Keane Lim
WRIT 1133
Professor Eric Leake
18 April 2013
Food
As Identity
The
proverbial statement of "you are what you eat" actually has its
merits when discussing what role food has in determing one's identity. Taken in
a literal sense, the food we eat does have the effect of shaping the body's
structure: greasy foods make us chubbier, and the lack of food would cause us
to be stick thin. But to look at food in that consequential manner would be
insufficient because its values are not so simple. This essay investigates the
metaphorical meaning of "being" what one eats, or in other words, how
food shapes identity, culture and the presentation of one's identity to others
around them.
Sandra
Cate's "Breaking Bread with Spread" explores an expressive use of food
for identity. These prisoners used food to create an identity for themselves in
contrast to the drab, institutionalized environment they were residing in.
While the food provided was sure to have the nutrients necessary for healthy
living, it lacked taste and personality. Since the prisoners were caged in their
jail cells, they used variety of ingredients as a creative outlet to improvise
new, tasty recipes. Inmates like Joseph Watkins and Max Hackett became known by
new titles such as "Chef BamBam" or "The Pie Guy" through
their unique spread recipes (Cate 23). Sharing spread was an identity marker
because not everyone "has money on the books" to buy the ingredients
(Cate 20). Even once made, spread had a loftier status because people of same
ethnic groups would form and eat together. This practiced culture continued
even when they were released from jail and generated pride for some of the inmates
who "on the outside ... got really fancy with spreads" and even made
spread for their family (Cate 24). What spread had allowed the inmates to do
was distinguish themselves from the monotony of the "larger contexts of
confinement" and humanize themselves again despite mealtimes being heavily
controlled (Cate 20).
Food
is used as an affirmation of one's identity for the Shenzheners in Mary Ann O'Donnell's
"Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen." At first, Wang Jin relates
the difference of northerners and southerners to "seafood" and
"meat" and how fishers are "sneaky" and meat-eaters are
"dumb" (O'Donnell 31). These comparisons use food to represent the historical
transformation of socialism in China to capitalism. In the People's Republic,
the government worked towards egalitarian distribution of rice and other goods
to the work units. For the Old Shenzheners, food gained a stronger meaning as
time passed and immigrants slowly took over their city. People like Wang Jin
would "talk about favorite foods from their past to indigenize capitalist
globalization" in order to reclaim the city as their own again (O'Donnell
33). They used food to keep the memory of the Old Shenzhen culture alive since
the new generation lived in a postsocialist economy and composed this new
society of fish, outnumbering the meat-eaters from the past.
The
spirit of the Old Shenzheners is imposed through the meals that they share
together. In this shifting environment, the food allowed them to assemble
together and reminisce nostalgically of the early makings of the city and the
different political ideals. Their strict adherence to food from the Old
Shenzhen area has reaffirmed their identity and segregated them from the
budding modernization. Food
like cornbread was tied to the rustication under the Mao Regime. The anecdote
of Big Sister Liang and how her son thought "cornbread was just another
fad among his parents' generation" showed how food was relevant to her
identity as an Old Shenzhener but incomprehensible for her son as a new
generation child (O'Donnell 35). What she ate was a reminder to her of her
hardship as a rural resident in China, working to fulfill her quota in the
fields whilst never having enough to eat yet the occasional treat of corn
bread. Though the community has become more cosmopolitan, the old Shenzheners'
perseverance lead to the conservation of its identity and allowed the new
generation to experience and pay homage to a part of their culture which they
never would have experienced without food.
Touched
upon in Cate's article was cultural identity through food like was the case
with the Old Shenzheners. More thoroughly is this idea of cultural identity
discussed in Roy Ahn's "Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food"
where a slip of the tongue in mixing "galbi-tang" with
"galbi-chim" causes him to question his identity as a Korean. While
he mixed up two Korean dishes, he realized that knowing food from your ethnic
roots is very important to cultural identity. As a Filipino-American, I, too, feel
embarassed sometimes when I choose to eat an American dish whilst my family
eats dishes from the home country because of how accustomed I have become to
eating American food. I find myself in situations where I have to ask
"What's that?" to my family as they goad me into trying the food
which I am reluctant to try because of how different it looks to me. Since I
proudly identify myself as Filipino whenever people ask, it seems strange to
not to eat food from your ethnic roots more often. I think the reason why the
slip was a big deal for Ahn was because he felt distant from his culture and
moreso, since it was a relevant part of his identity as a Korean.
Ahn's
dilemma was when he moved to America and "downplayed [his] ethnic roots
... and [his] Korean heritage was an inconvenience," choosing to forsake
his ethnic food and "eat all the things [his] friends did" (Ahn 13).
In this context, the American food he ate became who he was as he became more
Americanized and embarassed of his parents' Korean food. The reawakening of his
cultural identity came after his parents' death when he took on cooking as a
profession, and he began to notice "latent Korean influences beginning to
insinuate themselves" (Ahn 15). Although his parents, who were his main
reminder of Korean culture, died, food was able to fill that gap in his life
again. This newfound change of identity was seen when he talks about
"pronouncing aloud the Korean names of as many dishes ... and remembering
most of them accurately" which proudly contrasts from the original mistake
he made. Through these new recipes and perspective, he was able to reconnect to
his culture and instill on his child Charlie what it means to enjoy eating both
Korean and American foods. He was able to share a part of his identity with
Charlie that he was slowly rediscovering for himself. To be what you eat is to
be accepting of the culture that food comes from.
While
never living in Korea, Ahn was able to enjoy his culture through food. Food has
the great advantage of being portable, so like stories, the displacement from
one's homeland does not stop culture from spreading, as seen in Alexandra Greeley's
article "Pho - the Vietnamese Addiction." The origin of pho was after
the Vietnamese nationalists escaped from French imperialism. It has now become
a famous dish from North Vietnam, most precisely in Hanoi. When the Communist
regime was erected in the 1950s, many Vietnamese migrated to South Vietnam and
spread the recipe. It has become a part of the entire Vietnamese culture's
identity and evolved into varying recipes depending on what region of Vietnam
it was cooked at.
Now
that pho restaurants have proliferated in America, refugees who left to escape
the regime and the terrors of war were able to reconnect with their homeland by
eating ethnic dishes. Granted, it will never be the true "taste of Hanoi
pho" that they expect but pho will remind them of the Vietnam they have
left behind (Greeley 80). I saw this
experience of nostalgia when I went to a pho restaurant to take field notes.
When I asked the owner, he told me that the reason why he had named his
restaurant Pho 79 was because it was the year he left Vietnam To my surprise, I
received similar answers at other restaurants afterwards. For the Vietnamese,
to be what you eat is to relish in the national pride that these home dishes
provide. Food has become a brand name to
which people identify with, and it means more to people if they are able to peg
it to a location they are familiar with like Vietnam. The dish was nostalgic to
them for the day the left their country seen in the year number in these names.
The Vietnamese use pho as a symbol and establish their cultural identity with
it at their restaurants in America, which is the melting pot and home of many
cultures.
Something I noticed when I was
taking field notes was that there are even unconscious mannerisms in an
environment with food that we do that represent our culture identity. Food
etiquette, for example, differed at the restaurant depending on whether the
customer used chopsticks or spoons and forks. It is quite clear that utensils
are the more prevalent way to eat in America, so the use of chopsticks is
representative of another culture's customs. You never really understand how
your cultural practices differ until you have seen others. How we were brought
up influences our cultural identity and how we perceive situations.
In psychology, the difference in culture
practices is divided into two categories: individualistic and collectivistic
cultures. Americans fit in the individualistic, or an independent route,
whereas Europeans and Asians are more collectivistic. Jamie Horwitz, PhD in
Environmental Psychology sees this difference in cultural identity with the
eating habits of NASA Astronauts in her article "Eating at the Edge."
When the astronauts plugged in their trays to a hydrating post, it would create
a triangular table where they could eat face-to-face. The architect designed it
like this deliberately along with two other social spaces: a porthole and the
sleeping area. However, the only contested social space was the face-to-face
meal area. Raymond Lowey, a French astronaut, explains that "some American
crew members are content to eat 'on the run' and by themselves, whereas many
European crew member prefer eating a complete meal as a group" showing how
our habits towards food represent our cultural identity (Horwitz 45).
Horwitz's analysis of the video
cameras showing American astronauts "popping little carrots into their
mouths while working at computers" demonstrates the stark contrast between
individualistic and collectivistic cultures. In fact, a lot of what Horwitz
says in her article about "eating on the edge" is applicable to
cultural differences in food. Her evidence of Campbell's soup, ergonomically
shaped for cars' cup holders, and Swanson TV dinners appeals to America's
individualistic food culture. This increase in "grazing" and erratic
eating schedules is favored by these on-the-go products which allows people to
eat by themselves (Horwitz 42). Even at DU, where we are blessed to have many
international students who show new perspective to American culture in our cafeterias,
the difference in cultural identity is seen clearly in how we eat. While some
students eat with groups of friends, there are several students eating at the
large bars on the outskirts of the cafeteria where they can eat alone. In
contrast, many students notice that international students tend to associate in
groups when they eat. Coming from a collectivistic culture makes international
students more likely to eat together in these settings while other backgrounds
prefer eating alone. So while in modern times convenience has become a heavily
valued marketing tool with more fast food restaurants and drive-throughs being
built in countries like America, places in Asia like Japan will emphasize
products like the kotatsu which
allows families to eat together under a warm table. Horwitz uses the term of
eating in a "timeless time" and in one's "own time-place"
to represent the growing preference for independence sought by the American
population in food.
To be what one eats is multifaceted
in how it defines identity. It creates identity like for the prisoners in San
Francisco. It solidifies identity for the Old Shenzheners overtaken by the new
generation. It is a source of national pride for the Vietnamese, and a way of
expressing one's cultural relationship like for Ahn and myself. Most
importantly, it provides a bigger context on how food values differ in other
cultures like for America, an indivualistic culture, and Europe and Asia, which
are collectivistic. To be what one eats means that food is a part of the
development of one's self, an extension to one's identity and the culture they
were brought up in.
Works Cited
Ahn, Roy. "Home Run: My Journey Back to
Korean Food." Gastronomica: The
Journal of Food and Culture. Vol. 9,
No. 4 (Fall 2009), pp. 12-15. Online.
Cate, Sandra. "Breaking Bread with
Spread." Gastronomica: The Journal
of Food and Culture. Vol. 8, No. 3
(Summer 2008), pp. 17-24. Online.
Greeley, Alexandra. "Pho: The Vietnamese
Addiction." Gastronomica: The
Journal of Food and Culture. Vol. 2,
No. 1 (Winter 2002), pp. 80-83. Online.
Horwitz, Jamie. “Eating at the Edge.” Gastonomica:
The Journal of Food and Culture. Vol. 9, No. 3 (Summer 2009), pp. 42-47.
Online.
O'Donnell, Mary Ann. "The
Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen." Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture.
Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring 2010), pp. 31-39. Online.
