Eat-Drink-Man Woman Symbolism

Food for the Heart Eat Drink Man Woman is a film directed by Ang Lee and was released in 1994. The story happened in the 1990s Chinese society. An aging master chef Chu has three unmarried daughters: Jia-Jen, Jia-Chien, and Jia-Ning. Each of whom has a typical character, the oldest one Jia-Jen is a conservative school teacher and converted to Christianity, the middle one Jia-Chien is a fiercely independent and open-minded airline executive, and the youngest one Jia-Ning is a romantic innocent college student. The family has a tradition that they always have a dinner together on Sundays, and the dinner table is also a family forum. The film uses food as a symbol of family, and also as a clue to describe the relationship among family members.

As the textbook says, “symbols are the key to understanding how we view the world and communicate with one another” (Henslin 13). Food varies from country to country, and also represents the distinctive meaning of each culture. Sharing food in the family is an integral custom in Chinese society.

In this film, “food” acts as a recurring symbol shows the change of the family relationship in each moment. Quarrel, communication, marriage, misfortune, and other changes in their life, are all use food as a symbol and presented at the dinner table. For example, when Jia-Jen has an argument with his father, when Jia-Chien is influenced by the western culture and don’t follow the old tradition, when Jia-Ning being premarital pregnant, the not perfect food represent the gap in a family, and the family dinner becomes a bothersome ritual of the family at that time. However, since chef Chu still has the passions in cooking, the relationship also becomes better among the family members, his failing taste buds finally come back when he tastes the food made by his

One’s behavior will deeply influence others’ lives, which can well show the saying “society is a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that work together” (Henslin 15). The Chinese people will pay greater attention to the relationship with each other, especially with the family members. The functions of this spirit are that people can support each other and are more united when they are facing the hardships. However, with the development and the rapid pace of the society, some dysfunctional may be exposed because people are more inclined to have more freedom to do their own matters. This film is exactly the culture shock between the modern traditions and the old ones, between the western values and the traditional Chinese values. When Jia-Chien has the opportunity to Amsterdam, the first thing she thought is her family but not her vocational perspective. However, with Jia-Ning being premarital pregnancy and get married at a very young age, Jia-Jen finally has the courage to pursue love, and even the chef Chu surprisingly remarried with a friend of his daughter. All of this illustrates that this family has accepted some new values to some