Martin Yan and Chinese Food as an art

["S. L . Lee" <sllee@asiawind.com>]

Dylan,

Martin mentioned Taishan 台山 is his hometown. Although there were Hakka in
Taishan and there was a fierce territorial fight during the Qing dynasty
which resulted in moving the Hakka from Taishan to Chixi (赤溪 Red Stream),
Yan is probably not Hakka. He appeared in the Chinese American television
program I posted a week ago.  He grew up in American Chinatown and went back
to Hong Kong learn Chinese cooking. In the last 10 years or so, he became
the most famous Chinese chef on American television. Hakka or not, he should
be honored as a great achiever in preserving an important aspect of Chinese
culture (food preparation) and promoting it to the world.

To this date, the greeting between Chinese is still "Have you eaten yet?"

Hakka: Ngi sit faan Mm Mian O ? (吃飯未啊？)
Cantonese: Sik zo faan mei ah ? (吃左飯未ㄚ？)
Mandarin : Chi guo le ba? (吃過了吧？)

Food preparation is the most sophisticated art developed in China since
pre-Qin period. In Zhou dynasty, there were already dozens of bronze vessels
of different shape and size, each given a special name for specific purpose
for holding food or wine (holding, serving, ceremonial).  No other culture
matches the high development in this area. Professor K C Chang 張光直 of
Yale University wrote a research book on the cuisinary art of China.

"Food in Chinese Culture : Anthropological and Historical Perspective"

The author of "The Archaeology of Ancient China", he is an authority Chinese
archaeology and anthropology.


SL Lee