a discreet hashtag between Latin alphabet and sinograms, is populating with ironies some of the China’s most popular social networks where they laugh, not without some reason, at what has come to be defined as “white people’s food”.
The images could not be more caustic and they all sound familiar: typical office or school lunch with a sad box in which we put a sandwich of cooked ham, a piece of fruit or a bit of salad, as they explain from Radii.
A clear example of less is more that began to echo the Chinese students abroadwhich proved that, in the eyes of the West, it was a complete meal.
The point is that now, between jokes and overtones of reality, White People Food or ‘white people’s food’ has ended up permeating Chinese societyespecially in that marathon office job that doesn’t leave room or time to eat something more resounding.
The same diatribe that shakes us in Europe and North America through the little time to cook, that we decided not to use it to be between the stoves, but to fix lunch boxes with a little bread, some vegetables and not too much flavor.
The irony is that what started as a joke now seems to permeate Chinese offices, seeing that these lunch boxes can be used to eat in a few minutes, not spend time and also lose weight.
Contrary to what happened with their traditional lunch boxes, more elaborate, tasty and caloric. To put an easy simile, the same thing that has happened in Spain with the gradual disappearance of the menu of the day of two dishes and dessert, while the Chinese praise that you can have the food made in five minutes.
A reality that agrees with the theory of half a day (12 hours, as Antonio Recio would say in The one that is coming), and it is that in China it is relatively common to work what is known as 9-9-6. That is to say, from nine in the morning to nine at night for six days a week.
The reason why they don’t have much time left humble office workers to prepare heartier or more elaborate meals, which is why White People Food is creating a sensation —as Georgie Dann would say about the bimbo— and that also prevents all these employees from eating out on a daily basis, since it would be prohibitive.
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The truth is that, for now, white food seems like a fad and one more proof of the cultural appropriation of certain countries that, unfortunately, we are also passing on to the Chinese workers.
Images | xiaohongshu
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