Food issues 食事. Interdisciplinary Studies on Food in Modern and Contemporary East Asia concentrates on the relationship among food, culture, literature, and language in a comparative, transcultural, or literary perspective. The contributions investigate these aspects from different approaches: historical, sociological, anthropological, religious, linguistic, and want to deepen issues such as the symbolic value of food; food as an essential element for the construction of individual identity and a sign of belonging to a community; food as an intercultural medium; food as language and the language of food. The articles included in the volume are organized in a Japanese and a Chinese section and use different approaches within humanities disciplines to explore topics ranging from classical and contemporary East Asian literature to present-day issues, focusing on Food Culture and its declinations.

Chapter The "dining table revolution" in China: the question read through the lens of newspapers

Chapter Japanese shōjin ryōri: the green competition from Buddhist temples to TV shows

Chapter 手塚治虫とグルメマンガをつなぐもの-「あしたのジョー」の減量

Chiara Bertulessi; Chiara GHIDINI; Cristiana Turini; Elena Morandi; FELICE FARINA; Francesco Eugenio Barbieri; Makiko Yamasaki; Mario De Grandis; Natsuki Yamada; Serena De Marchi; Yuki Sasaki; EMMA LUPANO; filippo costantini; BETTINA MARTA ROSA MOTTURA; Natalia Francesca Riva; YUNQI ZHOU

Università degli Studi di Firenze

Studi e saggi, Florence, 2021

Italy, Italy

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Registered in 2013 by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as Intangible Cultural Heritage, washoku, the "traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese," includes the so-called shōjin ryōri, an expression dated to the early modern period and related to the Buddhist avoidance of meat eating. Since its early appearance, shōjin ryōri has undergone a variety of changes, and its evolution up to contemporary times is relevant to Japan's cultural history. Traditionally, vegetables (sōjimono) were not thought of as precious or tasty ingredients. However, during the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the introduction of vegetarian dishes made to resemble fish and fowl, both in shape and flavor -- the so-called modoki ryōri-- attracted people's attention, contributing to the spread within Kyoto and the Japanese archipelago of a tastier and aesthetically pleasing Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. Throughout the 15th century local specialties and banquet cooking culture were extremely important: mountain products were generally still deemed inferior compared to sea and river ones, but in a text belonging to the irui gassen mono genre, the Shōjin gyorui monogatari, the reader witnesses the triumph of vegetables over the army of fish and animals. During the Meiji era (1868-1912), Buddhist vegetarianism faced the rise of a different culinary culture, whereby eating (beef) meat turned into a symbol for physical strength, both the individual one of young male citizens and the collective one of Japan as a new-born nation. Even part of the Buddhist clergy chose to embrace the meat-eating culture. Today, shōjin ryōri coexists with vegetarian choices based on different theoretical tenets and is promoted by NHK Television within programs designed for a global audience and aimed to advocate the Cool Japan strategy as well as in TV shows like Yamato amadera shōjin nikki, focused on the everyday (cooking) life of Buddhist nuns in a secluded temple within Nara prefecture. While encouraging local (and Buddhist) vegetarian food literacy, this program also fulfills the government agenda in terms of rural rejuvenation policies and the promotion of washoku (which includes shōjin ryōri) as a brand to be popularized both within and outside Japan

Food is not only the source of nutrition for humans but also plays various roles in our daily lives, beliefs, and relationship. In China, one of the fundamental cultural elements is the sharing of food. Typically, the courses are served in the center of the table from which guests serve themselves on their plates or serve guests using their chopsticks. With the COVID-19 outbreak, people were advised to separate dining or at least use gongshao 公勺'serving spoon' or gongkuai公筷'serving chopsticks' instead of picking food directly from serving plates with their own chopsticks. The "table revolution" is a crucial issue: if it succeeds, it will change China's face. Public advertisements, as giant billboards on Shanghai's streets talking of serving chopsticks as a way to set the heart at ease, showed slogans like: "The distance between you and civilized dining is just one pair of serving chopsticks". Nevertheless, serving chopsticks have not quite caught on yet in China as they have done in Taiwan and Japan. According to the survey from Ma Lihua et al. (2020) resistance is strong. In a declaration from China Hotel Association, we find out: "Some restaurants in China have provided individual meals and public chopsticks and spoons for decades, but not everyone chooses to use them due to traditional eating habits". According to the Global Times, "if they eat with close friends and relatives, they would feel too embarrassed to use serving chopsticks as it seems like they dislike sharing with others, which often makes people uncomfortable" (Li Lei, Zhang Hu, Global Times 2020). The New York Times adds: "Many see sharing food with one's own chopsticks as among the most authentic expressions of China's communal culture and emphasis on family, no less integral than hugging is to Americans or the cheek kiss is to the French". The "dining table revolution", through the lens of newspapers, is going to be an uphill battle

I talk on change in the nature of the character in the cartoon through description of a food and the genre called a gourmet cartoon again. Specifically, the process until the character will be the existence which 'mediates between a story with a reader' is analyzed so that it may be seen in the gourmet cartoon. First I pay attention to Tezuka Osamu early stage work, Takamori Asao original work and Chiba Tetsuya taking pictures "Joe of tomorrow". And it is considered about the thing description about life and death there foreground propizes through a food. Further, it is confirmed that the effort and the growth drawn closely in "Joe of tomorrow" are formalized since putting it in the after work. It is inspected that the autonomy of the character becomes self-evident by this thing. And it is also inspected that the genre as the gourmet cartoon is formed consequently