[US]Margaret Visser: “It All Depends on Dinner,” translated by Liu Xia’ai, New Star Press2007May, 29yuan
Introduction, page 1 In everyday life, the things we take for granted in using rule us and saturate our lives.……The shape of chairs has changed continuously over the centuries; the number and form of the tines on forks have also kept changing; in addition, the width and length of corridors have likewise been adjusted again and again. These formal, or accidental, changes in things are a language, telling the story of our cultural ideas while also recording the history of life. One of the eye-opening realizations of the twentieth century (like every discovery, it emerged out of our needs) was that our use of the crude objects of everyday life is not merely a matter of habit—that is, that we cannot do without them—but also because those things are the earliest meaningful “ordinary” language, objectifying the thoughts we find hardest to put into words; they not only constitute our culture, but also determine the direction of our cultural development.////——The perspective of this book is very interesting, and very much to my taste. “Culture” is embedded in every aspect of our daily lives; behind every commonplace thing lies a wealth of meaning. This book discusses one by one several components of an ordinary American family dinner, tracing their origins and changes, examining their mutual influence with culture, and their fate in the modern world. Overall it is quite good; the translation is not especially perfect, but it is passable enough (after all, this does not count as a scholarly work).
Introduction, page 2 Food—what kinds of food to choose, what kind of dishes to make from it, how to eat it, with whom to eat it, when to eat it, how long cooking and dining take—is a means by which a society creates itself and puts its aims and ideals into practice. The choice of food and the way food is presented embody the traditions and characteristics of each society; food shapes us and expresses our thoughts more clearly than our furniture, houses, or utensils.////——Besides food, other everyday things that carry culture—houses (cities, architecture) and media of communication (writing, paper and pen)—are at least equally important. Of course, it is not wrong to say that food expresses thought more clearly, because behind a meal lies information ranging from modes of subsistence (farming or herding) to modes of production (processing), preservation (storage and protection), structures of power (who controls the distribution or sale of food), business models (the circulation and exchange of food), ethical order (how one eats), aesthetics and preferences, religion and taboo, natural history and science, and so on—the book’s title, “It All Depends on Dinner,” is by no means sensationalistic. This is why globalization or “Americanization” takes “McDonald’s” or fast-food culture as its symbol.
Introduction, page 4 I will describe a dinner, assigning each ingredient on the menu to a chapter. The meal I have chosen is the simplest, most ordinary meal in the world, with no “delicacies” mixed in. Appetizer: corn, salt, and butter; main course: chicken and rice; salad: lettuce, olive oil, and lemon juice; dessert: ice cream.////——Aside from salt, chicken, and rice, the remaining ingredients have not yet fully entered Chinese food culture, and China’s current food culture still presents a diversified pattern; people in different regions, or even one family at different times, will make all kinds of dishes. Compared with Americans, who eat almost only one green vegetable (lettuce) and have almost only one way of preparing it (salad), the richness of Chinese cuisine needs no further saying. Regarding Chinese food culture, beyond being worth recording and discussing, it is even more worth our careful attention, appreciation, and learning in daily life. Chinese food culture has always been inclusive as the sea gathers hundreds of rivers; we need not reject the encroachment of Western food. However, whether we are preserving tradition, introducing the West, or accepting modern technology, what matters is that the guiding principle should be to preserve and promote “diversity.”
Introduction, pages 10~11 These nine foods prompt us to think about some of the enormous problems troubling modern society. Some of these foods have become dangerous goods; others are the result of the uniformity of crops and genetic engineering; salty wastelands have appeared, and the earth’s fertile and precious land has been painfully polluted; cultural traditions have been destroyed and replaced by—what else is there that can replace them? The spread of agricultural mechanization has deprived human beings of (the original text has “生去”) the means of livelihood; animal rights protest against cheap meat; food radiation, additives, antibiotics, herbicides and pesticides, and other things that make us lose trust are everywhere. When I began writing this book, I had originally intended to make it light and amusing; however, in fact, in writing (the original text has “写做”) I was often in a state of anger and fear. Boredom is the social toxin of the twentieth century. Of course, we additionally bear the toxin of nature, namely pollution. Boredom arises from the loss of meaning; it originates in the failure of our connections with others and with our past. This book is a gentle appeal for understanding—there is absolutely nothing that is born boring; not every day is boring, nor are ordinary things, after all, these are things we share.…………W·H·Auden wrote: Those ancient warnings still possess a power that fills me with fear. Irreverent words and deeds are even more foolish than superstition.////——Running through the whole book is the author’s profound human concern and her anxiety about modernization. And the cultural crisis, ecological crisis, and spiritual crisis brought about by modernization are all manifested in every dinner. What the author can do, beyond drawing people’s attention to food culture, is also to hope that through her work she can awaken people’s concern for life—as the author says, “boredom”—that is, the loss of curiosity, the loss of gratitude and awe, the loss of the longing for love and freedom, the loss of ideals and passion—is the malady of modern society.
Page 2 The driving wheel of the supermarket is not always visible; it does not flaunt itself the way the driving wheel of commerce does, but it is here, everywhere—it is American corn. You cannot buy any item in a supermarket that is unrelated to corn; the only exception is probably fresh fish, and even fresh fish, in the course of transport to the store, is stored in cardboard boxes and wrapping paper a part of whose raw material also comes from corn; meat is to a great extent equivalent to corn, and so is milk, because American livestock and poultry are fed with corn and corn kernels; to prevent frozen meat and dried fish from drying out too quickly, they are given a thin coat of corn starch; the pale brown or golden color derived from corn adds visible appeal to many soft drinks and puddings; all canned foods are bathed in liquid containing corn mash; every cardboard box, every sheet of wrapping paper, every plastic container depends on corn—in fact, all modern paper and cardboard, except newspapers and thin tissue paper, are coated with a layer of corn mash.
Pages 33~34 However, once again, rash actions exact a heavy price from people. It was discovered (too late) that suddenly introducing modern agriculture into those traditional countries merely benefited a small number of rich people, while the livelihood of small farmers was destroyed.…………Only recently, people were strongly dependent on chemical fertilizers; if one compares the cost of fertilizer with the damage it will cause in the future, one sees that using fertilizer is actually a losing proposition. The fossil fuels and phosphate on which the “Green Revolution” depends were introduced at high prices, and this momentum shows no sign of stopping. If one calculates the new cultivation methods in terms of fossil fuels, producing one hectare of corn requires about 750 liters of gasoline. Even worse, the diversity of corn is also disappearing in large numbers,………… Diversity in the plant kingdom has immeasurable value for human beings; as we have already seen above, the Indians once held diversity in deep respect. The anti-labor war launched in modern North America, at first glance, seems to be the strategic victory of neatness and uniformity. Neat, uniform crops are easy to sow, easy to harvest, easy to sell; machinery also caters to human needs by producing neat, uniform fields. But nature is unwilling to accept this; her power lies in diversity and difference. Biologically, sameness means fewer possibilities and is therefore brittle and fragile.
Page 35 Sameness is a curse peculiar to modern society; it disguises itself, taking the form of diversity in the cans, boxes, bottles, and cardboard cartons in our supermarkets. Everything on the shelves contains corn, and therefore we depend on corn, and corn depends on us.
Pages 38~39 For thousands of years, human beings have yearned for salt, and even a hundred years ago salt still had to be brought from far away. Salt compelled human beings to explore, to think, to work, to travel; in order to obtain salt, human beings built entire political and economic systems and fought, constructed, destroyed, seized by force or by guile, and argued endlessly over it.
////——Since this book has little scholarly significance, I won’t jot down any more of it below; tired～
2007July16日
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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