英语论文(中美文化差异)

The different food culture in China and America

As an old saying goes, “there are three important things when you in the outside, which are eating, wearing and living.” Just as we can see, “eating” is in the first place, eating is really important in ever yday life in China. And diet is also a kind of culture. And when we meet others by chance, we often talk about diet. And the most remarkable difference is the food culture when we compared with two countries’ differences. Just as XuXiong pointing out that, the reasons which caused the different food culture in China and America are the different culture, customs, history, atmosphere, nutrition values and economic condition and so on. And the people now think superficially that the largest difference is that most of Chinese people eat something using chopsticks, while in America they use knife and fork. In fact, there are many deep different levels which are usually neglected, for example, the diet attitudes, the diet manners, the diet environment and any other things. Now I will make some explanations about the different food culture in China and America.

1、Different Diet Attitudes

In China, we will eat something with sensibility. When we choose what to eat, we will care more about the color, the smell, the taste, the shape and the device. Because our nations in the past many years, the productive level is very low, and many people are always hungry, they can’t eat enough food. So if a kind of culture treats eating as the most important thing, there will appear two situations. On one hand, this function of eating will be played to maximize, not only for surviving, but also for using it to maintain health, which is the cultural basis of “if you want to keep health, you’d better choose to enjoy some delicious foo d rather than take medicines”. On the other hand, if paying too much attention on food, it will make people often pursuit the delicious food.

While Americans maybe more rationality. When they eat something, the things they care most are the nutritious value, such as the protein, the

fat, the vitamin, the minerals and the carbohydrate. And this attitude on food is connected with the whole western philosophy. Metaphysics is the main feature of western philosophy. The object of study of western philosophy is the reasons of things. And this kind of philosophy has brought vitality to western culture, which leads to the rapid development on sciences, psychology and methodology. But in other aspects, this philosophy advocates play a hinder role, such as food culture. In the banquet, they also pay attention to tableware, to materials and to service, but no matter how luxury, from Los Angeles to New York, the steak is only one taste, which has no arts to speak of. As a dish, chicken is chicken, steak is steak, even with other matches , there will be happened in the plate, for example a “French lamp chops” ,the potatoes will be on the left side next to the lamp chops, while the right side will place boiled green beans and a few slices of tomatoes. It will form strong contrast on the color, while the tastes about all kinds of materials are unrelated to each other.

2、Different Food Objects

In America, they think the foods are used just to eat, so they often eat a large piece of meat, the whole chicken and other “hard food”. However in China, we eat something is mainly enjoying the taste of it. So the Chinese cooking also show great randomness on the selected materials. And many things which are abandoned by the westerners will be treated as excellent materials in China. The things which foreign chefs cannot handle can achieve something magic when they are in Chinese chefs’ hands.

According to a survey of western botanists, Chinese food has more than 600 kinds of vegetables, which is six times more than it in the west. In fact, in Chinese dishes, the vegetables is a kind of common food, and meat dishes only on holidays and festivals or with higher living standard will appear in the normal diet, so from ancient times ,there is an old saying “fresh vegetables”, which means ea ting vegetables , having a main effect on normal diet. Chinese people use plants as main courses, which has closest contact with Buddhists. They treat animals as “beings”, while

treating plants as “no souls”. Therefore, they advocate vegetarianism.

However, when the Americans introduce the characteristics of their own country’s food, they think they care more about the nutrition than the Chinese. And in America, it has many developed food industries, such as canned food, fast food, etc. Although these kinds of food have the same taste, they can save time and include good nutrition. Therefore, the people’s body in their country is stronger than the Chinese people. They are tall with long legs, broad shoulders and well-developed muscles. According to the different food objects between China and America, somebody called the Chinese plant character, while the Americans animal character.

3、Different Ways of Eating

There is a large difference in the ways of eating, which has an impact on the national character. In China, a banquet, no matter what purpose, there will be only one form, which is everyone sitting in a circle, sharing one table. And this kind of banquet should use round table, which can create a atmosphere of unite, courtesy and fun. The delicious food put on the table’s center, it is not only the object of taste, but also is a kind of medium to exchange feelings. People toast to each other and take food to others, which reflect the mutual respect between people and the virtue of courtesy. Although from the healthy point of view, this way of diet has obvious shortcomings, it is consistent with our nation’s mentality of reunion, reflecting the classical Chinese philosophy of “harmony”, which is more convenient to exchange each other’s emotions. Thus it is v ery difficult to reform.

While in the western-style banquets, although the food and wine are very important, they still treated as foils. Friendship is the core of the banquet. And they reach this purpose through communicating with the guests who are next to.

If compared the friendship of a banquet with dance, it can be said that, Chinese banquet is like a dance together, while western-style banquet like

a dance of men and women. From it, we can see that the purpose of banquet’s friendship is very obvious in both Chinese and American banquets. The difference is that, Chinese banquet reflects the all seats of friendship, while western-style dinner reflects the friendship between the neighboring guests.

The most obvious difference about the ways of eating is buffet. This method is that all the food is listed on the table. Everyone can take what they need, not fixed to the seat, and move freely to get what they want to. This way provides a convenient channel to exchange emotions between individuals. And they do n’t have to make all the words they said known by all people. It also shows the westerners’ pursue of personality and self-respect. However, to some extent, eating by oneself and no disturb to others, will seem lack a kind of sentiment about celebrating together and being happy together.

In a word, the different food culture between China and America is about the attitudes, which in china is emotional and in America is rational. However, this difference seems to being changed with the development of science and becoming fuzzy. More and more Chinese people don’t only focus on the food’s color, smell and taste any longer. They also make more emphasis on food’s health and nutrition, especially after experiencing SARS. What’s more, as to the busier work, they th ink cook Chinese food is too bothered. It is rather convenient to have a hamburger instead. Therefore, the difference on the diet is not clear now.