FOOD CULTURE IN CHINA: FROM SOCIAL POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Based on anthropological theory on food, this research gives a brief discussion on the development direction of food civilization, analyzes the facts that people's diet activities and eating behaviors, in the ancient Chinese society centering on the state political power, were controlled or influenced by the political ideology. It also probes the relationship between food culture and social-political traditions. Taking 'tables' and 'banquets' as the subjects, the paper introduces haute cuisine, everyday food and national dishes from the social stratification of diet. It proposes that the development of Chinese food has been influenced by the ritualized privilege system, noble traditions and application of ancient science and technology invention of cooking. It responds to Gernet's idea of poverty stress and Kwang-Chih Chang's idea of ethos. Through the power symbols of Chinese banquet culture, a banquet level analysis model is presented to pave a path for further empirical study.