The Differences Between Chinese and Western Dietary Culture.doc

The Differences Between Chinese and Western Dietary Culture The diet is the first need for humans survival and development. It is also the one of the basic form of social life. However under the different cultural background, having different diet idea and diet custom, then finally form the different dietary culture. Certainly, the Chinese and western diet have a large number of differences.For example, when mention food, Lin yutang's answer is "the foremost enjoyment in life." But the western scholars' answer is "the things which god give to starveling." From these we can see : it is obvious 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 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 them all because of the nutrition. On the contrary, 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 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" reifcation, I am afraid it is still difficult to crown all. So, in a word, the Chinese and western diet have the differences that cannot be ignored in concepts.As for the choices of cooking materials, westerners think the dishes are to fill their stomach, so they eat large pieces of meat, chicken and other block. China's cuisine is “Taste”, so when cooking, showing a great arbitrariness in the selected materials: many things that thrown away by westerners may seem as an excellent raw material to Chinese people. Western raw materials are mainly animal and marine fish, supplemented with plant; while Chinese are mainly plat-based and freshwater fish, supplemented with animal. Why? In fact, it has inextricably linked with the advocacy of Buddhists. They deem animals as "people" and plants have "no soul. " So, Chinese advocate the vegetables as the main dish. For the rest, ever have seen such a fun, a foreigner invited a Chinese to dinner , after finishing a dish, the foreigner asked the Chinese whether need to ask for some more，we know，most Chinese people think themself is implicit modest and implicative, hence the Chinese politely declined and ready to promise him when asked again. Surprisingly, the foreigner respected the Chinese people's decision, and really don't give him anything to eat, although their stomach are both not full. Speaking of which, I just want to say to the Chinese: "hungry, shout it out". Obviously, mode of thinking is the most important reason. We Chinese think it very disgraceful if we don't cook the food enough for the guests so we normally cook more food than guests eat. If you finish your food at meal, the host and hostess usually add more and more food in your dish or bowl without asking you whether you want it or not so as to show they are polite to the guests. They will keep saying, "eat more" and in English we have the expression "help yourself". Western never force you to eat more. If you stop eating, they tend to think you are full. So sometime foreigners feel very helpless when the host and hostess to put more food in their dishes and bowls and they can do nothing but eat more and more until they are completely full. So some foreigners learn to know they always leave some food in their bowls or dishes in order to avoid more food to be added when are invited to dinner in Chinese family. Sometimes think of , it is really funny. But speak of difference, in fact, I firstly think of tableware. why? Because this difference is too obvious. As we know, Chinese people use chopsticks and spoon when they have a meal . And they also use bowl to fill . Westerners? They use a Plate to fill food, a knife and fork to eat and a specialized spoon to drink soup. As two kinds of representative tableware for the Chinese and Western,Chopsticks and knife, fork affected the different lifestyle of the Chinese and Western, representing two kinds of different wisdom. As everyone knows, the history of knife and fork is much shorter than chopsticks, western people use a knife and fork, just four or five hundred years of history, it began with ancient nomadic tribes and pastoraists' application on knives. They carry knives for live, and often cooked the meat, then cut off to eat. After settle the city, the knives and forks are carried into the family kitchen.However, there is scientific basis of use of chopsticks is better training your thinking ability. I think it's a kind of accumulation of time.In addition, there are some different rules when enjoying the meal between Chinese and western.In China,Chinese people like chatting over eating. But talking and laughing loudly is not polite. While eating, the older is first, when a dish served, the young cant eat until the older eat. When a person has a cough, he or she should turn his or her back. In west, men should move the seat for women. People always talk with their neighbors when eating, they dont talk loudly. They do not use their own utensils for others to take their food; do not put the bones and food that dont eat on the floor or on the tablecloth, while put them on the on the plate of iceberg. Besides, the polite way is eating out the food on your plate. What's more,what is the reason which causes the differences ? There are variety reasons to cause the differences between Chinese and western dietary culture , they have different cultures and different history backgrounds which causes different ideas and behaviors. So lets look the following major causes in details: First, as there are different cultures and customs between china and western, our education is different, too. So Chinese and western accept the different views on the time concept. The westerners always combine time and money view together, they think time is important as the money. In their mind, time cannot waste for it is limited. They value their time very much. So they don't like Chinese people,who spend a lot of time in the kitchen just to enjoy a delicious food, they are more likely to spend time in the work.In their view ,food is only used to fill their stomach. In their daily lives, they always arranged and planed their time carefully. They are often filled with a sense of urgency of time. Meanwhile, China accepts the freedom time rule. In our mind, sometimes we neednt have to obey the timetable. We will not be like a western person generally so strict of carrying on according to the plan .So We can spend more time to enjoy the delicious food .we think that tasting food is a kind of enjoyment.Obviously, because of different thought, the Chinese and western develop their dietary culture in different directions. Second, culture will affect peoples view on things. Different country has its different culture, so it is obviously that the thinking mode between China and western are different. Western culture leans to logic and analyze, while the eastern culture pay more attention on ones intuition. Chinese people insist the experience and feeling during the thing. So different thinking mode lead to different thought about diet.Third,Chinese and western different physical environment is also a reason. The difference of climate, water sources, terrain and so on, influence our diet to a certain degree. Like Shanghai people are fond of sweet food, sichuan people love spicy food, the environment is the most important reason. Here, I think everyone should have some knowledge about the differences between Chinese and western dietary culture. But, my ability is limited, the inadequacy of article is not avoided, I hope the readers forgive me.