‘White food’ becomes the butt of the joke in China

A piece of sliced bread with peanut butter, carrots with hummus, or crackers with cheese and ham are meals that a Westerner could take in their lunchbox to eat at work on any given day. This is nothing new, but in recent weeks it has become a viral topic in China. Social networks such as Weibo and Xiaohongshu (Chinese equivalents of Twitter and Instagram, respectively) are now full of posts about what users have dubbed “white people’s food.” Some mock it for being bland and insipid — you can read comparisons between eating these foods and suffering torture — while others are fascinated to see how little effort is required to prepare the dishes, since in China it is not unusual to make elaborate meals with many types of ingredients.

The trend is simply to prepare “white people’s food” and share the experience on social networks with photos and videos of the dishes. The fashion began after a video of a woman in Switzerland preparing her meal on a train went viral. The meal consisted simply of a bag of lettuce, some ham and a sachet of mustard. In China’s online culture, this was the portal to a new and fascinating culinary world. Since then, Chinese users have not stopped publishing “dishes” such as oatmeal with yogurt, or chopped vegetables, emphasizing the lack of flavor and enjoyment that there is in eating in this austere way.

In a video, the Chinese tiktoker Marcelo Wang explains this phenomenon to his Western followers: “The Chinese are very used to using many different ingredients in their food.” The contrast with the images of “white food” is symptomatic of a huge cultural gap that functioned as a breeding ground for viral content. Homecooked Chinese food usually requires a lot of work, time, and dedication. A piece of bread with ham requires none of this and, according to Wang, that’s why Chinese users have joined the trend with such enthusiasm.

Julio Zhang, chef at the Madrid restaurant Soy Kitchen, explains that for the Chinese every mealtime is an extremely important time. On workdays, Zhang says, having a good lunch at noon is critical because in China workdays can be long and exhausting.

“In China they always like the food to be stronger and tastier,” says the chef, adding that recently the taste for spicy food has been growing. That is why Sichuanese cuisine, famous for its intense flavors, has become fashionable.

Zhang, however, clarifies that the viral concept of “white people’s food” does not represent the idea that most Chinese truly have of Western food and that many travel to Europe for their interest in different cuisines. Spain’s cuisine, Zhang says, has a good reputation in his native China. This chef, who studied Spanish cooking in Pamplona and combines techniques and ingredients from different origins in his restaurant, considers that food in Spain has such a great variety that it reminds him of that of China. That is why he does not believe that Spanish can be included in that category of “white food”: “For me, even a tortilla [Spanish omelet] is complex and has many delicious aspects.”

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