VANCOUVER — Cheese sticks and a bagel. A boiled egg with raw broccoli. A fat ball of burrata cheese sitting atop a pile of green grapes.

温哥华——奶酪条和百吉饼。一个煮鸡蛋配生西兰花。一大块布拉塔奶酪放在一堆绿葡萄上。

Welcome to the divisive world of "white people food," a movement that has exploded in popularity among Chinese Canadian communities, both as an internet hashtag and lifestyle philosophy.

欢迎来到“白人食品”的分裂世界，这个运动在加拿大华人社区中迅速流行起来，成为了一个互联网的标签和生活哲学。

At its core are depictions of simple — some might say depressing — meals. Plain, often raw, and devoid of sauces and flourish, the meals are a source of bafflement for some but inspiration for others.

这个运动的核心是对简单（有人可能说令人沮丧）的餐食的描绘。这些餐食通常朴实无华，常常生食，不加调料，没有繁复的装饰，对一些人来说是令人困惑的，但对另一些人来说则是灵感之源。

It echoes the recent Chinese social movement to "lie down flat.” A rejection of the relentless pace of the so-called 996 lifestyle, working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, that was once seen as an essential ingredient of Chinese success.

这与最近的中国社会运动“躺平”相呼应。这是对所谓的996工作制的拒绝，这种工作制曾被视为中国成功的重要组成部分，每天从早上9点工作到晚上9点，一周工作6天。

University of British Columbia sociology professor Amy Hanser said the "white people food" movement symbolizes a mindset shift among younger Chinese, and a counter to a life of long toil.

不列颠哥伦比亚大学社会学教授Amy Hanser表示，“白人食品”运动象征着年轻华人的心态转变，对长期劳累的生活形式形成了反思。

“It's not about the pleasure of eating the texture of the food. It's just like: 'this is good fibre and lots of nutrients and I'm going to eat it,' and I think that is actually a very American way of thinking about eating," said Hanser, whose research centres on work, gender and contemporary China.

她的研究主要集中在工作、性别和当代中国方面。她说：“这与享受食物口感的快乐无关。这只是：‘这是一种好的纤维和丰富营养，我要吃掉它’。我认为这实际上是一种非常美国化的饮食方式。”

A typical lunch box for Vancouver resident and "white people food" fan Shawn Liang consists of a boiled egg, fresh broccoli, a slice of ham, cheese and a piece of whole-grain bread.

温哥华居民、也是“白人食品”迷的梁Shawn的午餐盒通常包括一个煮鸡蛋、新鲜的西兰花、一片火腿、奶酪和一片全麦面包。

He said in an interview in Mandarin that he once would have found such a meal difficult to swallow. Now he can't live without it.

他在接受采访时用普通话表示，以前他可能很难接受这样的餐食。现在他离不开它了。

Liang, who immigrated from Beijing six years ago, said cooking Chinese food can be time-consuming, labour-intensive and pricey.

梁Shawn六年前从北京移民到加拿大，他说烹饪中国食物耗时、劳力和昂贵。

“Unfortunately, young people are always broke, overworked and don't have time," said Liang.

他说：“不幸的是，年轻人总是一贫如洗、过劳，并且没有时间。”

A lunch box of crackers and cold cuts might not sound worthy of fanfare, but University of British Columbia graduate student Lesley Pen recently shared a photo of the meal on social media with the Chinese-language "white people food" hashtag. She says she "fell in love" with such fare.

一盒饼干和冷切肉并不像是值得炒作的餐食，但不列颠哥伦比亚大学研究生Lesley Pen最近在社交媒体上使用了中文的“白人食品”标签分享了这顿饭的照片。她说她“爱上了”这样的餐食。

“Compared with traditional Chinese cuisines, which usually require lots of stir-frying, heavily relying on rich seasonings and sauces — white people food doesn't need any of these,” said Pen, a Richmond, B.C., resident who is majoring in food and environment, and economics.

她正在学习食品与环境经济学专业，是一位居住在卑诗省里士满市的居民。她说：“与通常需要大量炒菜、严重依赖浓郁调料和酱汁的传统中国菜相比，白人食品不需要这些。”
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


“As a new immigrant who lives on my own and needs to juggle school and work, I find these meals are so simple and convenient to make,” Pen said in Mandarin, adding that they are also a dietary choice.

她用普通话表示：“作为一个独自生活、需要平衡学业和工作的新移民，我发现这些餐食简单方便。”她补充说，这也是一种饮食选择。

Pen said that "white people food" was a vague concept, but in essence meant keeping meals as “effortless and waste free” as possible.

Pen表示，“白人食品”是一个模糊的概念，但实质上是尽可能地保持餐食“轻松和无浪费”。

Yi Gu, an associate professor at the Department of History at the University of Toronto, said many Chinese in the “lying flat generation” have turned toward self-care, given up demanding jobs, focused more on simple joys in life, and rejected excessive consumption.

多伦多大学历史系副教授Yi Gu表示，许多“躺平一代”的中国人转向自我照顾，放弃苛刻的工作，更专注于生活中的简单乐趣，并拒绝过度消费。

But she said the white people food movement could also be about the relatively high costs of a cooked business lunch.

但她说，“白人食品”运动也可能与烹饪商务午餐的相对高成本有关。

The concept is not new, but there has been a wave of Chinese-language discussion about "white people food" around the world since a video of a woman eating a bag of lettuce and slices of ham on a train in Switzerland sparked wonder. The video went viral on the Chinese-language social media platform Red Book last month.

这个概念并不新鲜，但自从一个在瑞士火车上吃生菜和火腿片的女子的视频在中国社交媒体平台“小红书”上引起了轰动后，全球范围内关于“白人食品”的中文讨论就一发不可收拾了。

The initial response to such meals was bewilderment.

对于这样的餐食的最初反应是困惑。

"I have tried baby carrots dipped in hummus. They made me feel worse than death," wrote one person on Red Book.

小红书上有人写道：“我尝试过蘸着鹰嘴豆泥吃胡萝卜条。那简直比死还难受。”

But the mood has shifted to praise for low-effort meals.

但情绪逐渐转向对这种低投入餐食的赞扬。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Eva Wu, who works for a global tech company in Vancouver, said she's a fan.

温哥华一家全球科技公司的员工Eva Wu表示自己是一个粉丝。

“Here's the best part: these lunches are actually good for you and won't leave you snoozing at your desk,” said Wu, whose lunch usually consists of yogurt, a cheese stick and a tinysandwich.

她说：“最好的是，这些午餐实际上对你有益，不会让你在办公桌上打瞌睡。”她的午餐通常包括酸奶、一根奶酪条和一个小三明治。

But Wu doesn't call her meals "white people food," saying it sounds “overly generalized and racist.” Instead, she calls them “local-style light lunches.”

但Eva Wu并不称呼自己的餐食为“白人食品”，她认为这听起来“过于笼统和种族主义”。相反，她称之为“当地风格的简便午餐”。

Tammara Soma, an assistant professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, agreed the term could be potentially offensive.

西蒙菲莎大学资源与环境管理学院的助理教授塔Tammara Soma表示，这个术语可能具有冒犯性。

However, Soma said the trend could also be understood as a way of “reclaiming the sarcasm” to show different cultural perspectives, since people from non-white cultural backgrounds are sometimes teased about their food being "odd and exotic."

然而，Soma表示，这一趋势也可以理解为一种“重新拿回讽刺”的方式，展示不同的文化视角，因为非白人文化背景的人有时会被取笑他们的食物“奇特和异国情调”。

“It’s kind of like the opposite response to the fact that non-white people’s food has generally been stereotyped,” said Soma.

索玛说：“这有点像对非白人食物普遍被刻板化的相反回应。”

Hanser, the sociologist, said there is a clear Chinese generational change at play. Some in older generations had high expectations for themselves and thrived in a competitive environment, while some younger Chinese now prefer to follow their heart.

Hanser这位社会学家表示，这其中有一个明显的中国年轻一代的变化。一些年长一代人对自己有很高的期望，并在竞争激烈的环境中取得了成功，而一些年轻的华人现在更愿意跟随自己的内心。

“The younger generation is willing to try different things, experiment and see how they feel. There is a kind of openness to new experiences that goes with this trend as well,” said Hanser.

她说：“年轻一代愿意尝试不同的事物，进行实验并看看自己的感受。这一趋势也伴随着对新体验的开放心态。”

Richard Tang, a Vancouver TV camera operator, says he has been eating fresh fruits and vegetables for lunch for five years.

温哥华电视摄影师理Richard Tang表示他已经连续五年午餐都吃新鲜水果和蔬菜。

But Tang said in an interview in Mandarin that he made his simple meal “as multicultural as Canada” by including a clay-oven roll, a Chinese-style bread with sesame seeds.

但唐在接受普通话采访时说，他通过添加一个带芝麻的中国式陶炉面包，使他简单的餐食“多元文化如同加拿大”。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


“It’s baked by my wife with love as the ingredient,” chuckled Tang. “Parking my car in a quiet neighbourhood, enjoying my lunch and listening to a podcast — it's the loveliest time of my day.”

唐笑着说：“这是我妻子用爱作为成分烘焙的。”“将我的车停在一个安静的社区，享受我的午餐并听广播——这是我一天中最美好的时光。”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2023.
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Nono Shen, The Canadian Press

这篇报道由The Canadian Press）2023年6月16日首次发布。
得到了Meta和Canadian Press News奖学金的资助。