Gourmets and Grimaces
I usually shy away from make sweeping generalizations, but in this case I don’t think I risk any offense by saying: Japanese people are incredibly expressive when reacting to food. Turn on the TV at any hour and you’ll see a tarento visiting a local noodle joint or pastry shop, vigorously tuckering into whatever gets served up. Check out how friends and lovers respond to a good meal, whether home-cooked or otherwise, on Terrace House or in any drama or film—eyes goggling in admiration after one bite. Observe the Japanese beer commercial, the cathartic hiss of the pull tab cutting to the rapturous glee of the lucky man or woman who gets to imbibe. Delicious! everyone always effervesces. Amazing! I’m so happy!!
I always crave a beer after one of those commercials. Damn effective marketing.
The Japanese media landscape is saturated with these endearing exaggerations. It should come as no surprise then that food-based television programs and anime abound, of which many series are available these days through Netflix. As someone who cooks a lot, albeit with only average skill, and as a fan of food writing (in the vein of Bourdain and Fuchsia Dunlop) and food cinema—Babette’s Feast, Eat Drink Man Woman, what have you—I’ve found a comfortable niche in Japanese shows about alimentation, the ritual aspect of preparing and sharing it, the expression and cultivation of relationships through cooking and eating.
Midnight Diner 『深夜食堂』 is probably the most well-known of this genre, a long-running drama about the nocturnal characters drifting in and out of a Shinjuku hole-in-the-wall, presided over by a stoic proprietor with a prominent scar. Despite its prudery, C. and I also enjoyed What Did You Eat Yesterday? 『きのう何食べた?』, in which a stern-faced lawyer cooks dinner nightly for his flamboyant hairdresser boyfriend. In line with many Japanese shows depicting same-sex relationships, the actors barely graze each other’s hands on screen, let alone share a kiss. The food looked good, though.
Recently, a show called The Way of the Hot and Spicy 『ゲキカラドウ』 has inspired me to seek out ridonculously spicy food in the city. This drama follows a young salaryman who gets transferred to the Tokyo head office of his beverage company, and discovers upon arrival, to his horror, that his coworkers all seem to have a palate for insanely, masochistically spicy food. Did I mention that this is exactly the kind of food I not only love, but prefer? The protagonist ends up at a different real-world restaurant in each episode. With no choice but to face his greatest gastronomic fears, he grimaces and sweats his way through many a meal and picks up a few business (and life) philosophies along the way.
The Way of the Hot and Spicy rotates through an admirably eclectic selection of cuisines, including Japanese, Sichuan, Thai, and Italian. And now I want to try every single one of them—was looking forward to some crazy hot arrabbiata last weekend, in fact, but this joint in Ikebukuro happened to be closed when we went by. Drat.
At any rate, this was the journey that led me to start watching Samurai Gourmet 『野武士のグルメ』 recently, which is about a newly retired salaryman learning to enjoy his newfound leisure time through the simple pleasures of food and drink. Of all the shows I’ve seen, this is the one that most overtly espouses a nationalist pride in Japanese cuisine. Part of the gimmick is that said salaryman conveniently receives visions of a nobushi or “wandering samurai” whenever he has food-related doubts or misgivings, and thus learns to model his own behavior after the virtuous masculinity and virile morality demonstrated by the armor-clad warrior of his fantasies.
The second episode was rather shocking, and I felt compelled to write about it. I kept waiting for the plot to take a turn for the better and undermine, with a wink, the rather offensive stereotypes on display. But no—the writers of this show (or perhaps the original manga) were interested only in trotting out tired tropes and casting derision on the cultural Other for the sake of the majority-Japanese audience. What stereotypes? I’m talking about this:
In this episode titled “The Demoness’s Ramen,” our protagonist is twice-foiled by crowded local noodle shops before he walks unsuspectingly into this deserted Chinese restaurant. The lack of patrons is probably a bad sign, but he decides to take a chance. There’s absolutely no one in sight, no warm greeting upon entrance. Right as he’s about to leave, a stocky and dour-faced woman in qipao materializes.
Tapping her foot impatiently, she takes his order in gruff broken Japanese and then stomps away into the kitchen. The retired salaryman looks around helplessly, instantly regretting his decision. His judgment of this establishment further solidifies as he observes the condition of the condiments, the cheap Chinese lampshades and posters, a wall calendar with multiple days marked as golf outings.
After the matron delivers his bowl of noodles in mere minutes, the situation goes from terrible to worse with each bite: the hard-boiled egg is cold, pork slices dry, seaweed in one long, unbecoming strip. The noodles? Absolutely inedible. He screams inwardly.
The meal a lost cause, he decides to ask for the check. By this time, the matron has already lit up a cigarette and turned on the TV. To add insult to injury, she blows smoke in his face. Completely oblivious and uncaring.
When he gets home, leg between his tails, his properly slim, graceful, and courteous Japanese wife makes him a bowl of instant noodles as consolation. Cue the sigh of relief and gratitude, set to soft piano music.
I mean— While recognizing that there are far greater injustices in the media landscape, in the world, I was still surprised by how this episode was entirely premised upon a Chinese restaurant being a dirty and disgusting place operated by a rude caricature. It saddens me to think of this portrayal striking a chord with the audience, affirming their suspicions or unsavory opinions: that the Chinese are ill-mannered, their restaurants unhygienic. That they are alien and inhospitable to Japanese people, and conversely unfit for Japanese society in general.
I know, I know. Nobody making this show (or writing or drawing the manga it was based on) probably thought that deeply about it. It’s just poking cheap fun at a stereotype and doesn’t necessarily proclaim that all Chinese people or restaurants are like this. But the Chinese are minority others in Japan, the most populous group besides Koreans. Representation matters. Can you imagine if a Western food-based TV drama depicted a Chinese restaurant in this way? In the contemporary world, I mean. I have no doubt that flagrantly awful stuff exists in the annals of yesteryear. Samurai Gourmet, on the other hand, came out in 2017.
Another reason I wanted to write about this episode is because it feeds into an academic side project that I’d like to work on someday. I’ve been fascinated by the endless menagerie of exoticized and, yes, orientalized images of China and Chineseness in Japanese popular culture across a number of manga/anime franchises and contemporary media. China has long been viewed as the site of perpetual otherness by Japan, it seems, a vision of backwards traditionalism that contrasts with the sophistication and cultural advancement of the Japanese.
China historically had such deep cultural, linguistic, and spiritual influence on Japan. Japan’s version of Chinese food, or chūka cuisine, is ubiquitous and popular. Yet Japan’s sense of superiority has persisted since at least the 19th century, if not much earlier. This was, after all, an era when Japanese political elites subscribed to the “Leave Asia, Join Europe” 脱亜入欧 doctrine while the Qing dynasty was going through a long, painful decline. An image that has been stuck in my mind palace over the years is this ukiyo-e depicting the Chinese surrender to the Japanese Navy at the Battle of Weihaiwei in 1895. The differences in representation between the national self and the alien, oriental Other are truly amazing. A hundred and twentysome years later, I wonder how much has really changed.
Welp, it looks like I’ve ventured far afield from my original topic of food TV. Would love to hear your thoughts, or get your recommendations on books, shows, and other things to check out, whether regarding food, Japanese views of China, or none of the above. (And yes, I’m well aware there are lots of unflattering portrayals of Japanese people, mostly soldiers, in Chinese history dramas. Two wrongs don’t make a right, etc.)
Happy autumn!