II.Structural Analysis

Thistext can be divided into three parts:

Paragraphs 1-4: Thefirst part discusses the difference in Chinese and Western attitudes towardsfood.

Paragraphs5-6: The second part explains how Chinese food has become an international food.

Paragraphs 7-9: Thethird elaborates on the nature of Chinese food.

 

The topic sentence of Paragraphs 7-9:

Paragraph 7: Thetraditional high-quality Chinese meal is a serious matter, fastidiouslyprepared and fastidiously enjoyed.

Paragraph8: The enjoyment must match the preparation.

Paragraph9: The smooth harmonies and piquant contrasts in Chinese food are an expressionof basic assumptions about life itself.

 

Ⅲ. Rhetorical Features

In thisessay, alliterationis utilized here and there. Here are some examples: “Many people in the Westare gourmets and others are gluttons, …”; “… to making you a saintor a sinner?”; “… everywhere from Hong Kong to Honolulu to Hobokento Hudderfield.” The underlined parts show repetition of the first sound orletter of a succession of words, which helps to convey a sort of melodiousquality, thus making those words sound more pleasing and impressive.

Otherexamples of alliteration in the essay:

1. “… all these havebecome much more a part and parcel of the average person’s life …”(Paragraph 6)

2. “Meatand fish, solids and soups, sweet and sour sauces, …” (Paragraph 8)

 

 

 

SectionThree Detailed Reading

 

I. Text 1

Chinese Food

T. McArthur

 

1       “Few things in life are aspositive as food, or are taken as intimately and completely by the individual.One can listen to music, but the sound may enter in one ear and go out throughthe other; one may listen to a lecture or conversation, and day-dream aboutmany other things; one may attend to matters of business, and one’s heart orinterest may be altogether elsewhere…. In the matter of food and eating, however, one can hardly remaincompletely indifferent to what one is doing for long. How can one remainentirely indifferent to something which is going to enter one’s body and becomepart of oneself? How can one remain indifferent to something which willdetermine one’s physical strength and ultimately one’s spiritual and moralfibre and well-being?”

— KennethLo

 

2        This is an easy question for a Chineseto ask, but a Western might find it difficult to answer. Many people in theWest are gourmets and others are gluttons, but scattered among them also is alarge number of people who are apparently pretty indifferent to what goes intotheir stomachs, and so do not regard food as having any ultimate moral effecton them. How, they might ask, could eating a hamburger or drinking Coca Colacontribute anything to making you a saint or a sinner? For them, food is quitesimply a fuel.

 

3        Kenneth Lo, however, expresses a pointof view that is profoundly different and typically Chinese, deriving fromthousands of years of tradition. The Londonrestaurateur Fu Tong, for example, quotes no less an authority than Confucius(the ancient sage known in Chinese as K’ung-Fu-Tzu) with regard to the primalimportance of food. Food, said the sage, is the first happiness. Fu Tong adds:“Food to my countrymen is one of the ecstasiesof life, to be thought about in advance; to be smotheredwith loving care throughout its preparation; and to have time lavished on it in the final pleasure of eating.”

 

4        Lo observes that when Westerners go toa restaurant they ask for a good table, which means a good position from whichto see and be seen. They are usually there to be entertained socially -- andalso, incidentally, to eat. When the Chinese go to a restaurant, however, theyask for a small room with plain walls where they cannot be seen except by themembers of their own party, where jackets can come off and they can proceedwith the serious business which brought them there. The Chinese intentionsare both honourable and whole-hearted: to eat with a capital E.

 

5        Despite such a marked difference inattitudes towards what one consumes, there is no doubt that people in the Westhave come to regard the cuisine ofChinaas something special. Infact, one can assert with some justice thatChinese food is, nowadays, the only truly international food. It is ubiquitous. Restaurants bedeckedwith dragons and delicate landscape----serving such exoticaas Dim Sin Gai (sweet and sour chicken), Shao Shing soup, Chiao-Tzuand kuo-Tioh (northern style), and Ging Ai Kwar (steamedaubergines) —have sprung up everywhere from Hong Kong to Honolulu to Hoboken toHuddersfield.

 

6        How did this come about? Certainly, akind of Chinese food was exported to North America when many thousands ofChinese went there in the 19th century to work on such things as theU.S.railways. They settled on or near the west coast, where the famous — or infamous_—  “chop suey joints” grew up, with their ratherinferior brand of Chinese cooking.The standard of the restaurants improvedsteadily in theUnited States,but Lo considers that the crucial factor in spreading this kind of foodthroughout the Western world was population pressure in the British colony of Hong Kong, especially after 1950, which sent families outall over the world to seek their fortunes in the opening of restaurants. Headds, however, that this could not have happened if the world had not beeninterested in what the Hong Kong Chinese had to cook and sell. He detects anincrease in sensuality in the Western world;“Colour, texture, movement, food, drink, and rock music — all these have become much more part and parcel of the average person’s life than theyhave ever been. It is this increased sensuality and the desire for greatfreedom from age-bound habits in the West,combined with the inherent sensual concept of Chinese food, always quick tosatisfy the taste buds, that is at the root ofthe sudden and phenomenal spread of Chinese foodthroughout the length and breadth of the Western World.”

 

7        There is no doubt that the traditionalhigh-quality Chinese meal is a serious matter, fastidiously prepared and fastidiously enjoyed. Indeed, the bringing togetherand initial cutting up and organising of the materials is, according to HelenBurke, about 90% of the actual preparation, the cooking itself being only about10%. This 10% is not, however, a simple matter. There are many possibilities tochoose from; Kenneth Lo, for example, lists forty methods available for theheating of food, from chu or the art of boiling to such others as ts’ang,a kind of stir-frying and braising, t’a,deep frying in batter, and wei, burying food in hot solids such ascharcoal, heated stones, sand, salt and lime.

 

8        The preparation is detailed, and theenjoyment must therefore match it. Thus, a proper Chinese meal can last fourhours and proceed almost like a religious ceremony. It is a shared experiencefor the participants, not a lonely chore, withits procession of planned and carefully contriveddishes, some elements designed to blend, others to contrast. Meat and fish,solids and soups, sweet and sour sauces, crisp and smooth textures, fresh anddried vegetables — all these and more challenge the palate with their appropriate charms.

 

9        In a Chinese meal that has not beenaltered to conform to Western ideas of eating, everything is presented as akind of buffet, the guest eating a little of this, a little of that. Individualportions as such are not provided. A properly planned dinner will include atleast one fowl, one fish and one meat dish, and their presentation withappropriate vegetables is not just a matter to taste but also a question ofharmonious colours. The eye must be pleased as well as the palate; if not, thena certain essentially Chinese element is missing, an element that links thiscuisine with that most typical and yet elusiveconcept Tao. Emily Hahn, an American who has lived and worked inChina, has agreat appreciation both of Chinese cooking and the “way” that leads to moralityand harmony. She insists that “there is moral excellence in good cooking”, andadds that to the Chinese, traditionally, all life, all action, all knowledgeare one. They may be chopped up and given parts with labels, such as “Cooking”,“Health”, “Character” and the like, but none is in reality separate from theother. The smooth harmonies and piquantcontrasts in Chinese food are more than just the products of recipes andpersonal enterprise. They are an expression ofbasic assumptions about life itself.

 

II. Questions

1. How important isfood and eating, according to Kenneth Lo? (Paragraph 1)

1.       How do the Chinese and westernersdiffer in their attitudes towards food? (Paragraphs 2, 3 and 4)

2.       Why does the author say thatChinese food is the only truly international food? (Paragraph 5)

3.       Why does the author compare aproper Chinese meal to a religious ceremony? (Paragraphs 7 and 8)

4.       How does Chinese food express thebasic assumptions of life? (Paragraph 9)

 

Class Activity

Introduce one of the localdelicacies from your home town by describing its preparation and cookingmethod, as well as the intriguing cultural story behind the dish.