When thinking about food and the methods of preparing and preserving authentic food, it is important to understand all the aspects that go into it. In the reading, “Chinese Table Manners: You Are How You Eat”, author, Eugene Cooper discusses food habits especially through table manners. The author argues the presence of table manners as being incorporated into a symbolic order. Cooper explains three modes of understanding food habits. The first being taboos fulfil a practical positive function in adaptation to its habitat. The second being food habits represent a symbolic order. The third being food habits serve as social markers. He explains these habits to further argue that it is hard to see how table manners could be used in a positive symbol for adaptation, especially with such diverse world ethnography. His main argument is that culture, as seen through table manners, affects the way people eat thus giving room to his argument “you are what you eat.”
Eugene Cooper explains his argument by examining the table manners of the Chinese in comparison to other cultures. Although there are no specific guidelines to Chinese table manners, these manners present themselves in Chinese social structure. More importantly, the use of table manners explains “the way one handles oneself at the table gives off signals of the clearest type to most Chinese as to what kind of person one is (page 180)” Cooper primarily uses the Chinese table manners due to its vast rules. For the Chinese, the way a person eats and hosts ultimately defines who they are as a person which is one of the author’s main arguments. For example, when eating the young should defer from the old. In other terms, children may be excluded from the dining table until the adults have eaten or even be seated at a separate table. This is due to the social structure of respecting elders and adults. This also continues in the customs of the host. The host initiates the meal by picking up his chopsticks after each person has served a serving of rice, which is served by the host and accepted by the guest with two hands. The host then inquires if the guests are full which then allows them to leave the table unless they are the guest of honor. This is compared to the Cantonese, who feel uncomfortable leaving the table without completing their soup which is a part of each meal. The Cantonese in comparison to the Chinese have different aspects to their food such as always having soup in the meals while the Chinese always have rice in their meals. This also continues to the rules in serving with the Chinese having many more expectations from the host than the Cantonese do. The author uses this comparison to argue that “expectations as to appropriate comportment at the table will also vary with region of origin, age, and class position (page 181)” Each region has different preparation and expectation of food from one another. This guided his main question of how table manners could be used in a positive way through a population’s adaptation. Due to the region, the population adapts to their surroundings further aiding the culture that is built. Each culture has their own food culture that differs from others. By comparing the Chinese social structure as seen through table manner guidelines, it explains the title “you are what you eat.” Food structure is highly determined by culture which provides more than just food preparation expectations but further supplements all aspects of food culture including table manners.

Cooper, Eugene. 1986. “Chinese Table Manners: You Are How You Eat.” Human Organization 45 (2): 179–84.

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