Class and Power Relations Explained Through Food

I'm probably reading too much into Cyntha Hariadi's Bella Biutiful (2023).

May 20, 2024

Mimi Lemon cover by Syarafina Vidyadhana & Katyusha Methanisa

Halo everyone, happy Monday!

Welcome back to Kepayang’s biweekly newsletter. Quick intro for those of you who are new here, my name is Fabi! I’m a writer, content creator, and initiator of Kepayang where I write essays and stories on food, sustainability, and culture.

One of the things that I like about writing on food is discovering how food can turn into something more than just a sustenance. It’s a tool for us to connect, to spark discussions, and in literature, it can serve multiple functions which I will cover in today’s letter. You will read about:

📜 A brief mention of how food has been represented in global and Indonesian literature.

🐈 An intro to the last short story that I read, Bella Biutiful by Cyntha Hariadi (2023).

🔍 A review of how food is being represented and used in Bella Biutiful: as a tool to establish a character's social status; and to help illustrate the power relations among the characters.

This is my first time reviewing a literary piece, so bear with me, and put your seatbelt on!

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Food has always been an integral part of our daily lives, so no surprise, that it bleeds even to literature in many shapes, forms, and functions. In classic literature like Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862), food in the form of bread is portrayed as a symbol of struggle and survival as Jean Valjean gets into trouble for taking a loaf of bread to help his starving family. In contemporary literature like Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart (2021), food is described in a more detailed, yet utilitarian way for Michelle to reconnect with her Korean culture through her late mother's recipes, such as her mother’s kimchi jjigae.

This is also the case with Indonesian literature. Food can be a symbol for something bigger, such as how a bread starter in Dee Lestari’s Madre (2011) symbolises a deep maternal bond, and passing down traditions. Or, it could also be a humble medium to tell a journey, just like how Laksmi Pamuntjak described Indonesia’s regional cuisines discovered by the characters as they travel in Aruna dan Lidahnya (2014).

Furthermore, food's ability to capture a moment, time, and certain cultural significance made it an even more powerful tool to connect readers to the story. Which now gets me really interested in analysing a piece of Indonesian literature myself.

As this will be my first review, let’s start with the last short story I read – Bella Biutiful by Cyntha Hariadi.

Bella Biutiful is one of the short stories compiled in Cyntha Hariadi’s latest collection, Mimi Lemon (2023). As a short story, I really appreciate how the plot switches back and forth and uses two different points of view, making it feel like a longer read.

The story follows Lisa’s daily life as she navigates her job as a wedding planner, and responsibilities as a mother to keep her family’s house under control. It also follows Bi Ida dealing with a similar area of her life – from juggling her casual jobs as an axe seller and durian picker to taking care of her sick daughter, Bella.

Readers know that in the end, these two women will eventually cross paths as their relationship has been established since the very beginning of the story: Bi Ida is Lisa’s housemaid. But after the first part of the story, the plot started to branch out. It jumped to when Lisa was recovering from a major work drama, while also stepping back into Bi Ida’s family background, including how she left her hometown in Lampung and ended up working for Lisa’s family in Jakarta.

Disclaimer and trigger warning: This review will include spoilers, so if you’re planning on reading the story or don’t like spoilers in general, do not continue. It will also include discussions on death, social class, and economic hardships.

The way food is described in Bella Biutiful might not be as detailed as what you might find in other literature like Crying in H Mart. There were only a few mentions of the specific type of ingredients used and none of the deep elaboration on how the food was being prepared. Interestingly, the author carefully selected the dishes in the story as a tool to let readers understand the characters’ identity and where they are coming from. Through the food the characters crave, prepare, and eat, readers get a sense of the character’s social class and the power relation between them.

Firstly, let’s start with how the food in Bella Biutiful helps establish a character’s social status.

In the first part of the story, during the time Lisa was working on a wedding, food is described as something majestic, exquisite and easily accessible. This can be seen by the huge variety of dishes, the specific ones mentioned and how quickly they can be replaced with another food when a fly invasion hits the wedding midway through:

Exhibit 1A: “Flies are flying, fighting over, swarming the food on the tables. Little Duck Tarts, Shark Fin Soup, Frutti di Mare, Seafood Salad, Chicken Kiev, Shisa Nyama. My eyes aren’t blinking. These are not one or two flies. They’re a swarm of flies, making circles”

Exhibit 1B: “I begged the guests so they would stay as the chefs were going to serve vegetarian Chindian Curry and Pratha Bread soon. A special curry with mixed spices from China and India. The bride and groom’s parents are willing to pay extra to keep this wedding going… I don’t know how much Raya and Akshan family spent on those frozen Curry and Pratha.”

The role of food in asserting a character’s social status becomes even more apparent, as we observe how these characters interact with food and their ability to choose the food they want. Let’s look at below examples:

A vegetarian wedding guest could choose to leave the event due to feeling sick from looking at meat being served — indicating their privilege in choosing a lifestyle-based diet.

Exhibit 1C: “Sorry Ray, I’m going. I feel sick seeing meat. It’s unfortunate you don’t provide any vegetarian options. Wish you all the best.”
“Ugh, sorry Rin, I didn’t know you were a vegetarian. Please don’t go, we could give you something else”. Raya and Akhsan’s quickly looked for me and Rizki the wedding organiser, when that guest who was called Rin started turning red almost as if their blood thickened.
“All the other food must be spoiled too! Sorry, Ray, but I can’t take it. Don’t ignore these signs. You don’t know what’s inside that meat. Disease! Those flies are the proof. It’s all spoiled. Trash!”

The comparison between the fruit options Lisa would get in the supermarket versus those in the wet market Bi Ida would get.

Exhibit 1D: “Going to the supermarket was her (Bi Ida) source of entertainment. She could stare at so many unfamiliar and expensive stuff all day. Lisa always insists on buying those labelled organic. Without pesticides, she clarifies. Bi Ida wonders how these vegetables and fruits can grow perfectly without pesticides. Each one is wrapped in plastic to keep them fresh.”
“Awan (Lisa’s son) likes to take the fruits she (Bi Ida) gets in the market for herself… She likes to get fruits that she can turn into a rujak. Jambu air, kedondong, jackfruit, jicama, and pineapple.”

How the only instance a character from Bi Ida’s side, Bella, expresses a desire for a specific food, is during a desperate time before she fell sick, bedridden, and eventually passed away.

Exhibit 1E: “A Few days before you (Bella) felt weak and eventually bedridden, you asked for bakso, which you thoroughly enjoyed until everything was finished. After that, you just closed your eyes on the bed, and your brother had to call you out and shake your body to make sure you were still alive”

The example above reminded me that having a choice and being able to choose what you eat is a privilege in itself. For Rin and Lisa, this means being able to leave a wedding when no food suits their diet and having access to a wider variety of produce. Meanwhile, for Bi Ida, food might be the basic necessities that she and her family are struggling to meet, let alone wanting for a specific food. It is even more heartbreaking to read that the only time this desire was pictured, it was followed by death – as if it was the heavy consequence of having a desire.

Secondly, food also served as a tool to demonstrate control, dominance, and power relations among the characters.

Defining power can be very broad and abstract, but borrowing a definition by Michael Weber, a sociologist, power is the chance for an individual in social relationships to achieve their own will, even against the resistance of others (Weber, 1999). One of the examples of how power could look like in a relationship includes voluntary obedience, which happens when individuals are not forced to obey, but do so voluntarily. This dynamic is what will then be referred to as power relation, which interestingly is illustrated a lot through the object of food throughout Bella Biutiful.

The first example is clear when seeing how Lisa, despite having a degree of power, still needs to comply with her client’s request. As a person, Lisa has many powers – over her choices, her family, and her employee, Bi Ida. However, as a wedding planner, she must still fulfil her client's wishes, such as how they asked Lisa to throw away and replace the food swarmed by the flies.

Exhibit 2A: "Lis, the chefs are going to burn it all to ward off bad luck. I'm bringing some. Do you want me to pack some for you?"
I nodded. Bi Ida would be happy and tearful, receiving a pot full of meat that her family in the kampung wouldn't be able to share with her.

This example perfectly illustrates how a power relation is well… relative to who is facing whom. In front of her clients, Lisa might be compliant with their requests. But behind them, Lisa also holds the power to choose what she wants to do with the food, which includes giving it to Bi Ida as she knows that these foods will make Bi Ida happy.

Unfortunately, the use of food to illustrate power relations in Bella Biutiful continues with a rather unfavourable portrayal, especially towards Bi Ida.

Before working with Lisa, Bi Ida used to be a durian picker – which if you know, is grown seasonally. This means that Bi Ida’s ability to make money is, to a degree, controlled by the durian harvest season. During busy times, Bi Ida could be employed by a durian farm owner every day and earn a lot, but during slower seasons, she had to seek additional casual jobs to make ends meet.

This portrayal keeps on going even into Bi Ida’s next act, as during her employment with Lisa, Bi Ida continues to work with food by doing grocery shopping and cooking for Lisa’s entire family.

While daily cooking might be one of her main responsibilities as a housemaid, it is very hard to read how she sacrificed her time to cook nasi goreng for Lisa’s husband and son before returning home to Lampung to be with Bella during her critical time. Something that if wasn’t done, might have given Bi Ida another chance to see her daughter before she passed away.

Exhibit 2B: “The 8 AM shuttle to Lampung left a few hours ago, so Bi Ida had to wait for the 5 PM one. Lisa, who is in Japan for a work trip, had given Bi Ida permission to return home. She decided to take the train to Merak, as she felt anxious about waiting for the evening shuttle. She quickly made nasi goreng for Awan and Pak Reza (Lisa’s husband) for dinner, then left a message to say goodbye to them.”
“Five hours later… she reached her home at 2 AM. Bella had passed away an hour earlier. Bi Ida's cry, almost like a howl, echoed across the mountains.”

Bella Biutiful is indeed, a beautiful, slice-of-life read of women's discovery and sacrifices in life. For Lisa, her daily jobs and interaction with Bi Ida taught her the importance of empathy. Meanwhile, for Bi Ida, detaching herself from her past life was the hard path she needed to take to create a better future for herself.

And what, all of these are illustrated through food? Bella Biutiful ate and left no crumbs I’d say.

Have you read Bella Biutiful? What part sticks to you the most? Comment down below!