China and Japan are both big countries that eat rice, so why is it that Japanese rice balls are commonly found in every convenience store, but China basically does not eat this kind of rice balls?
There are many reasons for this difference, but the main reason is that Japanese people are "poor" and "uneducated".
Since ancient times, China has been a big country, rich and developed, while Japan was only a small country with no resources and no land until the Meiji Restoration.
In the Edo period, close to the Meiji Restoration, Japan's social classes were divided into four classes: scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants. Samurai are already considered the highest level of aristocracy, but even if they become samurai, most of them can only eat rice, and those who have a lot of land at home can grow their own vegetables, but basically only rice is eaten.
Then there should be no vegetables, there should always be meat. The answer is no, pigs, cattle and sheep can't be eaten, and the meat is only fish, but the fish is difficult to preserve, so ordinary samurai only eat fish a few times a month or two. This is still a high-status samurai, and it would be nice to have rice to eat as a poorer commoner. Most of the common people's meals in Japan are pickles, rice, and miso soup. Because miso is bean paste, it can be stored for a long time.
Miso soup
I think the reason why Japan has always admired minimalism is due to years of poverty. A country that is unusually developed and rich to the point of oiling oil will not give birth to such a notion.
When samurai went to the battlefield to fight, they brought rice with them, and in order to make it easier to carry, they kneaded the rice balls into a circle and wrapped them in seaweed that can be found everywhere on the seashore, which became the Japanese rice balls today.
Rice balls
Lao Yu summed up the "poor" a little:
1. The scarcity of vegetables and meat and the direct distribution of rice by the lords to the samurai led to the heavy use of rice by the nobility.
2. Because of its ease of preservation, onigiri became an important food for the samurai class as a military ration.
3. There is a lack of food culture in Japan, and yes, there is a chance that something like onigiri will be passed down to the modern day and carried forward.
Of course, there must be other reasons besides poverty, and Lao Yu will talk about it next.
The use of chopsticks
Ancient China was relatively developed in science and technology, and it was easier to manufacture iron pots, porcelain bowls, wooden chopsticks, bamboo chopsticks and other kitchen utensils. Therefore, it is very convenient to cook on a fire or eat the food with dishes and chopsticks, unlike eating cold rice with your hands like in other countries.
In fact, in ancient times, only Chinese and ordinary people in the world could use dishes and chopsticks, instead of hand pilaf. Knives and forks like the West can only be used by the aristocracy, while in Japan they can only be eaten with rice balls.
The type of country
For thousands of years, China has been a very typical agricultural country, with the largest proportion of agricultural population. The material base determines the superstructure, culture is built on the economy, and agriculture, as the mainstream core of the economy, determines the food culture.
Farmers work in the fields, no matter how far away they can go, so they can either go home to eat or have their families send them to the fields. Japan, on the other hand, is a barren country dominated by fishing, and fishing requires at least a day in the sea, sometimes chasing fish for days on end. At this time, it is probably too unrealistic to make a fire on a small fishing boat to cook. And rice balls are not only easy to preserve, but also convenient to eat.
Cold food Xi and hot food Xi habits
In fact, in ancient times, except for China, people all over the world did not care about eating cold rice. China's conditions allow and can be developed, so that many people can eat hot meals. After Europe, America and Japan entered the industrial age, many people became workers, but they could not go home to eat at noon, so they maintained the Xi of eating cold rice. And China's conditions permit, in ancient times you can eat hot rice, the industrial age also came late, this time the conditions are ripe, can eat hot meals in the canteen, so the Xi of eating hot meals has continued to the present.