Sheng Jiang 蒋晟

Chinese is famous for its food. In the history, Chinese have tradition to eat a wild range of foods and does not have a good eating habit, but it is changed in recent years. Chinese not only changed some food sources, but they also changed the ways they eat.

First, some foods are not important in Chinese diet as before. For one, Rice used to take a great part of Chinese diet, but rice is less ate now before because people are getting rich and have more choice on food, such as meat or fast food. As a side effect, diet foods consumption is increasing. For another, people stopped eating some wild animals because they are frightened by the spread of SARS. A characteristic of Chinese diet culture is that people eat almost all animals, such as monkey, bear, crow, toad, snake, mouse, spider, roach and scolopendra, but after the burst of SARS, people don’t eat them anymore.

Second, people changed their eating habits a lot. Not only modern lifestyle prevent people from waiting hours for a complex cooking, but also a lesson taught by the spread of SARS rejects some unhealthy traditional habits. In modern life, people prefer fast food because they have only little time for them. Long time cooking, as a contrast, is unlikely happen in modern lifestyle. One off dishware is more often used because of health consideration.

Although China has a long history about food, the Chinese changed a lot in food area. This is caused by globalization and preventing some diseases.