| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 歷史學系 === 92 === Abstract
This thesis describes the dietary culture in China’s lower Yangtze river region from the 16th to the 18th centuries. It discusses the progress of food-making, the cultivation of food culture, and the importance of food in people’s daily lives and society. The making of food includes two parts: preserving and processing the food; the latter shows how the people cook the food. With the development of food culture, there appeared many different kinds of food shops and restaurants in the region. This demonstrates that there had begun a commercialization and marketization in eating and making food during this period.
With the development of food culture, the food making process became more exquisite than before. Customers also developed a particular taste that demands such exquisiteness. This reflected the maturity of food culture, showing the interactions between the cultivation of food and the development of people’s taste. By illustrating this interaction, the thesis reveals that the making and consumption of food and the cultivation of taste are closely linked with the development of society. This connection suggests that the consumption of food acquired some special techniques in the lower Yangtze region in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. For example, some food were obtained from nature in order to retain its primitivefresh taste. Some other food were processed well, relying upon the maturity of food making technology. All this reflected the sophistication of food making and consumption at this time. There were even connections between food and politics. Some food had a symbolic meaning reflecting a complicated political culture. In short, this thesis hopes to demonstrate that the development of food culture had cultural, literary and historical meanings. It contributed to the rich and colorful culture in the lower Yangtze region in the Ming and Qing periods.
|
|---|
