论中西饮食文化差异毕业论文.doc

外国语学院本科毕业论文

On Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary Cultures
论中西饮食文化差异

院 系　　　外国语学院　　
专 业　　　英 语　
班 级　2009级本科（7）班
学 号　　 11023012027
学 生 姓 名　　
指 导 教 师　　
职 称 　 讲 师 　

2013年4月

13

Acknowledgements
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all those who have ever helped and encouraged me during the writing of this thesis; otherwise my work would not have been so smoothly fulfilled.
My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Mrs Guo, my supervisor, for her constant encouragement and guidance. She has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. Without her consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form.
Second, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor Wang Xueling. Thank you for leading me into the door of intercultural communication which has really broadened my horizons and enriched my life. Thank you for being so patient, so supportive and I am exceedingly proud of being your student. I am also greatly indebted to the professors and teachers at the Foreign Language Department of Xinxiang University who have instructed and helped me a lot in the past two years.
Last but not least, my heart felt appreciation and everlasting affection go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and boundless confidence in me all through these years. Mother and Father thank you for bringing me into this world and always giving me the strength to strive for my goals. Their selfless love constantly shines on me, and lights up my world. I also 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 to work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.

Abstract

Difference in dietary culture is one of the problems that we should pay more attention. China is a country with a long history and boasts a variety of cuisines. Chinese dietary culture has been always in the leading position of the world from the past to now, and it is also the very important part of the Chinese culture. The Western dietary culture has its typical features, being fast, hygienic, nutritious and scientific. Chinese dietary culture pursues the synthetic beauty such as color, smell, taste, flavor, sound, and the environment. The comparative study attempted by the author intends to promote the mutual understanding and communication between China and the Western. It is important for nations to understand each other. In the cooperation, nations gain more benefits from mutual help and make everybody enjoy a happy life. The findings in this thesis will help nations to draw on each other’s merits and make mutual progress.

Key words: diet; cultural; difference

摘 要

饮食文化的差异就是值得我们关注的话题之一。中国有着悠久的历史与引以为傲的各种各样的烹饪技术。直到今天中国的饮食文化一直处于世界的领先位置，它已经成为中国文化中的重要的一部分。西方饮食文化讲究快捷方便、卫生、营养、科学。中国的饮食文化追求色、香、味、行、意和环境。希望通过中西饮食文化的比较，增进两种文化间的理解和交流，进而互相学习，取长补短，和谐共处，共同发展。国与国之间需要了解彼此。在合作中，帮助彼此得到更多的利益而是每一个人享受快乐生活。这就是理想，只要大家去做，世界会变得美好。

关键词: 饮食；文化；不同

Contents

Acknowledgements I
Abstract II
摘 要 III
Ⅰ. Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Purpose 1
1.3 The History and Position of Food Culture in China and West 1
1.4 Food Culture 1
1.4.1 Characteristics of Chinese Food Culture 2
1.4.2 Characteristics of Western Food Culture 2
Ⅱ. Analysis of Cultural Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary 3
2.1. Differences in Concepts 3
2.2 Differences in Targets 4
2.3 Differences in the Dietary Patterns 6
2.4 Differences in the Nature 7
2.5 Differences in the Etiquette 8
2.6 Differences in Dietary Habits 8
2.6.1 Differences in Tableware 8
2.6.2 Differences in Cooking Methods 9
2.6.3 Differences in Daily Diet 10
Ⅲ. Conclusion 10
3.1 Major Findings 11
3.2 Implication 11
3.3 Limitation 11
Bibliography 13

Ⅰ. Introduction
1.1 Background
Food is only one aspect of cultural traditions, yet it is probably one of the most persistent. There is no cultural group and no individual for whom at least one specific food. Food plays an inextricable role in our daily lives. Without food we cannot survive. But food is much more than a tool of survival. Food is a source of pleasure, comfort and security. Food is also a symbol of hospitality, social status, and religious significance. What we select to eat, how we prepare it, serve it, and even how we eat it are all factors profoundly touched by our individual cultural inheritance.
1.2 Purpose
The content aims to understand the difference between Chinese and western cuisine culture. Cultural differences in the habits of diets between Chinese and the Western reflect the different concepts about the dietary status, eating food and dietary habits. Through the analysis of dietary differences between Chinese and Western food culture, we get to know the cultural traditions of both China and the West. It let us set up an invincible position in the competition. At the same time it can improve and innovate for the Chinese culture. These nations should mutual help and study each other so that we can make our world more harmonious than before.
1.3 The History and Position of Food Culture in China and West
China enjoys the fame of Food Kingdom for thousands year, so people living here focus so much on taste as a tradition. After centuries of evolution on cooking, Chinese cuisine shares a great market in international food table. Chinese chief pay their attention on three parts: variety choice of materials, complexity of cooking style, wide range of taste.
As another economic and cultural center, the Western World, it also produces an important Food culture system. In this system, France, Britain and the United States are the three major branches. They affect the world for their unique cultural connotations.
As the two major food cultures, their mutual influence and fusion will improve cultural diversity of the world. This is the significance of Chinese and Western food culture precisely studies.
1.4 Food Culture
Food culture refers to the technical, scientific and artistic aspects in the process of the food production and food consumption, the development and utilization of food ingredients in specific social groups, as well as the diet­based customs, traditions, ideology and philosophy, in a word, the sum of all the food things of a combination of the way, process, function of food production and consumption. The study on food culture is extremely rich in content.
1.4.1 Characteristics of Chinese Food Culture
The diet is actually the content of our daily life, but why do we say that it contains specific culture? This is because the diet has a special status in the Chinese culture. And it is also different between China and West. Chinese people’s diet starts as early as in the Qin Dynasty. At that time, the typical diet primarily consists of the miscellaneous grains, in addition to some supplementary food such as vegetables and meat. Certainly this kind of diet relates to our Chinese first religious Buddhism a lot which advocates vegetarian diet. And the rice is the staple food, but the vegetable is to get food down. The rice is not delicious, so people must eat the vegetable which is more delicious than rice to get the rice down. And this urges Chinese cooking to make the unsavory food to become the delicious food, which gradually becomes the most important goal of cooking. Moreover the technology of diet processing in Chinese cooking is first-class, thus manifesting the characteristics of Chinese culture. The Chinese cooking’s diet process technology is first-class in the world, thus it has manifested the Chinese culture characteristic.
All these enable the Chinese diet culture to have the following characteristics. First, the Chinese cooking technology has developed a lot and many things which do not look like eatable food in the Westerner’s eyes can become the food rich in the appearance, the fragrance and taste under the Chinese chef’s careful cooking. Second, Chinese recipes are widespread, and everything that can be eaten will be full used. The West botanists think the Chinese eat more than six times types of vegetables than the Westerners. Third, for the Chinese people, the pursuit of eating is just to pursue best happiness of life, food becoming the first requirement.
1.4.2 Characteristics of Western Food Culture
In the Western diet, meat always has a high proportion because the diet was initially based mainly on animal husbandry. In the modern times, although the proportion of crop cultivation has been increasing, the proportion of meat in the diet is still much higher than that of China. As the natural delicious taste of meat, for the Westerners there is no need of too much decoration for food, limiting the development of cooking. Europeans mostly use tools to show their affluence, for instance, the number of kinds and luxury become the content to care about. Moreover, they will not make the pursuit of eating which is easy to satisfy to be the pursuit of the best happiness.
We take Europe and American as a representative for the West, for its culture similarly has a well-established and long history. To the middle ages, the European culture had grown up, and during that time the old West’s diet culture had already formed. Its main feature was: the bread flour was the staple food, raw material was also very rich. The manufacturing method was simple than that of China, but they also paid great attention to the taste.
Ⅱ. Analysis of Cultural Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary
There are distinctive food cultures in different nations and countries, with strong national character and diversity of features. Food product, due to the geographical features, the climate of the environment and the customs and so on, will appear great difference in the raw materials, taste, cooking methods and eating habits. The comparison of the differences between Chinese and western food culture will be from the following eight areas: differences in concepts, differences in targets, differences in the dietary patterns, differences in the nature, differences in the etiquette, differences in the cooking methods, differences in the tableware, differences in the daily diet.
2.1. Differences in Concepts
First, the Chinese and western diet has the differences that cannot be ignored in concepts. Nobody will deny 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. And then they put it bluntly, just like refueling machine.
The concept of Western diet is compatible with the entire Western philosophy. Metaphysics is the main feature of Western philosophy. Such kind of philosophy brings vitality to Western culture, so the natural sciences, psychology and methodology achieve a rapid development. 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, only one taste of steak, it 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 Muttonchops”, one side is potato mud, and muttonchops 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 likewise simple and clear.
The Chinese diet is a sense of beauty diet. When people sample dishes, they often say this dish is “delicious”, or 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 reification, I am afraid it is still difficult to crown all.
The beauty pursuit of Chinese cuisine is distinctly overriding the rational pursuit. This concept of diet is also coinciding with the traditional Chinese philosophy. Chinese philosophy is a representative of Oriental philosophy. Its distinguishing features are the macro, visual, vague and evasive. Chinese cooking method is to reconcile, and the ultimate goal is to reconcile out of a pleasing taste. The main stress is measured and the overall co-ordination. It contains a wealth of dialectics of Chinese philosophy, and all these depend on the degree of the wonderful flavor and harmony of dish. The ever-changing within degrees decides the changeable of Chinese food, and it also decides the characteristics of Chinese food as well as the characteristics on each of the chefs.
2.2 Differences in Targets
All diet cannot be done without vegetables. The word “dish” is for the sound in China, and it always has something to do with the plants. According to a survey of western plants scholar, there are 600 varieties of vegetables, six times more than in the West. In fact, vegetable dish is usual food. Meat dish enters the normal diet only on holidays or higher living standards, so since ancient times, and there was a saying of “fresh vegetables”. Mandarin language: “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 only in worship. Vegetarian diet takes the dominant position in the normal structure.
Chinese people consider the vegetables as the main dish; it has inextricably linked with the advocacy of Buddhists. They deem animals as “people” and plants have “no soul.” So, they advocate vegetarianism.
Westerners do not seem to have such a good habit. They uphold a cultural origin of nomadic, seafaring nation. Living mainly by fishing and hunting, collection and planting are just the complement. There are more meat dishes in their lives. Feeding, clothing, and using are taken from the animals, and even Western medicine is derived from animals. When the westerners introduce the diet characteristics of their countries, they always feel that their diet is more reasonable on the