The Joy of Eating and Its Social Ramifications

2008-04-21 03:23:28LURUCAI
CHINA TODAY 2008年2期

LU RUCAI

When Chinese people meet, rather than remark on the weather they generally ask, “Have you eaten?” It is a question less frequently asked of neighbors and colleagues than the more global, “How are you?” Yet “Have you eaten?” is still the first greeting that the majority of Chinese people utter when they meet someone they know. Implicit in it is the Chinese appreciation of food and gratitude for its abundance.

TO most Chinese men, a bounteous banquet is as welcome a sight as a beautiful woman is to Western men,” well-known Chinese woman writer Fang Fang once said. In her opinion, Chinas high food culture has developed because the social mores of dining out are less intricate than those involving social interaction between men and women.Eating is hence by far the more enjoyable pursuit.

Menu Culture

Kong Fanying is a native of Shandong, birthplace of Confucius. Meatballs are a fixed item on the Kong familys Spring Festival dinner table, as they are in every household at lunar New Years Eve. Kongs mother admits that she doesnt really like meatballs, but always serves them on traditional holidays because their roundness signifies, linguistically, the concept of family reunion. For this reason, spherical eatables are enjoyed both in north and south China. People in the north make the “Four Happiness Meatballs,” while those in the south make tangyuan – stuffed dumplings made of glutinous rice flour served in soup.

Many foods, such as fish and noodles, are auspicious by virtue of their Chinese pronunciation. The Chinese word for fish, pronounced “yu,” ishomonymous with that for “surplus.” This is why fish is also a fixed item on the Lunar New Years Eve family dinner table, as are steaming bowls of noodles, symbolizing longevity. Although the Western-style cake-with-candles is commonplace at birthday celebrations, “longevity” noodles are the overall preference.

But in times of plenty, a harmonious atmosphere at a family reunion banquet takes precedence over the dishes served. This is exemplified by the TV drama Waiting for Happiness. The main character is Xu Zhongmian, a veteran doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. He and his wife have five offspring, each of whom has his or her own family. The couple hopes in vain that they will all come to them for a family reunion, but they are too busy. Xu Zhongmian gets his way by pretending to be sick, and demanding that his offspring come to stay near him in his old courtyard. When they arrive, he asks his daughters-in-law to take turns cooking family dinner. Although they accede in poor grace to his demands, these “reunion” dinners eventually restore harmony to the family.

This is a typical Chinese drama, insofar as its plot unfolds among kinfolks at the dinner table. In this context, “eating from the same pot” is synonymous with close relationships because, as the Chinese saying goes, “Eating from the same plate indicates intimacy.”

Among everyday Chinese people, eating has lofty connotations beyond that of mere enjoyment of taste, such as kinship, friendship and love. A young womans offering a young man a dish that she has personally cooked signifies her romantic interest in him. Belief in the Chinese equivalent of the saying, “The way to a mans heart is through his stomach,” is also manifest in young fiancées learning how to cook captivating dishes from their mothers. The logic applied is that a wife skilled in the culinary arts appears all the more charming to her husband, so their marriage is bound to last.

Dining culture is embedded in Kong Fanyings consciousness. Ever since she can remember, at meal times her father sat in the host seat with her mother next to him, while her youngest sibling sat near the door or aisle. Confucius made specific pronouncements upon food and dining two millennia ago. He advocated: “Eat no rice but that of the finest quality, and no meat but that which is finely minced.” He also stressed the importance of selecting the best food ingredients and cutting and slicing skills, as well as cooking methods. He also warned, “Never sit at a meal served on a crooked mat.”

Formal banquets have their own etiquette. Dishes are arranged on the dining table by restaurant staff, and diners are seated according to social status. The host seat generally doubles as that of the person paying the bill. The “co-host,” whose function is to ensure that guests at the dining table have everything they need, sits opposite the host.

Entertaining Guests

Kong Fanyings husband works for a foreign-funded securities company. He is often a guest at his foreign bosss family gatherings. When invited to a birthday party or Christmas celebration, he generally takes a bottle of red wine, a card or a small gift. This practice puzzles his father-in-law on several counts. In China it is usually a subordinate that invites his boss to dinner, seldom the reverse. Also, a subordinates gift to his boss must be obviously expensive in order to gain him face.

“Ostentation and extravagance” are undisputedly thehallmarks of Chinese entertaining. Within Chinese culture a banquet, whether attended by close friends or business associates, must be sumptuous. Kong Fanying remembers clearly that during years of want, her mother would borrow money to buy wine and the ingredients necessary to cook dinner for relatives visiting from afar. This is one reason why she, for one, finds the Western approach of presenting guests with a vegetable salad and a slice of ham difficult to comprehend. One example is that of Chinese President Hu Jintaos visit to Bill Gates residence in April 2006. Gates prepared three courses for his Chinese guests; the first comprised smoked guinea fowl salad with hazelnuts, spring radishes and Granny Smith apples, followed by a choice of three entrees: filet of beef with Walla Walla onions, asparagus, celeriac puree, and chervil glace; Alaskan halibut and spot prawns with spring vegetables, fingerling potatoes, and smoked-tomato-infused olive oil; and another vegetarian pasta dish. Dessert was a rhubarb brown butter and almond cake.

This dinner provoked deep discussion in the media. Chinese banquet-givers were surprised that Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world, should offer such modest fare. But it was merely a cultural idiosyncrasy.

In business circles, entertaining guests involves an even more complicated ritual. But as always, the main rule is: “A sumptuous banquet ensures success.” As the “relationship banquet” is an indispensable aspect of Chinese-style marketing the “business entertainment fee” is a standard budget item in Chinese-run companies. Inviting potential or existing clients to eat is considered essential to building good interpersonal relations. The more extravagant the banquet, the greater the obligation to cooperate, and the easier it is to conclude a contract. It is hence commonplace to spend RMB 10,000 (about US $1,500) on dinner for a handful of people. In this instance, “dining” is not regarded as mere “eating,” but as a yardstick by which to assess “taste.”

Debts of Gratitude

Banquets mark the main events in a persons life from the cradle to the grave.

When a new baby is born into a family, its members distribute red eggs among friends and relatives. A banquet is held to celebrate the babys first month of life. Another is held on the infants first birthday. When the child grows up and marries, his or her parents give a wedding banquet to celebrate the happy event.

The governing principle at wedding banquets is: Courtesy demands reciprocity. As wedding invitations sent out by neighbors, friends or relatives are marks of respect, invitees are expected to present the newlyweds with gifts appropriate to the occasion. Decades ago, they might include an embroidered quilt cover or an enamel basin. Nowadays, the usual, more practical gift is a red envelope containing cash.

Kong Fanyings wedding was in Beijing. She held a second wedding banquet in her Shandong hometown, in order to give her friends and relatives there the opportunity to repay their debts of gratitude to her family. Kong explains, “When their children marry, my family present them with gifts of higher monetary value than those we receive.”

Urban families spend an average RMB 1,000 per year on attending weddings, birthday parties, new baby celebrations and other banquets. Rural residents also spend several hundred yuan – a considerable slice of the average disposable income – annually on debts of gratitude.

When a leader holds a wedding or birthday celebration, his subordinates feel obliged to present hefty cash gifts in an effort to gain bigger work benefits. It is generally acknowledged that attending a banquet held by a leader is far more costly than that held by a friend or a relative.

Teachers and students at the Economic Management School of the Hebei University of Economics and Business conducted a survey among students at three local universities on this phenomenon. The results indicated disproportionately high spending on debts of gratitude among students. More than 90 percent of respondents confirmed that university students are expected to treat their fellows on birthdays. Sums ranging from RMB 50 to RMB 300 to as much as RMB 1,000 (about US $150) are spent on “gratitude.” A student who has been elected a cadre, or obtained a scholarship is also expected to treat their fellow students. They will otherwise be regarded as mean or uncultured.

These so-called “bubbling” interpersonal relationships have become the object of public censure. These days, people that have met at a banquet swap telephone numbers and MSN details. After leaving the dinner table, however, they seldom have any contact until the next gastronomic gathering.