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In addition, the balance in diet structure is also essential to Westerners. Nowadays, more and more Westerners are starting to worry about their weight, for their diet contains too many calories. Most of them are trying to keep their weight down and so they are “calorie” conscious. This is evident in menus in restaurants offering “low calorie” or “weight watchers” meals. Perhaps as many as 70 million Americans are on weight-reducing diets, and weight control has become a multibillion-dollar business. American supermarkets sell a variety of diet foods such as diet soft drinks, diet candy and diet salad dressings.
In conclusion, it is under the influence of pragmatism that Westerners are inclined to take the intake of food into consideration basically from the nutritive perspective. In their eyes, food or eating is just a way to keep healthy, having little to do with artistry.
2 Cultural Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary Culture and National Personality
Different locations in the Earth result in various living conditions and natural resources. These differences lead to a nation’s perse spiritual civilization, which makes the customs totally different. In Doing Culture: Cross-Cultural Communication in Action, Linell displays a large quantity of detailed facts to make a comparative research on the micro-culture between China and Western countries. (1999:115) The book touches on the fields of human’s concepts, thinking pattern, customs and interpersonal communication. Take food culture as an example, there exist many distinctions between China and Western countries.
2.1 Differences in the Concepts and National Personality
First, the Chinese and western diet have 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. Compared 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.