What are the changes in modern Chinese history (food)?

The Changes in Modern Chinese History (Food)

The changes in Chinese society have set off a great transformation, and the changes in clothing, food, housing, and transportation, which are closely related to the people's lives, have been particularly prominent. The process of China's modernization has been characterized by the pursuit of the new, the removal of the old and the removal of the foreign, as well as the co-existence of the old and the new, and the integration of the East and the West.

From closed to open

The food culture of the Yangtze River Valley in the modern era is the first to open up from the closed, and constantly adapt to the trend of the times of the regional food culture, which led to the process of modernization of China's food culture. For example, the introduction of western flour milling and its products has had a far-reaching impact on the development of China's modern food industry. Since the end of the 19th century, when machine-made flour was introduced to China, more and more flour was imported, and bread and all kinds of Western-style pastries became more and more popular.

Shanghai at that time was the most developed area of China's flour industry. In addition, the western food industry products, such as canned food, cookies, egg products, also in the early 20th century in the Yangtze River Basin cities have a sizable market, Chinese and foreign businessmen in Shanghai, Hankou, Nanjing and other ports of communication to establish the canned food, eggs, beer and other food manufacturing plants. The establishment of the Western diet and its related industries enriched the content of the traditional Chinese food culture and promoted the development of the food industry in the Yangtze River Basin.

In the western modern food industry technology into China at the same time, as a comprehensive carrier of western food culture, western-style restaurants also appeared one after another in the Yangtze River Basin cities, as the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" said: "our country's set up a restaurant to sell western-style food, began in Shanghai, Fuzhou Road, a product of the fragrance of the price of each person, a meal of one yuan, sitting tea seventy cents, snacks fifty cents. Plus the hall color, cigarettes and alcohol fees. At that time, people rarely asked, and then gradually have a tendency to the person, so there are Haitian Spring, a spring, Jiangnan Spring, Wanzhang spring, auspicious spring and so on, and set up a sub-doctoral sitting in Yan."

These Western restaurants sell beer, soft drinks, cakes and a variety of Western-style fast food, but also gradually welcomed by the people, but also accelerated the pace of life of the people of the country. In addition, Western food in the do, Chinese food in the West to do, East meets West is also accepted by the people, it can be said that the development of modern food culture in the Yangtze River Basin, is in the Western food culture under the impact of continuous change in the process of survival.

Radiation effect

The development of food culture in the Yangtze River Basin in modern times is centered on the foreign trade ports in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and gradually influences and radiates to the surrounding areas.

Because of the modern Western material culture is clearly ahead of China, so in this context, the Chinese people generally have a foreign admiration for foreign cultural mentality, the Western diet also has a sense of novelty, always want to open the "Western meat", which makes Shanghai has become a modern Chinese Western food center. However, due to the extravagance of foreign food restaurants and the high cost of Western food, having Western meat has become a kind of upper-middle-class ostentation.

In order to adapt to the different levels of consumption of the Chinese people, Western restaurants both noble hotels, there are humble restaurants, these small restaurants, although small, but there are always a few foreign flavors, "there is always a snow-white tablecloth on the table, and then set up the bright crystal knife and fork, dish plate also write two foreign words, so intellectuals, civil servants and so on is a regular customer. "

It should be seen that this kind of foreign admiration, in the early modern society, there are certain positive and reasonable factors. From the point of view of the historical trajectory of modern civilization import and dissemination, often constitute a modern civilization of specific things to show their superiority, it will cause more and more people from the novelty of it to the pursuit of the enjoyment of worship and imitation, and so the formation of modern civilization of the derivatives of the foreign culture - the veneration of foreign culture.

This social phenomenon was first centered on Shanghai and the trading port cities along the Yangtze River, and gradually spread to the surrounding area. It had a certain positive effect on the impact of conservative thinking, eliminating bad customs, inspiring people to seek new changes, actively accepting the advanced production methods and lifestyles of the West, and promoting the advancement of Chinese society.

Driven by the influence of Shanghai, the Yangtze River along the Hankou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Yichang, Jiujiang and other cities of the dietary life, has undergone similar changes, and the Yangtze River Basin in other areas of the formation of the radiation, and promote the entire Yangtze River Basin dietary culture innovation. Especially in the past 20 years, due to the country's wide-open door, the western food culture is through the lower reaches of the Yangtze River into the Yangtze River Basin, such as McDonald's, KFC's restaurant opened all over the north and south of the Yangtze River.

In addition, the Yangtze River basin in different regions of the food culture of mutual penetration, mutual influence is also increasing. Sichuan flavor east, Su flavor west, Wuhan has become a four-way flavor meeting place. Different regions, different flavors of the exchange and integration, have made the Yangtze River Basin food culture has undergone major changes, a variety of innovative dishes continue to appear.

The innovation of food concept

With the change of food culture in the Yangtze River basin in modern times, people's concept of food has also undergone some changes. As we all know, the traditional Chinese cooking methods, pay more attention to the overall effect of the dishes, pay attention to the harmony of the tripod, the taste in the first place, it is difficult to qualitative and quantitative analysis, to the dishes of color, aroma, taste, type of beautiful, harmonic for the purpose. While the traditional western cooking methods from a rational point of view, focusing on nutrition and hygiene, the beauty of the taste but not much attention, showing a single flavor, nutritional value at a glance.

With the frequent exchanges of Chinese and Western food culture in the Yangtze River Valley in modern times, people increasingly feel the importance of Western diet focusing on scientific nutrition, especially some of the Chinese who came back from studying in the United States, recognizing that "the Western custom in the way of health care, no matter how rich or poor, nobility and lowly, all more than the Chinese are concerned about. Where a little bit of family, every meal must eat both flavor, there must be beef, there are foreign wine one or two products. After the meal, there are fruits, coffee and cigar smoke. Morning and evening must drink milk or beef soup.

Though the workers servants of the Royal stream, every seven days must also eat beef one or two times, or else said that there is no way to nourish life. This emphasis on nutritional dietary thinking spread to China, the impact of the traditional Chinese flavor-based, full for enough dietary concepts. People began to pay attention to nutrition and hygiene. Intellectual circles (mainly Shanghai's intellectual circles) also began to translate a number of Western culinary works, and then from the perspective of cooking principles and food chemistry to the theoretical analysis of traditional cooking methods, a number of monographs and theories of food composition and cooking research and analysis.

For example, Mrs. Gao Pi Di's "Making Foreign Rice Book", Li Gong'er's "Secret of Western Cooking", Shimoda Gezi's "New Home Economics", Yang Zhang's "Vegetarianism and Nutrition", Zhang Siting's "Diet and Health", Gong Lanzhen's "Practical Dietary Science" and Wu Xian's "Nutritional Introduction", etc., which were all published in Shanghai. It is because of the Shanghai academic and publishing *** with the efforts of the Western dietary science knowledge in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Valley, and even the country has been a comprehensive and systematic dissemination .

It enriched people's theoretical thinking in food culture and prompted them to recognize their own cultural heritage from the perspective of world culture. In this exchange of Chinese and Western cultures, the ancient culinary cultures of Wu-Yue, Jing-Chu and Ba-Shu have gradually entered into the new era of the world's culinary culture with a new face.

Modern Western food culture landed in Shanghai and spread widely, and after a period of conflict with the traditional Chinese food culture, it is gradually integrated into the Chinese food culture. As a result of the conflict, many foreign customs have become an indispensable part of Chinese people's lives, and our dietary life has taken on a different appearance from that of our ancestors and fathers.

This has led to the emergence of innovation in the traditional Chinese dietary life, and innovation is embedded in tradition. The introduction of Western food culture in modern times and the exchange of food culture in different regions of the country have led to the emergence of a modern food culture in the regions of the Yangtze River Basin that has both traditional features and foreign styles, and is not a simple synthesis of them, completing the transition from traditional to modern in its cultural form and promoting greater openness in Chinese society.