Chinese Food is Fire and Japanese Food is Water
By: Daniel Goldman
Tags: Food, World, Philosophy, China, Japan

Chinese Food is Fire and Japanese Food is Water

Trying to explain the differences between Chinese and Japanese food.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Background

I spend a lot of time on Quora, now that I have a new account set up. I’ve been answering a lot of questions, but I’ve also been reading through a bunch of different existing answers. The question “What are the differences between Chinese food and Japanese food?” caught my attention, and one answer has been receiving a lot of discussion and debate.

This answer, by Gavin Code, went on to display a number of pictures of various dishes, most of which were spicy Sichuan foods for Chinese and dishes like sushi for Japanese dishes. It’s true that Sichuan food is well known for its spicy fishes, and it’s true that Americans are probably most familiar with sushi, neither food is as simple as that, and I do wonder if the analogy works in any reasonable way.

Additionally, because there is so much shared culture, there’s a lot of overlap between Chinese and Japanese food. Moreover, China itself is a very large area with a very diverse population, and so what constitutes “Chinese food” is very broad.

An Element Approach

That being said, I think something can be said about taking this approach to an answer, and I like the idea of relating this topic to the elements. Chinese and Japanese elements work a little differently than the western element system. Fire, earth, and water are the same. But there’s also wood and metal. Rather than just being “fire” I would say that Chinese food is fire and earth, while Japanese food is water and wood.

Now, Gavin largely focused on spice. And it’s true that spice is important in Sichuan food. But not all Sichuan food is spicy, and not even close to all Chinese food is spicy. But Chinese food involves heat in other ways, and I think Gavin touched on this idea as well. Think of the wok. Using a wok requires a lot of heat: fire.

Meanwhile, a lot of Japanese food is raw, and served cold or at room temperature. Additionally, being a nation of islands, Japanese food, and tradition, is heavily reliant on the ocean. But its reliance on water goes far deeper, and feeds into why I think “wood” is appropriate addition.

The Satoyama

The Satoyama system is a system of rice production and agriculture that was developed and perfected by the Japanese. It is essentially an artificial biome on a terraced mountain, and integrates the forests on the mountains, with the fields below it. The satoyama was a very important part of Japanese agriculture for a long time. Furthermore, this system is often used to produce carp in the same environment, acting as an additional food item.

Satoyama landscape of paddy fields and forest in Sasayama, Hyōgo CC-BY 2.5 on Wikipedia

The Forests

Mountains, and the forests that grew on them were an important part of this system. In fact, “satoyama” literally translates to “village mountain.” Foraging has always been an important part of the Japanese diet, and seasonable mountain vegetable, sansai, are found in a lot of meals.

A Difference in Fuel

I think that at this point, my reason for including wood into the mix is fairly clear. But why Earth for China and not Japan? It actually feeds into fire, and specifically the source of heat for traditional Chinese and Japanese cooking.

China has a long history of relying on coal. “Ancient China — Coal — Alberta’s Energy Heritage” has a nice discussion on the long relationship that China has had with coal. While it’s become problematic in recent decades, because of climate change and pollution. Coal has worked to fuel China for thousands of years. Coal also burns quite hot, which is important for some of Chinese cooking. More recently, wok cooking has come to rely on the heat of natural gas fires.

Japan, being an island nation, does not have the coal resources, or natural gas resources, that China has. Instead, it relies on wood and charcoal. Even with natural gas being used in modern cooking, Japan has to import its supply. Wood and charcoal, however, are abundant. Japan has even produced a special kind of charcoal known as “binchotan,” which burns at exceptionally high temperatures. It’s useful for Japanese BBQ, yakitori, and grilling fish.

A Sufficient Argument?

Trying to summarize a region’s food is problematic. There are so many different kinds of food consumed by a group of people, and there’s a lot of cultural sharing, resulting in even more variation. I could have taken an entirely different approach as well, focusing on how Japanese food tends to focus on simplicity, and a single ingredient, while Chinese food tends to blend a lot of ingredients together to create a balanced harmony. But I like the element approach.