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Jinliang Sun

Professor

Course

2 November

The philosophy behind different food practice between China and the United States

In terms of the different cultures of China and the United States, food culture is one of

the most important different elements. China and the United States have their own special

culture, and each culture has its own way of expression. With more and more culture

communications between China and the United States, the cultural exchange has attracted

people’s attention on the difference between two country food culture, as a result, food

culture has become one of the most popular topics. In recent decades, people have paid more

and more attention to food culture. Understanding the cultural differences between China

and the United States is helpful for the development of bilateral exchanges. The different

food practice between China and the United States is mainly due to the differences between

Chinese and the United States philosophical systems. As a matter of fact, the philosophy

values have deeply influenced two country food practice and food culture, the Confucianism

and Taoism, two traditional Chinese philosophy values, have a long and lasting influence on

food practice and food culture, which attaches great importance on the unity, while the

United States philosophical system attaches rationalism the most, which means they more

focus on the absorption of scientific nutrition.

China is one of the civilizations with a long history of thousands of years, as time pass

by, the different proveniences and regions have formed their own food cultures due to
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regional differences, according to Food and Binary Oppositions in the Chinese Meal System,

even if it were only eaten regularly by some, Chinese cooking would still be important for it

is one of the greatest and original cuisines of the world. The famous eight cuisines have their

own systems, each with its own characteristics. Compared to Chinese food culture, the

United States also has a long history that pass generations and generations. It could be traced

back to the middle ages, Europe has formed a whole food culture system that have some

main characteristics, which the food raw materials are relatively limited compared to

Chinese food culture (Qin).

Due to different philosophy and culture between China and the United States, the

differences between Chinese and the United States food culture are essentially different. First

of all, from the perspective of philosophical, Chinese pay much more attention on

"existence", while the United States philosophical values pay much more attention on the

separation and opposition of substance and emptiness. All these core philosophical values

determine the differences in their food cultures.

Chinse food practice has long been known the fact that Chinese food flavor is

determined by texture, temperature, and appearance in addition to the combination of taste

and smell (Qin). When tasting food, people have a comprehensive feeling of a variety of

sensory, which is not only limited to the sense of taste. People also used other four senses to

feel the food. In addition, the food is deeply influenced by follow factors: strong personal

factor, regional factor, national factor and other factors. As a result, different regions and

nationalities have different eating habits, to a great extent, different regions obviously have

different flavors. In addition, the cooking process and techniques also influence the food
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difference between two countries.

With the progress of globalization, the two cultures exchange has become more and

more frequently. The status quo of Chinese and the United States food culture is different

from the past. As deeply influenced by Chinese culture --the Confucianism and Taoism, the

Chinese food culture is inclusive. According to Food and the Chinese American Journey,

with the communication with western cultures, more and more western foods have been

introduced to China, such as "KFC", and "McDonald". But in the past two decades, the

United States fast food restaurants in China have also introduced some Chinese food, for

instance, KFC have rice from its menu while many other country’s KFC do not have the

option on their menu (Mendelson).

In the United States, with the rapid development after the industrial revolution, the

living standard has been improved significantly, people gradually are attracted by nutrition

and simple food and the food culture is also have made some great changes, instead of the

tradition fast food with a high calorie, more and more American prefer to low calories food

with a simple cooking method. Taking McDonald as example, despite there are various

choice from their menu, the ingredients are essentially limited to a several of product. As a

result, more and more American have move to other preference on food choice. On the

contrary, there are Chinese restaurants in almost every country from all over the world, and

more and more Americans started to eat Chinese food as their daily food and they started to

like of Chinese food.

One of the differences between Chinese and the United States food culture is concept.

In China, food has risen to a level of importance that transcends all other material and
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spiritual forms, in other words, Chinese regard food as their prime want and food is the

paramount necessity of the people, and this ideology is reflected in Chinese daily life. For

instance, Chinese have a habit that they like to ask "have you eaten yet?" when they meet an

acquaintance on the street, and this situation may cause curious when foreigners come to

China. As a matter of fact, according to Food in Chinese Culture : Anthropological and

Historical Perspectives, Chinese has been farming for over thousand of years, and a lot of

Chinese don’t get enough to eat, from the last century, even the Chinese economic

development has made great progress, there are still a great number amount of people cannot

afford to eat. On the contrary, In the United States, food is just a necessary means of survival

and communication.

The difference between dinner party of two countries are various, which could refer to

extravagance and frugality. Under the deep influence of the Confucianism and Taoism, the

Chinese are hospitable and the only way to show respect to the guest is to order a lot of

meals that could fully cover a dining table, which is the only way to show their hospitable.

This habit is extravagance in essentially to some extent, especially when there are a few of

guests and the dining table is lavishly covered with platters of food. Meanwhile, Chinese

people pay attention to the meal itself and it has to all kinds of meals on the table if Chinese

treat others to dinner. In addition, the more precious of the food, the more hospitable shows.

As a result, when it comes to Chinese wedding party, children's birth feasts, people's birthday

parties, there are always so much food have not been eaten after the party is over, which is

definitely a type of extravagance and wastes. According to Food in Chinese Culture:

Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, Chinese traditional food is famous for its
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extravagance. The "whole duck banquet" in Beijing, "whole fish banquet" and "whole oyster

banquet" in Guangdong, "whole sheep banquet" in Inner Mongolia Province. All these kinds

of banquet show that Chinese keep up a boastful appearance.

In the United States, food preparation is much simpler. According to Meals for Older

Americans: Report Together with Additional Views “American prefer a small amount but

refined food, grand western banquet usually only prepared six dishes, and only two of the

dishes are considered dishes, the rest is just a foil (Chang).” The two countries have different

types of catering. China is country with a large agricultural culture, which means a vast and

fertile land could produce a large grain output and it could bring varieties kind of food.

Chinese traditional food mainly produced whole grains, supplemented by vegetables and

meat. Thus, Chinese food is a full of vegetables and meat. In addition, under the deep

influence on Buddhism, Chinese prefer an ideology that stop killing and releasing animals,

in addition to that, Taoism has a clear preference on prohibition of meat and fish. A great

number of Chinese are actually vegetarianism since a lot of Chinese believe Buddhism and

Taoism, and they cannot eat any fish and meat under the religion influence (Chang).

With the development of economic of Chinese social condition, Chinese living standards

have a great progress on improving. More and more Chinese start to pay much more

nutrition concept. A nutrition concept meal, such as diary food and egg become more and

more frequently of Chinese meal. While, when it comes to the Western food culture, “the

climate and terrain conditions in the United States are not suitable for a large scale of

farming and adhering to the cultural traditions of nomads and seafarers, American food is

mainly based on animal meat supplemented by plants (Mendelson). Americans have a

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preference for eating large pieces of meat and whole chicken or other kinds of meat.

However, both the United States food and Chinese food start to pay attention to health

factors. According to Hodgson, red meat fat is considered as a risk factor for heart disease.

Therefore, more and more Chinese and American start to eat less red meat and eat more

vegetables instead. One of the similar element between two countries food culture in modern

society is health issue.

To sum up, the farming civilization formed the Chinese food culture since China has

a great amount of territory and a world well-known number of populations. With the

foundation of Chinese vast territory, Chinese has a various of food and have a different food

region base. Chinese always use wheat and rice as their staple food, while the Unites states

eat less wheat and rice than Chinese. Chinese food culture is closely linked to the

Confucianism and Taoism, which also including the Buddhist influence. The United States

also pay attention to the combination of food and religion, and American express their

reverence for god with food for his blessing. The difference could result from the difference

between the Chinese and the United States philosophical systems. The Confucianism and

Taoism, two traditional Chinese philosophy pass generations and generations, which last for

thousands of years, represented a majority of Chinese thinking mode, and influenced

Chinese culture, which of course including food culture. While, American is deeply

influenced by western religion and they believe in god, as a result, the United States

philosophy system emphasize on the rationalism, and they believe the food is a blessing

from God.
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Work Cited

Qin, Jie. “Food and Binary Oppositions in the Chinese Meal System.” Society, vol.

51, no. 1, Feb. 2014, pp. 35–39. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=93464388&site=eds-live.

Hodgson, Moira. Chinese Cooking with American Meals. Doubleday, 1970. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02507a&AN=ohiolink.b13066624&s

ite=eds-live.

Meals for Older Americans: Report Together with Additional Views (to Accompany H.R.

2807) (Including Cost Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office). U.S. G.P.O., 1983.

EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02507a&AN=ohiolink.b12273980&s

ite=eds-live.

Mendelson, Anne. Chow Chop Suey: Food and the Chinese American Journey. Columbia

University Press, 2016. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02016a&AN=day.b4194162&site=ed

s-live.

Chang Kwang-chih, and E. N. Anderson. Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and

Historical Perspectives. Yale University Press, 1977. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02016a&AN=day.b1644711&site=ed

s-live.