This paper begins by establishing that eating and drinking are important motifs in Western and Chinese Iiterature, by reviewing examples from Western authors such as Homer, James Joyce, and Marcel Proust, and Chinese novels such as The Dream of the Red Chamber, The Golden Lotus, and (most important) The Quest for Love of Lao Lee by Lao She (pen name of Shu Ch’ing-ch’un). The author says that “throughout the novel food usually represents either an escape from unpleasant thoughts or compensation for a disagreeable situ­ation. It seldom represents positive pleasure as it does in Lao She’s English precursors Fielding and Dickens.” The paper concludes that. Lao She probably intended the characters in his novel to apparently not derive pleasure from eating as a reminder to his readers of the meaningless routine of the characters lives in Peking.