Friend, Come Share a Banquet | Let’s Eat Something Good Stories
In China, if you want to truly understand a place, go and share a local banquet. It doesn’t matter whether you’re from the same village or across the country, a distant relative or a complete stranger, whether you know the people or not, whether you have much to say to them — once you sit down together, eating and drinking, you are no longer an outsider. The local food, the customs, the family gossip, the local colour — it’s all there at the banquet table.
When it comes to sharing a banquet, Chinese people likely share some memories that are common to the whole country. We’d love to hear yours.
You could say that for every joy, sorrow, anger, or grief in the world, there is a banquet waiting to mark it.
Chinese-language films have a particular fondness for banquets. The bustling wedding reception that opens Yi Yi hides the private concerns each character carries; the sham wedding in The Wedding Banquet grows ever more real under the nudging of relatives and friends; a false funeral in Remains lays bare the warmth and coldness of rural social bonds; and the college admission banquet in Hi, Mom sees two mothers quietly competing… A banquet is, by its very nature, where stories unfold — the words you’d never say out loud, the feelings you’d never let out, finally find in the shared table a way to meet.
◉ From film stills: top left Yi Yi, top right The Wedding Banquet, bottom left Remains, bottom right Hi, Mom
Banquets in real life go far beyond the dramatic conflicts seen on screen. The Chinese tradition of gathering around a shared table stretches back a long way. From a one-month baby celebration, weddings, and longevity banquets to college admission banquets and funeral meals, the banquet table has witnessed many of the important milestones in our lives.
For many people, memories of home are tied to the banquet. Before the banquet begins, the sky has not yet lightened, but a great pot is already set up in the courtyard; the village aunties sit in a circle, picking vegetables and doing the chopping, while the local chef they’ve invited fires up the wok and turns out a dozen tables of dishes in no time. The adults rush about greeting guests; the kids, bowls in hand, crawl in and out from under the tables; even the dogs get an extra bowl of meaty bones on top of usual. After the last guest leaves, everyone pitches in to clear the tables, wash the dishes, and divide up the leftovers to take home.
◉ Banquet preparations in film. From film stills: top left Yi Yi, top right The Wedding Banquet, bottom left Remains, bottom right Hi, Mom
A single banquet table is also a microcosm of a region’s produce and landscape, carrying with it the local way of hosting and its understanding of what counts as “proper.” Water towns have fish, mountain villages have bamboo shoots, pastoral areas have lamb — and some dishes appear only at a large banquet. North and South each have their own grand finale dish: braised goose in Chaoshan, Shao Bai (steamed pork with preserved vegetables) in Sichuan, steamed clay-pot dishes in Henan, Guo Bao Rou (sweet-and-sour crispy pork) in the Northeast…
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The banquet has been changing all along. A single table is a slice of the era, recording shifts in how Chinese people work, live, and relate to one another.
Thirty years ago, the rolling banquet in the village still meant tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks borrowed from every household, with the whole village pitching in to butcher and cook on the spot. Back then, sharing a banquet was about generosity and liveliness. Where there was a large banquet, no one left hungry — an extra pair of chopsticks, one more table set, and somehow there was always room.
Thirty years on, more banquets have followed people as they move, setting up in the Dragon-and-Phoenix Halls of hotel restaurants, where standardised menus have replaced much of what once required relatives and neighbours to work through together. Increasingly, young people opt for a lighter wedding, inviting only their closest people to a meal.
◉ A homemade Northeastern-style large banquet, with dishes being prepared. Image source: Bilibili creator @延边小杨一家
The dishes on the table have grown ever more lavish. All kinds of white and red meats are now standard fare, while seafood, Western food, and Japanese cuisine have started appearing at some banquets. At the same time, pre-made steamed pork belly with preserved mustard greens, braised lion’s head meatballs, flower rolls, steamed buns, and xiaolongbao also find their way to the banquet table. The spread you used to dream about as a child no longer surprises.
The human dynamics at the banquet are changing too. Many feel that sharing a banquet has become a formality: gift money keeps climbing, conversations about getting married and having children are impossible to avoid, and the small talk and comparisons over drinks leave people drained.
These changes are hard to label in simple terms; they simply mirror the life that has been shifting around us for years. But even today, the banquet remains one of the few moments when a family, a community, or a village can come back together. What we want to document is the life that is in the middle of changing.
In this edition of “Let’s Eat Something Good,” we’d like to launch a call for stories about sharing a banquet. It could be the most emblematic dish from a banquet in your hometown, a wedding or funeral you’ll never forget, your experience as the host putting on a feast, a memory of home, or your feelings about how banquets have changed over the years.
Everyone is welcome to scan the QR code or click “Read the original article” at the end to fill in the questionnaire — your story may be featured in a Foodthink article. We will select two readers from the responses to receive gifts, and invite one reader to the office to eat, cook, and do the dishes together with the Foodthink team.
Planning: Li Ye
Poster design: Z X
Editing: Yu Yang
Layout: Xiao Shu