ABSTRACT
In 1919 the missionary Charles E. Sharp contributed an article to the periodical The Korean Mission Field under the title ‘Shall We Eat Korean Food’. The ‘we’ he spoke of were the foreign missionaries active in Korea, and his answer to the question was affirmative, at least in principle. Both the example of Jesus Christ, whom Sharp quotes 'it behoved (…) in all things to be made like his brethren that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God', and the experiences of the missionaries in the field should lead to the conclusion that it was desirable to act as a Korean to the Koreans. ‘Eating food together is among all people a token and expression of fellowship and to few people does it mean so much as to the Koreans’ (Sharp 1919:139–141). But Sharp continues:
Over against this law of becoming a Korean to the Koreans, and antagonistic to it, stand two other laws, those of heredity and habit. We have received a certain inheritance from our forefathers, and certain courses of action have been decided for us before we were born. We cannot escape from this. We might as well try to change the color of our skin.
