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Abstract
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Generally speaking, state banquets can be divided into two kinds: one for the state visit and the other for the inauguration of the President every four years. This paper focuses on the former. The state banquets as diplomacy by food should be studied from a macro-perspective of international relations instead of the conventional focus on cuisine. By studying the archives of the National Archives Administration and pairing them up with the newspaper reports about state visits, this paper examines the historic significance of state banquets from a new perspective. There are a few major findings: with the enactment of The Interim Regulations of Receiving Foreign Dignitaries in 1958, state banquets in Taiwan were then institutionalized. Second, during the 1950s and 1990s, the governmental organs in charge of state banquets included Office of the President, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Grand Hotel. It usually took approximately one or two months to prepare for a state banquet. Nevertheless, due to the precarious international relations, the preparation sometimes must be adjusted to specific situations. In addition, the state banquet menus were determined with considerations of the taste of both heads of state, the chef’s culinary specialties, and the availability of food materials. Last, according to the archives, the state banquets were expensive, therefore the administrations in the 1970s and 1980s, when facing the Oil Crises and dealing with the large spending on infrastructural projects, restrained themselves from inviting state visits in consideration of the national fiscal expenditure.
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