P4: Food culture in prison vs. food culture in Shenzhen

In both Cate’s and O’Donnell’s pieces, food plays an essential role in the cultures or communities that they studied. However, food is important in different ways and means different things to the two groups of people. Cate studied the culture of inmates in a San Francisco county jail. Although they are provided with 3 meals a day, most inmates participate in ‘spreading,’ which entails saving ingredients from other meals or purchasing them for the commissary and combining them in unique ways to make a meal called a spread. There is a definitive culture that exists in prisons, and spreads are an important part of that culture. Primarily, they bolster a sense of camaraderie between the men, because multiple people usually pitch in ingredients, cook, and eat together. The spread is a kind of unofficial meal, usually late at night long after the prison serves dinner. Enjoying this meal with the group of people the inmates enjoy spending time with is a way for them to not only escape the monotony of the typical prison fare, but also to express some individuality. People of different ethnic backgrounds put different items into their spread, so although all spreads have a base of ramen noodles, an individual can integrate their own culture and tastes into their cooking and share it with the members of their community. The nature of the spread and those who it’s eaten with play a role here, too. The article states that whites tend to spread with whites, blacks with blacks, etc. Economic status can be determined by what the spread consists of in terms of more or less expensive ingredients.

O’Donnell’s studies focused on a very different place than Cate’s- the Southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. She divides the population of Shenzhen into two main categories- old and new ‘Shenzheners.’ Because Shenzhen was developed so recently, the Old Shenzheners are represented by the older people in the city who first moved there to build it, and their offspring as well as people who migrated there for its economic promise constitute the New Shenzheners. The food cultures among these two groups are very intriguing. The Old Shenzheners are partial to what O’Donnell calls “nostalgia for socialist meals.” The socialist meals referred to are what the Old Shenzheners had to eat in tougher times, when they had to live off of certain food rations or were denied government rations of certain foods due to status rules. In contrast, the New Shenzheners enjoy varied types of cuisine, often eating at chain restaurants that serve foods that are ‘fashionable’ and come from all different places in China. This difference in food preferences demonstrates a larger social rift that exists in Shenzhen. The Old Shenzheners still hold utopian socialist ideals that benefit society as a whole rather than the individual. The New Shenzheners, however, have a much different outlook, one that’s decidedly more capitalist. They believe in the benefit of the individual, and this ties directly to their desire to eat more fashionable food.

Cate’s article was very interesting because I had never put too much thought into the elaborate cultures that exist within prisons, and I had never even heard of spread before. However, O’Donnell’s article also intrigued me personally, because my roommate is an international student, and is actually from Shenzhen. She and I have become very good friends and have talked a lot about Shenzhen, but I’d never heard of most of what was addressed in the article. I asked her about it to see if she agreed, and she says that the article is spot on in its analysis of the rift between the old and new Shenzheners. This personal connection with the text made it particularly relevant to me, and enjoyable to read.