Abstract: Travelers do not merely gaze at a foreign country, they also taste. Both the travels of the first British delegation to China at the end of the 18th century and the reports of Late Qing diplomats to the countries of Europe and the United States in the late 19th century represent Chinese food, Western food and their respective ways of food and hospitalities. Such accounts provide a unique insight into the way of food and cultural differences in the early encounter between the East and the West. The emissaries from the East and the West went towards each other with established knowledge and digestive systems. The physiological and psychological reactions to the first encounter with foreign food, the complex feelings about foreign food and hospitality, the evaluation of the system of food production, distribution, consumption and cultural customs, and the manifestation of unequal international relations at the table, all reflect the cultural and political conservatism, the great cultural differences as well as the irreconcilable conflicts in the early encounter between the East and the West.

Key words: eating as metaphor, representation of food, travel writings of British embassy to China, reports of late Qing diplomats

摘要： 旅行者不只运用视觉凝视异国,也通过味觉品尝异国。18世纪末英国访华使团的使华记述、19世纪后期清朝使臣的出使欧美记,对于中餐、西餐以及中西食物之道和待客之道的再现,为窥视近代中西相遇中的饮食问题和文化差异提供了独特的维度。这些异域游记记录了来自东西两大帝国的使者们带着既定的知识武装和消化系统走向对方,初遇异国食物时的生理、心理反应,对于异国饮食之道和待客之道的复杂感受,对于食物的生产、分配、消费制度和文化习俗的评价,反映了早期中西相遇中巨大的文化差异和难以调和的分歧,折射出不平等的国际关系在餐桌上的体现。

关键词: 吃的隐喻, 食物再现, 英使访华记, 晚清出使记