The source | the Pulpit of The Way
"The city's spicy fashion has become the identity of the younger generation."
Cao Yu
Associate Research Fellow, Center for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Sun Yat-sen University
Hello everyone, I am Cao Yu from Sun Yat-sen University, and the research I have done in recent years is related to chili peppers.
I'm from Guangzhou, and Guangzhou people generally don't eat spicy much, so studying the topic of chili peppers will make people feel a little strange.
How did a Guangzhou native start studying chili peppers? It's actually an interesting topic.
In fact, the topic I am talking about today is about the social sciences, which can explore the laws of nature and reveal the future direction of human society, and this direction can determine economic things.
Social research on chili peppers
In the case of chili research, how far can chili go, and what does it have to do?
If you open a food store or a restaurant in the future, what kind of dishes will you make? What kind of development will the tastes of society in the future be? This thing can give you some inspiration.
So what is social science research? The study of human society is human and human society, and human society is closely related to everyone, and its social science value lies here.
How far can chili go? Well, I'll do this research myself.
It's funny, I'm a Guangzhou native, and I'm not very spicy. So why did I start doing this research?
In fact, after I entered Sun Yat-sen University, I conducted some fieldwork all year round. The so-called fieldwork is the basic research method of the social sciences, how to do it?
You need to go into the group and do social surveys of them, sometimes questionnaires, sometimes conversations, and collect all kinds of information about the crowd through various forms.
In the process of collecting this information, many of the places surveyed were in the mountains of the southwest, and I spent time with them every day, and I found that they were able to eat very spicy.
At this time, I wondered, how did chili peppers start to spread in China? As a result, I found a lot of information and did a lot of related investigations. Finally, to sum up, there is a book called "The History of Chinese Spicy Food", which analyzes the entire context of Chinese eating chili peppers.
Actually, as a person who doesn't eat spicy food, I do research on chili peppers, and I have a big advantage. Why?
Because, if you stand in the perspective of an "other", you are not investigating this matter within the cultural circle.
For example, Foshan wakes up the lion. If you are a Foshan person, he is very familiar with this thing, and then do relevant research, you may miss some details. Because these details are a very common thing for familiar people.
But if you stand in the perspective of an "other", you are not in this culture, and you have never seen this thing since you were a child, then all the details here are new things.
So, my research on chili peppers actually has such an advantage, because I'm not very good at eating spicy.
When I see the various preparation methods of chili peppers and its various related manufacturing scenarios, I will have a more sensitive cognition and start relative research.
Even Guangzhou and Shanghai have become spicy?
How did people in Guangzhou start eating spicy food?
Before 2018, guangzhou was a very popular hot pot brand, with long queues, and many spicy restaurants were very popular.
So popular, a new generation of Guangzhou people seem to have become very spicy?
But a counterexample, this is the year before the "Mangkhut" typhoon transit, in the supermarket in Guangdong, we saw that all the dishes were sold out, leaving the pepper, so Guangzhou people still do not eat spicy.
This makes it strange, compared with the previous one, so hot spicy restaurants, so deserted scenes of buying peppers, what does this reflect?
This reflects the scene of Cantonese people eating chili peppers, what is this scene?
Family meals do not eat spicy, foreign food love to eat spicy. When we eat out, we are more likely to choose something to eat with chili peppers.
When we eat at home, such as when we are at a party with elders or relatives, we choose not to eat spicy.
If we're going to a formal occasion, there's no chili pepper for a wedding or some other banquet.
However, we go out to dinner with friends, classmates, and colleagues, and often eat chili peppers, right? It's a very different scenario.
So, what is the scene of Cantonese people eating spicy? Chili pepper is used in informal situations, it is something that can be eaten by a person who knows a colleague or friend well.
If you are with a stranger, or a banquet to a friend from out of town, you will not eat spicy, this is an informal occasion, this is a young person's thing.
If there is an elderly person at the time of the meal, we usually do not choose to eat spicy, because we have to take care of the light taste of the elderly.
It's still something that applies to immigrants. Why?
This is related to the scene of Guangzhou people eating spicy. When I was doing chili research, I did a social survey in the old town of Guangzhou.
The results of the social survey show that the number of times locals eat out of the country is about 2-3 times a week, and the number of meals outside the city is more than 8 times a week for foreigners to come to Guangzhou as immigrants.
This is a clear distinction, if there are many people who eat at home, or people who eat more at home usually choose not to eat spicy, they may eat spicy when eating out.
And the number of these immigrants eating out is very large, and a large number of choices for foreign food are spicy, so this is the distribution of a scene.
So let's see, what kind of social do we have in this society?
People who eat at home are not the same as people who eat out, and local residents are not the same as immigrants.
Then the number of foreign immigrants eating out is very large, and a considerable part of the number of foreign meals is spicy.
Why do immigrants love spicy food? Why did these immigrants choose to eat spicy when they came to Guangzhou? Why do they love spicy food so much?
There must be a scenario, and one of the problems that must be faced squarely when studying all social problems in China is the huge population flow in China in the past 40 years.
Chinese has undergone an earth-shaking population transfer in the past 40 years, transferring the rural population to the cities and the inland population to the coastal areas.
In fact, looking at the relationship between immigrants and chili peppers, it is natural to think that immigrants brought the culture of eating spicy to our city.
As Guangzhou people, we will definitely think this way, and Shenzhen people will think the same way.
Because most of the immigrants received by Guangzhou and Shenzhen are from Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi, these are the places where spicy food is more severe.
So we will feel that it is because these people who eat spicy places have brought the culture of eating spicy to Guangzhou.
But later, when I was doing an investigation in Shanghai, I overturned this imagination, not brought by people in their original place, why?
Shanghainese also like to eat spicy, and now there are many spicy restaurants in the city of Shanghai, but where do the immigrants from Shanghai come from?
The most important immigrants in Shanghai are from Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang.
When I was investigating these immigrants, I asked them if they had a habit of eating spicy at home, and they said that they had come to Shanghai to eat spicy. However, Shanghai itself does not eat spicy, so why do they eat spicy when they come to Shanghai?
It's a very strange problem, there is no such habit at home, there is no such habit in Shanghai, and then from home to Shanghai, I love to eat spicy, very strange.
Finally, I thought of the scene in Guangzhou, which is also a problem.
I asked some college students with local household registration in Guangdong, and I asked them if they ate spicy at home? Do not eat spicy. Do you eat spicy food at a classmate dinner? Eat spicy.
Why are you willing to eat spicy when you get together? This is a very strange question.
Food culture of urban migrants
Then, I will consider this question in depth, in fact, the spicy culture that is popular in the city now is part of a food called urban migration culture.
In other words, it is a large-scale immigrant from all over the country who gathers in the city and creates a new thing, which is not the original city.
For example, the local food culture in Shanghai or Guangzhou is a new thing invented by some immigrants after they gathered together, and it represents a historical scene of migration behind these immigrants.
Immigration means disconnection from the local, local, local situation.
For example, if you are from Chaoshan and Chaoshan has a large family and clan relations, then you left the Chaoshan region and came to Guangzhou, and you entered a scene of immigration, separated from the original social relations, so what do you need?
You need to make social connections, you need to make connections with other people in the city, because it's hard for a lonely person to get a foothold in society, so we need to make connections.
What is the method of making connections?
For our Chinese, the key to building social connections is to eat spicy.
So, when we get together, whether it's classmates, friends, or fellow countrymen, we need something to connect us, and the generation of this connection requires a lot of foreign food.
Why do immigrants prefer to eat out? On the one hand, because his home is not here, he does not have an environment to eat at home; on the other hand, he needs to make social connections, need a lot of outside food to have relationships with other people, and build social networks.
What does it mean to have a lot of outings? Immigrants are a relatively low-income situation, and the income of immigrants is lower than that of local residents. Low income, but also a large number of foreign meals, it takes a considerable cost.
At this time, the choice of foreign food will choose a slightly cheaper dining environment, and why can a large number of spicy restaurants be cheap?
Because it uses industrial ingredients and seasoning from a central kitchen, it can be done cheaper.
Why?
Fresh stuff is the most expensive, it requires very short processing time and cost, without the advantages of warehousing and logistics.
So, in the big cities, those frozen, or centrally seasoned foods, it's able to make it a little cheaper, which is a cheap source of spicy flavor.
Therefore, spicy, cheap and the high demand for foreign food for immigrants are linked to create a food culture for urban immigrants.
In this series, I did a series of social surveys at that time, including a certain survey of social restaurant prices.
In fact, it also proves this point, the price of restaurants that deal in spicy dishes is slightly lower than that of Cantonese and Zhejiang cuisines, which is more in line with the needs of urban immigrants to eat and eat outside.
Is the spicy dish in the city really from those places where immigrants are native? For example, Sichuan immigrants or Hunan immigrants brought spicy dishes? This is not the case.
These dishes are a thing that these immigrants reinvented in the city, it represents the characteristics of the city, is a kind of urban immigrant food culture and urban immigrant identity.
When we tie these things together, we find that we actually create a kind of segmentation.
When I was doing research with locals, I found a very interesting phenomenon, I asked the old Guangzhou people, do you eat spicy? He said we didn't eat spicy at all.
I said, is it really not spicy at all? So I went inside their kitchen and looked and found chili sauce.
I think it's strange, and I don't eat spicy, why do I still have chili sauce at home? And the chili sauce is obviously just used, or eat a little spicy, why emphasize that you do not eat spicy?
He said that in fact, he doesn't eat much, just buy a little, sometimes adjust the taste, use it.
However, I found that not eating spicy is actually a kind of identity for them, he stressed that he does not eat spicy, emphasizing that as a Guangzhou person, he does not eat spicy.
But in fact, I asked a lot of old Guangzhou, the traditional Guangzhou stalls, many times there will be chili sauce on the table, sometimes there will be some chili seasoning, can not say that there is no point, may be slightly less than the outsiders to eat a little less.
He must have stressed that he does not eat spicy, and even emphasized an identity. In fact, emphasizing that you eat spicy has also become an identity, an immigrant identity and an immigrant identity.
The urban fashion of eating spicy has become a new identity, an identity of the younger generation, which can share the same food with the same age or a similar age, but cannot share this thing with the elders, why?
Because we are so different in age, the scene we are in is different, so we have such a distinction.
The urban spicy food culture created by industrialization
The background of the occurrence of the city's spicy food culture lies in industrialization. Let's imagine how industrialization has transformed our taste experience.
When I was doing research in Shunde, the traditional soy sauce was made, and each township had its own soy sauce garden.
Now Haitian is the largest soy sauce garden, which has erased the taste of many townships and turned it into an industrial centralized production.
What might we imagine brewing soy sauce look like? And what kind of scene is brewing soy sauce in the actual industry? We can look at the differences.
We have one of the biggest premises that need to support tens of millions of people in megacities, such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, such cities with more than 20 million people.
There are also larger cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, that need a lot of food to feed them.
In fact, urbanized food becomes a thing that can be preserved, can be centrally seasoned, and can be supplied cheaply.
So, what we imagine may be like the scene of toasting on the screen, baking it yourself, or a master operating, but it is actually something produced by a large factory.
This is a very basic point of discussion about urbanization, that is, how do we feed these cities? Where is our relationship with the land?
Traditionally, we Chinese eat locally produced things, and there is a tradition of "rice soup fish" in the Lingnan region.
We eat locally produced rice and locally produced fish, which make up our diet.
Food is now transported thousands of miles to the city, and what is produced around the city is no longer enough to feed tens of millions of people.
So it needs long-distance transportation and freezing, when these large amounts of frozen, long-term preservation of food into the city, it can feed a large number of people at a relatively low price.
On the contrary, these things around the city that can maintain the fresh taste of the time have become very expensive, which is completely different from the things before the industrial era.
About 30 years ago, when we ate McDonald's, it was very expensive.
Because China at that time was not a completely industrialized country, or a highly industrialized country.
Now McDonald's is a very cheap, very cheap thing for us, it is an industrial product.
That is to say, as the country becomes more and more industrialized, it means that the price of industrialized products will become lower and cheaper.
A large number of frozen foods are used, and in the past it was a very expensive product, and at that time we could easily eat grass-fed chickens, or "chickens on the ground".
And now that chickens have become expensive and McDonald's has become cheaper, this is an industrial scene. So what kind of distinction does the industrialized scene bring?
This is Chinese distinction we make of the aesthetics of eating.
Will spicy culture continue to be popular?
How far can we talk about chili peppers? Or how long will the popularity of chili peppers last in China?
This question, we have to put in a context to consider, that is, Chinese do you like such a strong taste?
In fact, the prevalence of chili peppers in China, including spicy catering, the prevalence of spicy fashion in China, has ushered in its inflection point.
Around the time of 2018, the number of spicy restaurants has begun to slowly go down and there is a slow ebb and flow.
Traditional, more peaceful dishes will become the ultimate pursuit of Chinese diet, and spicy taste will become something at the peak of immigration.
That is to say, as the number of immigrants declines, the number of people who can move out is almost the same. In fact, the process of urbanization will slowly calm down, because the population has basically been transferred.
In such a scenario, the situation of eating spicy has weakened slightly, of course, this year has improved, which actually has something to do with economic development.
When a social and economic development is relatively good, for example, when the economic growth is very strong, people tend to eat some higher-priced things, so the food with stronger seasoning is slightly less.
On the contrary, if the economic development is declining, or the economic development trend is not very good, or when everyone is not so rich, in fact, the consumption of condiments will rise.
This is why we often talk about the "instant noodle curve" in sociology, that is, when the economy is not good, there are more people who buy instant noodles, so now we are in a stage where the economy is not very good.
Therefore, at this stage, the number of spicy catering has still increased, which is related to the economic trend.
But whatever the connection, Chinese have a long-term dietary pursuit, something that is deeply engraved in our Chinese aesthetic taste.
A country and a nation have their own aesthetic tastes, that is, we are born, or what kind of things are we more inclined to choose, and what kind of aesthetic tastes are this kind of aesthetic taste?
I summed it up in four words, called "neutral, positive, peaceful, and harmonious", which is the aesthetic taste of Chinese.
In terms of diet. What does "medium" mean? Has the right taste. For example, we often eat a chicken to have a chicken flavor, and the fish must have a fish taste.
Therefore, too strong seasoning, or covering the original taste of food, will have a certain impact on food, so we want a "positive" taste.
"Ping" refers to the mentality when eating, and the feeling that food brings to people is peaceful, not too intense.
"He" refers to the way we eat, the etiquette at the table, and the sense of balance of the whole table, so it is Chinese aesthetic needs.
This is an aesthetic pursuit that runs through from ancient times to the present, of course, in the past hundred years, China's food culture has seen a relatively large subversion.
That's because there were several major revolutions that caused some changes in the traditional Chinese pattern, and the original aesthetic taste was not completely preserved, and there was a period of chaos.
But slowly, it will return to the traditional food aesthetic, because this is a long-term pursuit of aesthetic taste.
In addition to the aesthetic taste pointing to a peaceful taste experience, we also found another situation, China's aging trend.
In fact, everyone can already realize that China's aging is very serious and has fewer birthrates.
So the population is getting older and the number of children is getting smaller, which actually means that the age of the whole nation, in the whole city life, will continue to rise, and what is the result?
It will bring about a change in taste, lightness and wellness.
In fact, spicy itself does not have a particularly direct adverse effect on the body, of course, if there is gastrointestinal disease itself, the elderly people will have more and more gastrointestinal lesions.
When I did my research, I actually found that there were relatively few people in the 40 age group who ate spicy, about 10% of them.
In the survey done in Guangzhou, the older you get, the less spicy you eat, and as immigrants get older, what happens? Eat more and more lightly, and start to pay attention to the body.
In fact, although eating spicy itself does not have much negative impact, eating spicy will bring a lot of oil and salt intake, which is a very serious thing.
We may say that eating chili peppers is not a serious challenge to the body except that it is very hot.
But in fact, eating spicy will bring a lot of oil and salt, because while eating spicy, those dishes are often more salty, heavy oil dishes, so it may eat a lot of oil and salt at the same time, and the taste will be more in line with health needs.
What is another feature? In large cities of tens of millions of people, it will diverge.
More and more people are entering the city, and the pressure on the city to bear the support is increasing, and a large amount of food is needed to feed these people.
At this time, local, handmade, fresh ingredients become more and more expensive, chickens, local fish, or local river fresh will become more and more expensive, and long-distance mass-produced frozen food will become cheaper and cheaper.
Because a large number of people can spread the cost, at this time the society will begin to divide, will intentionally look for boundaries to divide the taste of food.
In the past few decades, the boundaries of food and taste have been relatively chaotic, and the upper, middle and lower classes of society do not know what to eat.
And now slowly, this differentiation is becoming more and more obvious, more and more clear.
After a relatively stable period of social development, he will slowly separate the pursuit of the rich from the taste, and will intentionally make a division of the boundaries of food and taste.
At this time, society is slowly moving towards the fixation of tastes, and it is also possible to predict what kind of experience will appear in the city in the future.
What is my own judgment?
Spicy flavors may begin to slowly decline, becoming more and more inclined to aging, or light diets may slowly become more popular.