Fat, Spices, Culture and More: Chinese Food in Postwar Japanese Gastronomic Writings

Abstract

Chinese cooking is popular in contemporary Japan. It is also a favourite subject of gastronomic writings that discuss not only the cooking techniques and ingredients but also the cultural meaning of the cuisine. This paper analyses the central concerns of this literature and points out its broader cultural-political implications. It contends that Japanese writings on Chinese food share a set of common concerns with the fat and spices in the food as well as its authenticity and cultural meaning. It demonstrates that this gastro-cultural discourse continually seeks to affirm, deny and transcend the putative characteristics of Chinese food. It further argues that such writings that seek to distinguish Chinese from Japanese foodways constitute a gastronomic version of nihonjinron or Japanese discourse on themselves. Finally, it points out that gastronomic nihonjinron lends support to Japan's current effort to reassert its identity/independence vis-à-vis a “rising China”.

Keywords:

• foodways
• Chinese cuisine
• Japan
• culture
• national identity
• nihonjinron

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Tomoko Aoyama, David Wilmshurst, Lynne Nakano and the anonymous reviewers for their critical but constructive comments. In particular, Dr Aoyama showed great patience and support in helping with the revisions.

Notes

1. To delineate a manageable scope, I have concentrated on writings on Chinese food in Japan. This excludes writings from Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China and Chinese communities outside Japan. Much of the writing of food writers such as Nanj[obar] Takenori, Kyū Eikan and Chin Shunshin also falls outside the scope of this study. Moreover, I have steered clear of literary works. Interested readers are referred to the studies by Tomoko Aoyama (2003; 2008).

2. Chinese consistently outnumbered Westerners in the treaty ports. For example, between 1872 and 1925 Chinese made up over 60 per cent of the foreign population in Yokohama (Yokohama Kaik[obar] Shiry[obar]kan, 1994, p. 11, p. 14).

3. Steamed meatballs made from a mix of pork or fish, vegetables and starch.

4. Dumplings originated in China but are also popular in Japan.

5. Japan and China maintained a low level of trade and cultural exchange in the 1950s and 1960s. It was only after 1978 that people and goods could move in large volumes between the two countries (Tagawa, 1983). Of course, there has always been Japanese interest in China, including its food. Soon after the war, Kyū Eikan established himself as a food critic by writing on fine Chinese food, which was inaccessible to most Japanese at the time (Aoyama, 2003).

6. Many would consider rāmen a Japanese dish. Equally as many would probably admit that it is rooted in Chinese cooking (Okada, 2002). It remains a key item on the menu of low-end Chinese eateries.

7. The publication information page in the book gives Bungei Shunjū as the editor. The dustcover, however, bears the names of four contributors: Kano Chikao (journalist), Kohagura Hok[obar] (film critic), Tsunoda Akira (journalist) and T[obar]hata Asako (nutritionist, cooking instructor).

8. The reputed health benefits of Chinese tea were remarked upon before the 1980s, but consumer interest surged in the 1990s thanks to the promotional activities of beverage companies and food writers (Huang, 2003).

9. Ochazuke is normally made using Japanese tea. Chinese generally do not pour tea onto rice.

10. Yanagida Kunio (1931) noticed a similar tendency in Japanese cooking.

11. This play is full of puns, beginning with the title and the name of the protagonist (see Introduction in Keene, 1971).

12. http://www.e-shokuseikatsu.com, accessed 23 May 2008.

13. http://www.e-shokuseikatsu.com/kokuminkaigi/index.html, accessed 23 May 2008.