Thai Food as a Cultural Product
The use of food as cultural products by tourism industry today affects the culinary heritages in negative senses
Do you agree with this statement? Please explain and give example.
Cultural products as a part of tourism industry have become an influential strategy in modern international trade. Food is one of the distinctive goods, which have popularly been brought to represent the country and the culture of its residents. However, surprisingly, the use of food as a cultural product by tourism industry today no longer fully displays the intellectual inheritance of the nation; on the contrary, it affects the culinary heritages in negative senses. Having become a cultural product, foreign-cuisine restaurants blossom in every part of the world. For instance, Thai food has become internationally popular because of its sophistication and variety. (Global Investment Center, 2008, p. 245) People can experience Thai cultures without practically going abroad through various choices of Thai food, which are available in their own countries. Nevertheless, often times, the food to which they expose is not a real representative of Thai culinary art since it is reduced in terms of cultural accuracy. There generally are some changes in ingredients due to some difficulties such as rare alien constituents, but, surprisingly, the changes in Thai food are usually not by reason of the lack but intentionally made. Thai cuisines served abroad are frequently modified. This does not occur from a misunderstanding of Thai cultures because several chefs in Thai restaurants overseas are from Thailand. Instead, this happens to be more because of customers; in other words, this is an effect of culture shock.
Peter Adler describes culture shock as a five-stage educational and developmental process based on work by Kalvero Oberg and others – which are the honeymoon stage, the disintegrate stage, the reintegrate stage, the autonomy stage, and the interdependence stage respectively. Newly
Do you agree with this statement? Please explain and give example.
Cultural products as a part of tourism industry have become an influential strategy in modern international trade. Food is one of the distinctive goods, which have popularly been brought to represent the country and the culture of its residents. However, surprisingly, the use of food as a cultural product by tourism industry today no longer fully displays the intellectual inheritance of the nation; on the contrary, it affects the culinary heritages in negative senses. Having become a cultural product, foreign-cuisine restaurants blossom in every part of the world. For instance, Thai food has become internationally popular because of its sophistication and variety. (Global Investment Center, 2008, p. 245) People can experience Thai cultures without practically going abroad through various choices of Thai food, which are available in their own countries. Nevertheless, often times, the food to which they expose is not a real representative of Thai culinary art since it is reduced in terms of cultural accuracy. There generally are some changes in ingredients due to some difficulties such as rare alien constituents, but, surprisingly, the changes in Thai food are usually not by reason of the lack but intentionally made. Thai cuisines served abroad are frequently modified. This does not occur from a misunderstanding of Thai cultures because several chefs in Thai restaurants overseas are from Thailand. Instead, this happens to be more because of customers; in other words, this is an effect of culture shock.
Peter Adler describes culture shock as a five-stage educational and developmental process based on work by Kalvero Oberg and others – which are the honeymoon stage, the disintegrate stage, the reintegrate stage, the autonomy stage, and the interdependence stage respectively. Newly