Foodscape — a Swiss-Chinese Intercultural Encounter about the Culture of Food
Edited by Margrit Mann and Martin Zeller
156 pages, Hardcover.
H335mm x W245mm
English/ Chinese/ Portuguese/ German/ French/ Italian
ISBN 978-988-98653-8-2
HK$250 (inclusive of delivery)
US$36 + postage fee (outside Hong Kong delivery)
Foodscape is a collection
of texts and photographs created during an intercultural encounter
with history and culture of food on a 14-day literary & artistic
exchanges trip for Swiss authors and artists to China, and vice versa,
for Chinese authors to Switzerland. During workshops, readings and
public discussions, a linguistic and sensual approach made it possible
to experience what is otherwise mutually foreign. In China, eating
meals together is a matter of establishing commonalities and a basis
for communication, as well as a way to encourage the harmony of the
universe. From time immemorial, food has been a form of communication,
first with the family, where togetherness is realized in common meals,
then with business partners and friends to contemplate the fate of
the economy and the society over food and drink, and finally with ancestors
to be nourished with sacrifices of food. So it is not surprising that,
in China, the daily greeting “How are you?” takes the form “Have you
already eaten?” Why Switzerland and China? A similarity between Switzerland
and the Pearl River Delta region is multilingualism: while Switzerland’s
national languages are German, French, Italian, and Romansh, people
in Guangdong region speak Cantonese, Putonghua, English, and Portuguese.
Along with this multiplicity of languages in a small area, the literary
work of Swiss and South Chinese writers seems having a similar sense
of the transitory, the literary sketch that cannot be precisely categorized,
and a subjective style full of linguistic play. Behind apparent simplicity,
modern and precise observations of everyday life can be found; often,
though, they lead away from reality into a highly artificial world
of forms and language focused on the self.
對中國人而言，一起吃飯是為了建立關係，是交往的基礎，也是促進社會和諧的方式。打從很久以來，食物變成了溝通的形式。首先是家人的團聚，體現於同共吃。其次是生意往來，伙伴和朋友們一邊吃喝，一邊暢談社會經濟大勢。最後是祭祖，以食品供奉先人。進食既然有著如此重要的社會生活意涵，因此，中國人打招呼不說「你好嗎？」而說「吃了飯沒有？」，這一點也不奇怪。
為甚麼是瑞士跟中國？瑞士和珠江三角洲同樣是多種語言並行的地方：在瑞士，國家語言包括德語、法語、意大利語和羅馬尼亞語；而廣東一帶，有說廣東話、普通話的，也有說英語、葡萄牙語的。除了多語言這共同特性，瑞士和華南的文學創作，似乎都有著一種無常的況味，例如作品難以準確歸類、突出個性、喜歡文字方面的實驗等等。我們看到，這些表面簡約的文學作品，卻能夠以現代手法準確地呈現日常生活；雖然它們往往超越現實，進入一個以形式和語言所構築的自我世界。
本書源於一項以食物的歷史和文化為主題的跨文化活動。中 、瑞士作家與藝術家在為期十四天的交流令參與者對異域文化有真切的體會。《食事風景》收錄了有關文章
、詩篇和照片。
About the Author
Martin Zeller born in 1961 in Mannheim, Germany,
studied at the College of Design in Darmstadt. He was awarded the European
Photography Award for his first art project (412–432, 1990).
About the Author
Margrit Manz born and raised in Hong Kong,
Vincent Yu has worked as a photojournalist covering major news events
across the Asia-Pacific region since 1985...