When my aunt visited us in Guangzhou during summer holiday a few years ago, it was the most vigorous season of durian. When we walked on the streets, the scent of durians embraced us enthusiastically. Like a witch who tempted her victims to walk into a trap unconsciously, durian used its smell to seduce us to the market stall. When my parents and I were standing in front of a pile of durians, closing our eyes to enjoy the heaven-like smell, I heard my aunt’s voice, “What are these smelly things? Can we go away from here?” She spoke in such a painful tone as if she was going to cry.

Unfortunately, she was not only ignored by us, but also forced by us later to eat the “meat” of a durian. The dramatic facial expression on her face was amusing, as it turned from extreme disgust to confusion, then to surprise, and eventually to satisfaction. “Can we have one more durian?” she asked us the next day. That was the first time I saw my aunt, one of the most famous and reputable doctors in Ha Erbing who always looks serious in public, looked at us with expectation in her eyes like a child who was expecting toys she loves. We ate durians every day for a week, and their charming smell became a constant scent in our home. When my aunt was going to leave, I suggested that she take one with her (at that time, I did not know that durian was on the list of things that are forbidden to take on airplanes along with knives, bombs, and explosive chemicals.) We tried to conceal the smell of durian through every way we could think of. However, nothing could prevent durian from spreading its strong smell everywhere. It was really an embarrassing moment when security guards took off two layers of newspapers and three layers of cling films, opened the plastic box, and finally threw the few pieces of durian meat into the garbage can.

Durian, a food that is zealously pursued by a certain group of Asian people, is unfamiliar to most people in Europe and America. The dimension of a durian fruit is about “15-30 centimeters, and its weight is about three kilograms”(Tesiorna, par.5). It is famous for its “notorious” smell and thorny shell. When I heard the name “durian”, I thought the name might illustrate the duration of its smell. However, I found that the name actually came from the Indonesian word “Duri”, which means spine. There are many interesting stories about durian, and its history is worth exploring. This mysterious fruit is both dangerous and beautiful in various ways, but it is now losing its beauty because of the efforts of humans to “civilize” it.

It is not hard to associate durian with the word “danger”. This food is dangerous because of its characteristics that can hardly be ignored. Durian trees can grow to 40-50 meters high, so a mature durian that hangs on the top of the tree literally equals a bomb that can explode at any time. Even after you gather a falling durian without being killed by it, you are still not safe. When eating this fruit, people are risking their lives. “Alcohol should be avoid[ed]…consuming alcohol after eating durian causes the blood pressure to rise and a general unwell feeling”. These phenomena might be partially caused by the interference of sulphur content and aldehyde dehydrogenase, which produce toxins that are harmful to the body(Rodgers, par.12). Keeping these cautions in mind, you can start to enjoy durians. But the enjoyable consumption cannot last long——if one eats too much durian, according to About Chinese Food, one will suffer because of the dryness caused in the body, and his/her stomach might not be able to absorb abundant nutrition(“Durian”, par.2). A preferred way to prevent one from being hurt by the enthusiasm and heat of this “king of the fruit” is to consume “queen of the fruit”, garcinia, at the same time(par.2). The marriage of the king and queen might help one to achieve balance.

Another reason that durian is considered dangerous is because of its cultural connotation. When the Dutch took over Malacca in 1641, colonial powers tried to adjust the taste of durian and overcome the sense of nausea. According to an Italian lawyer who traveled around the world in 1693-1698, his experience with durian was “an ungrateful taste of onion to the nose…when grown familiar, becomes most delicious to all strangers”(Montanari 21). This experience suggested that since it was not hard to get accustomed to the food of the native societies, it was also possible to fit into native societies. Through starting to “fall into the habits of the natives”, the newcomers “dangerously assimilate themselves to the colonial’s Other” (23). However, this quest to fit into local societies changed later when the distinction between rulers and the ruled started to become obvious. Europeans later felt the need to reject durian, as it came from jungles that represented the uncivilized native tribes. The attitudes toward durian varied in different societies according to the importance of keeping a clear boundary between the rulers and the ruled. An interesting comparison to illustrate this idea is that durian dessert gained a lot of likes in the Bowring’s dinner in 1855, where there were no rulers and ruled, while during the dinner in 1931 in Penang, where there was a strong demand to maintain the distance between the rulers and the ruled, durian was reluctantly accepted by British diners(41).

Surprisingly, disgust feeling of Europeans toward durian had no relationship with durian’s notorious smell. In fact, these colonial elites loved the taste of durian zealously. Since it was regarded as an uncivilized symbol and was therefore forbidden on the table, durian was consumed secretly by Europeans. Not wanting to be regarded as “uncivilized” in the dining room, civilized people could only consume durian in places that they thought were suitable for durian——jungle. “The further the durian was from the colonial cultural stronghold of the house, or even the more disguised it was with familiar tastes, the less disgusting it tasted and smelled” (39-40).  The danger of durian is not only illustrated through its appearance and characteristics but also in the social meaning hidden in it.

However, durian is also beautiful because of its nutrition and contribution to human health. According to Tesiorna, durian contains a high amount of sugar, vitamin C, potassium, and tryptophan, and it is recommended by doctors as an “effective source for taking in raw fats”(par.6). In Southeast Asian regions such as Malaysia, the leaves of roots of durians were used as antipyretics, while the juice of leaves can be applied to return a fever patient to normal health(“Durian Fruit”, par.5). The most charming aspect of durian is its association with Southeast Asian culture. Southeast Asian people valued the richness of proteins, vitamins, minerals, raw fats and carbohydrates in durians, and they gave durian the honor of “naturalism of luxuries” for their “ability to provide universal satisfaction” (48). Furthermore, the seasonality of durian, which makes it only available for a few months a year (usually from June to August, but the period varies in different regions), created further continuous desire for it. Such charming “durian fever” let Southeast Asian people form a behavioral pattern that could hardly be understood by others. In Malaya, the aboriginal families would “leave their houses, reach the durian trees in the forest, clear the ground in order to find more easily the food…for six weeks or two months, they eat nothing but durians”(Montanari 50), and durian was consumed “for breakfast, tiffin, tea and dinner, and in between meals” (51). Durians became an integrated element of Malaysian aboriginal people’s culture through defining their behavior and influencing their taste. The uncontrolled and wild elements of durian make it mysterious and attractive to Southeast Asian people, letting them willing to be loyal followers.

However, the wild beauty of durian was hurt when people tried to introduce it to the globe. Since durian needs to be consumed as soon as possible, and it was hard to be transported to other places, the marketing of durian was impossible for merchants. Consequently, early farmers did not put much effort to achieve mass production of durian. However, in a later effort to stimulate large marketing, the early way of production was claimed to be not systematic and grand-scale, with fruit trees remaining “largely neglected” (95-96). In the calling of a more “scientific management and distribution of seasonal crops”, new cultivation methods such as an extension of cultivated area, improvement in field husbandry and agronomic techniques were applied. Among these new methods, the most famous one was extensive breeding, which selected and propagated those particularly excellent durian specimens(97-98). Scientists felt proud of being capable of manipulating the ripening, which extends the shelf-life and limits the undesirable nature of the smell of durians (100). Along with these changes, the effort to target the “extensive commoditization” of durians was strengthened by the invention of pre-packed arils (the edible part of the durian), which eliminated the problem brought by durian’s thorny skins and strong odor (100), and “nitrogen gas-filled bags”(100). Such inventions facilitated the transition of durian market from rural areas to urban cities through changing the way that people consume durians. Mr. John Hoe, a seller of durian who introduced “gas-filled nitrogen bags” and “disposable gloves”, merged several modern elements into the consumption of durians. People now eat durians without shells in comfortable air-conditioned rooms, having no need to be concerned about the disposal of skin.

But such changes in the way of consumption destroy durian’s original wildness and mysterious beauty. One consumer pointed out that, “although you gain a little bit, you lose a lot on the fruit. The labour is less, the sweetness is gone, the joy of opening a fruit is no more there, sometimes you have to fight the fruit, sometimes it is so easy, and the unexpected joy of looking inside is no more there.” (101) The process of opening the thorny skin of durian is challenging, and such challenge makes consumption more enjoyable. People no longer participate in the process of exploring durian’s dangerous aspects, and they pay no effort to get a bite. What they have now is durian that is “de-shelled, ready-to-buy, and packed in odor-proof polystyrene foam boxes”(102). Moreover, when successful inventions eliminate the “problem” of seasonality, making durians available at any time, people no longer have the expectation and lasting desire for the arrival of durian.

Humans changed the way that durians are produced and consumed, making durian a “civilized” food that served their demands. Durian is both dangerous and beautiful for its characteristics and its cultural and historical association. While humans want to abandon the dangerous aspects and only want to keep a part of its beautiful part. But humans forget that the beauty of durian cannot exist without the presence of its dangerous aspects. I feel doubtful whether durian can still be honored as “the king of food”, because when its crown is abandoned, and its magical and irresistible odor is concealed in bags made by chemical components, the once-powerful king is now more like a characterless and ordinary commoner who will not be recognized by anyone. However, for me personally, this fact does not negatively detract from durian’s beauty.

“Durian.” 19 July 2015. .
“Durian Fruit: History and Associate Legends.” streetdirectory.com. 19 July 2015. .
“History of Durian Cultivation in Thailand.” 19 July 2015. .
Montanari, Andrea. The Stingky King: A Social and Cultural History of the Durian. n.p. 2011.
Rodgers. Gregory. “Durian Fruit.” about.com. 19 July 2015. .
Tesiorna, Ben. “Durian History.” whitehousecuisine.com. 13 Oct. 2014. 19 July 2015. .