Fine Dining: Food Stories of Ancient China

Fine Dining: Food Stories of Ancient China, an exhibition from distant China, which has also travelled to Liechtenstein, Paris and Hong Kong, will be on display at the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest from 16 October 2024 until 19 January 2025. This unique exhibition features about 80 works of art from the collection of the National Museum of China, from ancient to modern times. The aim is to introduce to the public the depth, charm and diversity of China’s millennia-old culinary traditions and to provide insight into a culture where food and drink have been prepared not only to meet basic needs, but also to offer several other meanings, including spiritual ones. 

What role has cooking and eating played in the past and present of the Chinese people? How has gastronomy shaped everyday life, traditions, thinking and even politics? How important is culinary culture in China? 

From raw food to sophisticated dishes, ancient China witnessed a series of culinary revolutions and cultural transformation over the centuries, as traditional Chinese thinking has been strongly reflected in the art of cooking. The country not only offers sophisticated and functionally varied cutlery and crockery, but also refined cooking methods and a vast collection of works documenting its various dishes. China’s food culture, stemming from its culinary practice, has manifested itself in philosophical ideas such as "the right blend of five tastes" or "harmony in diversity". It has also inspired many political words of wisdom, such as "Governing a big state is like cooking a small fish: it must be handled with great care", and also led to beliefs such as "medicine and food come from the same source" or "food can heal and give life"... 

According to a Chinese proverb, "Food is the most important human need"." For the Chinese, food has an extraordinary importance as it is not only essential for basic subsistence, but also for bridging difficulties and strengthening intimacy in human relationships. Cuisine has also become an inspiration for various artistic creations, including music, dance, painting, sculpture and poetry.  

The evolution of Chinese food culture over the years is a testament to the passage of time, of peoples and cultures meeting and parting. As a result, the constantly changing culinary culture has played an important innovational role in the development of Chinese civilisation and also served as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for China’s traditional medicine, science, arts and almost all aspects of Chinese life. The aim of the exhibition is to showcase 90 objects from the collection of the National Museum of China in Beijing and introduce the unique charm and diversity of Chinese culinary culture to the visitors of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest.