"Shared Beauty"for Your Taste Buds:The Dissemination of Culinary Intangible Cultural Heritage Short Videos and Enhancing Community Consciousness
Looking at culinary ICH(intangible cultural heritage)in the context of globalization,food is something closely related to locals,playing a critical role in resisting the homogenization and simplification prevalent in the global era.Indeed many would agree that food,with its unique char-acteristics and cultural vitality,helps preserve and promote local distinctiveness.Additionally,the sensory experience of taste is closely intertwined with cultural and national identity.Records show a growing popularity of culinary ICH videos,so this study raises the question:Can they bring more Chinese cultural identity,and what kind of effects will they have?Taking short videos of culinary ICH on the Douyin platform as a study object,this arti-cle uses text analysis and participatory observation methods to investigate ICH of food short videos and their comments on Douyin.Findings suggest that culinary ICH,as a typi-cal embodiment of locality,both reproduces and extends local identity with the help of video shorts,and arguably resists the nothing of the era of glo-balization with its something that is related to lo-cals.The study further reveals that something spe-cialty foods have been offering a refuge from the perceived nothingness of globalization,providing innovation and meaning.At the same time,combi-nation of visual and auditory elements in short culi-nary videos seems to effectively convey taste and e-voke emotional memories.This has led to a trend where individuals seek self-healing and nostalgia through"hometown flavors"and"food flavors"presented in new media formats.The extension of local identities and elicitation of family-and country-related emotions through vid-eo shorts of culinary ICH apparently also stimulates a"food stamp collecting"mentality,where people silently deepen their cultural identification with and appreciation for Chinese cuisine.The narrative and dissemination of these short videos seemingly create a"space of flows",connecting diverse localities across China and fostering cultural interaction and integration concerning food preferences and culi-nary ICH through both tangible and intangible media.Evidently,this process significantly en-hances and broadens cultural identities.This identification with Chinese cuisine in-volves two stages:Firstly,the concept of"shared tasty food".The presentation of short videos en-courages people to try a variety of Chinese dishes,whether they are southern or northern flavors;they all appear to evoke some warm feelings and memo-ries of the Chinese nation.Secondly,the idea of"shared beauty".The cross-regional communica-bility inherent in culinary ICH,coupled with the fluidity of short videos,has shown to facilitate groups to develop a collective identity that tran-scends local boundaries.Data confirms that this i-dentity deepens through lifestyle-based content,enhancing cultural identification and the sense of belonging to the Chinese national community.From"shared tasty food"to"shared beauty":The short videos showcasing culinary(ICH)have demonstrated the powerful influence of connecting locals and forging identity.They serve as a repre-sentation and extension of local identities,and ex-press taste that evokes higher-level identification.Therefore it can be concluded that this has helped to deepen the sense of community for the Chinese nation.
culinary ICHshort videostasteidentityforging a sense of community for the Chinese nation
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
