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Cook your way to the Chinese mind

By Berlin Fang (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-21 08:10

We do not learn cooking by reading cookery books. We learn by watching moms, grandmas and wives cook. Also, our learning follows an experience-based oral tradition. Even in the US, Chinese families gather at a potluck and start exchanging ideas on how to cook the Dongpo Pork or Salted Duck.

Our recipes are mostly useless, because they often lack the precision of measurement that budding or established American cooks need, which is good, because otherwise most Chinese restaurants would have been closed by now. This also summarizes the difference in the passing down of expertise in China and the US.

In China, people learn by following experts and try to internalize the expertise through observation, practice, and even mistakes. Americans do that too, but my observation is that they are more used to reading instructions, from putting together a toy all the way to installing software.

But this generalization may be related to individual learning styles as it is to national differences. Now there is the Internet and "cooking channels" and Fang Tai's cooking programs in both countries. This levels the playing field. Nobody reads anything anymore.

When Chinese food is being cooked, salt, sugar, vinegar, and other ingredients are already added. Our dishes are more like some collectivist type of food! Americans tend to make their food bland to start with, and eaters get to add salt, pepper and sugar to make it more personalized.

When we think, we tend to be more collective in the choice of subjects and perspectives. We start from the forest and zoom in to the trees, if needed. That is to say, we start basically from a common "whole". Americans seem to be more individualized in the way they approach things. Education is a typical example. There is much more flexibility in the American system, whereas in China, even at the college level, the focus is more on a common knowledge base.

Oh, dessert! Chinese don't have a tradition of eating dessert. Desserts are too sweet for us, so we balance them with something bitter. We don't take sweetness in its entirety and purity such as a chocolate cake! In terms of thinking, as a general rule, we traditionally value what we call zhong yong zhi dao (the way of the golden balance).

All these, however, are changing with people adopting extreme left or right positions. There is a limit to how far gross generalizations can go. So until next time, eat well, stay healthy, think often, and avoid reading cookery books.

The author is an English-Chinese literary translator and instructional designer based in the US.