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As one of the world ancient nations, China’s diet has a history almost as long as that of Chinese civilization. But in western countries, ancient thinkers devoted less attention to the food problem than the Chinese philosophers did, and they were even not aware of it to the "heaven" degree. On the contrary, they recognized and interpreted the world from 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 Plato's dialogue) 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 traditions, the Chinese and western dietary cultures have had different characteristics. The differences in concepts, features, manners, attribution and nature had reflected the different dietary cultures in different national personality; such personality has enriched the research value of dietary culture. Studying these cultural differences, we can find out a joint enhancing the communication between China and the west through a comprehensive study of the subject. It may be a great help to the communication of the Chinese and western cultures.
1.1 Characteristics of Chinese Dietary Culture
In China, the diet has risen to a special status beyond any other physical and spiritual materials, and this is reflected in people’s daily life in all its aspects. One of the most common practices is that Chinese people greet by saying “Have you had it?” 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. And rice is a critical part of much of Chinese cuisine. However, in many parts of China, particularly northern China, wheat based products including noodles and steamed bun predominate, in contrast to southern China where rice is dominant. Despite the importance of rice in Chinese cuisine, on extremely formal occasions, it is sometimes the case that no rice at all will be served; in such case, rice would only be provided when no other dishes remained, or as a token dish at the end of the meal. Soup is usually served at the start of a meal and at the end of a meal in Southern China.
Chinese food enjoys a high reputation in the world for its sheer abundance as well. As we all know, China is a nation with 56 ethnic groups, each of which has its unique food, food habits, etc. It is due to the persity of the climate, products and customs that there are widely different food styles and tastes in local regions. Each cuisine has its own local characteristics. Besides, Chinese medicinal cuisine is unique and has a long history. In China, people contend that food tonic is much better than medicine tonic in fortifying one’s health. Zhao Rongguang said in this book: “Based on the traditional Chinese herbal medicine practice, it combines strictly processed traditional Chinese medicine with traditional culinary material to produce delicious food with health restoring qualities. ” (2003:90) For the Chinese people, the pursuit of eating is just to pursue best happiness of life.
1.2 Characteristics of Western Dietary Culture
Western food culture is mainly concerned with the one in the English-speaking countries, especially in America and Britain due to the fact that their cultural patterns and influence have become dominant in the West, which is generally recognized by the international community. An interesting phenomenon in Western countries is the nutritional information on the food label, from which people’s concern about nutrition is clearly reflected. A look at the information, like the number of calories per serving, grams of fat, sodium, cholesterol, fiber and sugar content will make you more knowledgeable in selecting foods to reduce your nutritional health risk. As a matter of fact, in America, food habits are often identified as the most important way in which a person can maintain healthy.