Last weekend, during a morning walk I told my teenage kids a study on the effects of food on traits of individuals. I shared them a science paper by Thomas Talhelm on the traits of those eating rice and wheat conducted in China – rice is typically staple food in the Southern part of China, while wheat is more of the Northerners choice. The paper‘Moving chairs in Starbucks: Observational studies find rice-wheat cultural differences in daily life in China’,which I have read long time ago,was the one that I told my kids.
If anyone interested, the link is here:https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/4/eaap8469
The paper – as well as few others that Talhelm and different co-authors published, argue that if you eat rice you will likely try to adjust with your environment – you don’t change the course. On the other hand, wheat eaters tend to change the environment i.e. they will move the chairs around to get to their destination.
In its own words, the paper claims that:“People in northern China were more likely to move the chair out of the way, which is consistent with findings that people in individualistic cultures are more likely to try to control the environment. People in southern China were more likely to adjust the self to the environment by squeezing through the chairs.”
Before long, my discussion with my kids immediately went into our own situation. My wife whose family came from southern China two generations ago, but actually happened to have eaten more wheat than rice – in the form of noodles andpempek, has a dominant wheat culture in her character. On the other hand, I myself have always been a rice eater. As it has been, I am truly a chair-squeezer. I always try and inclined to avoid chairs – or conflicts rather.
Then Layyin started to analyze her own traits, as a ‘mixed’ kid – sort of. Hayyan followed suit. My wife also ventured in and further extended the discussion on the impact of foods we eat to all other dimensions in our life. How will halal food improves life, or how might haram food affects our conscience. We all seems to agree that the study on‘Moving Chairs’is actually quite right, and interesting.
We continued the discussion for the rest of our walk. It was a long but enjoyable walk in the end.
On our final leg just before we got home, I conjectured that Indonesians may soon encounter these two type of traits, not geographically but demographically. As more younger Indonesians are eating wheat based products – in the form of cereals, bread, spaghetti, instant noodles, they shall be more forthcoming, assertive and perhaps more inclined to move chairs at coffee shops. This will certainly change the way we perceive ourselves, as more reserved, accepting ornerimo,and other traits that we used to associate with Indonesia or Indonesians. It may happen sooner than we thought, I don’t know.
Do you agree?
Originally published on LinkedIn, August 18, 2021: view original.
