Revise three essays

First Draft of Essay#3

5th July 2017

How Is Food the Bridge Between Cultures

When I was at the age of six, my grandfather cooked me a Nagoya shrimp tempura. That is the first time I have ever tried an exotic cuisine. When we had the tempura together, he always taught me some Japanese idioms and greetings. As today, although I can only remember few of the Japanese words my grandfather has taught me, I still make the same tempura for my friends and my family. Food is not only something that keeps you alive, however, it is more of a culture symbol that stands for sweet memories and interesting stories. “You are what you eat.” The way you eat can explain what type of person you are, and explain your cultural background, even religion. Moreover, it is also an alluring path for us to learn another culture and understand its people. Not only because we can be intrigued by the delicious food to the culture, but it also represents the folk custom and life style. Food is also a way for individuals to communicate with others who are from different culture backgrounds, so it can help with changing cultural stereotype and prejudice. Because of food itself and its connection to different cultures, some food intrinsically traps people with its smell and taste, even attract people to another lifestyle.

Let’s take coffee as an example, a bitter product that is wholly dark brown and harvest overseas for the consumption in the U.S. and Europe is now introduced to modern China. Maybe you don't consider espresso as one of the delicious food, but the coffee-bar franchising is having a big success in China. With the similar concept of neocolonialism, it could be too aggressive or dominant to take over another culture. (pp. 67, Moore, qtd in Rubin) The espresso unavoidably attracts Chinese consumers under the strong advertisement and television commercials. The coffee is taking over the market place, for younger generations. Some may complain about its bitter taste of black coffee. I used to drink tea a lot. And now I have coffee, I started to get stomachache and insomnia. The caffeine makes people feel restlessness and cause insomnia if you have over 400 milligrams a day. Here concerns the black coffee, not the cream and sugar based beverage that consumed by lots of people. It is bad for worker’s health condition, even mental condition when insomnia.

Although the product is bitter and unflavored with a baked smell. Throughout this decade, it became really popular between younger generations. Because of that, it even became a part of their lifestyle. In other words, young workers and students in modern China are westernized. They started to have coffee for their breakfast, afternoon tea, and take it as an energy drink for late night works. It makes people feel energetic in a short time period, which helps improving the efficiency when you are at work. [bridge]

On the other hand, tea is very popular in western countries since the eighteenth centuries. It changes the lifestyle and fashion in western countries. The British and French colonies brought Chinese tea to other European countries like Spanish and Damien, the American continent, and other colonies in the Oceania. Tea became a well-known beverage worldwide in the early nineteenth century, even before the first generation of Chinese immigrants came to America. My family drink Longjing tea every day, so their digest system is used to the tea polyphenols, which helps killing bacteria effect, anti-oxidation, and eliminating harmful free radicals. Tea used to be a part of Chinese culture. But it becomes parts of different cultures and playing an important role in the world.

The food has been a tool for people to communicate under different culture backgrounds. Because of a rise in food-focused consumption in last a few decades, there has been discourses about food from CCTV coverage of hunger issues in China, to CNN news stories of organic vegetables at the local groceries. Food is no longer viewed merely as the mean that make you survive. Food works as a circle of communication, and practices of communication can be understood by considering food in this way. (Cramer, Greene and Walters) I agree with that food helps us communicate with others about the critical problems that we are facing today. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recently held a critical meeting in Beijing to consider the food safety and product quality internationally. Leaders of the professional field from many countries gathered together, despite of different races, communicated patiently and exchanged ideas for stricter and more accurate terms about food safety. Due to the development of technology and manufacture industry, the food contamination and safety problems is serious. When countries help each other, the power is stronger than everything.

Not only it has the power to bring everyone together, food has the kind of magic that can make you feel better, at the same time, change your preconceived ideas instantly. It is true that food can be an effective way for people to forget about negative things. Barbas has mentioned:

[Chop suey] proved an instant success. In 1896, according to one magazine writer, chop suey drew customer to Chinatown in droves. Under the ‘magnetic influence’ of the dish, thousands of white Americans paraded like zombies to Chinese restaurants. ‘An American who once falls under the spell of Chop Suey may forget all about things Chinese for a while, ….’ (Bonner 97).” (pp. 674, Barbas)

Maybe Barbas exaggerated the truth. But it does shows the critical points that the charisma of nice food can make influence by its presence once it is accepted by a new community. In the early nineteenth century, the image of Chinese food in America was dirty, because the people who made the food were defined not clean. However, Liu explains how the first generation of Chinese immigrants redesigned their traditional dish to suit local palates by changing the ingredients and styles (Liu). When the times went by, the American Chinese cuisine which embedded in the old story of Chinese Americans has become a trend. It helps with the race prejudice that American used to have about Chinese.

The festivals in Chinatown are perfect choices for Americans and others to learn about Chinese culture. It has become a fashion place for people to gather and have fun. The traditional Chinese spring festival and Lantern festival are adored by locals. If you go to one of them, you may find people with different colors speaking different languages in the crowd. The community provides a lot of experience while creating more convenient service and more comfortable environment for people from other communities. (Quotes)

It is obvious that the impression of Chinese has changed after centuries. The atmosphere in Chinatown is exactly the same as in China, so we can introduce our American friends to the Chinese culture. Ethnic groceries, traditional restaurants, bubble tea houses, and dessert places, these are the name cards of Chinese life style. The food and entertain writer Jean Trinh used an ethnic restaurant manager’s words in her article:

“For us, we’re an establishment that is not affected by those kinds of things really because we get people that are on welfare or low income or we get billionaires in here. And we get all nationalities, we get a lot of tourism here. We’ve been here since the late ‘70s, so for us it doesn’t affect us, but if they start to bring about a rise in rent, maybe other establishments might be affected that aren’t as set [as us], I guess.” (Hiem Pham, qtd in Trinh)

Tourists come to the Chinatown to have the exotic experience. The new atmosphere and comfortable environment really drags people to Chinatown. African American couples are having bubble tea together, holding hands and walking down the Race Street in Chinatown in Philadelphia. Caucasian family are having chop suey and lo mien in restaurant, while the mother is feeding the little sister and the father is taking care of the brother. Different people with different identity come to Chinese restaurant for different reasons. But one thing is same, because of the Chinese food is amazing. No matter what time we are in, we love the food anyway.

Food brings us together, to enjoy our lives with new means despite what our identities is. It also brings conversation between us to communicate with others, to learn and understand another culture, to understand another country. In this way, we can make the world a better place.

Works Cited

Barbas, Samantha. "“I'll Take Chop Suey”: Restaurants as Agents of Culinary and

Cultural Change." Journal of Popular Culture 36.4 (2003): 669-86. Web.

Cramer, Janet M., Carlnita P. Greene, and Lynn Walters. Food as Communication:

Communication as Food. New York: Peter Lang, 2011. Print.

Liu, Haiming. From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese Food

in the United States. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 2015. Print. Asian

American Studies Today.

Rubin, Lawrence C. Food for Thought: Essays on Eating and Culture. Jefferson, N.C.:

McFarland, 2008. Print.

Trinh, Jean. “The Past, Present, and Future of Chinatown’s Changing Culinary Landscape”

KCET: Food & Living. 28th February 2017. Web.

Carroll, Aron E. “More Consensus on Coffee’s Effect on Health Than You Might Think” The

New York Times. 11th May 2015. Web.