This summer, more and more tourist attractions and cultural venues in China have added "cultural and creative ice cream", providing tourists with new options for sightseeing punching. However, in recent years, it is not only the ice cream product that has caught fire, but also various cultural and creative cuisines that have blossomed in museums and scenic spots. Where does "cultural creation on the tip of the tongue" come from? What are the stories and meanings behind them? The charm of tasting a taste of cultural and creative cuisine is not only the fragrance of lips and teeth.
The taste of history is a bit sweet
In March this year, the gold mask of the Sanxingdui site was unearthed, triggering the Sanxingdui cultural fever. What many people did not expect was that a few months later, Sanxingdui went out of the circle again with a bronze mask ice cream.
When the idea of "ice cream + cultural creation" came out, the circle of friends across the country "dried" a new way to play - the cultural and creative ice cream of the punch card museum and the scenic spot. Bronze mask ice cream, Xi'an city wall ice cream, three pools of moon ice cream and so on have become the summer "net red products".
Shanghai Yu Garden ice cream. Xinhua News Agency photo
Ice cream has been transformed into a miniature version of "cultural creation", with exquisite shapes. For example, bronze mask ice cream, based on the two bronze masks excavated from the Sanxingdui sacrifice pit as the prototype "reproduction", is divided into "bronze flavor" (matcha flavor) and "unearthed taste" (chocolate flavor) two flavors; Yellow Crane Tower ice cream, cornices, tiles, attics are clearly visible; Mogao Cave ice cream made of realistic shape of the nine floors, Mogao Grottoes and crescent spring images, and so on.
The trend of cultural and creative ice cream began in 2019, and as more and more categories collectively appeared, it became popular across the country this summer. During the National Day in 2019, the Forbidden City launched a group of ridge beast ice cream, which is shaped from the lion, one of the ridge beasts of the Forbidden City, with different colors and different tastes, full of ancient charm. This summer, after the ice cream designed based on drumming rap figurines and cloud-patterned rhinoceros, the National Museum launched the "Meng Eagle" ice cream, which is based on the 6,000-year-old Neolithic Yangshao cultural ceramic sculpture "Eagle-shaped Tao Ding", and this national treasure is displayed in the "Ancient China" exhibition hall of the National Expo.
Yuanmingyuan lotus ice cream
The lotus-shaped ice cream in the Yuanmingyuan also has a legendary archaeological story behind it. In 2017, archaeologists found 11 ancient lotus seeds at the Ruins of Ruyuan in the southeastern corner of Changchun Garden, and after careful cultivation by experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 6 lotus seeds successfully sprouted after sowing and flowered in the Yuanmingyuan in the summer of 2019. In the summer of that year, the lotus-shaped ice cream in the Yuanmingyuan was created based on one of the "resurrected" ancient lotuses.
"The taste of history is a little sweet", "Cultural and creative ice cream, there is an ancient style of beauty", "Eating is food, tasting is culture"... Since its birth, cultural and creative ice cream has won many fans with its unique creativity and has become the "standard" for many people when playing.
A variety of cultural flavors
What opens the cultural and creative imagination feast of the cultural and creative venues is not only the cultural and creative ice cream. Cultural and creative products such as tape, lipstick, and hanging ornaments are still popular with the public, but "cultural creation on the tip of the tongue" makes China's history and culture close to the general public in a "visual + taste" way.
"Cultural and expo venues are not lofty, cultural creativity is to popularize among the people." Guo Hao, a cultural scholar and former director of the Beijing Film and Television Center of Changying Group, believes that the production of cultural and creative cuisine has made cultural and creative products more lively and refreshing. The way cultural and creative cuisine is opened is varied.
For example, he said, the Palace Museum was formerly the Forbidden City, the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In living and living, the most important thing is diet. "The public has a curiosity about court food, and cultural and creative cuisine is the focus of excavation, and it is necessary to return to the level of the public."
The special mooncakes of the Forbidden City are not only delicious, but also elegant in shape. For example, a "Guicai Mid-Autumn Festival Special Circle" moon cake, the gift box is based on the Song Dynasty Ru kiln azure color, with ice crack dark patterns, the moon cake pattern is derived from the Song Huizong painting flowers and birds, full of cultural flavor.
Guobo Ruyi Cake
Another example is a "Ruyi Cake" in the National Museum, whose inspiration is related to a traditional Chinese painting "Yihong Night Feast", which is now in the National Museum. The eight fruits of Ruyi Cake reproduce a "Yihong Night Feast", the red jujube flavored Baochao, the chestnut flavored Daiyu, the barley-flavored Xiangling, the tea-flavored oolong flavored Musk Moon, the Tangerine Peel Oolong flavored raider, the flower-scented Pu'er-flavored Xiangyun, the fruity Li Feng, and the osmanthus Pu'er-flavored Tanchun, and the fillings are as suitable as possible to fit the character's personality.
The way to open cultural and creative cuisine tells us that cultural and creative cuisine is not enough to have a good appearance, but also needs to have connotation.
Siyang Fangzun, one of the "treasures of the town hall" of the National Museum, is a special cultural relic that is forbidden to leave the country, but because of the development of food, the audience can take away the "Siyang Fangzun 3D Chocolate". The most widely symbolic meaning of sheep in the folk is "auspicious", and sheep have the habit of "kneeling milk", which is interpreted as a model of filial piety to parents. This black and white chocolate symbolizes auspiciousness and filial piety.
Guobo Four Sheep Fangzun Chocolate
It can be seen that the Chinese diet pays attention to the "color, fragrance and shape", and "the national treasure on the tip of the tongue" is not only a simple taste feeling, but also a cultural feast and spiritual enjoyment.
A vivid expression of the aesthetics of oriental life
Compared with previous years, cultural and creative cuisine in major cultural and expo venues across the country is not uncommon. Guo Hao told reporters that there are two main categories of "cultural creation on the tip of the tongue": one is heavy "shape", and the other is heavy "meaning". Heavy "shape" of cultural and creative cuisine, mainly combined with the collection of cultural relics, the shape of cultural relics as the appearance of food, cultural and creative ice cream is a typical representative of this type of cuisine. Cultural and creative cuisine that emphasizes "intention" will be in line with the current popular exhibitions, and cultural and creative meals with the concept of food will be launched.
For example, the "Dong Qichang Afternoon Tea" launched by the Shanghai Museum in 2019 is a catering activity designed to cooperate with the "Dong Qichang Calligraphy and Painting Art Exhibition" in the museum. Drinking a cup of coffee or special tea according to Dong Qichang's painting style, accompanied by a small plate of "Xuan Reward" rice cake and shanshui mung bean cake, has become a new way for people to immerse themselves in the exhibition.
For another example, the Suzhou Museum launched Tang Yinpao. The Suzhou Museum contains a large number of tang Bohu's authentic calligraphy and paintings, and Tang Yin's character tea bubbles, which transform the image of the talented man into a tea bag, are still romantic and sloppy, with a different flavor.
Tang Yinpao
"The encounter between the old and the young is always dramatic." In Guo Hao's view, "cultural creativity on the tip of the tongue" is integrated into the new scene of catering consumption, and this new way of playing will integrate the traditional culture carried into the life of modern people in a new posture, especially loved by young people.
He said that the Cultural and Tourism Bureau of Beijing's Dongcheng District created a new cultural and creative IP "East of the Forbidden City" 3 years ago, of which food is also a key content. For example, afternoon teas created in conjunction with a number of five-star hotels, such as "Chuanguo Jade Seal" and "Jade Cabbage", have become delicious refreshments. Guests can sit back and enjoy tea in the courtyard restaurant or spend a leisurely afternoon in a hotel with a view of the Forbidden City or Jingshan. In addition to food, a number of activities that have both cultural characteristics and a sense of experience, such as hutong cycling and urban markets, have also been continuously landed.
Experts believe that with the homogeneous development of cultural and creative cuisine, to make their own characteristics, the competition is the theme, creativity, and the story behind the cultural and creative products. The skillful integration of traditional culture into modern life is also a vivid expression of the aesthetics of oriental life.
The continuous collision of tradition and modernity
In the view of Yang Ming, the inheritor of the traditional pastry making skills of the intangible cultural heritage Xianghe Baobao, the biggest charm of cultural and creative cuisine lies in its unique cultural heritage, and it is in line with the aesthetics and hobbies of young people in product innovation.
Many years ago, Xianghe Rao Shop cooperated with cultural and expo venues such as the Forbidden City to produce cultural and creative cuisine. Yang Ming told reporters that any cultural and creative cuisine is composed of three elements, namely taste attributes, morphological attributes, and cultural attributes. "Taste attributes need to be combined with the characteristics of the times to innovate, for example, 30 or 40 years ago, the Chinese people preferred to eat dim sum with heavy oil and heavy sugar, but today's young people pay more attention to low-burden, multi-level taste." When they developed a dim sum called white dumplings, they added jasmine and cheese to reflect the multi-layered needs of the taste buds. In the production of Dingsheng cake in cooperation with Yuewangmiao in Hangzhou, ingredients such as berries and chocolates are used to make young people's favorite ingredients.
Wukang building ice cream. Shu lyrical photography
He said that Chinese culture is broad and profound, if many cultural and creative products were expressed in the past, and they were prominent in terms of packaging and form, then the future direction of cultural creation is a deeper expression. Taking cultural and creative cuisine as an example, in the past, traditional dim sum, in addition to Jiangnan, Guangdong and other refreshments are exquisitely made, the appearance is often rougher, but modern people are more and more pursuing an aesthetic sense of high-grade, which requires cultural and creative cuisine to be innovative in terms of color, form or structure.
Yang Ming believes that the cultural attributes of cultural and creative cuisine do not exist independently of products, but are the most important components integrated into them. They and the Forbidden City jointly made the "Blossoming Flowers" series of cakes to choose peonies, lotuses and plum blossoms, these three are not only the most representative flowers in the Forbidden City, but also have their own meanings: peony is graceful and luxurious, lotus flowers are clean and fresh, and plum blossoms have their own wind and bone.
Experts believe that no matter how the future development of "cultural creation on the tip of the tongue" will be the continuous collision and integration of tradition and modernity, which can reflect the traditional aesthetics of Chinese, reflect the daily life of ordinary people, and spread chinese cultural stories, and the value of cultural and creative cuisine lies in this.
(The inscription picture is the main product of the "Ding" food series launched by the Shanghai Museum, Dakeding Ice Cream.) Photo by Jiang Diwen)
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Peng Wei
Source: Author: Peng Wei