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A meal in the courtyard
of an old house in Fujian province in Southern China
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As the Son of
Heaven, the emperor of China enjoyed a status so elevated above the common
mortals. . .
. . there are no dining
rooms in the Forbidden City; tables would be set up before the emperor
wherever he decided to eat. Every meal was a banquet of 100 dishes !
CHINA |
China
AN ANCIENT AND INVENTIVE
CUISINE, KNOWN AND LOVED THE WORLD OVER
"GASTRONOMY IS A PART OF EVERY DAY LIFE" IS A PHRASE THAT BEST
DESCRIPT THE CHINESE. FROM A COUNTRY WHOSE USUAL GREETING IS "chi fan le
mei you?" - HAVE YOU EATEN? - YOU CAN EXPECT NOTHING LESS THAN A
PASSIONATE DEVOTION TO FOOD.
SO LARGE IS CHINA, WITH THE GEOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC VARIATION SO DIVERSE,
THAT YOU CAN TRAVEL THROUGH THE COUNTRY AND NEVER HAVE THE SAME DISH
SERVED IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY TWICE!
BACKGROUND
For centuries China stood as a leading
civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences.
But in the 19th and early 20th centuries, China was beset by civil unrest,
major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War
II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established a dictatorship that, while
ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life
and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his
successor DENG Xiaoping gradually introduced market-oriented reforms and
decentralized economic decision making, and output quadrupled by 2000.
Political controls remain tight even while economic controls continue to
be relaxed
ECONOMY
In late 1978 the Chinese leadership began
moving the economy from a sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned economy
to a more market-oriented system. Whereas the system operates within a
political framework of strict Communist control, the economic influence of
non-state organizations and individual citizens has been steadily
increasing. The authorities have switched to a system of household and
village responsibility in agriculture in place of the old
collectivization, increased the authority of local officials and plant
managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprise
in services and light manufacturing, and opened the economy to increased
foreign trade and investment. The result has been a quadrupling of GDP
since 1978. In 2002, with its 1.28 billion people but a GDP of just $4,600
per capita, China stood as the second largest economy in the world after
the US (measured on a purchasing power parity basis). Agriculture and
industry have posted major gains, especially in coastal areas near Hong
Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreign investment has helped spur output
of both domestic and export goods. On the darker side, the leadership has
often experienced in its hybrid system the worst results of socialism
(bureaucracy and lassitude) and of capitalism (windfall gains and growing
income disparities). Beijing thus has periodically backtracked,
retightening central controls at intervals.
The government has struggled to (a) collect
revenues due from provinces, businesses, and individuals; (b) reduce
corruption and other economic crimes; and (c) keep afloat the large
state-owned enterprises many of which had been shielded from competition
by subsidies and had been losing the ability to pay full wages and
pensions. From 80 to 120 million surplus rural workers are adrift between
the villages and the cities, many subsisting through part-time low-paying
jobs. Popular resistance, changes in central policy, and loss of authority
by rural cadres have weakened China's population control program, which is
essential to maintaining long-term growth in living standards. Another
long-term threat to growth is the deterioration in the environment,
notably air pollution, soil erosion, and the steady fall of the water
table especially in the north. China continues to lose arable land because
of erosion and economic development. Beijing will intensify efforts to
stimulate growth through spending on infrastructure - such as water
control and power grids - and poverty relief and through rural tax reform
aimed at eliminating arbitrary local levies on farmers.
Access to the World Trade Organization
strengthens China's ability to maintain sturdy growth rates, and at the
same time puts additional pressure on the hybrid system of strong
political controls and growing market influences. Although Beijing has
claimed 7%-8% annual growth in recent years, many observers believe the
rate, while strong, is more like 5%.
THE
CHINESE KITCHEN & TABLE
Rice is essential to a
Chinese meal. One reason the Grand Canal was built in the sixth century
was to transport rice from the fertile Yangtze delta region to the
imperial granaries in the North. The specific proportion of grain and
cooked dishes on a menu depends on the economic status of the diners and
the status of the occasion. The grander the occasion, the more cooked
dishes and less grain. Even today the tradition is maintained at banquets,
where a symbolic bowl of plain steamed rice is served after an extensive
selection of dishes. Rice is served steamed, fried or made into noodles by
grinding the grain into flour. It is also commonly cooked with a lot of
water to produce congee, a popular breakfast food and a late night snack
eaten with savory side dishes. When cooking Chinese food, prepare all the
ingredients and have them ready before you start cooking as trying to
juggle a hot wok and and gutting a fish at the same time inevitably leads
to catastrophe.
Tea drinking is a common
sight and usually drunk before and after meals and rarely during one.
Apart from tea, drinking of clear-spirited drink during meal time is also
practiced. One such spirit is Maotai, made in the south-west
province of Guizhou.
Here are some tips on
Chinese eating etiquette. Do not point with your chopsticks and
don't stick them into your rice bowl and leave them standing up or
crossed. Do not use the chopstick to explore the content of a dish.
Instead locate particular thing you want and go for it with your
chopstick, avoid touching any other other pieces. If you wish to take a
drink in a formal dinner, you must first toast another diner, regardless
of whether he or she responds by drinking. If the reverse should happen,
you must al the very least touch your lips to the glass to acknowledge the
courtesy. It is the 'job' of the host to urge the guest to eat and drink
to their fill. This usually entails ordering more food than what is needed
and keeping an eye for the slower guest. It is polite to serve the guest
of honor the best morsel, such as the cheek of the fish using a pair of
'serving' chopstick or with the back-end of one's chopsticks!
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