A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Dietetic Culture1.doc

a comparative study of chinese and western dietetic culturea comparative study of chinese and western dietetic culturecontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction.2ii. understanding culture.31. defining culture.32. confining food culture3iii. differences on etiquette in chinese and western food cultures.41. chopsticks in chinese food culture.42. fork and knife in western food cultures.5iv. different seating arrangements.51. space speaks.52. south and north vs. right and .left.6v. differences on contents in chinese and western food culture.71. taste in chinese food.72. nutrition and balance in western food.7vi. dietetic culture influence our language teaching. .8vii. conclusion.9references.9abstract: food, an essential prerequisite for existence, plays an irreplaceable role in the development of society and in the process of human beings, whether in ancient times or in modern times, and whether in east or in west. however, there is an old english saying “one mans meat is another mans poison”, which means not all human beings have the same food or develop the same food habits. clyde kluckhohn, a world-famous anthropologist, states in his paper what is culture, “what he eats is of course varies with nations. based on the theory of “the deep structure of culture” and “cultural relativism”, this thesis endeavors to analyze the cultural differences and their rooted causes in chinese and western food cultures from the perspectives of concept, etiquette and content, and points out that with the development of cross-cultural communication, more factors and new variables in food cultures will arise through communication, interaction and imitation.key words: chinese and western food culture; differences; cross-cultural communication摘 要: 无论是在古代还是在现代，无论是在东方还是在西方，饮食，作为作为人类生存的必要前提, 在人类社会发展和文明进步中起着无可替代的作用。然而，人类的饮食或饮食习惯各不相同。正如英语谚语所说，“某人之佳肴即他人之毒药”。美国著名人类学家克拉孔在其什么是文化一文中指出，“一个人的饮食当然要受到其获得食物种类的限制，但同时也受到文化的制约”。由此可见，饮食与文化密不可分. 不同的民族缔造了不同的饮食文化。本人以“文化深层结构”和“文化相对论”为理论基础，着重探讨、分析中国与英美等西方国家在饮食观念、宴会礼仪、饮食内容等方面的跨文化差异，揭示导致饮食文化差异的深层次原因，从而阐明随着跨文化焦急的不断发展，中西饮食文化的交流，互补和兼容的因素也会日益增多。关键字: 中西饮食文化；差异；跨文化交际i. introduction there are many culture differences between chinese and english. food , an essential prerequisite for existence, plays an irreplaceable role in the development of society and in the process of human beings, whether in ancient times or in modern times, and whether in east or in west. however, there is an old english saying “one mans meat is another mans poison”, which means not all human beings have the same food or develop the same food habits. clyde kluckhohn, a world-famous anthropologist, states in his paper what is culture, “what he eats is of course limited by availability, but is also partly regulated by culture.” therefore, food and food habits can be best understood, only within the context of each individual culture.” globalization is an important factor stimulating and accelerating the process of exchange between cultures, which should deserve our enough attention. it is well known that globalization has been becoming an inevitable trend around the world, and an inexorable force to influence peoples life in almost every aspect. in other words the wheel of human history has moved us inexorably forward from isolation to integration. there are great disparities between china and western countries in ideas, attitudes, contents and functions of food cultures. based on the theory of “the deep structure of culture” and “cultural relativism”, this thesis endeavors to analyze the cultural differences and their rooted causes in chinese and western food cultures from the perspectives of concept, etiquette and content, and points out that with the development of cross-cultural communication, more factors and new variables in food cultures will arise through communication, interaction and imitation.this paper makes the comparative analysis between chinese and western dietetic culture, and also compares the chinese dietetic customs with western countries dietetic custom. chinese dietetic culture is part of chinese valuable culture heritage. chinese diet culture is an important part of chinese historical culture, which is famous for its variety and abundance. today, more and more foreign tourists would like to visit china and they enjoy chinese food a lot. at the same time, foreign tourists also want to know the meaning of names of the chinese dishes. so the accurate translation of chinese dishes into english is necessary to spread chinese diet culture. to translate chinese dishes into english is the linguistic transference. western dietetic cultures are very fashionable. western food has many types. because of culture exchanges between china and other countries, food doesnt native to china or western country, the development in cooking reflects ancient peoples change in convention and living standards.ii. understanding culture1. defining culture what is culture? and how to define it? as a matter of fact, as early as in 1952, two anthropologists, kroeber and kluckhohn, published a book with over two hundred pages devoted to 164 definition of culture, none of which are the same. since then, many other scholars have offered additional definitions, ranging from broader ones to narrower ones. sapir says, “culture may be defined as what a society does and thinks”(sapir 2002:180).benedit says in her book patterns of culture, “what really binds men together is their culture-the ideas and the standers they have in common”(benedict 1934:16).bate and plog propose a descriptive definition that includes most of the major territory of culture on which scholars currently agree: culture is a system of shared benefits, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning(di 2002:1) based on the definition mentioned above, samovar, a leading figure in crosscultural communication, purposes his own definition that is perhaps more suited to the communication between cultures-we define culture as the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, nations of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving(samovar et al 2000:36).these and other definitions all point to one fact that culture is all pervasive, including everything from rites of passage to concepts of the soul. without culture, it is hard to imagine what we human beings will be and how our society will become.2. confining food culture when we study a culture for communication purposes, however, we should focus on the dominant cultural pattern and guard against getting side-tracked. when we compare cultural differences, we should concentrate on the major differences of two dominant patterns. for instance, when we say differences between chinese and american cultures, we mean differences between the dominant han culture and the american culture (hu 1988:6).according to the classifications, mentioned above, food culture obviously belongs to popular culture that is overt, explicit and objective. actually, till now, nobody has ever made a widely recognized definition because of various reasons. however, here, as far as this research is concerned, in order to make the comparison more concrete and practical, the author confines food culture to the aspects of food contents, food habits, food etiquette, the attitudes towards food, the function of food, ect. that is derived from each individual culture.1) chinese food culturechinese food culture in this research mainly refers to the one in the han nationality. as we all know, china is a nation with 56 ethnic groups, each of which has its unique food, food habits, ect. but the han nationality and its culture are the mainstream in china due to some historical, political, and economic reasons, which, however, are not the main concerns of this research.2) western food culture western food culture is mainly concerned with the one in the english-speaking countries, especially in america and britain due to the fact that their cultural patterns and influence have become dominant in the west, which is generally recognized by the international community. on the other hand, most of the materials and information on food culture collected by the author are about american and british peoples food, food habits, ect. iii. differences on etiquette in chinese and western food culturesetiquette is another important aspect that should deserve our enough attention in both chinese and western food cultures. however, because of disparities between chinese and western food cultures, different food etiquette consequently manifests different features. therefore, a comparison between different etiquette in chinese and western food cultures will not only help us better understand those culturally rooted causes, but also improve cross-cultural communication.1. chopsticks in chinese food cultureas many scholars point out that the traditional attitude of chinese people toward universe or nature is “oneness between man and nature”(jia 1977:35). 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 that” facing the yellow soil with the back against the sky” is the most vivid description of chinese peoples 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 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 (chang 1977:35). when chinese people use chopsticks, usually they appear to be refined and cultivated, with little disgraceful action 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 human beings violence but turned out to be the substance passed harmoniously through them”(liu 2002:74)。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.2. fork and knife in western food cultures 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 devastation to food without any concealment. what is reflected from the way of eating in western countries actually is humans conquest over nature. therefore, during the whole process of dining, westerners perform the action of cutting, poking and stabbing repeatedly, to some extent, which is the recurring of those bloody fighting or killing. although human beings have long been lifted out of barbarism and stepped into the age of great civilization, 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”. iv. different seating arrangements 1. space speaksindeed, peoples conception on space is not inherited but acquired mainly through the culture in which he is brought up. therefore, the needs for space, the communication rules about space, and the values on space vary with different cultures. seating arrangement is just one of the examples. actually, as pointed by samovar, “culture influences even the manner and meaning in seating arrangement”. seating arrangement thus, is an important means to show different interpretations on social status or interpersonal relations by making use of space. with regard to seating arrangement in a banquet, there exist two major distinctive disparities between china and western countries: south and north vs. right and left, and men first vs. ladies first.2. south and north vs. right and leftin 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 5000 year, 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. thus with ministers, the emperor was always seated with his face toward south. thus, we can find the expressions like “面南称孤“、 ”南州冠冕“ in chinese . on the other hand, when ministers met the emperor, their faces were all toward north, which is also reflected in the expression like “北面称臣”。 to a great extent, it is just because of this reason that the word “ 南” has been gradually elevated into a position relatively high in chinese peoples minds, symbolizing the supreme authority, power, and position. by contrast, the position of the word “ 北 ”，comparatively speaking , is much lower. this unique and interesting cultural phenomenon can find the best examples in chinese idioms, usually, the word “ 南 “ and “ 北“ coexist in the same idiom, usually, the word “ 南”appears in front of the word “北”, such as “ 南腔北调”、“南征北战”、“南来北往”, ect. therefore, in a formal banquet, the seat facing south undoubtedly will be reserved for those who are respectable or powerful. 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 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 process 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. when the seating arrangement for the male and the female in a formal banquet is concerned, china and western countries have respective principle to follow. in china, particularly in ancient times, the image of the female was hardly found in any formal banquets, which according to the chinese traditional belief that men are expected to be dominant in the society. as a result, there was no need at all to think about womens seating arrangement. in western countries, however, the principle of “ladies first” is their traditional belief as well as an important social manner. this principle can trace back its origin to christianity, a religion of about a billion people scattered throughout the world. v. differences on contents in chinese and western food culturesapart from the differences on concepts and etiquette discussed, china and western countries also demonstrate some disparities in many aspects of the contents in each food culture, such as cuisine and cuisine naming. the following points will be compared and discussed: exquisiteness and taste vs. nutrition and balance, and different cuisine naming. through comparison and analysis, it may help us realize not only the disparities but also the similarities in certain aspect.1. taste in chinese foodthe taste is an essential feature of chinese cuisine. chinese people do not mind the nutrition of the food as much as its taste. savoring food is more important to them.2. nutrition and balance in western foodan interesting phenomenon in western countries is the nutritional information on the food label, from which peoples concern about nutrition is clearly reflected. a look at the information, like the number of calories per serving, grams of fat, sodium, cholesterol, fiber and sugar content will make you more knowledgeable in selecting foods to reduce your nutrition health risk. as a matter of fact, in america, food habits are often identified as the most important way in which a person can maintain healthy (pamela and kathryn, 1998:38-39).in conclusion, it is under the influence of pragmatism that westerners are inclined to take the intake of food into consideration basically from the nutritionary perspecti