Cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tableware

The artefacts of tableware have been designed to facilitate the essential and ineluctable daily practice of dining in western and Chinese cultures. Apart from performing their function, the artefacts also reflect the corresponding cultures. This study investigated how the artefacts of fork and knife...

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Main Author: Shui Kau Chiu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Intellect 2024-12-01
Series:International Journal of Food Design
Subjects:
Online Access:https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijfd_00072_1
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author Shui Kau Chiu
author_facet Shui Kau Chiu
author_sort Shui Kau Chiu
collection DOAJ
description The artefacts of tableware have been designed to facilitate the essential and ineluctable daily practice of dining in western and Chinese cultures. Apart from performing their function, the artefacts also reflect the corresponding cultures. This study investigated how the artefacts of fork and knife vs. chopsticks daily embody and present western and Chinese cultures, respectively, as evidenced by literature and everyday life practice. Owing to complementary considerations, this study combined etic and emic approaches by applying individualism and collectivism and Chinese cultural concepts including guanxi, mianzi and yin yang as the theoretical framework. Driven by individualism, fork and knife capture features of specialization, division of labour, equality and expressiveness in western culture. On the contrary, powered by collectivism, chopsticks epitomize attributes of harmony, unity and complementarity in Chinese culture. Moreover, instead of being objectified and passive artefacts, this article argued that fork and knife vs. chopsticks have implicitly and reversely shaped the thoughts and deeds of their users in their respective cultures.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2056-6522
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publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Intellect
record_format Article
series International Journal of Food Design
spelling doaj-art-3c83a964711148db96bfdaf9b86077512025-01-16T21:53:24ZengIntellectInternational Journal of Food Design2056-65222056-65302024-12-019220121710.1386/ijfd_00072_1http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/ijfd/9/2Cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tablewareShui Kau Chiu0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4709-5548Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong KongThe artefacts of tableware have been designed to facilitate the essential and ineluctable daily practice of dining in western and Chinese cultures. Apart from performing their function, the artefacts also reflect the corresponding cultures. This study investigated how the artefacts of fork and knife vs. chopsticks daily embody and present western and Chinese cultures, respectively, as evidenced by literature and everyday life practice. Owing to complementary considerations, this study combined etic and emic approaches by applying individualism and collectivism and Chinese cultural concepts including guanxi, mianzi and yin yang as the theoretical framework. Driven by individualism, fork and knife capture features of specialization, division of labour, equality and expressiveness in western culture. On the contrary, powered by collectivism, chopsticks epitomize attributes of harmony, unity and complementarity in Chinese culture. Moreover, instead of being objectified and passive artefacts, this article argued that fork and knife vs. chopsticks have implicitly and reversely shaped the thoughts and deeds of their users in their respective cultures.https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijfd_00072_1fork and knifecollectivismyin yangmaterial culturechopsticksindividualism
spellingShingle Shui Kau Chiu
Cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tableware
International Journal of Food Design
fork and knife
collectivism
yin yang
material culture
chopsticks
individualism
title Cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tableware
title_full Cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tableware
title_fullStr Cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tableware
title_full_unstemmed Cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tableware
title_short Cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tableware
title_sort cultural presentations and extension of self from the artefacts of tableware
topic fork and knife
collectivism
yin yang
material culture
chopsticks
individualism
url https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijfd_00072_1
work_keys_str_mv AT shuikauchiu culturalpresentationsandextensionofselffromtheartefactsoftableware