东西方饮食折射出的文化内涵.doc

Cultural Connotation Reflected in Oriental and Western Diet东西方饮食折射出的文化内涵Abstract Diet, an essential prerequisite for existence, plays an irreplaceable role in the development of society and in the progress of human beings, whether in ancient times or in modern times, and whether in the Orient or in the West.Oriental nations have rich and profound food culture, and Western has exquisite and self system food civilization. However，in the Oriental and Western dietetic cultures, differences are obvious in concept, structure, manner, tableware, etiquette. By analyzing and comparing these dietary cultures，we can deeply understand the cultural connotation about the philosophical theories and then find out the points that can be digestedA bite of the world civilization. At last, it presents the other reason for each dietetic culturethe impact of the geographical environment and the impact of the economic system. With the development of international communication and integration, the Oriental and Western dietary culture will be developed jointly in the way of mutual interaction and enrichment. This will play a significant role to promote the communication of culture in the world.Key words：Dietary culture; Philosophical theories; Intercultural 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。东方国家有灿烂丰富、博大精深的饮食文化；西方国家则有精巧专维、自成体系的饮食文明。然而东西方各自的饮食文化，在概念、结构、方式、餐具、礼仪等方面都是不尽相同的地方。通过分析比较这些饮食文化差异，可以更深入地了解东西方国家的文化内涵及哲学理论，探究东西汇通之点舌尖上的世界文明，最后阐述引起不同饮食文化的其他原因，包括地理因素及经济因素的影响。随着国际的交流与融合,东西饮食文化业将会在交流中相互吸收借鉴共同发展,这对全世界范围内的文化交流将起到促进作用。关键词：饮食文化；哲学理论；跨文化交际Table of Contents1 Introduction12 Characteristics of Each Dietetic Culture32.1 Oriental Diet Extravagance& Collectivism32.2 Western DietSimplicity& Individualism33 Philosophical Theories Reflected in Dietary Performances53.1 Diet pursuitTaste & Nutrition53.2 Diet structureVegetables & Meat63.3 Diet PatternGather Dining & Individual Serving73.4 TablewareChopsticks & Knives and Forks83.5 EtiquetteMen First &Ladies First94 Other Reasons for Each Dietetic Culture104.1 The Impact of the Geographical Environment104.2 The Impact of the Economic System105 Conclusion12References14Acknowledgements151 IntroductionWith the deepening of the international communication, in different countries or cultural background, the communication of people are increasing all the time, and the communication between them is called intercultural communication. Intercultural communications gradually become an indispensable content of peoples life. Due to the differences of regional, different nations and countries form different cultures. People with different cultural backgrounds behavior or habits is endless and same, they have their social statute or habits, reflected in the political economy, education religion, culture , art and so on. What is culture? Chen Huawen once lists cases to illustrate the connotation and importance of culture; he said Culture is like air and water that permeates every corner of our lives, people are enjoying the culture achievements that were created by predecessors in every time, also, people are inventing new culture in every moment. Our progress is the result of the culture creation and developing. When people are communicating under the different culture background, the language and non-language factors which influence of message effect are making the communication more difficult. If foreign language learners are lack of knowledge for its behavior and function, it will appear inappropriate behavior, resulting in the communication barriers, and it is difficult for effective cross-cultural communication, as a result it causes communication errors.Once there is a saying that Food is eating well-deserved for human life, so food is an indispensable condition for the survival and development of human beings. There are two desires in life: one is feasting them to survive; and another is the lust of men and women, which can help the mankind to carry on the family line. Facing the two desires, the Oriental people pay more attention to the former, while the West tends to the latter. Such phenomenon affects the cultural trend. In many Oriental nations，the methods of dietary product are very complex, and have a great diversity of taste and dishes, this is amazing. In the long-term development, evolution and accumulation process, people gradually formed its own unique food folk from many aspects, such as diet structure, food production, food utensils, nutrition healthy and diet aesthetic, this created a diet with unique flavor of the Oriental diet culture, and Oriental diet become a pearl of the world diet culture. In Western countries, ancient thinkers devoted less attention to the food problem than the Oriental philosophers did, and there is even not aware of it to the heaven degree. With the opposite, they recognized and interpreted the world in the perspective of the lust or love of men and women more. Whether the awareness of original sin of Christianity, Adam and Eve legend, or ancient Greek philosophy(such as Platos dialogue) who considered the personal relationships love as the love of ontology of beauty, and regarded it as a reality thinking of philosophy, all these ideas become the basis of Western philosophers cultural thoughts. All these had potential effects on the development of Western culture and Westerners characters.Receiving the influence of respective cultural tradition, the Orient and Western dietary culture has different characteristic. The differences in concepts, structures, patterns, attribution and nature had reflected the different dietary culture in the different state characteristic; such characteristic has enriched the research value of dietary culture. Studying these dietary cultures, we can find out the cultural connotation about the philosophical theories between oriental and Western nations. It may be a great help to the communication of culture in the world.2 Characteristics of Each Dietetic Culture 2.1 Oriental Diet Extravagance& CollectivismFrom the ancient times on, it is very common to see that there are many high-grade dishes and drinks in a formal banquet in the Orient. The hosts use the big banquet to show his sincere and warm hospitality. The more expensive or precious the food served is, the more dignity the host has, the more quantity of dishes in a banquet, the warmer hospitality can be shown. In this sense, formal banquets have one thing in common that there should be more than enough food on the table, not only the quality but also the quantity of dished is highly valued. Actually, hosts want to represent their individuals social position and the prestige that are well recognized by other members in the society.Many scholars around the world have long reached an agreement that values are the most important variables in the process of cross-cultural communication. Kluckhohn defines a value as a conception, explicit or implicit, distinctive of an individual or characteristic of a group of the desirable, which influences the selection from available modes, means, and ends of action. The Oriental people prefer a collectivism orientation. When it is applied to food culture, a picture of a group of people sitting around a table occurs. And they would like to take the style of sharing”, whether at home with family members or outside the home with friends. In such collectivism culture, a We consciousness prevails, and people are expected to be interdependent and show conformity to the groups norms and values. Groups goals usually take precedence over individual goals, and the primary value is to seek harmony with others. Actually groups harmony is so highly valued that obedience to, and compliance with, in-group pressures is routine In short, from the moment the dinner which starts to the time when it is over, the truth of sharing reflects almost everywhere. 2.2 Western DietSimplicity& IndividualismWestern banquet is not so luxurious; the scale of it is rather smaller. What they focus on is simplicity and casualness which is closely related with their thinking patterns. Generally speaking, we are familiar with the gathering style party in Western countries. In the party, Westerners are free to do what they like to do, and they can dance, sing, chat, and even kiss. The atmosphere in the banquet should be free, casual, harmonious and joyous. Because most westerners regard banquets as an occasion on which friends gather, communicate and strengthen friendship. It is also an occasion for making new friendsWesterners emphasize individualism. Broadly speaking, individualism refers to the doctrine: each individual is unique, special, and completely different from all other individuals. Greatly influenced by the individualism, Western food culture is characterized by the separated style. In individualism culture, an I consciousness prevails, and emphasis is placed on an individuals goals over group goals. In other words, the individual is treated as the most important element in any social setting. This value orientation stresses individual initiative and achievement, and individual decision-making is highly appreciated. In conclusion, the role of individualism in Western dietary cultures is obvious and its influence is self-evident too.3 Philosophical Theories Reflected in Dietary Performances3.1 Diet pursuitTaste & NutritionBread is the staff of life, this old adage explained that they see eating as important as days. Oriental 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 it is tasty and what are the aspects of delicious, it will be difficult to answer. If a culture put eating as primary, it will appear two phenomena: on one hand people will put the food function to acme, not only survive, but also use it to maintain healthy, this is also the culture basis that diet cures more than the doctors, which is the cultural foundation of the Oriental countries. On the other hand, the excessive attention to eat can make the person praise highly of delicious pursuit.The perceptual pursuit of the Oriental cuisine is clearly overriding the rational pursuit. This concept of diet is also coinciding with the traditional Oriental philosophy. Chinese philosophy as a representative of the Oriental philosophy, its distinguishing features is the macro, visual, vague and evasive. The Oriental cooking method is to reconcile, and the ultimate goal is to reconcile out of a beautiful taste. The main stress is a sense of proportion and the overall co-ordination. It contains a wealth of dialectics of the Oriental philosophy, and all of these depend on the degree of the wonderful flavor and harmony of dish. The ever-changing within degrees decides the changeable of the Oriental food.Unfortunately, when we put the pursuit of delicious as the first requirement, we are neglecting the most fundamental nutritional value of food. Many of our traditional food are through hot fried and long time boil, cover the dish nutrients to sabotage, many nutrients are loss in the machining process. As a result of nutrition problem, in fact touched on the Oriental culinary culture to the greatest weakness. Folk have a saying, It is of great importance of eating and whether the food is delicious or not depends on taste, and this pursuit of delicious makes the Oriental people ignore the real meaning of dinner.Westerners in diet takes the science, takes the science about nutrition, so the nutrition is the supreme principle in the Western diet. Even in the Western dietary leading power France, even though in many aspects the diet culture is similar with the Oriental diet, when talking about nutrition, there will be a long gap. While French cook also pursued delicious, but also adhere to the nutrition this one major premise, they dont agree with pieces of nutrition and beg delicious.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 says the heavy nutrition in Western diet is universal.The concept of the Western diet is compatible with the whole Western philosophy. Metaphysics is the main feature of the Western philosophy, which dedicated to the research of the object principle. Such kind of philosophy brings vitality to Western culture, so the natural sciences, psychology and methodology achieve a development by leaps and bounds. In some other aspects, such philosophy proposition is a significantly obstacle, such as the dietary culture, which is the inevitable thing to drop behind, and just the metaphysics of methodology marks everywhere. In celebration, it stresses tableware, stresses the staple, stresses the servings, and stresses the color and shape mix of raw materials. But no matter how luxurious the grade is; from Los Angeles to New York, the steak only have one taste, is no art to speak of. And as dishes, the chicken is chicken; steak is steak, even in groups, which are also conducted in a shallow dish. In a dish of French Mutton chop, one side is potato mud, and mutton chop sits next to it, another side is allocation of cooking beans, and plus a few tablets of tomato. Color is on clear, but the tastes of the various materials are separated, not to reconcile, and the entire flavor is also simple and clear. Although the proteins and fats are abundant in the Western diet, the disadvantage of this dietary pattern is much more apparent. According to the study of the epidemic, this pattern is closely related to cancer and cardiovascular disease. 3.2 Diet structureVegetables & MeatAll diet cannot be done without vegetables. In the Orient, dish always has something to do with the plants. According to a survey of western plant scholar, there are 600 varieties of vegetables, six times more than in the West. In fact, in the Oriental dishes, vegetarian dishes are common food, only in holidays or higher living standards, it can enters the usual diet, so since ancient times, it will has saying of fresh vegetables”, like an old saying goes : Common people eat fresh vegetables, fish only offered in the worship. It is said that fresh vegetables are mainly to the civilian in general, only being able to eat meat in worship. Vegetarian diet takes the dominant position in the normal dietetic structure. The Oriental people make plant as the main dish, and have a lot of contact with the advocacy of Buddhism. They regard the animal as the life, but plants as not to work, therefore, the Oriental people advocates the vegetarianism. Westerners believe that cuisine is used to appease their hunger, so they only eat meat in the structure of diet. The mainly dishes of Western diet is beef, chicken, pork, mutton and fish. So the meat diet has been very high in proportion.In the culture of diet, Westerners have the culture descent of nomads and sailing nationality, they hunting, breeding, aided by acquisition and planting, so they eat more meet, the eating, wearing and using are took of animals, even the western medicine are made from animals to take. Meanwhile they pay more attention to animal protein and fat intakeDue to the relationship of diet, in common, human body of Western country is stronger than Oriental: Tall, long legs, broad shoulders and developed muscle, but Oriental people appears: Narrow skinny, short legs and the color is yellow. According to the obvious differences in characteristic of Western diet object, the Oriental character is known as the plants”, the Western character is known as animals. In response to the cultural behaviors, Westerners love adventure, exploration, conflict, but the Oriental people only like to live balance, even as they believe that natural balance is the basis of human being survival.3.3 Diet PatternGather Dining & Individual ServingThe Oriental and Western diet pattern is quite different from the way that such differences also have an impact on the national character. If the diet pattern is compared with dance, then it can be said that the Oriental diet is like group dance, and the Western diet is like dancing between women and men. Therefore, it is obvious that the Oriental diet is more reflected in all guests, and Western diet is more reflected the friendship between adjacent guests.In the Orient, any of the feast, whatever the purpose, there will be only one form, that is, people were sitting around, sharing one seat. The banquet must use the round table, which has created one kind of unity, politeness, harmony atmosphere. The delicate delicacies put on table of peoples centers. It is not only the object which a table of people appreciates and tastes, but also an intermedium which is used to exchange sentiments. People propose a toast of each other for food and vegetables when they get together and share the delicious food. It reflects the mutual respect between people and the virtues of comity. Although from the health perspective, this kind of dietary pattern has obvious deficiency, it meets the general mind of happiness in the Oriental countries. Meanwhile it reflects the influence thoughts to offspring about Oriental classical philosophyTogether, and facilitates the emotional communicated of collective.Freedom westerner prefers to individual serving when they are eating. They only concerned about what to eat. In the Western country, the most popular form of banquet is buffet. This method is: businesses need display all the food, you can walk freedom and should not fix in you seat to eat. Why the buffet is so popular in the