University of West Los Angeles Chinese and American Notions of Food Questions answer following questions use the sources that I upload only no other source

University of West Los Angeles Chinese and American Notions of Food Questions answer following questions use the sources that I upload only no other source!!! with min 350 words

1. The Chinese have traditionally looked upon food as something far more than just sustenance. They have regarded it as a cultural experience that is essential for their wellbeing. Is this the same in America? Explain.

2. Confucius said “Diet and love-making, all primal needs of every human being.” Some scholars have gone to the extreme to describe Chinese culture as “food culture.” In the class, we discussed the rules of Chinese cooking such as variety of ingredients to form balance of “color, aroma and taste.” In your view, would such an obsession affect personal daily routine or even national characters?

3. What did you take away from the documentary “A Bite of China” shown here?

4. In the last decade, American fast food chains made their presence in China. The impersonal standardized (predictable) food and service became part of Chinese diet experiences so does obesity among the young. Should the Chinese resist the invasion? Your comments.

5. Do you believe one can truly understand the Chinese mindset without being fluent in Chinese language? Chinese Food and Food
Culture
The origin of Chinese food
• China is one originating source of
agriculture. As early as 8000 BC,
broomcorn millet was domesticated. By
5000 BC, rice was cultivated.
• “The five grains are life support, the five
fruits as complimentary aids, the five
meats added benefits, and five
vegetables as substantial fill.”
Pork
•
•
•
Pork is the preferred meat in China and
accounts for 70-80% human intake of
animal calories. It possibly was
domesticated independently in
Southeast Asia or East Asia from local
wild pigs as early 700BC.
It produces twice the meat per acre of
pasturage as that produced by cattle and
sheep. It is an effective household
scavenger that survived table scraps,
chaff, and weeds.
Lard is main oil for cooking in old time
and mountain regions where not
possible to grow crops for vegetable oils.
Chicken
• Descended from wild fowl of Southeast Asia
and India, and first domesticated for
divination and cock fighting as birds, later for
their flesh and eggs.
• In ancient China, the cock as symbolic of the
rising sun, a “yang” element of strength and
masculinity.
• Today, poultry is second most popular meat
in China.
• Massive industrialization of production
introduces new health issues of bird flu.
Duck
• Domesticated in China and Southeast
Asia from the green-headed mallard.
• Reduce insects and weeds in rice
paddies (rice farmers often rent ducks
from duck raiser to go through fields
for insects control)
• Two major types: Beijing duck: white,
and heavy, suitable for roasting;
Nanking duck: various colors and
patterns for salting.
Beef
• Like in many other Asian cultures, slaughtering
and consuming of cows were banned because
the close human relationship with their working
animals. Only in more recent time under the
influence of the West, the Chinese started
consuming beef.
• Water buffalo domesticated in Central China
dating from the fifth and fourth Millennia BC.
• Cattle, sheep and goats are most common in
Chinese wheat region, cattle (Yellow Ox) are
working animals. In rice region, water buffalo
and oxen are of equal importance as working
animals. Water buffalo is paramount because of
its greater strength and ability to plow the heavy
soils of paddies.
Mutton and Lamb
• Sheep is primary animal of China’s pastoral
provinces of the north and west.
• Cultural factor: Chinese Muslims are
concentrated in the west and northwest;
Lamb is standard meat for ethnic Muslims.
• Historical factor: during Yuan dynasty,
when Mongols ruled China, lamb and
mutton became popular in Northern
China.
Rice is the Stable food in China
1. High in calories produced per acre;
superior to all other starchy roots and
tubers used in East Asia. It excels in its
ability to support dense human
population. Some species can harvest
two and three crops a year.
2. It can be stored well and digested
readily. It can be eaten for its own
flavor or serve as a medium for taking
on the tastes of spices and other foods;
unusual possibilities for culinary
creation.
3. However, it is a labor intensive crop.
Popularity of Soybeans in China
1. Yield more usable protein per acre than
other common cultivated plants; cheap
source of protein.
2. Soy protein is of good biological value:
B vitamins, calcium, phosphorus, and
iron; Rich in oil makes it an excellent
crop for China with a shortage of
pasture and arable land.
3. Its nitrogen-fixing abilities which have
led it to be included in various crop
rotations to the great long-term benefit
of soil fertility in China.
Diet and Love-making, all primal needs of every human being.
—-Confucius
He did not eat his fill of polished rice, nor did he eat
his fill of finely minced meat. He did not eat rice
that had gone sour or fish and meat that had
spoiled. He did not eat food that had gone off
color or food that had a bad smell. He did not eat
food that was not properly prepared nor did he
eat except at the proper times. He did not eat
food that had not been properly cut up, nor did he
eat unless the proper sauce was available. Even
when there was plenty of meat, he avoided eating
more meat than rice. Only in the case of wine did
he not set himself a rigid limit. He simply never
drank to the point of becoming confused.
Analects. Analects, Book 10, chapter 8
Everyone eats and drinks; yet only few
appreciate the taste of food.
Doctrine of the Mean, 4.2,
a Confucian book
Food in Confucianism
Confucius emphasized the artistic and social
aspects of cookery and eating
• Balance and harmony: mixing ingredients
of different natures.
• Enjoy food but no excessive: 70% full七分
饱 is the rule.
• Food should never be wasted.
• Eating is a group event.
Food in Daoism
• Yin and Yang principle can be found in
any Chinese dish.
• Foods have yin or yang properties—
cooling or warm, far or non-fat, highcalorie or low-calorie. However, no
food is purely yin or yang—it is more
that one characteristic trends to
dominate. Cooking methods also have
more of a yin or yang properties.
• Food and medicine share the same
root: healing and therapeutic effects.
Types of Foods
Yin
duck
pork
carrot
cabbage
Yang
chicken
beef
ginger
spinach
Cooking Methods
Yin
boiling
poaching
Yang
Deepfrying
roasting
steaming
Stir-frying
In Buddhism
• Buddhist principle of all living things
having Buddha nature. No killings of any
living things.
• Vegetarian dishes are very popular as
some temples are famous for hosting
vegetarian meals. Besides monastery
vegetarian food, there are court style
vegetarian food and folk style vegetarian
food.
Food and Globalization
• Fast food has become widely popular in the
27 years since the first KFC was introduced to
China in 1987. Chinese fast food industry is
the 5th largest in the world today.
• KFC: 4260 locations
• McDonald: 2000 (at the end of 2014)
• Pizza Hut: 940 (at the end of 2014)
• There are nearly 100 million obese people in
China today, more than five times the number
in 2005, when 18 million were obese.
Chinese Food and Food Culture
1. Food in China is tradition, folklore, mythology, ritual and religious observation as well as
nutrition. Perhaps nowhere else in the world is the daily table so entwined with a people’s
national fabric. The importance of food in Chinese history cannot be overstated. Food customs,
traditions, and practices, even the food Chinese eat and the way they are prepared, are rooted
deeply in the country’s culture. The common Chinese greeting is not “How are you?” or
“What’s up?” It is “Have you eaten?” Some scholars have gone further to call Chinese culture a
“food Culture.”
To understand the root of Chinese food culture, let us review the five elements of water, earth,
wood, metal and fire. Many of the most fundamental aspects of cooking have remained
unchanged over the centuries. Looking at the picture at the bottom left in the slide, which in
fact is the depiction of European ancestors, you realize that this simple scene has the elements
of earth, fire, water, wood and metal. In this primitive setting, the earth is the fundamental
platform on which all activities, including cooking, take place. It is also the source of everything
that is grown and cooked. Water is essential, it will be drunk as well as for preparing and
heating food and later will be used for cleaning and for putting out the fire. The fire is fed with
wood in the open air and for the principal use of cooking. By the time of the Iron Age, people
were experimenting with metal and bone hooks to catch fish, using sharpened blades to cut
vegetation and meat, and fashioning metal pots for cooking and storage.
10~11. Let us read this Confucius teaching about food. What kind of message can we derive
from his advice? Confucius taught about humaneness, filial piety, and the need to return to a
peaceful, hierarchical state and society. Confucius advocates to eat and drink with moderation
and care. He teaches that a varied diet of well-prepared vegetables, meat, and rice
accompanied by wine are preferred and worth working for by moral means, but should be
enjoyed in moderation and eschewed if they cannot be acquired morally. The central idea is
balance and harmony. You consume food in a balanced way and it restores internal harmony in
the people who eat them.
Although food play a role in religious rituals, but purification and fasting are never taken to
extremes. During sacrifice, the living are feeding and communicating with those in the
supernatural realm, and after the spirits have had time to eat and drink, humans do not waste
the food, but divide it up and consume it.
12. The common expression of “you are what you eat” conveys a truth that has been part of
Chinese culture for centuries. You can also change what you are and how you feel by what you
eat. We do this every day without particularly thinking about it. If it is cold outside, we love a
bowl of hot soup. One of the earliest known references to the concept of food as medicine
dates back to the oldest and most influential book in the history of world medicine. The
woodcut in the slide is a page from Classic of Internal Medicine, which is thought to be written
about 4,000 years ago. It is written in the form of a dialogue between the Yellow Emperor and
the imperial physician. In one paragraph, the physician explains to the emperor how the excess
of salt in the food could affect pulse. If the food is too bitter, the skin ages and the body hair is
lost.
In addition to think of food having healing and therapeutic effects, the Chinese has a whole
school of diet therapy (食物疗法). It combines foodstuffs with herb medicine and often turns
bitter medicine into delicious dishes. Such diet therapy can both appease (缓和) hunger and
prevent or cure diseases. It is believed that diet therapy can help promote health if taken over a
long period. To name some most popular medicinal foods in the Chinese diet the list would
include lotus seed porridge, eight-treasure rice budding, three-delicacy soup.
13. Vegetarianism is not uncommon or unusual in China, though, as is the case in the West, is
still only practiced by a relatively small proportion of the population. Most Chinese vegetarians
are Buddhists. A vegetable dish in China does not mean it is pure vegetarian. A large number of
vegetable dishes may actually contain meat, as meat chunks or bits have been traditionally
used to flavor dishes. However, Chinese Buddhist cuisine is pure vegetarian.

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