", so they naturally have a soft spot for food culture. Moreover, food ranks second in "basic necessities of life", which shows its important position in people's lives. However, while spiritual culture is getting more and more attention, the so-called "eating and drinking" food culture is being rejected by people, who think it is low-level, vulgar and superficial. In fact, the depth of China's food culture is unknown and unexpected to most people. China has a history of several thousand years, and its cultural background is quite profound, including food culture. It is an extremely broad research field, and it can be said that the development of food culture has played an inestimable role in human development.
Looking around the world, the cultural background of each region is composed of thousands of years, and it took many times to form a cultural system, so it is very different. Food culture is no exception. In recent years, with the tide of reform and opening-up, more and more western food industries have flooded into China, and many western foods are easy to serve in China, especially among young people. It can be said that the eating habits of China people are quietly changing. ...
First of all, we still need to study the differences between Chinese and western eating habits.
Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary Cultures (Reasons for Differences)
1. Two different dietary concepts
No one will deny that the west is a rational concept of diet. No matter what color, fragrance, taste and shape the food is, the nutrition must be guaranteed, and how many calories, vitamins, protein and so on should be taken in a day. Even if it tastes the same, you must eat it because it is nutritious. This concept of diet is compatible with the whole western philosophy system. Metaphysics is the main feature of western philosophy. The research object of western philosophy is the cause of things, and the cause of things is often metaphysical. The two are interrelated and form metaphysical philosophy. This philosophy has brought vitality to western culture and made it develop by leaps and bounds in natural science, psychology and methodology. But in other aspects, this philosophical proposition has great obstacles, such as food culture. At the banquet, you can pay attention to the collocation of tableware, materials, services and raw materials in shape and color. But no matter how luxurious and high-end, from L.A. to new york, steak has only one flavor, and there is no art at all. As a dish, chicken is chicken and steak is steak. Even if there is a match, it is done in the disk. A plate of "French lamb chops" with mashed potatoes, leaning against the lamb chops, and boiled green beans and some tomatoes on the other side. The colors are in sharp contrast, but the raw materials are irrelevant, the taste is harmonious, each has its own flavor and is simple and clear.
China is a concept of beauty diet. When people taste dishes, they often say that this dish is "delicious" and that dish is "not delicious"; However, if you want to further ask what is "delicious", why "delicious" and where "delicious" is, I am afraid it is not easy to make it clear. This shows that China people's pursuit of delicious food is an indescribable "artistic conception", which is still difficult to cover with what people usually call "color, fragrance, taste, shape and utensils".
The key to the unique charm of China's diet lies in its taste. The production of food lies in harmony, so that the original flavor of food, the cooked taste after heating, the taste of ingredients and auxiliary materials, and the harmonious taste of seasonings are intertwined and coordinated with each other, so that they complement each other, penetrate each other and blend with each other. You have me and I have you. The harmonious beauty of China's cooking is the essence of China's cooking art, and the variety of dishes is an external thing, while the taste is an internal thing. It is the most important embodiment of China's aesthetic diet view that he pays attention to the interior without deliberately modifying the appearance, and pays attention to the taste of dishes without revealing the shape and color of dishes excessively.
In China, the pursuit of beauty in diet obviously overwhelms rationality, and this view of diet is also consistent with China's traditional philosophy. As a representative of oriental philosophy, China's philosophy is macroscopic, intuitive, fuzzy and unpredictable. The method of making Chinese food is to reconcile the tripod and finally reconcile a beautiful taste. This emphasizes the sense of proportion, that is, overall cooperation. It contains rich dialectics of China's philosophy. Everything is based on the beauty and harmony of food. The variety in the range determines the richness and diversity of Chinese food, determines the characteristics of Chinese food, and even determines the characteristics of every chef.
2. Differences between Chinese and Western dieters
Vegetables are indispensable to any diet. In China, "Cai" is a pictophonetic character, which is related to plants. According to the survey of western botanists, people in China eat more than 600 kinds of vegetables, six times more than those in the west. In fact, in Chinese cuisine, vegetarian dishes are ordinary foods, and meat dishes only enter the ordinary diet structure when the living standard is high, so there has been a saying of "vegetable food" since ancient times, and vegetable food plays a dominant role in the ordinary diet structure. China people's plant cooking is closely related to the advocacy of Buddhists. They regard animals as "living things" and plants as "lifeless things", so they advocate vegetarianism.
Westerners don't seem to have such good habits. They inherited the cultural lineage of nomadic people and maritime people, focusing on fishing, hunting and breeding, supplemented by gathering and planting. They eat a lot of meat, and all they wear are from animals. Even western medicine is extracted from animals. When introducing the dietary characteristics of their own countries, westerners think that they pay more attention to the reasonable collocation of nutrition than China. There are developed food industries, such as canned food and fast food, which are time-saving and nutritious, so people in their country are generally stronger than people in China: tall, with long legs, wide shoulders and muscular; China people, on the other hand, are thin, with narrow shoulders and short legs and light yellow color. According to the obvious differences between Chinese and western food objects, some people call China a plant word, while westerners call it an animal word. Reflected in cultural behavior, westerners like adventure, exploration and conflict; On the other hand, China people have moved to another place. According to ruth benedict's "cultural model" theory, the cultural character of China people is very similar to the Apollo style in the classical world, while the cultural character of westerners is very similar to Faust style in the modern world. In fact, when westerners, such as Americans, are developing the western region, they throw all their property into cars and walk out in the rumbling trenches. On the other hand, China people always remember "home" and "root". Although young people are encouraged to be cosmopolitans, Chinese who have been overseas for decades have finally come to the mainland to find their roots with crutches. This concept of returning to nature, this humanistic spirit, cannot but be said to be linked with the food accumulation of China people, which makes the Chinese nation so cohesive and the folk customs of China so human.
3. Different dietary patterns
There are great differences between Chinese and western food styles, and this difference also has an impact on national character. In China, any banquet, no matter for what purpose, has only one form, that is, everyone sits together and enjoys a seat. Banquets should use round tables to create a United, polite and interesting atmosphere in form. Food is placed in the center of a table, which is not only the object of appreciation and tasting, but also the medium of emotional communication. People toast each other, offer food to each other and exhort each other, which embodies the virtue of mutual respect and courtesy between people in the face of beautiful things. Although from the perspective of hygiene, this kind of diet has obvious shortcomings, but it conforms to the universal mentality of "happy reunion" of our nation, embodies the influence of the category of "harmony" in China's classical philosophy on later generations' thoughts, and is conducive to collective emotional exchange, so it is difficult to reform so far.
Although food and wine are very important at western-style banquets, they are actually used as foil. The core of the banquet is friendship, which is realized by talking to the guests next door. If the sociality of banquets is compared to dancing, it can be said that Chinese banquets are like group dances, while western banquets are like ballroom dancing for men and women. It can be seen that the purpose of friendship between Chinese banquet and western banquet is obvious, but Chinese banquet is more about the friendship of the whole banquet, while western banquet is more about the friendship between neighboring guests. The more obvious difference from China's diet is the buffet which is popular in the west. This method is: all the food is displayed one by one, and everyone needs what they want, so they can move freely without being fixed in their seats. This way facilitates the emotional communication between individuals, without putting all the words on the table, and also reflects the respect of westerners for individuality and self. But each eats his own food, does not interfere with each other, and lacks some China people's mood of chatting and having fun.
So in the final analysis, it is the difference between sensibility and rationality. However, this difference seems to be blurred with the development of science. More and more people in China are not only concerned about the color, smell and taste of vegetables, but also about their hygiene and nutrition. Especially after SARS. Also, because people are getting busier and busier at work, they think Chinese food is too much trouble to cook, so it's better to have a hamburger or something. So the difference in diet is not clear. Then, what will happen to the diet in the future? To put it bluntly, what to eat and how to eat in the future are closely related to our lives.
Therefore, it is necessary to study how the diet in China will develop in the future. So how do people view this problem now? We made a series of surveys in several western restaurants:
1. Do you like Chinese food or western food?
Western food 3% Chinese food 37% all like 60%.
It can be seen that there are few pure westerners, and there are not many foodies in China, but most people like them. Then, this means that people should have both traditional Chinese food and some western food in their lives. This involves the integration of Chinese and western food.
2. What foods do you like in western food?
Mainly: bread, hamburgers, pizza, cold drinks, coffee, French fries, ice cream, curry, salad, mashed potatoes and hot dogs.
The following are some popular western foods, which are also very representative. Specifically, foods such as bread, hamburgers and hot dogs often appear in our lives, especially in breakfast and camping, and are even indispensable. French fries, ice cream and some cold drinks are also integrated into our lives as snacks and desserts;
In addition, there are more and more specialized west point shops, such as pizza shops and cake shops, which provide people with opportunities to eat western food.
3. What foods do you like in Chinese food?
Mainly: rice, hot pot, glutinous rice balls, sugar water and spring rolls.
When it comes to traditional food in China, there is no symbolic representation, but delicious food is the representative. Cooked food such as rice and noodles is of course delicious to people and has been an indispensable staple food for many years. Some snacks in China are also very attractive, such as spring rolls, pies, steamed dumplings, rice cakes, Ciba and so on. Hot pot is another way of Chinese food, which has regional differences in China and is loved by northerners.
What is most worth mentioning is the famous time-honored brands in Beijing, such as Quanjude, Donglaishun, Kutokuhayashi and Liubiju.
What kind of food do you think is more popular now or in the future?
Chinese food 70%, western food 30%
Therefore, Chinese food has always been the dominant food in our diet. Although western food has greatly entered our life, it is only a supplement to Chinese food. China's traditional eating habits and customs will not change easily.
Do you think Chinese food and western food can be better integrated?
Yes, 80% but not 20%
As it seems, people really hope that there will be some integration between Chinese and western food, and they are also confident in the integration of Chinese and western food.
6. How do you think Chinese food and western food will merge?
Chinese food is eaten in the west; Western food should avoid high calories; Western food should be popular and civilian; Chinese food should be convenient and fast; The staple food of western food is Chinese food; Use Chinese food to make western food, and use western food to make Chinese food.