Food: an important role in communities

  The community that Cate studied in his article is the prison in San Francisco. The food he studied is the spread made by the prisoners themselves and the institution served in prison. Because the institution is bad and disgusting and the meal time is not logical, so prisoners decided to make their own food around 9 o’clock in the evening. Some prisoners made the spread by mix all the food served in institutions together; some prisoners bought the food from stores to make the spread. That’s the difference the food showed in this community. The spread is a symbol of the wealth. People who ate the spread made by the store’s food are rich while people who ate the spread mixed by the materials of the institutions are poor. So this is the role that the spread plays in prison.

  In O’Donnell’s article, he did the research about Chinese food, especially Shenzhen food. He found out that the food in China can show the differences between regions. For example, the northern people like to eat beef while the southern people like to eat fish. In general, cows are easier to catch and kill than the fish. So that’s the reason why the southern people are more nimble than the northern people. The southern people did pretty well in economic just because the food they eat trained themselves to think and react quicker than the northern people. Just like the Chinese food, Shenzhen food can also showed the history of the old Shenzhen in Old Shenzhener’s mind and the images of the new Shenzhen in New Shenzhener’s mind. When eating Shenzhen food, the Old Shenzheners will always remember that Shenzhen is like a commune and everyone worked for the common aim. However, when eating Shenzhen food, the New Shenzheners will always come up with the images of the increasing wealth and the proliferation of commodities.

  After reading these two articles, the most interesting part I find is the part that O’Donnell used the beef and fish to tell the differences between northern China and Southern China. So the food can be the sign of the communities. As a Chinese people, I can say that the beef is the symbol of the northern part of China while the fish is the symbol of the southern part of China. So I think his claim is correct and I cannot agree more.