Whenever you move from one location to another, the first things you tend to notice are the similarities and differences between the two places. More common than not, it’s the differences that tend to stand out. It doesn’t matter if you go from the city to the country, from the South to the North, or half way around the planet – there are always differences to notice. And, boy do we notice them.

Culture differences can be a struggle sometimes, because they usually involve how we interact with other people. It involves behaviors and sayings. It involves our environment, and what we buy and how we live.

Now, “differences” doesn’t mean “good” or “bad,” it simply means “different.”  Whether they are “good” or “bad” can be open to debate – and that’s not what this series is about. This is meant to be more of a factual, “Here is what we’ve experienced in our part of China,” declaration. And to start this first declaration will involve one of my favorite topics: Food!

Eating Habits

Every culture has different tastes and desires in food. The tastes of the citizens of China vary as greatly as the people groups. With 56 different officially recognized ethnic groups in China, there is no single set standard on what exactly is “Chinese” food. One of the joys this creates is that ordering the same dish in a different location can be a totally different experience! One experience that you should not expect, though, is for real Chinese food to taste like “American Chinese” food – these two are completely different, and have very little similarities (other than using rice and noodles).

Some areas of China rarely eat meat, such as in the south, whereas other areas of China tend to have meat quite often, such where we are in the North. Where meat is a staple for a most meals in American homes, meals here will always have rice, noodles, or a pancake – a kind of flaky flat bread made from flour, water, egg, and maybe a few other ingredients, but prepared very differently from a Western pancake – as a staple instead.

Another thing to understand is that the Chinese are a very health-conscious people. You could say they were “organic” long before it was cool in America. It’s not common to buy frozen or pre-made foods for meals, although the younger generations seem to be more open to the idea. To indicate that something might have been genetically or hormonally modified/altered/enhanced will completely turn them off to such a product.

Speaking of product turn offs, one of the biggest adjustments we’ve had to make in our eating habits here is ensuring that we don’t buy or order fish, unless we’re prepared to de-bone it ourselves. In China, the bones – and even the head! – are believed to be very nutritious, which may just be true, but it’s not something I’m willing to swallow (pun intended).

Restaurants

But, to be honest, ordering food at all can be difficult when you have trouble speaking the language, let alone reading it. Sure, we try to speak Mandarin Chinese, and we are getting better, but it’s certainly not a simple language – and it’s made more complex when the people group you live with speak a different dialect of Mandarin than you are learning. Yet, progress is still progress.

So, to remedy this language barrier problem, we tend to stick with restaurants that have picture menus. This creates an easy, point-and-order, kind of situation that makes everyone feel more comfortable.  To be able to walk into a restaurant, see a dish with noodles, beef, potatoes, and vegetables, point at it, and know this is what I’m getting is a nice feeling. Playing “Menu Roulette” is something that doesn’t always end up very well. Ordering “cold lambs liver” may be a unique cultural dish, but it’s not a dish experience that Bethany would like to repeat.

Shopping

One thing to realize, though is that we don’t often eat at restaurants. Most of the time, we cook at home with food we buy from the market. Oh, how we love the market!

Where most vegetables come with a rather high price tag in the States, buying vegetables in China is extremely affordable! For less than $8 USD, we are able to pick up a weeks worth of vegetables for lunch and dinner, where the veges themselves make up about 50% of the meals! A $1.50 bell pepper in the States costs about $.50 USD here.  A weeks worth of potatoes (being the staple ingredient about every 3rd meal) costs just over $2 USD.  Eggs are about the same price – about $1.50 USD a dozen – but I’m confident that ours were gathered up probably that morning or the day before.

Most of the foods we buy are the same or similar to what you can buy in the States, but there are some differences. One such food that we buy is a Chinese cabbage called “bok choy” 白菜. Bethany really enjoys mixing this into our meals to give us some healthy green nutrition. Simply being able to afford to cook with such a large variety of vegetables is a great joy for us!

Western Food

One of the other big cultural differences with food comes in how the Chinese understand Western food. In our town, we have three Western restaurants to choose from: One is a nice, sit down restaurant, one is KFC, and the last is Dico’s (a Chinese version of KFC). So there’s “Fancy,” “Chicken,” or “chicken”.

Now, the KFC menu in China is NOT like the KFC menu in America.  There main seller is not a big bucket of chicken. Instead, they primarily sell various chicken sandwiches. But they won’t be called “chicken sandwiches” here.  I’m not sure why, but anything that is placed between two pieces of bread seems to earn the label “hamburger.” So, KFC sticks a piece of chicken between two pieces of bread, and that now is labeled a “hamburger.” Sure, you can still order that bucket of chicken if you want – it’s in a small square at the bottom right of the menu – but I have yet to see any Chinese order it.

One thing to be aware of is that drink sizes are quite different. Most places give you the choice of a small 12 ounce cup or a medium 16 ounce cup. You can’t find a 20 ounce cup here. This might be different in other larger cities – maybe at a McDonald’s for example – I don’t know.  What I do know is that I haven’t seen it.

While there certainly a large amount of cultural differences between our countries, it has been a blast learning about them! Food is one of those things that not only divide people but also unite them. It’s through food and meals that many meaning conversations can happen. It’s through food and meals that personalities often come out the most. Jesus spent a lot of time speaking with and getting to know people through meals. As we continue to get to know  more and more students and teachers here in China, there will likely be a lot of love shown over food.