This summer, the Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House launched a new book "Yuan Tingdong Says the Flavor of Sichuan Cuisine", a Bashu cultural research expert and folklorist who has been immersed in the Sichuan cuisine industry for many years, but it is the first time to publish a related book. Yuan Tingdong, known as the "Chengdu Living Dictionary", in addition to studying academics, reading and writing, he often accepts various interviews, consultations, holds lectures, and now he has long promoted Chengdu culture through douyin. The life of this "post-80s" old scholar is far more exciting than we think.
The streets and alleys of Chengdu carved in the mind
In late August, the heat in Chengdu has not yet dissipated, and the intermittent heat wave rolls in the city's traffic, and the cool mountainous areas around it have become a good place for the elderly to escape the heat. Yuan Tingdong usually lives with his wife at the foot of Qingcheng Mountain, raising flowers, reading, writing, and of course, activity invitations and interviews from various media and institutions.
At ten o'clock in the morning, the sun was not yet warm, and Yuan Tingdong was already sitting in the courtyard accepting a video interview from the office of a local history in Chengdu.
The theme of the interview is about the history of the development of Streets and Alleys in Chengdu and the existing ancient ruins, which is one of the most familiar areas for Yuan Tingdong. Published in 2010, Chengdu Streets and Alleys is Yuan Tingdong's most well-known book, because it is popular with Chengdu culture lovers, and has since been reprinted four times. "Chengdu Streets and Alleys" is not only a set of documents about the old streets and alleys of Chengdu, but also a living history of Chengdu. It not only records the spring, summer, autumn and winter of a city, but also records the joys and sorrows of the people who once lived here.
Yuan Tingdong once said: "I want to reflect the culture of Chengdu through the carrier of streets and alleys. The culture of any city is created by people, and although urban architecture is part of the culture, it is more important that everyone who lives in the city has inherited their cultural achievements. I not only want to introduce the ins and outs of each street, architectural features, etc., but also record the people who have lived in the streets, the stories they have experienced, and how they have affected us today. ”
In order to complete the book, Yuan Tingdong traveled through the old streets and alleys of Chengdu in his 60s: in order to find out where Xiang Chu's former residence was, he visited four predecessors; in order to find a photo of Zhao Shaoxian, he ran to Sichuan three times; in order to find out the flow of the Drinking Horse River, he searched for several old people in different seasons... It can be said that every old street in Chengdu and the stories that have happened here have been deeply engraved in Yuan Tingdong's mind.
When it comes to the streets and alleys of Chengdu, Yuan Tingdong is radiant
Because of his familiarity, yuan Tingdong talked for two hours, quoting from the side, historical allusions and knowledge, and had to make people admire his erudition, "Chengdu Living Dictionary" is worthy of the name. At the same time, Yuan Tingdong also has a rigorous attitude towards learning, and when the staff asked him about some sites in the pre-Qin period and asked him to talk about it for two more sentences, he repeatedly stressed that "there are only these two sentences in the history books, and they cannot be said more." It can be seen that Yuan Tingdong's research on Chengdu culture has always been based on the historical documents he is convinced of, and rarely uses folk legends to accompany it.
The taste of the countryside that will never be forgotten
At nearly twelve o'clock, the interview with the local history office ended, and Yuan Tingdong finally had to drink two sips of tea and moisten his throat. Since I had to rush back to Chengdu in the afternoon to prepare for the next day's new book sharing meeting of "Yuan Tingdong Says the Flavor of Sichuan Cuisine", I decided to solve it outside at lunch.
Yuan Tingdong wanted to eat a beef noodle, called the boss, and learned that the store was still on summer vacation and would not open until September. Yuan Tingdong said with a smile that this is probably the leisure life of many small restaurant owners in Chengdu. Finally, he chose a bean flower shop, Yuan Tingdong was quite familiar with the boss, and quickly ordered several home-cooked dishes.
Yuan Tingdong jokingly called himself a "foodie", he liked to eat since he was a child, and when he grew up, he knew how to eat, and he could be called a gourmet. He eats all over the world, but asks him if his favorite flavor is from his hometown. In his new book, which will be released the next day, he wrote: "Many predecessors have said that there are two main marks of hometown: one is fangyin, and the other is diet. In my heart, the flavors of my hometown are the country dishes made by my mother-in-law, grandmother, mother, sister and villagers, which is a hometown flavor that will never be forgotten. "Tempeh, curd, kimchi... These essential appetizers for every household in Sichuan have become the most precious taste in Yuan Tingdong's memory. Yuan Tingdong said that the original title of the book was "Nostalgia on the Tip of the Tongue", and he wanted to highlight a feeling of "nostalgia" because "these hometown flavors are eternal memories integrated into the blood."
Yuan Tingdong talked about the tofu milk we often eat. When I was a child, I was sick and had a bad appetite, so my mother let Yuan Tingdong drink porridge with tofu milk, and while drinking, she said: "Eat two more bites and raise people." Yuan Tingdong almost does not eat the curd milk produced by the factory, because there are still subtle differences between the production method and the family. So my mother made it by hand every year, and later, my mother taught her sister the craft of making tofu milk, and Yuan Tingdong still had tofu milk to eat every year. Yuan Tingdong has four small inconspicuous jars in his home, two of which contain kimchi and the other two contain tofu milk made by his sister.
The inconspicuous small jar in the corner contained Yuan Tingdong's most cherished taste
Yuan Tingdong has a lot of research on the taste of Sichuan cuisine, he said that the meat must be fried with garlic seedlings is the most authentic, and said that the soup base of boiling water cabbage is very elaborate, and now many restaurants are counterfeit goods... What is admirable is that Yuan Tingdong's research on Sichuan cuisine does not stop at the enjoyment of taste buds, and he has really conducted a systematic study of the development of Chengdu's catering industry and even the entire Sichuan cuisine.
Yuan Tingdong was once the vice president of the Sichuan Gourmets Association, and is still serving as an advisor to the Chengdu Catering Association and one of the ambassadors of Chengdu's food economy development. For more than 20 years, he has spared no effort to promote Sichuan cuisine culture on various occasions. He cooperated with Sichuan Television Station to open the "Eat Eight Directions" column and did more than 200 programs; he was invited to participate in some forums related to the catering industry, published articles on related industries; and also gave many lectures on the theme of Sichuan's food culture... And these achievements are reflected in another book launched at the same time, "Yuan Tingdong Sichuan Cuisine Research".
It is mentioned in the book that Yuan Tingdong has written several plans for the Sichuan cuisine industry, but due to various reasons, many plans have not been implemented in the end, which has become a major regret. In the interview, he mentioned another regret.
In the development of Sichuan cuisine, many famous dishes have been lost, such as the traditional Sichuan cuisine okara pig head, strange chicken nuggets, etc., as well as the dishes in the small ya restaurant opened by Mr. Li Jieren, and now only a paper menu is left. Yuan Tingdong has always hoped to restore these flavors. He tried several times in cooperation with several sichuan chefs, and finally he always felt that it was almost interesting and did not achieve the desired effect.
Promote Chengdu culture through Douyin
After lunch, on the way back to Chengdu, Yuan Tingdong stopped by to measure the size of a Shu embroidery shop in Pidu District, the owner of the shop is a hardcore fan of Yuan Tingdong, lamenting that Yuan Tingdong often dressed very casually when he appeared on camera, and wanted to send him a set of clothes made by himself.
This fan is from Douyin. What many people can't imagine is that a "post-80s" grandfather has attracted a large number of young fans in the current fire of mobile phone software. Yuan Tingdong sometimes jokes with old friends: "I have worked hard to write dozens of books in my life, which is not as influential as one or two episodes of douyin content." In fact, he is very happy to be able to spread Chengdu culture to young people in this way.
Two years ago, Yuan Tingdong couldn't even understand what Douyin was, and three reporters from Chengdu Television Invited him to cooperate together to popularize Chengdu culture. At the beginning, Yuan Tingdong had some drumming in his heart, and he was worried that most of the content on Douyin was funny, and users might not like this form of popular science. The reporters encouraged him to say that there were also some traditional cultural contents on it, which were very popular. So Yuan Tingdong decided to give it a try. Yuan Tingdong specially explained: "These three friends asked me to do vibrato, not the work tasks arranged in the station, but the use of spare time to shoot and edit by themselves, we are all public welfare public welfare to promote Chengdu culture." ”
On November 18, 2019, Yuan Tingdong's Douyin account released the first content "Why is Chengdu called Chengdu", and soon, the number of readings on Douyin exceeded 10,000, and the number of likes reached more than 3,000. A month later, Yuan Tingdong has gained 156,000 followers, with the highest number of likes reaching 200,000. A small test of the bull knife, the initial results, the two sides have been so cooperative.
Opening Yuan Tingdong's Douyin account, in less than two years, nearly 500 pieces of content have been released, and one will be updated almost every day. From urban evolution to street changes, from "lakes filling Sichuan" to Paoge culture, from food to dialects, almost all aspects of Chengdu culture are covered.
Today, Yuan Tingdong spends two days a week recording vibrato content. He admitted that at the beginning, talking about Chengdu streets and Sichuan cuisine were the areas he was most familiar with, and he didn't need to prepare at all. Until this year's Spring Festival, Yuan Tingdong saw the comments of Douyin fans, and the most comments have reached two or three thousand. "From these comments, we can see that they attach importance to this issue, they have learned something, and everyone will discuss it together." There are still many people who care about me - Teacher Yuan, you should diet to lose weight, your stomach is bigger again; Teacher Yuan, you should go to see your teeth, talk leaking. It shows that these readers are very close to me, and they do not regard me as an outsider. Yuan Tingdong realized that unlike the unilateral knowledge dissemination of book publishing in the past, through mobile phones, he and readers really interacted. Since then, each of Yuan Tingdong's vibrato will be prepared in advance in order to provide readers with better content.
Yuan Tingdong said: "I now take Douyin as my most important thing to do, because it is the most able to serve the people. "Now, Yuan Tingdong is walking on the street, sometimes people come to say hello, and he feels very happy to see so many people like him."
On the day of the interview, the small flowers that Yuan Tingdong planted in the courtyard bloomed, and he pointed them out to us in a good mood
In addition to shooting Vibrato, in his spare time, Yuan Tingdong is still creating words. At the invitation of the Sichuan People's Publishing House, he intends to write a biography of the characters that is supporting the "Chengdu Streets and Alleys". A few years ago, Yuan Tingdong donated all of his years of books to the Chengdu Library and established the "Yuan Tingdong Cultural Library", but now it is very inconvenient to check the materials himself, and he has to buy back some books.
In addition, all kinds of shooting and interview activities, all about the cultural aspects of Chengdu, Yuan Tingdong almost responded to every request. Just two days before our interview, he was interviewed by a media outlet for four full days, and even recorded until 11 o'clock at night before returning home; the day before, a Sichuan root base in Dujiangyan wanted to promote this medicinal material, shoot a program, invited him as a guest, and sat in the field for another day; at the end of August, a documentary team of CCTV filmed a film about peppers, Yuan Tingdong participated in two days of filming, and even made a plate of back-pot meat at home; at the same time, Yuan Tingdong cooperated with the Chengdu Planning Museum. A lecture on Chengdu culture is held every month... His wife was distressed by his body and occasionally blamed him for being overly enthusiastic, but Yuan Tingdong did not feel that these heavy social activities were a burden. Perhaps, as a person who loves and studies Bashu culture all his life, it is the greatest happiness to promote Chengdu culture to more people and contribute to the economic and cultural construction of his hometown. (Reader's Daily all-media reporter Dong Xiaoyue)
Editor: Wang Xin Responsible Editor: He Jian Review: Zhou Hua