China Cuisine-History: Regional Categories

One of the first lessons I teach in my Chinese and East Asian history classes is to think about China as a region or a continent first and then a country. China cannot adequately be compared to a France, Germany, or even Russia, despite the latter's size. A better comparison is to Europe or Africa. The vast geography of China, which includes deserts, jungles, coasts, river valleys, mountains, etc., combined with a large population and a longstanding political and social order led to a multitude of identities that eventually fell under the umbrella of China. In this way, Chinese cusine is coherent, but at the same time varies considerably and embraces a wide range of ingrediants, styles, and cooking methods.

The most common division of Chinese is "Eight Great Cuisines” or 八大菜系 (bada caixi). The word 菜or cai is also used on its own to designate a particular cuisine. However, it also means vegetable – which underscores the importance that vegetables play in Chinese food.

The Eight Great Cuisines are:

• Yue Cuisine (粤菜) or Cantonese, the mostly well-known style in the U.S. and the basis for most Chinese-American food;

• Chuan Cuisine (川菜) or Sichuan, commonly known for its spicy food but it actually features a diverse menu;

• Hui Cuisine (徽菜), or Anhui, is not well known outside of China and features exotic ingrediants from both the highlands and the rivers of east central China;

• Lu Cuisine (鲁菜) or Shandong style, named after the northern province which was the ancestral home of Confucius, it generally covers all forms of northern Chinese food and is notable for its use of grain over rice;

• Min Cuisine (闽菜) or Fujian style, is the cusine of the southeast Chinese coast, including Taiwan;

• Su Cuisine (苏菜) or Jiangsu style, covers the Yangtze River delta area and includes Shanghai;

• Xiang Cuisine (湘菜) or Hunan style, is actually considered to be the spiciest food in all of China; and

• Zhe Cuisine (浙菜) or Zhejiang style, is known for its use of intense salty flavors and fresh seafood.

This is just one categorization system and many of these categories feature numerous various sub-categories. For instance, Yue Cuisine can be broken down further into Hakka, Chaozhou, and Hong Kong style. Other categorization systems group Su and Zhe into a one category called Jiangnan or Hangbang. For the purpose of this blog, we'll stick with the eight categories as it is not only the most traditional method but it is also the most widely recognized by official sources in China.*

In addition to the Eight Great Cuisines, we will also look at how influences from Central Asia impacted northwest Chinese cusine. These include Uyghur and Mongol, as well as flavors and ingrediants brought in from far afield across the Silk Road. We will also look at Muslim food in China, which exists in two different forms - the northwest which came across the aforementioned Silk Road and a southern version which was transmitted through southeast Asia. These forms are especially notable for their reliance on lamb, and to a lesser degree beef, in lieu of pork, which is a staple of Chinese food.

Obviously, this is rich territory and there will be plenty of opportunities to not only explore these topics but go beyond them.

* Okay, so yes - this blog is admittedly going to recycle a talking point from the Chinese government. At least we're self aware on this point - unlike other unnamed media sources/analysts that are too ignorant or arrogant to know the difference. Burn.

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