21 - Chinese meals: diversity and change

Abstract

This chapter considers the relevance of traditional Chinese food culture for shaping meals in China, in the light of recent changes in food consumption and the introduction of new approaches to food. It highlights diversities and inequalities in Chinese meals, in particular along regional, ethnic, urban–rural, gendered and generational lines. It is argued that, although the last 30 years have seen dramatic changes and growing differences in food, still many of the basic principles associated with traditional food culture are relevant to contemporary Chinese meal practices and discourses on food.