In terms of dining atmosphere, China people like to be lively when eating. Many people get together to eat, drink and laugh, and jointly create a lively and warm dining atmosphere. People in China don't have any special manners at the dinner table, except at a very formal banquet. Westerners, on the other hand, like an elegant and quiet environment when eating. They think that they must pay attention to their manners when eating at the table, and they must not lose their manners, for example, they must not make ugly noises when eating.
Chinese and western banquet etiquette also has its own characteristics. In China, from ancient times to the present, most people respect the Left. When entertaining guests, you should arrange the distinguished guests in the left seat, and then arrange them in turn. In the west, respect rights, men and women sit separately, and couples sit separately. The seats of female guests are slightly higher than those of male guests. Men should open chairs for the female guests sitting on their right to show their respect for women. In addition, westerners should sit up straight when eating. They think it's impolite to bend over and eat with their mouths together, but this is the usual way of eating in China. When eating western food, the host does not advocate binge drinking. China's table wine is a must, and it is used to entertain guests. Sometimes, in order to show respect for each other, they will drink one cup after another.
Etiquette is a kind of culture, which has vertical inheritance and horizontal reference and integration. With the acceleration of the globalization of the world and the high-speed collision and integration of economy and culture, a large number of western cultures have flooded into China, and the traditional etiquette of China has been constantly impacted by western etiquette culture. How to protect the traditional etiquette of the Chinese nation, get rid of its dross, and make a reasonable and effective integration with western etiquette has become a topic that people keep thinking and discussing. More and more people realize that Chinese and western etiquette culture will penetrate each other and develop continuously.
On the differences between Chinese and American food cultures.
Compared with China's "taste" diet, the West is a rational concept of diet. No matter the color, fragrance, taste, shape and nutrition of food, how many calories, vitamins, protein and so on should be taken in a day. Even if it tastes the same, you must eat it-it is nutritious. This concept of diet is compatible with the whole western philosophy system. Metaphysics is the main feature of western philosophy. The research object of western philosophy is the cause of things, and the cause of things is often metaphysical. The two are interrelated and form metaphysical philosophy. This philosophy has brought vitality to western culture and made it develop by leaps and bounds in natural science, psychology and methodology. But in other aspects, this philosophical proposition has great obstacles, such as food culture. At the banquet, you can pay attention to the collocation of tableware, materials, services and raw materials in shape and color. But no matter how luxurious and high-end, from L.A. to new york, steak has only one flavor, and there is no art at all. As a dish, chicken is chicken and steak is steak. Even if there is a match, it is done in the disk. A plate of "French lamb chops" with mashed potatoes, leaning against the lamb chops, and boiled green beans and some tomatoes on the other side. The colors are in sharp contrast, but the raw materials are irrelevant, the taste is harmonious, each has its own flavor and is simple and clear.
China people attach great importance to "eating". The proverb "Food is the sky for the people" shows that we regard eating as important as the sky. Because our nation has been in a state of low productivity for thousands of years, people are always hungry, so we have a unique food-oriented diet culture. I think this is probably due to the need of survival. If a culture takes eating as the first thing, then there will be two phenomena: on the one hand, it will exert its functions to the extreme, not only for survival, but also for health preservation, which is the cultural basis of "medicine tonic is not as good as food tonic"; On the other hand, excessive attention to food will make people admire the pursuit of food.
In China's cooking, the pursuit of delicacy is almost to the extreme, so that China people make a living by opening restaurants overseas, which has become the foundation for us to settle down in the world! Unfortunately, when we regard the pursuit of delicacy as the first demand, we ignore the most fundamental nutritional value of food. Many of our traditional foods have to be fried in hot oil and cooked with low fire for a long time. As a result, the nutrients in the dishes are destroyed and many nutrients are lost during processing. So when it comes to nutrition, it actually touches the biggest weakness of China's food culture. There is a folk proverb: "Food is the first priority for the people, and taste is the first priority for food". It is this pursuit of food that makes us ignore the true meaning of eating.
When people in China taste dishes, they often say that this dish is delicious and that dish is not. However, if you want to further ask what is "delicious", why "delicious" and where "delicious" is, I am afraid it is not easy to make it clear. This shows that China people's pursuit of delicious food is an indescribable "artistic conception", which is still difficult to cover with what people usually call "color, fragrance, taste, shape and utensils".
The key to the unique charm of China's diet lies in its taste. The production of food lies in harmony, so that the original flavor of food, the cooked taste after heating, the taste of ingredients and auxiliary materials, and the harmonious taste of seasonings are intertwined and coordinated with each other, so that they complement each other, penetrate each other and blend with each other. You have me and I have you. The harmonious beauty of China's cooking is the essence of China's cooking art, and the variety of dishes is an external thing, while the taste is an internal thing. It is the most important embodiment of China's aesthetic diet view that he pays attention to the interior without deliberately modifying the appearance, and pays attention to the taste of dishes without revealing the shape and color of dishes excessively.
In China, the pursuit of beauty in diet obviously overwhelms rationality, and this view of diet is also consistent with China's traditional philosophy. As a representative of oriental philosophy, China's philosophy is macroscopic, intuitive, fuzzy and unpredictable. The method of making Chinese food is to reconcile the tripod and finally reconcile a beautiful taste. This emphasizes the sense of proportion, that is, overall cooperation. It contains rich dialectics of China's philosophy. Everything is based on the beauty and harmony of food. The variety in the range determines the richness and diversity of Chinese food, determines the characteristics of Chinese food, and even determines the characteristics of every chef.
On the differences between Chinese and American food cultures.
There are great differences between Chinese and western food styles, and this difference also has an impact on national character. In China, any banquet, no matter for what purpose, will only have one form, that is, everyone will sit together and enjoy a seat. Banquets should use round tables to create a United, polite and interesting atmosphere in form. Food is placed in the center of a table, which is not only the object of appreciation and tasting, but also the medium of emotional communication. People toast each other, offer food to each other and exhort each other, which embodies the virtue of mutual respect and courtesy between people in the face of beautiful things. Although from the perspective of hygiene, this kind of diet has obvious shortcomings, but it conforms to the universal mentality of "happy reunion" of our nation, embodies the influence of the category of "harmony" in China's classical philosophy on later generations' thoughts, and is conducive to collective emotional exchange, so it is difficult to reform so far.
Although food and wine are very important at western-style banquets, they are actually used as foil. The core of the banquet is friendship, which is realized by talking to the guests next door. If the sociality of banquets is compared to dancing, it can be said that Chinese banquets are like group dances, while western banquets are like ballroom dancing for men and women. It can be seen that the purpose of friendship between Chinese banquet and western banquet is obvious, but Chinese banquet is more about the friendship of the whole banquet, while western banquet is more about the friendship between neighboring guests. The more obvious difference from China's diet is the buffet which is popular in the west. This method is: all the food is displayed one by one, and everyone needs what they want, so they can move freely without being fixed in their seats. This way facilitates the emotional communication between individuals, without putting all the words on the table, and also reflects the respect of westerners for individuality and self. But each eats his own food, does not interfere with each other, and lacks some China people's mood of chatting and having fun.
Differences between Chinese and American food cultures. eating habits
Differences in Eating Habits From the cooking process, China people like to add seasonings such as vinegar, ginger, garlic, onion and pepper, which can sterilize, reduce fat, stimulate appetite and help digestion. Although westerners are monotonous in seasoning, they also have many advantages. They don't like to put monosodium glutamate when cooking, because monosodium glutamate contains sodium, and excessive intake is harmful to health. Many people in China are used to buying fresh food to cook every day; Westerners often buy food for a week at a time and store it in the refrigerator. They eat frozen food every day, and eat 8 times and 6 times as much canned food and pickled products as people in China. You should know that they contain more preservatives, pigments and other chemicals, which are harmful to the body and deserve the attention of urban white-collar workers whose lives are getting simpler and simpler. People in China often use fire for cooking, so there are more lampblack, and they pay more attention to the ventilation equipment in the kitchen. Westerners, on the other hand, don't like to use big fires and pay attention to the ventilation conditions in the kitchen. Therefore, the incidence of lung cancer among chefs and housewives in China is significantly higher than that in the west.
From the perspective of dietary structure, China people eat much more vegetables than westerners, while westerners consume a lot of protein every day, but they eat too little fiber, which affects gastrointestinal function, so the prevalence rate and cancer rate of digestive system are much higher than that of China. China people like coarse grains, while westerners prefer flour and rice, such as refined white powder. In fact, coarse grains contain more nutrients than flour and rice; People in China love vegetable oil, while westerners like to use animal oil with high cholesterol when cooking, and they also consume a lot of butter every day. No wonder the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Americans is particularly high: China urban and rural residents like to eat soy milk, tofu, bean sprouts and other soy products, while westerners often "stay at a respectful distance"; People in China, especially in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta, love to eat pig liver, pig intestines, pig lungs and other internal organs, while westerners do not have this hobby. Animal viscera contains a lot of cholesterol and should not be eaten more; Steamed food has less damage to nutrients. Westerners like steamed food (less nutritional damage), while China people like hot frying (more nutritional damage); Westerners have realized that beef, horse meat and mutton called "red meat" are one of the causes of colon cancer and prostate cancer, and the fat in red meat is also one of the pathogenic factors of prostate cancer and heart disease. They have noticed that eating red meat once a week. Many domestic newspapers and periodicals have reported the problem of red meat many times, but at present, domestic people have not paid enough attention to it.