2. Literature Review

In China, as early as in the 1930s’, Lin Yutang, a famous Chinese writer, published two books My Country and My People (1935) and The Importance of Living (1937) in English. These two books are useful for foreigners to have a reasonable understanding on Chinese dietetic culture. Another scholar, Sun Xiao, from Xinjiang Normal University, published Discussion on the Differences between Chinese and Western Dietetic Culture from Ang Lee’s “the Family Trilogy” in 2012. Zhang Yahong published Differences between Chinese and Western Dietetic Cultures and the Comparison of Dining Etiquette in 2009. What’s more, in 2013, Bai Mimi published On Differences between Chinese and Western Dietetic Cultures from Ang Lee’s Work Eat Drink Man Woman. Jiang Yan published The Research and the Influence of the Research about the Differences between China and Western Countries in Food Culture in 2007. All these researchers are helpful for us to learn the differences between Chinese and Western dietetic cultures. 

Many foreign scholars also make some discussions on dietetic culture. Food and Culture in America is a book written by Pamela and Kathryn in 1998. This book talks about the food and food habits of Americans as well as immigrants from all over the world. The book talks about different kinds of food, various dietetic habits, and the role of diet that plays in different societies from the perspectives of culture, nutrition and health, which may arouse readers’ great interests.

In China and Western countries, the study on dietetic culture had involved many aspects, such as the concept of diet, ingredients of cooking, dietetic habits, as well as cooking methods. However, the study of Chinese and Western dietetic cultures is not thoroughly discovered and analyzed. Thus, this paper will further illustrate the differences on the basis of two distinctive films, Eat Drink Man Woman and Julie and Julia. In addition, the causes of the differences will be analyzed. By comparing the details about diets in the two movies, people will have a more concrete and intuitive understa

3. Brief Introduction of the Two Films

Ang Lee’s work Eat Drink Man Woman tells the story of Mr. Zhu and his three daughters. Mr. Zhu was a famous chef in Taiwan who was skillful at Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Yangzhou cuisine and Zhejiang cuisine. At the beginning of the film, Mr. Zhu was busy preparing many delicious dishes for the Sunday dinner, which showed us the Chinese ways of cooking felicitously. Mr. Zhu once gave a hand to a wedding banquet in the Grand Hotel, which could help audience have a better understanding of the dietetic culture in wedding banquets. What’s more, at the end of the film, the family dinner with sons-in-law could be viewed as the embodiment of dietetic culture in the family. 

Unlike the film Eat Drink Man Woman, Julie and Julia tells a story of two American women, Julie Powell and Julia Child. Julie was a common employee working in the government. She took most interests in studying recipes. When reading the cookbook written by Julia Child, she was greatly attracted by the dishes introduced in the book. Julie began to learn to cook these dishes one by one, and wrote the details of the cooking process in the blog, which caused a lot of repercussions on the Internet. After watching the film, people will know relevant dietetic culture gradually. Besides, the stories about Julia will help people understand the culture of banquets in Western countries. 

Both of the two films are typical examples which show people their native dietetic cultures. After watching the two films, not only will the audience be attracted by the stories, but also they will have deep impressions on the two distinctive dietetic cultures. 

4. Similarities between Chinese and Western Diets

Through the comparison, it is easy to find that Chinese diet has something in common with Western diet in terms of table etiquette.