Wishy-Washy: Alice Waters' Banquet Upstages the US-China Culture Forum

Across four days (Nov 16-19), Chinese and US notables hosted panels, concerts, dance events and screenings in a move to "engage in dialogue" and "[deepen] understanding and appreciation of each other’s work" as part of the first joint US-China Forum on the Arts and Culture. Two weeks after the fact, we've seen a succession of media reports both positive and negative. Here's a selection of some of the most attention-grabbing, headlining coverage.

Wall Street Journal: "Alice Waters Does Organic American-Style at Dinner in Beijing"
The Atlantic: "How Alice Waters United East & West in Beijing"
China Daily: "Behind the Scenes at Banquet"
Global Times: "US Experience Shows Food Safety Doesn't Come Cheap"
Shanghaiscrap: "Rich Gluttons Hold Extravagant Meal at US Embassy, Beijing, Congratulates Selves For Promoting Healthy Eating In China"

Any casual reader glancing over these big-name headlines – asking themselves what the point of all of this was – would probably assume it was a food convention with a number of Watersmaniacs. Not so much.

The much-publicized Embassy dinner (Nov 16) was advertised as a part of an "opening night reception and dinner" for this US-China Forum on the Arts & Culture. The entire week was intended to "advance cultural understanding" between the two countries. It's hard to find this cultural understanding in gushing, ecstatic paragraphs in American media, and untempered, semi-worshipful praise for Waters; it's difficult to find harmony in complaints that the dinner catered mostly to gluttonous foreigners, and the telltale dearth of Chinese media coverage. While it's great that this dinner has put the topic of slow food, locavorism and food education on everybody's lips – what about everything else?

What about all the other panels, programmes and cultural opportunities on offer? Why is criticising or praising what Alice Waters did (or did not adequately do) at a private dinner more important than Meryl Streep and Ge You discussing the challenges of working across languages and cultures? The consensus from both critics and acolytes of Waters is that her embassy dinner was definitively Western, and very exclusive. Surely, surely, that is far less valuable and accessible than noted American ballerino Damien Woetzel leading an audience in a Chinese calisthenics-style dance?

The obsession with Waters carried over into a panel entitled "Food As Culture." I personally attended this panel, heard her describe in detail her Edible Schoolyard project and spoke with her afterwards. I asked her about the Edible Schoolyard. Was it viable in China? I asked. Was she aware of the different context and environment that Chinese children were brought up in? Did she have any idea how kids – born into high-rise concrete blocks with no accessible gardens and backbreaking loads of homework – could introduce food and nature into their lives? Her response? "The children are learning English, math. They're measuring out garden beds, and counting seeds. They're learning."

Measuring out garden beds? Try explaining to a Chinese parent why their child is measuring instead of racing ahead into algebra. Try explaining to Chinese elementary educators why they need to plant gardens, and how to find long-term, justifiable curriculum content in dirt. Undoubtedly, the Chinese education system is a severely flawed one – but that's what the Chinese have to work from. No suggestions were made about how the Schoolyard could be adapted for China. I queried Waters whether she thought the Californian concept would work in Beijing, but she merely assured me that "all children everywhere" would benefit from this programme.

Realistically the Edible Schoolyard will only be accessible to children of the rich, who attend expensive private Beijing academies like Daystar (who is currently breaking ground on an Edible Schoolyard). While we cannot fault Waters for not understanding the full scope of educational issues in China, it is disappointing that as one of the major figureheads of this cultural exchange, she has chosen to toot her own (unresearched) horn instead of adapting her (laudable) methods. Waters is warm and friendly, but it is difficult to sympathize with her cause when what she offers is more of a cultural imposition than a cultural exchange. The culture here, of course, being Watersmania.

Photos: Susan Sheng