The Tao, or the one. Produced the two, yin and yang. Produced the ten thousand things, everything in nature. China, ruled by this ancient philosophy has a backbone of history and support. Along with Confucianism, there is a wealth of tradition that keeps the society together. The Chinese live in harmony with the natural world. They have for thousands of years, basing many of their practices and say to day activities on the seasons and what is around. This can be understood when one walks among the ancient palaces and temples, with names like " Hall of Preserving Harmony (保和殿)" and Palace of Earthly Tranquility(乾清宮). There is an understanding of the place that man is within the universe.
The intake of food follows this same understanding of nature and the body. People wake early and take rice porridge for breakfast, warming with a proper balance of all the 5 tastes. On an early morning for us, we tried to practice this with Marley, who was not quite in tune with the principles of dietary harmony. After scoffing down a big bowl of all bran and yogurt, she quickly put down 3 glasses of grapefruit juice which I think she inhaled. This left her asking for more! After refusing her requests she made a little noise from the inside of her belly, and immediately spewed all the yogurt-bran-grapefruit concoction all over the table and herself. Needless to say the 4-star hotel staff were not impressed, nor were the other quests of the hotel. All was tidied up in typical Chinese fashion, and we were given a new table. Sad to say that this was not the only experience we had of this nature as it happened in Shanghai as well, under similar circumstance. I guess the lesson is that western children might not have the same internal balance as their eastern counterparts, and need to be monitored.