Establishing the Japanized Chinese Cuisine as seen by the Cooking Magazine Ryōri no tomo

From the origins of humanity up to the present, we have continually encountered novel foods and beverages, alternately accepting and rejecting many.As humans are omnivores, a paradox lies in the tension and oscillation between neophobia and neophilia (Fischler 1988: 278).While many people prefer familiar foods, there are also widespread cravings for novelty dishes.Still, as Watson (1997) revealed in his study on McDonald's in East Asia, foods from abroad do not easily become pervasive without alteration; instead, they are deliberately localized by consumers in the host countries.Geographically, Japan is surrounded by the sea, which facilitated the maintenance of an isolationist policy from 1639 to 1854.In this regard, Japanese foodways were only slightly affected by foreign foodstuffs and cuisines during the premodern era.Further, meat consumption had officially been prohibited since the 7 th century, with the state instead placing heavy emphasis on rice cultivation.This resulted in a very unique food system that was characterized by the absence of livestock (which meant no meat or dairy products) and a scarcity of oils and fats.However, these conditions drastically changed through the end of the Edo period and into the Meiji Restoration of 1867.Due to an intense desire to advance toward Western status, the new Japanese government eagerly encouraged the Westernization of food throughout the nation.Interestingly, the Emperor's birthday in 1872 was celebrated with a Western-style banquet, and public news reports indicated he had begun to consume beef and mutton on a regular basis (Cwiertka 2016: 15-24).However, many of these Western foods were largely changed to gain acceptance from Japanese consumers, with the resulting cuisine referred to as yshoku.Representative examples of this from the 20 th century include tonkatsu Kawaguchi Establishing the Japanized Chinese Cuisine as seen by the Cooking Magazine Ryri no tomo 2 (pork cutlet), korokke (croquette), raisukar (curry with rice), and omuraisu (rice omelet) (Kosuge 2017), all of which are still popular in Japan.In contrast to Western foods, Chinese cuisine was not initially desired or accepted in Japan.This was primarily the result of a condescending national attitude toward other Asian countries, particularly due to widespread feelings of pride over winning the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895 and the subsequent advance toward modernization (Ishige 2001: 143).It was not until the expansion of Japanese imperialism during the 1920s-30s that Chinese cuisine was widely consumed in Japan (Cwiertka 2016: 140).By the end of World War II, many of these dishes had been uniquely altered for Japanese consumption, as with yshoku.While Japanized Chinese cuisine was initially known as Sinaryri, this was later changed to Chkaryri to avoid the negative connotations of the sinaprefix.Chka is the Japanese pronunciation of Zhonghua, meaning China or Chinese, while ryri is simply the word for cuisine.Even today, Chkaryri carries the connotation of "Chinese cuisine in Japan" or "Japanized Chinese cuisine."According to a survey conducted by the prominent Japanese advertising agency Hakuhodo, three dishes with Chinese origins are among the top 10 most popular in Japan, including ramen