On Differences between Chinese and Western Dietary CulturesAbstract:Diet is absolutely necessary in the life of mankind, and even in the existence and development. Because of the differences between Chinese and Western cultural traditions, the Chinese and Western dietary cultures are different in many aspects. Such as concept, target, pattern. We study these differences and then find out the points that can be digested, in order to facilitate the communication about cultures between China and the West. Taiwan Professor Zhang Qi Jun said, “The old saying, Eat, drink, man, woman who wishes greatly. For such a standard fair, Western culture (in particular, modern American culture) can be said to be male and female culture. But the Chinese culture can be said to be a dietary culture. As the reason of the cultural traditions, the western lives tend to men and women, but because of the narrow gender relations, Chinese people are dumping guidance on life in the restaurants. Thus the diet is rich in culture. Food culture in the west is not developed enough, but this underdevelopment itself is the result of the development of a culture, so it is still significant to study the dietary cultures of Chinese and Western diet.Key Words: dietary culture; cultural tradition; differencesIntroduction: Once there is a saying that Food is eating well-deserved for human life”, so food is an indispensable condition for the survival and development of human beings. There are two desires in life: one is feasting them to survive; and another is the lust of men and women, which can help the mankind to carry on the family line. Facing the two desires, China pays more attention to the former, while the west tends to the latter. Such phenomenon affects the cultural trend. Diet is actually the contents of our daily lives, but why we call it culture? That is because the diet has special status in the Chinese culture, and it also has a great distinction between China and the West. As one of the world ancient nations, Chinas diet has a history almost as long as that of Chinese civilization. But in western countries, ancient thinkers devoted less attention to the food problem than the Chinese philosophers did, and there is even not aware of it to the heaven degree. With the opposite, they recognized and interpreted the world in the perspective of the lust or love of men and women more. Receiving the influence of respective cultural tradition, the Chinese and Western dietary culture has had different characteristic. The differences in concepts, targets, patterns had reflected the different dietary culture in the different state characteristic; such characteristic has enriched the research value of dietary culture. Studying these cultural differences, we can find out a joint enhancing the communication between China and the west through a comprehensive study of the subject. It may be a great help to the communication of the Chinese and western cultures. I. Differences in ConceptsFirst, the Chinese and western diet have the differences that cannot be ignored in concepts. It cares about the intake of calories, vitamins, protein and so on during a day. Comparing with the Chinese diet, western diet tastes stereotyped, as simple as chewing the candle, but the sense tells them: We must eat them all because of the nutrition. And then they put it bluntly, just like refueling machine. The concept of western diet is compatible with the whole western philosophy. Metaphysics is the main feature of western philosophy. Such kind of philosophy brings vitality to western culture, so the natural sciences, psychology and methodology achieve a rapid development. In some other aspects, such philosophy proposition is a significantly obstacle, such as the dietary culture, which is the inevitable thing to drop behind, and just the metaphysics of methodology marks everywhere. Chinese diet is a sense of beauty diet. When people sample dishes, they often say this dish is delicious, and that dish is not delicious. But if you ask what is meant by delicious, why tasty and what are the aspects of delicious, I am afraid that it will be difficult to answer. This shows that which Chinese people hanker on a diet is just the “mood” that is difficult for one to say anything. The beauty pursuit of Chinese cuisine is clearly overriding the rational pursuit. This concept of diet is also coinciding with the traditional Chinese philosophy. Chinese philosophy as a representative of oriental philosophy, its distinguishing features is the macro, visual, vague and evasive. Chinese cooking method is to reconcile, and the ultimate goal is to reconcile out of a beautiful taste. The main stress is measure and the overall co-ordination. It contains a wealth of dialectics of Chinese philosophy, and all these depend on the degree of the wonderful flavor and harmony of dish. II. Differences in targetsAll diet cannot be done without vegetables. The wo