Today is New Year’s Day, so let’s dive into a light yet heavy topic.
There’s something quite intriguing about the fact that golf tournaments offer exceptionally high prize money, yet we rarely see Chinese male players on the international stage.
How high are golf prizes? The top 100 players can earn 15 million RMB a year: pure prize money, excluding endorsements and other income.
Unlike our current state of resignation in sports like soccer and basketball, golf involves no direct physical confrontation. It doesn’t demand high physical fitness; being a bit overweight or short is fine, and cardiovascular fitness is not required at all.
Compared to sports we’re familiar with, like badminton and table tennis, golf’s technical movements are much simpler: the core action is basically one, and it resembles a child skipping stones on a pond, just with a club instead. Badminton’s techniques are incredibly complex, from various footwork to intricate changes in waist, chest, shoulders, elbows, fingers, and wrists, as well as physically demanding actions like diving saves and powerful jumps. Yet, even so, the top-ranked Viktor Axelsen earns less than half of what the 200th-ranked male golfer makes annually.
What does being 200th mean? It’s essentially being a nobody. When have we ever paid attention to athletes ranked outside the top 10 at the Olympics?
Sports are inherently unfair. We see the rising strength of the Chinese snooker newcomers challenging the British, only to be nearly wiped out due to low prize money and the temptation of match-fixing.
What lies behind the vast differences in prize money across different sports?
Similarly, Chinese cuisine is vast and profound, with countless regional styles that continue to evolve and become more delicious. Yet, why do foreigners generally have a low acceptance of authentic Chinese food? With so many delicious and affordable Chinese dishes, why don’t we see foreigners flying to China for a culinary tour?
The richness of Chinese cuisine is undeniable, and we love the diverse flavors from different regions. But strangely, Western food seems to be the nemesis of our stomachs; after three days abroad, we crumble.
This issue clearly warrants multiple papers. In this brief article, I’ll attempt to offer a provocative perspective for readers to ponder.
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I began with a good entry point: authentic Han Chinese cuisine doesn’t include cheese. Our eight major cuisines almost never require cheese. In contrast, Western diets are inseparable from cheese, with common Western dishes like burgers, pizzas, and pasta being closely tied to it.
“Perhaps the barbarian lands originate from nomadic tribes; they can’t understand our imperial Han food, and cheese might be the key.”
The variety of cheeses in the West is indeed beyond imagination. But their focus is on creating variations with cheese, which naturally can’t compare to our rich variety of chicken, duck, fish, liver, kidneys, intestines, and stomachs.
Westerners generally don’t eat pig liver, kidneys, intestines, or stomachs. Fish? They don’t eat the river fish we commonly consume. Duck? Most countries don’t prepare it, except for the French, who enjoy duck breast and foie gras. Meat? Westerners don’t seem to have dishes like braised pork, and they lack the drinking snacks like pig trotters, pig heads, and pig ears.
It’s interesting that the things we find delicious at first bite are completely unacceptable to them.
So, is the Western stomach naturally unable to accept Eastern food?
Not entirely; it’s easy to find counterexamples to refute this view.
Eastern food has successfully invaded the West in some cases: Japanese sushi and Vietnamese pho, for example. American Chinese food is essentially Southeast Asian-style fried rice and noodles, along with sweet and sour stir-fries. Even more strangely, Westerners generally accept Indian curries with various colors and consistencies more than authentic Chinese food.
Our authentic Chinese cuisine, apart from a few stalls in immigrant cities in the West, is rarely accepted on a large scale. This includes our most common dishes like dumplings, buns, noodles, pancakes, and various authentic Chinese stir-fries and hot pots.
I’m completely baffled. What exactly is the reason?
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Of course, there are foreign foodies who love Chinese cuisine and Chinese foodies who love Western cuisine.
In terms of ingredients, Chinese cuisine isn’t inherently opposed to foreign items. Chili peppers, bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts, and cauliflower only successfully entered China during the Qing Dynasty, and they form the basis of our modern Chinese cuisine. Hot pot, a popular dish across China, only came from the grasslands to the central plains a few hundred years ago; it’s not originally Han Chinese.
These examples show that Chinese cuisine is not closed off; it’s open and inclusive.
In ancient times, Chinese cuisine was served in individual portions, but later, influenced by nomadic tribes, it became communal. Conversely, Western cuisine used to be served as a large spread until the 19th century when it changed to individual courses. Therefore, overemphasizing so-called traditional factors is mostly a way to deceive people, in my opinion.
Another difference I can think of is that Chinese and Western cuisines have taken completely different directions in core pairing and seasoning: Eastern alcohol, vinegar, and soy sauce come from grains, while Western alcohol, vinegar, and sauces mostly come from grapes and vegetables.
However, I don’t think these differences are highly antagonistic; based on small sample observations, mutual resistance in this regard is not significant.
In terms of taste—sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty—and aroma, there are no fundamental differences between Chinese and Western cuisines.
Ultimately, I’ve come up with a killer conclusion.
What Chinese stomachs dislike most are Western dishes centered around cheese and butter. What Western stomachs dislike most are Chinese stir-fries with the main flavors of lard and vegetable oil.
“The root of mutual dislike is actually the disdain for each other’s greasiness.”
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Moreover, there are significant psychological differences in the perception of food texture between Chinese and Western people.
For example, Indians eat rice mixed with green curry and yogurt using their hands, which is naturally repulsive to us, but Westerners generally accept it.
In Chinese cuisine, we enjoy the diverse textures of animal-based foods, but Westerners particularly can’t accept the crunchy and elastic texture of sea cucumbers or the sticky and elastic texture of beef tendons. Conversely, they can accept the sticky and bubbly texture of mashed plant-based foods, which I suspect is mainly due to psychological factors.
The image below is from the book “The Science of Texture,” where we can see how Westerners like to “foolishly” use “scientific” methods of classification and definition. For example, “al dente” refers to the rate at which food returns to its original shape after being deformed by the pressure of teeth.
Although Westerners have conducted extensive research on texture, they actually prefer to see a direct connection between ingredients and texture, such as in sushi and rice noodles, with fried rice and fried noodles being similar. In contrast, modern Chinese cuisine prefers to use seasonings to enhance ingredients, such as in dishes like fish-flavored pork, Chongqing hot pot, and West Lake vinegar fish. Our Kung Pao chicken, Kung Pao shrimp, and even Kung Pao vegetarian chicken aim for consistent flavor rather than variety.
Chinese cuisine emphasizes “flavor infusion,” while Western cuisine focuses more on “appearance.”
However, such a simple summary is certainly not entirely accurate. Is there a deeper reason behind this?
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There is a reason, somewhat similar to the issue with golf: I feel it mainly comes down to cultural factors.
There is a common misconception that Chinese cuisine is particularly difficult to learn, while Western cuisine is particularly simple. In reality, most Chinese stir-fry techniques can be mastered in a year or two at a vocational school, while the techniques of a Western head chef are not something an average person can master in just a few years.
This also leads to celebrities and stars usually only taking photos with the owner in domestic restaurants, while abroad, they take pride in being photographed with the head chef.
For Westerners, dining at a restaurant is a serious affair, where the overall experience, including service, is indispensable. There are even dress codes for formal dining, similar to attending a concert, using a sense of ceremony to enhance the flavor of the food. This results in Western cuisine having much higher requirements for plating and presentation than Chinese cuisine.
For Easterners, dining at a restaurant emphasizes “gathering,” with the company being the key. As for the food, it is important that the value matches the status, meaning the most expensive dish on the table must be worthy of the most important leader or elder present.
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Eastern philosophy values simplicity. In China, any issue can be resolved over a meal and drinks.
Even at the level of business magnates like Jack Ma and Yu Minhong, drinking remains essential. In fact, the entire Chinese drinking culture could be satisfied with just one type of liquor, from a certain distillery by the Chishui River, embodying the essence of simplicity.
In Eastern cooking, simplicity is also key. The most authentic Chinese cuisine is prepared with just a single kitchen knife and a wok held with a towel. The more knives a chef has, the more likely they are to be laughed at for being unprofessional. Stir-frying requires only a large iron ladle, with no need for additional utensils for adding salt, sugar, cooking wine, sauces, or oil.
In Western cuisine, similar to Western scientific research, even the simplest tasks are made incredibly complex. Tasks like beating eggs, peeling, juicing, kneading dough, and even crushing garlic require specialized equipment, with each piece of equipment available in a multitude of sizes and specifications.
From a certain perspective, science and technology are concepts that Eastern philosophy is not particularly fond of.
Western science involves dividing each “discipline” into infinitely fine granularity, with the role of a Ph.D. being to observe unseen cilia on these granules through a microscope. And technology? It’s about trimming just a tiny bit off the tip of these cilia.
Eastern philosophy worships simplicity, preferring to listen to “authorities” without delving deeply into the subject matter. Many experts and academicians genuinely believe they understand everything, leading the public to think that a few unparalleled national talents can conquer the world.
When choosing between authoritative status and seeking truth, Eastern philosophy leans more towards the former.
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Before the year 2000, almost no professional golfer could hit beyond 300 yards, but today, this is commonplace. The extent to which technological advancements have been explored is likely beyond most people’s imagination. Although golf involves simple movements, achieving millimeter-level stability is extremely challenging.
We mentioned that the motion in golf is somewhat like skipping stones, where the initial speed and angle of the ball are crucial. A village kid might often skip stones beautifully, but asking him to skip a stone ten times with nine of them bouncing exactly five times on the water and landing precisely 50 meters away is beyond his capability, right? This is what makes golf a difficult sport.
In the West, even amateur enthusiasts purchase radar data analyzers to measure club speed, ball speed, attack angle, and dozens of other data points like backspin, sidespin, height, and rotation speed. Professional coaches use frames less than 0.01 seconds apart to analyze the position of each joint and its subtle impact on the outcome.
Honestly, these methods today have no technical barriers and are not costly. Therefore, the main difference in how we approach this sport still lies in our mindset.
In the past, China’s achievements in competitive sports were more about selecting talented athletes through a pyramid system, with coaches primarily being retired athletes. In this context, experience-based training is predominant, while truly scientific training is squeezed out.
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Finally, comparing the hub airports of China and the U.S. is quite interesting.
The East prefers giant terminals, filled with a wide array of amenities, offering a one-stop solution for everything. However, the downside is that reaching the boarding gate can be quite far, often requiring a shuttle bus. Due to efficiency issues, the transfer function of Chinese airports is significantly weakened.
In the U.S., having more than five terminals is standard, connected by a small train as the main line, aiming to complete transfers between any two gates in about 20 minutes. Transfers are the core function of these airports. These airports have ample boarding gates, and inefficient shuttle buses are rarely used. The downside? These chain-like small terminals are quite modest, lacking the grandeur of a major power.
Are there airports in the world that combine the characteristics of both East and West? Those that balance grandeur and transfer functionality are probably places like Dubai and Singapore. Coincidentally, these two cities are known for bridging Eastern and Western cultures.
Of course, this is no coincidence. We see that Eastern and Western cultures are so different, and being able to stand at their intersection and benefit from both is likely better than blindly rejecting due to a lack of understanding.
In the end, I’m not sure how to wrap up this rambling article, so let’s quote a famous saying here.
Thus, one should strive for inclusivity and diversity, while diligently contemplating the vastness of the universe.
— Sima Qian