Xu Jilin.
In My Food Guide, the author of this article (left) and the director Chen Xiaoqing are together. Courtesy of the producer.
The documentary "My Food Guide" directed by Chen Xiaoqing has ended at Tencent**. Last year, when I participated in the filming of this documentary, I was relaxed and happy to be able to meet friends in the Chaoshan area with food, and of course, I also had an "important task": to talk about the Chaoshan culture behind the food with Chen Xiaoqing in the film.
That was my first time on a food show. In the process of working with Chen Xiaoqing and his team, I felt their love for folk life and the smell of fireworks, and together with them, I continued to pick up the stories of those delicacies that were about to disappear, those foods that were scattered and settled in the folk. In my opinion, the first and second seasons of "A Bite of China" directed by Chen Xiaoqing are 1Version 0, which mainly introduces Chinese cuisine and tells you why the three meals are so delicious; The "Flavor of the World" series is 2Edition 0, which chronicles cuisines from around the world, tells the story of the same ingredients being cooked in different regions and how people communicate through food; Now, "My Food Guide" is him and his team 3The creation of the 0 version is on a higher level, in addition to talking about "what is delicious" and "why it is delicious", but also to tell the audience about the history and culture behind the food.
In Chaoshan, we tasted authentic traditional Teochew cuisine and many local specialties such as raw pickles, rice rolls, zongqiu and other snacks, as well as a fruit that can only be eaten here: Ringo. Many foods in the Chaoshan area are associated with clans and bloodlines, and the development of food is closely related to the culture of ancestor worship. If an old overseas Chinese living in Shantou comes back, does he still know Shantou now? I probably don't know it anymore. But when he eats the food of Ringo, it still tastes like the original, and it will bring back his childhood memories. Therefore, it is not abstract to experience patriotism and hometown from food. Whether it is home or country, in its material form, an important carrier is food, especially the food of hometown. As the saying goes: "When you go abroad, the most patriotic thing is your stomach first." "No matter what kind of identity you are in, you will always remember the taste of your homeland and food.
I once said in My Food Guide: "Food is like a lighthouse, illuminating the way home for overseas travelers." "In modern society, people's mobility has increased dramatically, and many people have left their hometowns to live in other places or even overseas. But no matter how they move, the first generation of immigrants are looking for a strong identity and cultural identity, and it must be related to their hometown, and the most memorable thing for them is the food they grew up in.
Some people in the Chaoshan region arrived in the South Seas by ship from the Ming Dynasty, and even traveled to South and North America. Today, there are more than 10 million overseas Chinese and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in Chaoshan all over the world, all of whom miss their hometown and identify with Chaoshan culture, including food culture. Chaoshan's food is not only a pleasure for the mouth, but also contains rich cultural connotations: food has the power to unite society, and can make everyone feel that we are relatives of the same blood and the same geography, with common ancestors and common beliefs.
So, we can't think too simply about the function of food. "My Food Guide" strives to discover 3The documentary perspective of version 0 allows "foodies" not only to enjoy taste art, but also to glimpse the social development process, customs and values of a water and soil, and then become witnesses and disseminators of the accumulation of Chinese in the long history.
The author is a professor at East China Normal University and a guest on the documentary "My Food Guide".