Professor Jonathan Lipman demonstrates the fine art of using chopsticks to Lindsay Theile '04. Photo by Fred LeBlanc.

It's rare that you can find a course that nourishes the body as well as the mind, but that's exactly what was on the plate in Asian Studies 136j, history professor Jonathan Lipman's popular J-Term course, Food in Chinese Culture. The course, for which fifty-four students signed up, examined the theory and practice of food in China. Students studied the evolution and ecology of regional cuisines, the use of food in religious and ritual life, the aesthetics of food preparation and consumption, relationships between food and medicine and philosophy, and the role of food in community building.

In addition to specific material on food in China, the class discussed the general topic of the relationship of food to culture. Says Lipman, “Meals hold cultural meaning as aesthetic, social, and psychological markers of a person's (usually the host's) good taste and conviviality. Meals are also the centerpieces of the yearly round of festivals (as they are in this country) and of all life-cycle celebrations from births to funerals.” Adds Lipman, “Food is the single most dominant subject of conversation in China, and this group of students has been enthusiastic and eager to learn about the subject.”

The course was no gut (no pun intended), for in addition to sampling Chinese food, there was a steady diet of reading, a quiz, and a major paper on the menu—all tightly packed in during the class's three weeks of meeting. Students' reasons for choosing the course centered around sampling something out of the ordinary. Alice Bernet '01 took the class because she loves Chinese food, but “knew practically nothing about it.” Liz Burrows '02 overheard Lipman's enthusiastic description of the course as she was studying outside his office. “The class sounded like something completely different. I decided then and there that I was going to take it,” she said.

Stuffed tofu anyone? Xiao Hong Wu, whose daughter attends Mount Holyoke, displays one of the dishes served at a Chinese banquet that was part of Jonathan Lipman's J-Term class. Photo by Fred LeBlanc.

Class readings included excerpts from Golden Arches East, Feeding China's Little Emperors, and The Food of China. Topics of discussion ranged from “ ‘Chinese food' vs. some things that Chinese people actually eat,” “writing a restaurant review,” and “five-flavors theory and the creation of a dish” to “health as moderation” and “food in contemporary China.” Students also viewed and discussed some savory films, including the Family Table and Masters of the Wok.

After a main course of readings and discussions, the icing on the fortune cookie was two meals that the class enjoyed at local Chinese restaurants. Lipman briefed the students in advance on table manners and social customs during dining. He also warned them not to be disturbed when they saw chicken being served with the head attached. At Peking Garden in Hadley, Lipman arranged for the group to have a banquet in the style of the Hakka (a people from the northern part of Guangdong province in China) that included about a dozen dishes, among them stuffed tofu; roast duck; seafood soup; chicken with onion, ginger and scallions; and stuffed jumbo shrimp. During the food fest, Lipman chatted in Chinese with restaurant staff, demonstrated the proper way to use chopsticks (“the closer together you keep them, the better it is,” he says), encouraged students to follow Chinese customs, and gave advice about toasting (the equivalent of our “bottoms up,” he explained, is Ganbei). Lipman is currently at work on a book about food. “If you pay attention to it,” he says, “food enriches human life.”

Lipman's class certainly provided food for thought for all involved, and everyone seemed to leave the table, and the classroom, well satisfied.