Different from Western food, where each person eats one plate, Chinese food is mostly a combined meal system, where many people sit around a table and eat one meal together. Behind the fun, the hygiene situation is worrying: every pair of chopsticks is drooling, and they are frequently picked up and down each plate. From this point of view, when eating together, everyone eats “saliva dishes”.
Wang Li, one of the founders of modern Chinese linguistics, satirized in the article “Quan Cai”:
“For a new bowl of soup, the host likes to stir the contents with his own spoon; for a new dish, the host likes to stir with his own chopsticks. Mix it. As for persuading vegetables, you can’t take much care of it. One of the mountains and seas is wrong. After traveling around the world, there will be five or seven people’s body fluids on it.”
We have all experienced and contributed to this “bodily exchange”:
In order to find the food she likes, she has no regard for other people’s feelings, and flips and chooses the dishes on the plate.
Some food stuck to the chopsticks, so I licked it off with my lips and tongue, and put it into the plate to continue picking dishes.
When eating hot pot, you have chopsticks and I have chopsticks, taking the spit stars that have just been “freshly baked” from your mouth, sandwiching new shabu-shabu products, and throwing them into the hot soup again…
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Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
During this process, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and parasites may lurk in saliva and enter everyone’s body. While we share food, we may also share a variety of infectious diseases.
According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, saliva is one of the most important ways of transmission of diseases[1].
The famous Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium that colonizes the gastric mucosa. The infection rate in the Chinese population is 40% to 65%, with an average of 49%[2]. It may cause gastrointestinal diseases such as chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, and even gastric cancer [3]. The saliva of infected people contains Helicobacter pylori, and chopsticks and spoons used during shared meals may become transmission vectors, increasing the chance of other people being infected.
(Helicobacter pylori infection diagram)
Hepatitis A and E can also be transmitted through saliva. In 1988, there was a big outbreak of hepatitis A in Shanghai, with as many as 300,000 people infected, and cross-infection with meals played a role in it.
(Clam and the 1988 Shanghai Hepatitis A Pandemic)
In addition, periodontal disease bacteria, cariogenic bacteria, herpes virus, influenza virus, etc., may also be transmitted through shared meals [1].
In addition to spreading disease, sharing meals can bring the following problems:
1. Not conducive to weight control: It is difficult to judge how much you eat when everyone eats together. And the more people, the longer the meal time, the easier it is to overeat.
2. Not necessarily balanced nutrition: Although there is a large table of dishes, many people only choose to eat what they like, especially children, it is difficult to achieve nutrition balanced.
3. May cause waste: For family dinners, treats, dinners, etc., the organizer often prepares meals with the mentality of making everyone eat well and full It was especially hearty, and it was common to eat leftovers.
And we have seen in movies and TV dramas that Westerners will evenly distribute meat, grains, and vegetables to each person’s plate, so that what they eat is clear at a glance, and the nutrition is balanced. . If anyone can’t finish it and waste it, then the responsibility lies with others.
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
Also, in a potluck setting, we may not eat so easily:
During family dinners, the new dishes on the table have to wait for the elders to use chopsticks before they dare to eat them; when eating with the leader, I am embarrassed to turn the table by myself, and can only watch the dishes I like. The dishes were eaten up…
In the minds of many people, eating together is a rule handed down from our ancestors, which reflects our fine tradition of attaching importance to family and family. This is a huge misunderstanding.
In fact, China was the first country to implement the meal-sharing system.
In the earliest stage of prehistoric clan culture, due to low productivity, the food collected by people was processed and divided equally according to the number of people, and then they ate their meals. This is the most primitive meal-sharing system.
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Chinese began to sit on the floor, one for each person.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the appearance of high-footed seating prompted everyone to start eating at the same table, but this does not mean that everyone has started “meal together”. In fact, the distribution of food is still one per person, just sitting around the table, with the atmosphere of “meal together” [4].
(The famous painting “Han Xizai Night Banquet” in the Southern Tang Dynasty presents the scene of sharing meals. The writer Han Xizai and several “official second generations” listened to the music while eating and drinking, dishes, tableware and chopsticks. There is also a table for each, with clear boundaries.)
The combined meal system appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty. As the variety of food and cooking techniques increased, people realized that it was more economical to sit and eat together and have a little bit of everything. At the same time, public eating spaces such as restaurants and restaurants appeared, and ordinary people went out to enjoy delicious food, and eating and drinking became a lively civic activity. Eating is not only to fill the stomach, but also a kind of human communication. The same food and drink is a symbol of emotional connection, and the traditional human characteristics such as “sharing” and “passion” are integrated into the food.
After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, combined meals became the mainstream, but there are still shadows of separate meals. For example, in the TV series “The Department of Zhenzhi Branch pays salaries, stops voting, complains about the second, Ao, hammers, forgives, and forgives 2 diseases.”
A similar statement can also be found in “A Dream of Red Mansions”, when Grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden for the second time, and Jia’s residence hosted a banquet. “Aunt Xue ordered Sister Feng to prepare a dish.”
As early as the 1930s, Chinese intellectuals at that time began to pay attention to the “hygiene” knowledge of the West, and the Chinese food marked by “common eating” became a criticism of “enlightened people” object.
After the founding of New China, the “Patriotic Hygiene Movement” that emerged in the 1950s promoted the meal-sharing system to the public from a scientific, hygienic and rational perspective.
When the Shanghai Hepatitis A outbreak occurred in the late 1980s, the initiative to “change common food to separate food and change customs” to prevent hepatitis infection came into the public eye [4].
In 2003, when SARS raged, the voice of advocating the meal-sharing system was once loud. But with the end of the epidemic, the topic heat quickly subsided, and finally it was over.
What is the difficulty in promoting the meal-sharing system?
Difficulty 1: Worry about affecting the relationship. Chinese people pay attention to strong feelings and atmosphere when eating. Many people do not want to share meals because of their “face”, fearing that their relatives and friends will feel “shared” and “disgusted”.
Difficulty 2: It is troublesome to operate. Many people complained that the public chopsticks are too cumbersome. They used to be able to pick up dishes with one hand, but now they have to put down their chopsticks – pick up the public chopsticks – put down the public chopsticks – pick up their own chopsticks. And it is often easy to make mistakes. When you take the public chopsticks to pick the food, you accidentally put it in your mouth.
The third difficulty: increased costs. Under the combined meal system, one waiter can take care of two boxes. Under the meal-sharing system, two to three waiters may be required for a box. Dividing meals also means that more plates are needed, so the number of dishwashers will also increase, and the operating area of the pantry, dishwashing room, etc. may also increase, and the back kitchen of many restaurants will have to be redesigned and remodeled.
Difficulty Four: ShadowingThe quality of the dishes. As the saying goes, “one hot dish tops three fresh dishes”, among the major Chinese cuisines, the most classic and most popular dishes are almost all hot dishes, and they are delicious only when they are served in whole. For example, fish with pickled cabbage and prosperous hair and blood, the most attractive thing is the hot and scalding feeling when it is just out of the pot. And when it is separated and cooled quickly, the taste is also worse. Chinese cuisine also pays attention to shape and meaning. For example, the famous Soviet dish squirrel mandarin fish, everyone is more concerned about the shape of the fish on the plate. If you cut it into separate meals, it will not look good or festive.
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
In short, splitting Chinese food will reduce the dining experience and cost more. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to “stand still.” Compared with the meal-sharing system, public chopsticks, public spoons and other methods are cheaper and easier to operate. Of course, this requires the joint efforts of catering companies and consumers.
As many people worry, splitting meals will spoil the atmosphere. It turns out that we were overthinking it.
Hong Kong people began to implement public chopsticks after SARS, but the dining atmosphere was the same as usual.
For hygienic reasons, Japan began to implement meal sharing as early as the Meiji Restoration period, and it has been implemented quite thoroughly today. In countries such as Singapore and South Korea, which are deeply influenced by Chinese culture, the use of public chopsticks and meal sharing has also become a standard for dining.
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
Thinking rationally, although public chopsticks and spoons will make eating a little more troublesome, this trouble will bring the peace of mind and health of all diners, and it will not affect the dining atmosphere. Happy but not?
Whether this epidemic can help Chinese people get rid of the bad habit of “sharing meals together”, let us wait and see.
Reviewer: Zuo Xiaoxia
Director, Department of Nutrition, Eighth Medical Center, PLA General Hospital
References
[1]J rgen Slots,Henrik Slots. Bacterial and viral pathogens in saliva: disease relationship and infectious risk[J]. Periodontology 2000,2011,55(1).
[2] Li Qin. Current situation and risk factors of Helicobacter pylori infection in patients with upper gastrointestinal diseases and countermeasures for publicity and education [J]. Heilongjiang Medicine, 2019,43(07):843- 845.
[3]Sugano Kentaro,Tack Jan,Kuipers Ernst J,et al. Kyoto global consensus report on Helicobacter pylori gastritis.[J]. Gut,2015,64(9).
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[4] Lin Haicong. Dividing meals and sharing meals—a research on the change of Chinese dietary customs since modern China [J]. Folklore Research, 2015(01):112-120.
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