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1. Introduction
Diet is absolutely necessary in the life of mankind, and even in the existence development. Dietary culture is an important part of the national cultures. It also plays an important and necessary role in non-verbal cultures of cross-cultural communication. China has profound cultural heritage of dietary culture and diet play a foremost role in people’s daily life so that dietary culture takes a large proportion in Chinese culture. Facing the dietary culture in other countries of the world, we should accept or reject them according to our own condition. We can’t only chase for enjoyment in taste, it is harmful to our health if we take in too much foreign food with high calories. However, it is obvious that we shouldn’t directly reject all the new objects. Although, American dietary culture is not as developed as that of China. Under the influence of globalization, the international connection has become closer and closer, and the interactions have become more and more often, so that the conflicts in the dietary culture always happen between Chinese and Americans. Granted, it takes a long time for two different cultures to merge and coexist and there must be an aspect that both sides can’t adapt to each other. If this condition happens, we should try our best to understand, respect and tolerate another culture in right way. Knowing the differences of dietary cultures between China and America is good for us to have more overall understanding of both eastern and American cultures. This also helps us aviod lots of unnecessary misunderstandings or conflicts, and help gain the opportunities to enhance our cross-cultural communications.
The Chinese and American diet have the differences that cannot be ignored in concept, pattern, nature, attribution and culture transmission. We study these differences in order to facilitate the communication about cultures and cross-cultures between China and the U.S. Dietary culture in America is not developed enough, but this underdevelopment itself is the result of the development of a culture regardless the short history. It is still of great significance to study the differences of dietary culture between China and America. By comparing the two countries’ dietary cultures, we can see the two countries’ different core values reflected from their food cultures, deepen our understanding of our country’s culture.
2. Literature Review
As the saying goes, “Food is eating well-deserved for human life”, so food is an indispensable condition for the survival and development of mankind. There are two desires in life: one is feasting them to survive, and the other is the lust of men and women, which can help the mankind carry on the family line. In face of this two desires, China focuses more on the former, while the America tends to the latter. The phenomenon like this influences the cultural trend. Taiwan Professor Zhang Qijun said, “The old saying, ‘Eat, drink, man, woman who wishes greatly’, for such a standard fair, the American culture can be said to be male and female culture, while the Chinese culture can be said to be a kind of food culture.” As the reason of the cultural traditions, Chinese people are dumping guidance on life in the restaurants, the American lives tend to men and women, just because of the narrow gender relations,. For the table ware of dietary culture, the TengGeLiLa Cafeteria looks like a big Mongolian yurt. (Sperber, D., and D. Wilson, 1986, 217) Besides, the table in these restaurants also looks excellent. The size of the table ware matches with the amount of food, the pattern matches with the shape of the food. (Chen Jie 2005, 25) The appearance of a dinner is very important in American food or diet, but Chinese people regard taste as the most important element in a dish. So it’s no wonder that Chinese people are very attracted by the taste of a dish. They try to reconcile the flavor of every ingredient to get an nice taste. (Jiang Yufeng 2006, 147) Diet is actually the main content of our daily lives, but why we call it culture? Because diet has important and special status in the Chinese culture, and it also has a great distinction between China and the United States. By the analysis of the differences between Chinese and American food cultures, we can comprehend the respective cultural traditions of China and the America. At the same time, we can also deepen and update our own understanding of the culture of China.源:自*751`%论,文'网·www.751com.cn/