Survey Report on Guangdong Customs

Drinking tea is a custom of Guangzhou people. There is a proverb that says, "A pot of tea in the morning is no need to look for a doctor". By drinking tea, Guangzhou people actually mean going to a teahouse (customarily called a tea house) to drink tea.

Chrysanthemums grow all year round in Guangzhou and bloom at their peak from late autumn to around the Spring Festival, and chrysanthemum exhibitions are also a traditional custom in Guangzhou.

The Guangzhou Chrysanthemum Show is famous for its grand scale, many varieties, and strange shapes. It is mainly dominated by Dali chrysanthemums (a kind of Southern chrysanthemums, which come in various colors such as yellow, white, and purple, etc., and one Dali chrysanthemum can bloom more than 3,900 flowers at times), and there are also Ling Bo Xian Zi, glassy white, pink peonies, Holland Lijin, big white lotus, Taiwan yellow, crimson red, one-point red, Spring Dance, and three-color flowers, as well as Japanese white, Japanese yellow, bay red, purple lotus, golden yellow, etc. , purple lotus, golden yellow and other exotic varieties.

At the Spring Flower Festival, chrysanthemums are exhibited in parks such as Yuexiu, Culture, Liwan Lake, Liuhua Lake, Dongshan Lake, Haibang and Xiaogang, which are also known as "Spring Chrysanthemum Exhibition". The large-scale chrysanthemum show held in the fall, around the National Day is called "Autumn Chrysanthemum Show".

The most lively festival -- Christmas Every year at Christmas, the whole city of Shenzhen resounds with the sound of hymns, large and small dance halls, hotels, theaters are overcrowded, and people revel in the festivities. The coldest festival - the Spring Festival every Spring Festival, from all over the "immigrants" are mostly back to their hometowns for the New Year, the locals will also go to Hong Kong or other places on vacation, Shenzhen has become a quiet empty city. The most interesting festival - Lychee Festival The Lychee Festival has now become a city festival in Shenzhen, during the festival from June 28 to July 8 every year, there will be a variety of lychee as the theme of economic, trade and cultural networking activities. The city's citizens have a traditional custom, that is, every time this time of cicadas and Lychee incense, are going to go with friends and relatives to Lychee Park to taste fresh, that is, picking that taste, they are often you scramble, the scene is very cheerful.

Drinking herbal tea is also a perennial habit of Guangzhou people.

The so-called herbal tea refers to herbal medicines that are cold in nature and can relieve internal heat, which are decocted and drunk as a beverage to eliminate summer heat in the body, or winter dryness caused by sore throats and other ailments. Guangzhou has a long history of herbal tea, and there are many varieties of herbal tea, such as Wang Lao Ji Herbal Tea, San Hu Tang Herbal Tea, Huang Zhen Long Herbal Tea, Loud Kung Herbal Tea, Shi Ji Herbal Tea, Twenty-four Flavors Herbal Tea, Hulu Tea, Healthy Herbal Tea, Gold and Silver Chrysanthemum and Five Flowers Tea, and Ancient Dried Gua Gan Herbal Tea, etc; and even the Turtle Ling Cream Soup, Raw Fish and Ge Cai Soup, and Carrot and Bamboo Sugar Cane Water, etc., which have become the favorite traditional and old brand herbal teas of the people in Guangzhou.

The most famous Wanglaoji herbal tea has always been respected by Guangzhou people. After entering the 80s, various kinds of herbal tea and soft packaged herbal tea came into being, such as Shennong herbal tea, Xia Sang Ju tea, etc., which has become a fashionable drink in summer in many families.

Drinking morning tea

Guangzhou people love to drink tea, especially morning tea. When they meet in the morning, they often greet each other with "have you had your tea yet" (meaning "have you had your tea yet"), which shows their preference for tea. Drinking tea is a custom of Guangzhou people. There is a popular saying that "a pot of tea in the morning is no need to look for a doctor".

By drinking tea, Guangzhou people actually mean going to the teahouse (customarily called tea house) to drink tea. Not only drink morning tea, but also eat snacks (as breakfast); not only drink morning tea, but also drink afternoon tea, night tea; not only to fill the belly, but also by the way to spread the news, talk about friends, negotiate business. It can be seen that the Guangzhou people's tea is actually a way of socializing.

This is why the Guangzhou teahouse industry over the centuries and an important and fundamental reason. In Guangzhou, a considerable part of the old food and beverage stores are the teahouses and tea houses of the year.

Guangzhou tea customers can be roughly divided into two categories: one is familiar customers, every morning must go to a fixed teahouse, usually "a cup" (pork chop rice) "two" (dim sum), this kind of people to the retired old people; the other category is to drink The other type is to drink "worship tea", that is, in the day off to drink tea, not limited to "a cup of two pieces", but to taste a variety of dim sum, from the "sigh tea".

Guangzhou's tea market every day in the morning, afternoon, evening three cities, including the morning tea market is the most prosperous, from early in the morning to eleven o'clock at noon, often full. Drinking night tea also gradually have a flourishing trend especially in summer, while drinking tea while listening to opera singing, but also while enjoying the air conditioning. Guangzhou's morning tea is usually 4:00 a.m. market, evening tea until 1-2 a.m. the next morning before closing.

Drinking Kung Fu Tea

Guangzhou people enjoy drinking Kung Fu Tea in their leisure time. Originally popular in the Chaoshan region, "Kung Fu Tea" is now very popular in Guangzhou. "Kung Fu Tea" is very particular about tea utensils, tea leaves, water quality, making tea, pouring tea and drinking tea. Kung Fu teapot is very small, only the size of a fist, thin-fiber porcelain, you can vaguely see the tea leaves inside the pot. The cup is only half the size of a ping-pong ball. Tea is selected oolong tea. Put the tea leaves to fill the pot. And use your fingers to press the solid. It is said that the more solid the tea, the stronger the flavor, the more mellow. Water is best after precipitation, or mineral water. Tea should be freshly boiled water into the pot immediately, the first one or two times to be poured. When pouring tea, keep pouring it back and forth to avoid the situation that the tea is strong in the front and weak in the back. When drinking tea, one side of the tea and talk about the world, which is called "kung fu".

Late-night snack

Late-night snacking is a custom of Guangzhou people, usually after ten o'clock in the evening, so it is called "late-night snacking" or "late-night snacking". Late-night snacking varies from person to person: some cook their own food at night; some alone or invite three or five friends and friends to the street stalls or teahouse restaurants to eat in the night market, and thus the city gradually formed a number of "night food street", as well as the various teahouse hotels in the "night market"! "Cafeteria. Teahouses in the night market often open a music cafe, to attract diners.

Drinking sugar water

Guangzhou people love to drink sugar water in all seasons. It is believed that by boiling certain medicinal herbs, beans, fruits, noodles and food with sugar into the sugar water, there are clear and moist summer, the efficacy of the body. Sugar water varieties are numerous: bean red bean paste, green bean paste, eyebrow bean paste; paste of sesame paste, almond paste, peanut paste, phoenix milk paste; medicinal herbs lily sugar water, lotus seed sugar water, Qingzhengliang sugar water; there are stewed eggs, stewed papaya, sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes, hemp蓉sugar, egg milk, ginger milk, sugar sago, soymilk, tofu flower and so on. Sugar water is boiled and consumed as hot drinks; frozen and consumed as cold drinks, and cold drinks are often associated with the ice room (cold drinks specializing in ice-cream, soft drinks, beer, etc., the most famous one in Guangzhou is the Taiping Hall Ice Room on Beijing Road).

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Guangdong cultural dietary practices

South China News, the human choice of food depends not only on their personal characteristics of the organism, the conditions of the times, the natural environment around them, and so on, but also depends on the characteristics of their culture. Different cultures, there are different standards and consumption of food, such as the Chinese view of animal liver, kidneys, heart and lungs for the delicacies, the so-called "shape for shape," while Americans are used to feed cats and dogs, that is not beneficial to human health; Chinese people are not accustomed to eating snails, while the French regarded as a delicacy; India is the world's largest number of cattle country, but they would rather starve to death, but also to the point that they have a lot to eat. India is the world's largest cattle country, but they would rather starve to death, but also do not eat beef, even the United Nations Relief Agency to India's milk can only be poured into the sea, which has a close relationship with their traditional culture (religious beliefs).

Dietary practices are a very distinctive branch of Guangdong culture, and Cantonese cuisine is renowned both at home and abroad, and "food in Guangzhou" has long been known around the world. The reform and innovation of food can never leave the scope of culture. Through the description and analysis of the phenomenon of Guangdong food, we can see the cultural connotations of its way of life.

Mixed ingredients

Cantonese cuisine, as one of the eight major cuisines in China, is especially famous for its wide selection of ingredients. In Cantonese cuisine, birds and animals, sea food, wild vegetables and flowers, nothing can not be into the food, snakes, rats, birds, insects, dogs, cats, etc., in other cuisines in the jaw-dropping selection of materials, but was served as a treasures of the table. Such as snake is the people of other provinces do not dare to enter the mouth, such as the ancient times there is a "cup bow snake shadow" idiom, even mistakenly thought the shadow of the snake reflected in the wine glass to be scared sick, not to mention eating. In Cantonese cuisine, snake is the best choice of material, Cantonese people eat snake, can be said to have a long history, but in Cantonese cuisine is the best choice of material, "South Vietnam," there is a snake eating song: "boa boa snake, both Hong and long, Bing Heng Jia Banquet, is the bean is the goblet." Nowadays, there are nearly 50 kinds of snake dishes in Guangdong, and there are many restaurants that use snake as the basic dish. Many foreigners and outsiders who come to Guangdong will taste snake dishes as a quick treat.

In fact, the Cantonese character of not eating anything is the reflection of their open-mindedness in food. As the saying goes, "one side of the water and soil nurtures one side of the people, and different geographical environments create different regional personalities. Guangdong is the place where Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges must pass through, forming an open-minded structure of the Guangdong people, and at the same time, due to the location of the frontier, successive dynasties on its control is weaker than the mainland, by the orthodox feudalism less influence, the traditional culture of the Central Plains of the influence on it continues to fade, so as to have a greater degree of freedom and accommodation.

Broadly speaking practical

Cantonese cuisine was formed in the Qin and Han Dynasties, it is based on the local food culture, absorbing the essence of the domestic Beijing, Lu, Su, Sichuan and other cuisines and Western cooking techniques, such as Cantonese cuisine in the bubble, steak, Sichuan is the north of the explosion, steak, blanch in the transplantation of the pan-frying, deep-frying and other methods are borrowed from the Western food, and gradually formed the unique flavor of the southern country.

Any similar culture, can be explored from the history of contact with the relationship between the same things in the two places in the comparison, the more qualitatively similar, the more significant the mutual dissemination. The openness of Guangdong culture is bound to have compatibility, thus making the food culture inclusive and promoting the development of food customs without realizing it.

Guangdong dietary practices in the broader collection of the best at the same time, can gradually abandon some of the bad habits of foreign food, the formation of not luxury, practical style. Guangdong people's diet, pay attention to less but fine, even if the feast guests, but also never wasteful, to eat, eat well as the principle, which with some places in the north of the big food and drink formed a sharp contrast. The northern people's extravagance is precisely due to the etiquette of the formalities, which certainly has its bold and lovely side, but it should be more to see that the dietary red tape can not be accepted for the behavior of the modern society. Of course, this does not mean that the Guangdong people do not attach importance to etiquette, on the contrary, the Guangdong people invite guests to pay great attention to politeness, so that the guests come to enjoy themselves, and the kind of detachment from the actual pomp and circumstance, is pragmatic Guangdong people do not want to do.

Cantonese people now eating style on the pragmatic spirit, is the inevitable result of the development of modern society. Guangdong people do not want fame, pay attention to the actual, Confucian culture focuses on the form of reticence and other spirit of Guangdong's influence is not deep, on the contrary, they are subject to the West's realistic attitude of inculcation. This influence has shaped the Guangdong people's ability to learn from the best of the best, yet maintain a pragmatic attitude towards food and drink.

Pursuing enjoyment through meticulous production

The production of a delicious dish relies on the methodical collaboration between various links, and Cantonese cuisine has very strict requirements for ingredients, knifework, fire, cooking time, starting the pot, wrapping up the tail, utensils, serving methods, and many other aspects of the dish. Such as fish to pay attention to the killing that is cooking, so as to maintain the freshness of the fish; and then the production of its platter, must pay attention to the choice of ingredients, in order to achieve the effect of beautiful shape, rich flavor, a good platter, not only a plate of delicacies, but also a piece of art, so that the people pleasing to the eye, the appetite.

In Cantonese cuisine, the most seen in the master's production efforts than chicken dishes, where hundreds of kinds of more, allowing guests to taste dozens of kinds of chicken dishes and never repeat the feeling that almost every famous restaurant has its own creation of the signature chicken, such as Guangzhou Restaurant Wenchang chicken, Beiyuan Restaurant's flower carving chicken, Foshan's Chu Hau Chicken, Qingyuan's white chicken, etc., the list goes on and on, each with its own unique characteristics. Such as white cut chicken, must use small hen or castrated chicken, to Qingyuan three yellow chicken for the best, the production of the most important is the fire, to just cooked, cut the two leg bones are still slightly with the blood of the appropriate, if the fire, the meat becomes old, it will lose the characteristics of the white cut chicken smooth and tasty.

The delicacy of food production is inseparable from the culture of Cantonese people, which emphasizes personal values and the pursuit of enjoyment. Enjoyment is not a one-sided pursuit of food, drink and pleasure, but belongs to the realm of morality and corresponds to asceticism. Asceticism rejects earthly wealth and enjoyment and suppresses desires in order to achieve certain social goals or moral self-improvement. In terms of moral types, Cantonese culture does not belong to asceticism, but shows a tendency towards enjoymentism, full of worldly hedonistic human nature and moods, manifested in the pursuit of comfort, pleasure, and the good life, with the aim of working hard and enjoying oneself to the fullest. The word "enjoyment" has always been given a derogatory meaning in Chinese culture, always associating it with getting something for nothing, thinking that enjoyment is the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie, and it seems that only the bourgeoisie are qualified to enjoy. In fact, enjoyment is a very advanced way of human existence, an inevitable cultural choice when human civilization develops to a certain level.

Since the reform and opening up, Guangdong's dietary practices have developed to a higher level, which has had a strong impact on traditional values, and the traditional Confucian concept of "the gentleman is poor" and is content to live in "little food and drink" has been seriously challenged. Confucianism takes integrity as the only criterion for measuring personality, and keeping poor as a symbol of adherence to integrity. The essence of this idea is to limit human beings to the lowest standard of living. The Guangdong people in the tide of reform realized that it was desirable not to live in luxury, but poverty should never be used as a criterion for determining integrity, which enabled them to liberalize their thinking and go on a courageous quest for ever-higher standards of living.

Dietary practices are an important cultural phenomenon. Food is not just an organic substance that can be utilized by human beings to sustain life, but for each type of food and the way it is consumed, it also needs to be culturally labeled as agreeable in terms of its reliability. Similarly, the choice of food made by Cantonese people is the result of the long-term influence of their culture. Culinary reform and innovation, can be a lot of changes, but all changes do not change, must be based on culture, in order to be able to be accepted and liked by the people.