Interview Narrative
The person I chose to interview for this project was my father, Tao Xu. He was the most suitable interviewee for this project because he had lived in both China and the United States for extended periods of time, and had experience in the food cultures of both countries. He also enjoyed eating noodle dishes, and had some insights in the food cultures of China and the United States.
I first began the interview with a statement of my purpose for interviewing Tao, and asked him to give a brief self-introduction, including his name, hometown, age range and occupation. According to Tao, his hometown was in Wuhan, and he was forty-eight years old. His occupation was a physician in Wuhan. The first two questions that I asked relating to the main theme was whether if he liked noodles, and what were his favorite kinds of noodles. According to Tao, he had enjoyed eating noodle dishes ever since he was a child, and his favorite kinds of noodle dishes were hot and dry noodles, braised beef noodles and eel noodles. He also showed me a bowl of hot and dry noodles that he had just bought from the convenience store downstairs. The bowl of noodles was still warm with steam coming out of it, and it looked delicious. Interested in the bowl of hot and dry noodles, I asked him to give the audience some information about hot and dry noodles. Tao claimed that hot and dry noodles was a popular breakfast food in Wuhan. It was made by boiled noodles stirred with ingredients, such as soy sauce, sesame paste, garlic water and radish. Moreover, he claimed that every breakfast restaurant or store in Wuhan sold hot and dry noodles. Therefore, hot and dry noodles could be viewed as a representation of the food culture of Wuhan.
Besides hot and dry noodles, Tao mentioned that braised beef noodles and eel noodles were also some of his favorite noodle dishes. Therefore, I asked him if he had enjoyed eating these kinds of noodles ever since he was a child. Surprisingly, Tao said that he rarely had the opportunity to eat braised beef noodles and eel noodles when he was a child. According to Tao, his family was quite poor when he was a child, similar to many other families in China at the time. His family often ate boiled noodles with vegetables or soy sauce, because beef and eel were quite expensive for them to buy. However, Tao said that even though he did not eat beef or eel noodles often when he was a child, he still enjoyed eating vegetable soup noodles. Realizing that this topic had the potential to lead to the theme of the reflection of changes in the Chinese society in his diet and in noodles, I continued this topic and asked him when he began to eat braised beef noodles and eel noodles more frequently. His answer was that he began to eat these kinds of noodles more frequently in his thirties.
Naturally leading to one of the themes of this interview, I asked Tao of his thoughts on the relationship between changes in the Chinese society and noodles as well as his diet. After thinking for a brief moment, he told me his thoughts and opinions on this topic. According to Tao, when he was a child, which was in the 1970s, China was a rather poor country, and many families did not even have enough money to buy enough food to eat. In the 1990s, when he was in his twenties and started working, he often ate instant noodles, because they were cheap and convenient. At the time, instant noodles was considered to be a high-quality food, and he thought instant noodles was very delicious. However, he claimed that he didn’t like to eat instant noodles anymore now, because it was now being considered as an unhealthy food. As China’s economy grew rapidly, people were also becoming wealthier, and had more money to spend on food. As a result, noodles were also becoming more delicate and more expensive now. This answer provided me a lot of information for my theme. Tao first mentioned two changes in the noodles, which were that instant noodles were once regarded as a high-quality food, and that noodle dishes today were becoming more delicate and more expensive. He also mentioned two changes in his diet, which were that he could not afford to eat braised beef noodles and eel noodles when he was a child but he often eats them now, and that he liked to eat instant noodles when he was young, but now he doesn’t like to eat them anymore. These changes that he mentioned all provided evidence for that fact that China’s economy had grown rapidly over the last several decades, and the Chinese people are becoming wealthier and have more money to spend on food.
Moving on to the next theme of the influence of the American culture on noodle’s cultural DNA, I transitioned the topic by asking Tao if he also ate noodles regularly when he was living in the United States. Tao nodded and said that when he was living in the United States, he often bought noodles from Chinese supermarkets and cooked them at home. He also went to restaurants sometimes to eat noodle dishes. Continuing this topic, I asked him if he noticed any differences between the noodle dishes he had in China and those he had in the United States. According to Tao, the noodle dishes he ate in the United States were very different from the noodles he had in China. Tao mentioned that the noodles he had in China usually had many different ingredients, and were often quite time consuming to make. However, the noodles that he usually ate in the United States were much easier to make, like instant ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese. His answer to my question provided me some information about how the American culture has manifested itself in the noodle’s cultural DNA. Fast food is an important aspect of the food culture in the United States, and this cultural had led to the prevalence of noodle dishes such as instant ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese. These kinds of noodles usually use only a few ingredients, and are easy to make. However, comparing to the traditional Chinese and Italian noodles, these kinds of “American noodles” are lacking in nutrition contents, and not as beneficial to the human health as traditional Chinese or Italian noodles.
Transitioning to the third theme of how noodles have influenced Tao culturally, I asked him about his thoughts on the noodles he ate in the United States. Tao said that he did not like to eat instant noodles or macaroni and cheese, but he enjoyed some Western noodle dishes such as pasta and spaghetti. Since he grew up eating the traditional Chinese style noodles, he preferred Chinese noodles and noodles with soup base, and he would often make traditional Chinese style noodles by himself at home when he was living in the United States. Following this topic, I asked him directly how noodles had influenced him culturally. According to Tao, he thought that noodles had became one of the necessary foods for him, because he had eaten noodles for over forty years, ever since he was a child. Even when he was in the United States, he would find Chinese restaurants and order some noodle dishes to eat, and he would also buy noodles from Chinese supermarkets and cook noodle dishes by himself at home. Tao even claimed that if he did not eat noodles for a long period of time, he would feel like something was missing from his life. Whenever he ate noodles now, especially soup-based noodles, it would remind him of his childhood memories and his hometown. Therefore, from the thoughts and examples Tao gave in this answer, I came to the conclusion that noodles was becoming a culturally inseparable part of Tao, and for him, noodles would represent his childhood as well as his hometown.
Thus, I gained various insights on noodles and culture from this interview. I was impressed by the large influence that noodles had on my father culturally. I also learned that changes in the Chinese society could be reflected by the changes in noodle dishes as well as people’s diet, and that the American’s food culture has manifested itself in the noodle’s cultural DNA.
Link to the video of my interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSJNA1ODHjI&feature=youtu.be