中西方饮食文化对比研究(英语专业毕业论文).doc

LUOYANG NORMAL UNIVERSITY
2014届本科毕业论文

中西方饮食文化差异

院（系）名称
外国语学院
专 业 名 称
英语（双学位）
学生姓名
张杨子
学号
120722066
指导教师
莫艳艳讲师
完成时间
2014年5月

Luoyang Normal University

Different Food Cultures Between China and the West

A Thesis Submitted
to Foreign Languages College of
Luoyang Normal University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

By
Zhang Yangzi
Supervisor：Mo Yanyan

May 10, 2014

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
中文摘要
饮食文化在世界文化中起着十分重要的作用，不同的国家有自己不同的饮食文化特点。 中国是一种农耕文化的陆地文化，而传统的西方文化是一种畜牧文化的海洋文化，两种不同的文化反映出人们生活方式的差异，其中饮食文化更是具有代表性的一个方面。在此基础上，本文研究分析了中西饮食文化在各个方面的不同之处。分析表明，在不同的文化背景下，中西方在饮食观念、饮食内容、饮食方式还是餐桌礼仪等各个方面的差异都是显而易见的。正是这种不同饮食文化的沟通与交流，推动了全世界范围内文化的融合。

关键词: 差异；文化；饮食文化

I

Abstract
In the complex world culture, the dietary culture plays an extremely important role. The differences between Chinese and Western culture created the differences between Chinese and Western food culture. Different countries have their own dietary cultures. Traditional Chinese culture is agricultural culture and land culture, while traditional western culture is animal husbandry culture and ocean culture. These two kinds of cultures reflect diverse life styles in which food is the most representative aspect. In variously cultural contexts, differences in food lie in concept, object, kitchen ware, table ware, or table manners. And understanding these differences could promote the communication of cultures in the world.

Key words: difference; culture; food culture

II

Table of Contents
中文摘要..........................................................................................................................................Ⅰ
Abstract............................................................................................................................................Ⅱ
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................Ⅲ
1. Introduction.......….……………………………………………………………............................1
2. Dietary Concept…………………....……………………………….............................................2
2.1. Chinese Dietary Concept………......……………………………………….........................2
2.2. Western Dietary Concept….………………….…………………..…….…......................... 3
3. Food …………….…………………………………………………….........................................4
3.1. Condiment……...……………....…………………………………………….......................5
3.2. Side Dish……......………………………………………………………..............................5
4. Table Manners……………………………………………………...............................................7
4.1. Differences Between Chinese and Western Table Manners…......……....................…….....7
4.2. Characteristics of Table Manners…………...……………………………....................… ...7
4.2.1. Characteristics of Table Manners in China ………………….......................................8
4.2.2. Characteristics of Table Manners in the West................................................................8
5. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................10

III

1. Introduction
Diet is not only the premise of social development, but also the paramount material base for human to survive with good health condition. In the early stage of barbarism, like other animals, looking for food to survive is just the instinct for human beings. But when man began to use fire to cook food and they entered the age of civilization, especially the time of cooking with the pottery, the food became the creation made by the human own wisdom and their technology. Then there is the essential difference in diet between human beings and animals that the diet has its cultural nature. Thus the history of human diet is to be this kind of history that human adapt to nature, conquer and reform nature to survive and develop in the nature, and the human dietary culture gradually comes into being in the course of this progress. As an important part of human culture, the dietary culture has a generalized meaning and a narrowed meaning. This thesis discuss the dietary culture in this narrow sense which is the total of material wealth and spirit wealth created and accumulated in the long-term progress of food consumption, and it is the knowledge about what to eat, how to eat and why to eat, including dietary object, dietary tableware and so on.
China has profound cultural heritage of dietary culture and diet play a foremost role in people’s daily life so that dietary culture take a huge proportion in Chinese culture. Facing the dietary culture from other countries, we should accept or reject them based on ourselves condition. We can’t only chase for enjoyment in taste, because it is harmful to our physical health if we eat too much foreign food which is belong to the high calories food. However, it is obvious that we shouldn’t aimlessly reject all the new objects. Under the influence of entering the WTO and globalization, the international connection has become closer and closer so that the collision and fusion in the dietary culture always happen between Chinese and westerners. Granted, it takes a long time for two different cultures to merge and coexist and there must be an aspect that both sides can’t adapt to each other. If this phenomenon occurs, we should try our best to understand, respect and tolerate another culture in right manner.
The difference of dietary culture between Chinese and westerners will arouse culture misunderstanding in certain extent. For example, many Chinese think that Hamburger, KFC and McDonald’s are the typical food in American. But it is not the fact. The fact is American food is very complex.
Therefore, in this thesis, we discuss the difference of dietary culture between Chinese and westerners from dietary concept, dietary object, cooking utensil, dietary tableware and table manners. Through the study, it is beneficial for both sides to strengthen the communication in culture, and more able to eliminate the obstacles and misunderstanding when two nations are communicating, so that people can have in-depth understanding about the dietary culture from China and western countries. To study both parties’ dietary culture difference from various aspects, it can not only help us to strengthen the awareness and adaption in the culture communication, but also can enhance our understanding, tolerate and accept the foreign culture. Then this makes Chinese and western dietary culture can mutually develop and fuse in communication, which it plays a remarkable role in boosting the development of culture in the whole world .
2. Dietary Concept
Diet is absolutely necessary in mankind’s life, and even in the existence or development. Because of the differences between Chinese and English cultural traditions, the Chinese and English dietary cultures are different in concept.
2.1. Chinese Dietary Concept
In Chinese dietary culture, people play more attention to pursuing the taste than to emphasizing the nutrition. They consider that the nutrition is less important if the food is delicious and good-looking enough. The reason why there is a unique dietary culture that eating is on top of the list in Chinese nation is that productivity has been always under the average level for thousands of years and people have not enough food to eat. People often say the taste is the most important in the whole of color, aroma and taste. In addition, the key of special charm in Chinese diet is nothing but its taste. Chinese think a lot of art and sensibility, so the pursuit of delicious taste is always the highest meaning in dietary. However, a part of the nutrition may lack in pursuing the deliciousness in Chinese diet. The shape of the food is the external thing while the taste is the internal thing. Emphasizing the inner and not decorating painstakingly the external, or emphasizing the taste rather than showing off the form of the dishes, is the paramount expression in Chinese dietary concept. But it does not take any count of the collocation of nutrition. The medicated food appeared in the Tang dynasty and now there is a formulation that “diet therapy is better than medical treatments”, which all reflect that Chinese pay attention to the collocation in dietary nutrition since ancient times. However, the traditional nutrition theory only has a vague concept without specific data analysis as westerners to figure out what kind of food is good for health with nutrition. Chinese people are thinking highly of eat. Bread is the staff of life, this old adage explained that we see eating as important as days. Because our national for thousands of years are in the low level of productivity, people always do not have enough to eat, so they would have a unique food culture that eating is very important. I think this is probably from a survival to needs. Li Xiaohong pointed out: If a culture put ate as primary, so it will appear two phenomena: on one hand 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. On the other hand, the excessive attention to eat, it can make the person praise highly of delicious pursuit.
2.2. Western Dietary Concept
In western dietary culture, eating like a biological machine add fuel, especially about the food's nutrition composition, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and all kinds of inorganic element content , people play more attention to pursuing the nutrition than to emphasizing the color, aroma and taste. The western diet is a kind of rational diet so that they devote particular care to the nutrition and collocation. They treat dietary as a science with a realistic attitude to lay stress on dietary nutrition and as a result, the pursuit of nutrition becomes the highest meaning in diet. The core standard in evaluating food in westerners is whether it is reasonable in dietary nutrition and whether it accord with the scientific demand. Westerners often think that food is just a means of survival so that they pay more attention to dietary nutrition and supply condition of energy and they seldom connect dietary with spiritual enjoyment, which reflects a strong practicability and utilitarian. For westerners, the only thing they care is not what the food color, aroma, taste and shape is, is the nutrition must be guaranteed. Then they spend time on paying attention to how many calorie, vitamin, protein, etc. should be absorbed a day with neglect of color, aroma and taste. Even if the taste may be the same, even compared with Chinese food, or as dull as cardboard, but the sense push them to eat because it is nutritive. For another word, it just like refuels the machine. As to westerners, the taste is the secondary. If heating up the food will cause the loss of nutrition, they prefer to eat the half-baked, even raw food. Therefore, the western dietary can be summarized with convenience and practicability. There is a case in point that a nutritive breakfast can be simply made of a combination of some bread, jam, cheese, butter and fresh vegetables.
3. Food
China is known for vast fields and various geographical environments with a long history and an abundant production as well as species of plants and animals, which offer the sufficient resources of products to the formation of Chinese dietary culture. Chinese staple food is based on rice and wheat. On the side, millet, corn, buckwheat, potato and sweet potato are also the main food people usual eat so they take a tiny place in the dietary culture. Except for the rice noodles, there are still kinds of food can be supplied for people to make their life more colorful, including the other kinds of pasta, steamed bun, deep-fired dough sticks, various porridge, cookie and ever-changing snacks. In the Chinese long history, the distribution of “south rice and north wheat” has formed this situation that the main raw materials are rice and wheat in Chinese staple food. Most Chinese people prefer to take vegetarian diet as the principle thing. According to a study of western botanist, there are more than 600 species of vegetables in China. It is six times more than the west. In fact, in the Chinese dishes, vegetarian dishes are considered as the common food, and only in holidays or at the higher living standards, the meat can be a part of the usual diet.
The western dietary culture mainly originates from rear livestock culture, which decides the western dietary structure that takes meat and dairy products as the principal things and vegetarian dishes as the auxiliary thing. According to the weather, it is not suitable for western countries to plant the crop so that they give priority to animal husbandry and give second place to agriculture. In addition, another factor to give first place to animal is that the technology is quite high in the animal cultivation. As a result, there are a lot of kinds of animals and a huge production of meat in western countries. The main agriculture products are wheat, corn, and grape and so on. In the western dietary structure, the meat also takes up the excessive place in the dishes. They are mainly beef, chicken, pork, mutton as well as fish. It is obvious that what they usually eat is provided with a “three-high” characteristic that is high protein, high fat and high calorie. Therefore, meat has occupied and will always occupy the remarkable high proportion in western dietary. Although the proportion of planting has increased in recent years, the proportion of meat in dietary structure is always higher in the western than in Chinese. Therefore, when westerners prepare the diet, you can see most dishes are meat and a few are vegetables. What’s more, bread and meat are the principle food; coffee, wine and milk are the main drinking in their life.
3.1. Condiment
The condiment is also different between the Chinese and westerners in cooking dishes. In China, the taste plays a part as the soul in the dish so that there are seven main kinds of taste in the Chinese diet, including sour, sweet, bitter, salt, peppery, fresh and obscure. The purpose of condiment is to exert a positive effect on reaching the excellent fusion from some seasoning, which has the ability to add aroma without weird smell as well as the smell from fresh meat or fish. What’s more, it can ameliorate the color of the dishes which can draw their attention to have a try. They usually choose the ginger, scallion, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar and monosodium glutamat