Food Culture in China: From Social Political Perspectives

Abstract

Based on anthropological theory on food, this research gives a brief discussion on the development direction of food civilization, analyzes the facts that people's diet activities and eating behaviors, in the ancient Chinese society centering on the state political power, were controlled or influenced by the political ideology. It also probes the relationship between food culture and social-political traditions. Taking 'tables' and 'banquets' as the subjects, the paper introduces haute cuisine, everyday food and national dishes from the social stratification of diet. It proposes that the development of Chinese food has been influenced by the ritualized privilege system, noble traditions and application of ancient science and technology invention of cooking. It responds to Gernet's idea of poverty stress and Kwang-Chih Chang's idea of ethos. Through the power symbols of Chinese banquet culture, a banquet level analysis model is presented to pave a path for further empirical study.

Cooking Video Development and Everyday Cultural Politics in China

“…In some rural areas in China even today, the custom that women sit alone at a different table with men, or men eat first and women eat second still exists. Females were often excluded from public banquets in terms of participation in social diet activities (Tian, Tian, Dandan, & Wang, 2018) [2]. Given that Chinese traditional family party had various dishes, normally more than three that took time to cook, it was quite common for the female to continue to cook and stay in the kitchen during the party, even when the other family members were having the meal.…”

Localizing the Korean Variety Shows in China Review of the Differences Between Policy, Market and Culture

“…Compared to Korean food, Chinese food is also more from nature, and Chinese food culture is consistently inherited and developed since the primitive society [12]. The inheritance of Chinese food culture is not interrupted due to the change of dynasty and social system [12]. Confucius long ago said, the desire for food and sex is part of human nature [12].…”

“…The inheritance of Chinese food culture is not interrupted due to the change of dynasty and social system [12]. Confucius long ago said, the desire for food and sex is part of human nature [12]. For Chinese people, they always believe that hunger breeds discontentment.…”

“…Thus, the degree of attention about food for Chinese people is beyond what westerners can know, and Chinese people are good at developing recipes which include many incredible dishes as long as they have enough raw material. Thus, many westerners think that all food can be made and ate for Chinese people [12]. In China, people mainly depend on their living environment to make different dishes, which forms eight cuisines, including Sichuan Cuisine, Confucian Cuisine, Cantonese Cuisine, Jiangsu Cuisine, Zhejiang Cuisine, Fujian Cuisine, Hunan Cuisine and Hui Cuisine.…”

“…In China, people mainly depend on their living environment to make different dishes, which forms eight cuisines, including Sichuan Cuisine, Confucian Cuisine, Cantonese Cuisine, Jiangsu Cuisine, Zhejiang Cuisine, Fujian Cuisine, Hunan Cuisine and Hui Cuisine. Thus, Chinese people tend to focus on the flavour of dishes not a unified norm [12].…”