Traditional food preservation techniques in China
Dahlia Zail is a Senior at Pitzer College
In an influential 2014 article in the New York Times Magazine, “What Do Chinese Dumplings Have to Do with Global Warming?, author Nicola Twilley Twilley argued that Western-style food modernity in China has brought new convenience and safety to tens of millions of rising middle-class Chinese citizens. Refrigeration for 1.15 billion people, however, has an aggregate downside. The energy and coolant chemicals required to extend access to refrigeration for over 95 percent of China’s population—up from 7 percent of families in 1990—is causing an exponential rise in global greenhouse gases due to the energy required to power refrigerators and from the hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) emissions from leaking coolant.[1] Moreover, hundreds of millions of home refrigerators in China are transforming how and what Chinese citizens eat: diets are now heavy in convenience foods purchased at supermarkets and restaurants, with mounting health consequences evidenced by rising rates of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.[2]
This proposal centers on the recovery, diffusion and celebration of China’s non-refrigeration-based traditions of food preservation, including salting, drying, fermenting, pickling, and smoking. This public trust proposal argues that by smart marketing of traditional, low-energy forms of food storage based in China’s world-renowned heritage of regional cuisines, a national culinary public trust would not only result in a lower-emissions food system, but also connect younger generations to elders (making traditional dishes “cool” for hipster youth influencers), urban communities to rural, reinforce a sense of pride in Chinese foodways, and improve public health by replacing consumption of highly processed, Western-style foods with whole foods and simple ingredients.
This trust is first based in cultural marketing of China’s food history: evidence for early forms of food preservation, for example, have been found in a Chinese tomb dating to more than 2,000 years ago which instructs in inscribed bamboo how to execute processes such as salting, drying, and pickling.[3] Some of the earliest types of food fermentation in China were the fermentation of meat into pastes, shortly followed by the fermentation of fish into pastes.[4] Later, once soy became a common crop, soybeans and other beans were commonly fermented and made into pastes and sauces, many of which are still used in Chinese cooking today.[5]
Regional dishes provide a window into the diversity of Chinese cultural history: the long, harsh winters of Beijing led to the development of sophisticated pickling and preservation of vegetables and other fresh products. Pickled vegetables, sausages, dried meats, and salted food products are of particular importance in the cuisine in the north. Fuijan cuisine utilizes the techniques of drying and preserving in regards to various agricultural products. Canton cuisine prominently features soy sauce, a sauce made using a fermentation process. Their traditional food preparation additionally involves the salting and drying of fish and a variety of vegetables. Szechuan cuisine is known particularly for its pickles, which are still popular in the region today, and often served with rice. China’s most prized vinegar comes from Zhejiang cuisine. This vinegar is made from steamed rice, barley, and peas, along with the addition of mold for flavor.
Ultimately, the successful promotion of low-energy, healthful food preserved with traditional methods relies on the interest of young, mostly urban Chinese citizens in these foodways and their ability to carve out time and physical space to make traditional foods. This public trust proposal suggests that multiple stakeholders design “preservation centers” for the community, quite possibly with the backing of the Chinese National Health Commission and the private nonprofits Slow Food Great China and the Chinese Nutrition Society. These centers could be equipped with all of the necessary space, equipment, and resources needed to practice these methods. These spaces could be a place that also brings community members together, places for families to go on the weekends, or for young adults to hang out after school. Maybe these centers hold events, and classes with local chefs and preservation experts from the countryside.
And it doesn’t need to stop there. What if food preservation became an after- school activity for school children? Or what if learning about these processes became a component in science class, or history class for Chinese students? What if there were “pickling competitions” for community members? These are just some ideas that I am proposing as an American college student. What it will really take is the collaboration of various stakeholders and the people of China themselves to come together to create a system that works for the dynamic and structure of the country.
[1] Twilley, N. (2014), “What Do Chinese Dumplings Have to Do with Global Warming?” The New York Times Magazine, July 27
[2] Zhihong Wang et al., “Diet Quality is Linked to Insulin Resistance among Adults in China, Journal of Nutrition 147, no 11, 2102, 2108, DOI 10.3945/jn.117.256180
Ding, E.L., Malik, V.S., “Convergence of Obesity and High Glycemic Diet on Compounding Diabetes and Cardiovascular Risks in Modernizing China: An Emerging Public Health Dilemma,” Globalization & Health 4, 1-8, DOI 10.1186/1744-8603-4-4.
[3] Anderson, E.N., “Ancient and Dynastic China.” Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, edited by Katz, S., (New York: Scribner 2003), 382-83.
[4] Chen, Taosheng, and Chi‐Tang Ho. “Past, Present, and Future of Chinese Fermented Food Products.” Food Reviews International, vol. 5, no. 2, 1989, pp. 177–208., doi:10.1080/87559128909540849.
[5] Chen, Taosheng, and Chi‐Tang Ho. “Past, Present, and Future of Chinese Fermented Food Products.” Food Reviews International, vol. 5, no. 2, 1989, pp. 177–208., doi:10.1080/87559128909540849.