Chinese Food Culture: A Brief Introduction

In China, food culture touches virtually all aspects of social interaction, business and daily life.

In this article, I provide two examples that illustrate the importance of food culture in China. The first example describes the importance of round dining tables in China. The second example describes a particular form of salutation in Mandarin Chinese.

Why Chinese dining tables are round?

In China, dining tables are often of round shape. In restaurants, tables are indeed always round and they also have a round table top with wheels.

Thanks to the table being of round shape, each guest can easily reach all the dishes. Furthermore, guests can conveniently talk to each other and join other people's conversations.

In contrast to the custom in many Western countries where every guest is presented with a number of individual dishes, in Chinese traditional custom dishes on the table are shared by all the guests. Sharing the food on the table and chatting for hours is one of the oldest Chinese traditions.

However, if I remember correctly, in the past dining tables in China were not always round; they could also be square-shaped (but never rectangular). Back then, the square dinning table was called 'Ba Xian Zuo' (table of eight fairies). I remember that my grandmother used to have one; however, in special occasions when the whole family used to gather, my uncles would set up a big round table and everyone would sit around it. My most beloved grandmother would sit around to watch over her offsprings with a happy and proud smile. The round table was just very convenient.

Since living in England, I have been corrupted by Western culture and I often suggest my friends to go for a quick coffee, instead of going for a meal. In China, however, when I meet up with friends we just go for a meal and chat for hours in front of a table full of food. Even business can be made over the dining table (and not in a meeting room of an office building), so do not be surprised if you go to China on business and the critical negotiations happen while sitting at the dining table.

How to say "How do you do?' in Chinese

If you open a beginner's Mandarin book, you may encounter in the first few pages the sentence "ni hao ma?", which literally means "you well?", translated as "how do you do?".

Chinese people, however, rarely use such sentence (only foreigners do). A far more common way of capturing the meaning of "how do you do?" in Mandarin Chinese is the sentence "ni chi le ma?", which literally means "you eaten?", or in correct English, "have you eaten?".

No answer is required, no need to explain in detail what you had for lunch. It really is a made-up phrase to greet people, and you may hear Chinese people using it in the most uncommon and surprising of circumstances.

If something can be learnt from this and other references to food and eating in daily Chinese language is how important a role food plays in Chinese culture. Even in a single province (or within a single ethnic group), the list of different traditional dishes is almost endless, and most of them have their own distinguishing name!

Unfortunately, the very nice "ni chi le ma?" is being gradually replaced by other forms of expression, and younger people in China are using it less and less. This is a sign of change, for the better or for the worse. In particular, Western influence in China has dramatically increased within the last 15 years, and is affecting almost all aspects of daily life, including daily language and traditional Chinese customs.

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The Meaning of Chopsticks in Chinese Food Culture

I remember that, when I was little, there were lots of riddles for kids. My grandma used to ask me time to time one of them in particular: 'There are two equally tall brothers, they have good brotherhood, and are always together, but whenever they walk, it is like they are wrestling all the time. Guess what they are?' A pair of chopsticks! Even today, I still think this is the best description of chopsticks.

Chopsticks are definitely the symbol of Chinese food culture. On the dining table, almost everything is picked up and brought to mouth by using chopsticks (apart from soup). From picking up the rice from the bowl, every piece of food on the plate, to picking the small tiny bones from the fish or eating half meter long noodles, or even cutting off some piece into half; all can be done by chopsticks. So the traditional way of laying the table is always having a pair of chopsticks along with a spoon placed next to the rice bowl, no knives, and definitely no forks.

Chopsticks are normally made of wood, bamboo or silver, or even gold. The price can greatly vary because of the quality of the wood. Some chopsticks with good quality wood like achiote and very fine details can be very pricey.

Gold chopsticks were used by the 'emperors' or 'royals' to distinguish their unique position, but silver chopsticks were more common. It is said that using silver chopsticks was the best way to check if the food was poisoned, as there would be a mark shown on the silver chopsticks if there was poison in the food. Not surprisingly, all those emperors needed to take pre-cautions.

Furthermore, silver chopsticks are probably the most 'healthy' ones, as the wood ones can be rotten after washing many times, and become not hygienic.

Chinese chopsticks have normally a kind of rectangular shape, and are longer and thicker, comparing to Japanese ones, for example. This is because of the traditional metaphor of 'round sky and square ground', so the tip of the chopsticks is always in 'round' shape, while the other end is square. However, nowadays, the slim and all round shape chopsticks are also very popular.

At one time, 'chopstick culture' was very popular again. I mean, the design of the chopsticks. On the upper part of the chopsticks, there are some pictures or words, normally are from famous influential traditional Chinese paintings or poems. These are very interesting to look at. So people can get some 'cultural education' while eating.

As for how to use chopsticks, there is no secret. We normally start using chopsticks at very early age, then you would develop your own habit to hold them. Different people, however, would hold chopsticks differently.

One of the most common ways of doing it is to first hold the pair of chopsticks upright, make them stand at same level, (you can hold them against on the table surface if it helps); and use the ring finger to support, index finger to hold the other side, while middle finger helps to make the movement more mobile. It is really a matter of practice.

Saying that it is a cultural thing, it is not only because of its usage on the table, there are also many phrases or stories symbolized by chopsticks. For example, the story of 'united strength', I think most of us have heard of that one.

There was a dad who had three sons, who always fought against each other. One day, at the dad's dying bed, the dad asked the sons to hold a bunch of chopsticks in their hands, and said, 'now try to break one chopstick', the sons did easily, then the dad said, 'now try to break a bunch of chopsticks in your hands', the sons found it was very difficult to do so, almost impossible. The dad looked at the sons; they understood that only unity is strength. The following story is dad died peacefully, and the sons made a great future by working together.

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