We tested two models that use topological distance and physical distance, respectively, and found that the model using topological distance produces better results. utensils, sweet and pleasant buns, egg cakes which is crisp outside and Sichuan (Szechuan) cuisine: hot, spicy chilis, ma po doufu, hot pot As a result, the set of distinct ingredients roughly follows Heap's law, as seen in Fig. Results of cosine similarity are not displayed, as all of them display similar tendencies with PCC. For example, regions with hot climates often eat very spicy foods. However, the central government is fearful of its inability to actually monitor and control such communication. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SphericalDistance.html, Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions. Within China, there are many variations of taste throughout the regions. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1994. It may sound incredible, but Chinas formal education systemthe oldest in the worldwas established nearly two millennia ago. Fig. . Most of the region is dominated by the Tarim Basin, which is filled mostly by the formidable Taklamakan desert and rimmed by high mountains-the Kunlun Shan to the south, the Karakorum to the west, and the Tian Shan to the north. Domesticated animals such as pigs, cattle, and fowl also came from China. This first emperor defined the empire's borders within central Asia and established common laws for everyone within every geographic sector of the country. Based on the finding, we proposed a copy-and-mutate model that incorporates geographical proximity. Other specialty crops, such as tea and citrus fruits, are grown, but the coast is subject to typhoons. This enabled the Chinese to develop independently from other world civilizations. To estimate the effect of climate and geographical proximity, we calculate partial correlation [27], which is used to measure the linear association between two factors while removing the effect of other additional factors. Hunan (south of the river) cuisine: Renowned for its soups, is one of Of this, slightly more than half is unirrigated, and the remainder is divided roughly equally between paddy fields and irrigated areas; good progress has been made in improving water conservancy. Even Mongolia had closer cultural links to this region than did China proper. in the world. He has a research interest in Chinese cuisine and culinary tourism. A panel of experts discusses the wealth of intelligence data that exists in the modern world and the sinister ways nations spy on one another, on allies, and on adversaries. Below you can select how youd like us to interact with you and well keep you updated with our latest content. With probability the chosen regional cuisine () will interact with another region (Step 2). Housing: nomads live in yak-felt tents. doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2021.1930736. Includes case studies on Ralph Waldo Emerson, T.S. To estimate the effect of climate we use temperature as a proxy. Each ingredient has a fitness value , randomly drawn from a uniform distribution in . Goods are also produced from indigenous gold and turquoise. China is the worlds leading producer of pigs, chickens, and eggs, and it also has sizable herds of sheep and cattle. To fully appreciate China's broad geographic and cultural diversity, one needs to identify general characteristics that act as guidelines. Other important crops are potatoes, sugar beets, and oilseeds. Cumulative frequency distribution of ingredient usage. ---. If we already have recipes, stop the simulation, or else repeat the previous steps. Nomads live in tents, while apartments are common in urban areas. Cumulative frequency distribution of the cuisine network generated by our model compared to the the empirical distribution from the dataset of Chinese cuisine. Northern cuisine includes the Henan (north of the river) region. The landmass of China spans North-South and East-West rather evenly, providing a good test bed to study the effect of geography and climate. Millet and kaoliang (a variety of grain sorghum) are grown mainly in the Northeast and some central provinces, whichtogether with some northern areasalso produce considerable quantities of barley. While the Hakka cuisine on which Nanxiong dishes are based may be mild in flavour, this unique city considers spiciness an integral part of the local identity. Second, traditional Hakka cuisine the basis of Nanxiong food uses lots of mountain food products and, therefore, mountainous terrain becomes a historical symbol for ethnic Hakka. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Economic activities and resources today: Land for grazing and the cultivation of rice, winter wheat, tea, and beans is available in the region. noodles that have its influences from the Chinese la mien, We performed the test as follows. For example regions with hot climates often eat very spicy foods. Winter and summer temperatures can be extreme, and dust storms are common. The graph is obtained by averaging implementations with independently random sequences of recipes. The cuisines then evolve as new recipes and ingredients join over time. right hand; Laghman is a newer The humid climate also compels a creativity and variety in food preservation, Because such foods raise the body temperature and cause one to perspire. Some observers characterize those regional cuisines as Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989. Their economic history is more closely linked to the mercantile cities and trade of the ancient Silk Road than to the irrigation practices of eastern China. The environment has been adversely affected both by the vast accumulations of waste rock and other mining debris that have been left on huge tracts of land and by the great volume of polluted wastewater produced by mining operations, which has fouled rivers and farm fields. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079161, Editor: Petter Holme, Ume University, Sweden, Received: July 10, 2013; Accepted: September 18, 2013; Published: November 18, 2013. For further reading on this region, go to: http://www.uygurworld.com/_sgt/m3_1.htm. She enjoys shopping at her local farmers markets and growing herbs and produce in her garden. Why? One of the regions most famous recipes is ma po doufu, a spicy PLoS ONE 8(11): Chinese Geography through Chinese Cuisine Authors: Jonathan N. Lipman Page: 17 Journal Issue: Social Education January/February 2010 Special Section: China Today: Teaching about a Changing Cultural Landscape Teaching China's cuisines provides an engaging way of illustrating the diversity of Chinese society. Chinese Buddhist belief has for centuries prohibited the eating of animal flesh, and the monks here have spent an age perfecting the cooking of all types of vegetarian food. Food has been one major topic of interest at National Geographic because it connects all of us to our environment. 3, the frequency distribution of ingredients follows a power-law [18] ( using method in paper [19]), capturing the intuition that a few ingredients such as salt, sugar, and egg constitute a major part of our every-day diet. The introduction of spices into the Hakka cuisine eaten in Nanxiong represents a long history of this region, forming strong bonds with other regions that appreciate spicy food. Jiaozi dumplings are often filled with pork and vegetables, but Buxton, Leonard H. China: The Land and the People. Cantonese cooks often make artistic and colorful During the twentieth century, initiatives to dam the Yangzi have brought about drastic changes in the landscape, economy, and lives of the people living in the Yangzi Valley, forcing many to relocate. A tour de force essay written by Dr. Roddham Narasimha. We empirically analyzed the similarity relations between major regional cuisines in China in terms of climate and physical proximity. Sarah Newman lives in Los Angeles, California, where she writes the blog Neesh Noosh: A Jewish Woman's Year Long Journey to Find Faith in Food. Wrote the paper: YXZ JMH YYA. The exponent is obtained by the method in previous work [19]. Given a cuisine and an ingredient , we use to denote the degree of ingredient , counted with edges in cuisine . FOCUS, 44, no. ---. He has recently worked on rethinking contemporary and traditional Chinese food with a geography lens. His research interests lie in Chinese cuisine and culinary tourism, where he has helped to rethink Chinese food through a geographical lens. GEOG 3822-581* . the oldest and richest also noted for its spicy, pungent and flavorful Mosques and some residential architecture have Central Asian or Persian-style influences. Life on the North China Plain is one of self-sufficiency and subsistence. Westend One approach to describing the regional cuisine of China is to note the Often chicken, other fowl and fresh catches from the seafood embellish Animals continue to be raised, and wool weavings are another important product. Aquaculture surpassed capture, in terms of overall tonnage, in the early 1990s. Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing, People's Republic of China, Affiliation: An edge between a recipe and an ingredient indicates that the recipe contains the corresponding ingredient. Generally speaking, such as wet paddy planting (especially for rice) accounts for a large The null hypothesis says the two classes and have identical probability distributions. However, the influence of the Pacific Ocean as well as access thereto make the area distinctive. Understanding the interaction between a natural environment and various human and cultural patterns is an essential aspect of geography. Homes are two stories with inward-slanting mud, earthen, brick, or stone walls and earthen floors. The observations of classes and are then pooled. is a free parameter to tune the importance of topological distance. Since common ingredients carry little information, we use an ingredient-usage vector inspired by TF-IDF (Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency) [22]:(2)where a prior weight is introduced to penalize a popular ingredient. bean-curd and vegetable dish cooked with some of the most powerful chilis The kind of food produced and the cooking practices of different areas in China depend on the nature of the geography of each particular region. traditional and staple foods are butter tea (po cha), Tsambpa, Wholesale destruction of Chinas accessible forests over a long period of time gave way to an energetic reforestation program that has proved to be inadequate; forest resources are still fairly meagre. Our results indicate that the effect of temperature on the ingredient usage pattern may not exist at all. The parameters and are obtained from the data. Economic activities and resources today: Even today the North China Plain is a land of dispersed agricultural settlements. It likewise represents a smallthough significantpart of the annual value of industrial output. If you are happy for us to contact you in this way, please tick below. The partial correlation coefficients between physical distance and PCC, given temperature difference as a control variable, is 0.280. Edited by Liz O. Baylen and Mike Benoist. To the south and southeast of China are the Himalaya Mountains. broad scope, and wide readership a perfect fit for your research every time. It is bordered by the provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi to the north, the territory of Chongqing municipality to the east, the provinces of . With probability cuisine will develop a recipe itself by randomly selecting unique ingredients from the ingredient pool. ), canals linked the lower Yangzi Valley and regions south of it to the North China Plain. to important and wealthy individuals throughout history. One of the main conclusions of Lins studies is that place is one of the most important shapers of cuisine. History: The Manchus invaded China in the seventeenth century, establishing the Qing dynasty in 1644. An aid to creating an understanding of the nature of such fingerprints would be tables showing each region's common (yet distinctive) characteristics. Figure 9 shows the similarity distribution of cuisines with respect to topological distance. First, theres the physiological process on the tongue. Despite this, its clear that geographical location is indeed a large determinantoftaste. The -values of Fig. The most essential need for all living organisms is energy, which is usually obtained by consuming food. Participant observation data was collected, along with 14 group interviews and a further 38 in-depth interviews. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992. The images and issues were simultaneously shared with Han Chinese throughout the People's Republic as well as in other parts of the world. sabrina . In the initial state, there are ingredients in the ingredient pool, and each regional cuisine contains one recipe chosen randomly from the initial ingredients; that is, . Thank you for expressing interest in joining our mailing list and community. Studying taste in Naxiong 4 (1989). Cotton is grown extensively in the central provinces, but it is also found to a lesser extent in the southeast and in the North. Trade between these countries and the Southwest Uplands often has been illegal and generally consisted of small items of great value, such as jade or opium. the most notable division is found between the North and South regions Food. So Chinese farmers have learned to use every inch of their fertile land intensively. It is characterized by its elaborate preparation and varying techniques of cooking, such as sauting, stewing, steaming, and deep-frying. to freshness and delicate technique. including techniques such as picking, salting, drying and smoking. Therefore, the ingredient-usage vector of regional cuisine is written in the following form:(1)where is the probability of ingredient appears in cuisine . By selecting any of the topic options below you are consenting to receive email communications from us about these topics. A Brief Overview of Chinas Cultural Revolution, A Look at Hong Kong and China 20 Years After Reunification, Which Country Is Larger By Population? These groups, due to their high altitude and limited Stonehouse It has had the greatest number of Christian missionaries, Chinese Christians, and Christian churches in China. Because the origins of China's empire lay in its interior, imperial highways were initially the most important features of the transportation system. We will explore how the atmosphere affects plants, animals, and people. Tao Zhou, This cuisine is very nutritious and healthy. Except in Qinghai and the Tibetan Plateau and Xinjiang, an extensive rail system links China and is the most common form of long-distance travel. Taste comes in three dimensions. The bulk of the catch comes from Pacific fisheries, with nearly all of the remainder from inland freshwater sources. Just as fingers share general characteristics, each has a unique "print" or pattern. distinct regional cuisines exist in a land with such variety. A usual family dinner serves close friends. Yet, control of Sichuan and its agricultural riches provided access to every other major political and economic realm, making it the target of many outside warlords and emperors. The basic statistics of regional cuisines in China. Each recipe has the following properties: (i) a cuisine (each recipe belongs to only one cuisine); (ii) a list of ingredients; and (iii) a cooking method. Physical characteristics: This region shares the entire Yangzi Valley's dominant characteristics of water, wetlands, and hot and humid summers. the high altitude requires even hardier agricultural products: where it This same principle can be used to facilitate understanding complex cultures and societies, such as those in China. For example, regions with hot climates often eat very spicy foods. Food has been studied in depth by many disciplines including history [4][7], sociology [8][10], philosophy [11], [12], literary criticism [13], etc. For example, if recipes in a regional cuisine use ingredients (with duplicates) in total and ingredient appears in recipes in that cuisine, we have . The duck and Despite the fact that the railroad does not extend very far west into the province, tourism is gaining in this remote region of spectacular scenery with a wealth of archaeological treasures, including Buddhist cave temples, ruined cities and fortresses, petrogylphs, and 4,000-year-old mummies. This food doesnt tend to be spicy, using ingredients such as chicken, mountain rats, mushrooms, crabs, pickled cabbage, dumplings, duck, goose, and pork. Zi-Ke Zhang, That is, regions with similar temperature tend to share similar usage patterns of ingredients, which is consistent with previous results [14]. The distributions of regional cuisines in two principal components (capturing 44% of the information) are presented in Fig. Nanxiong is connected to places in other provinces and, therefore, borrows their flavour traditions, going against many of the cuisine choices within Guangdong Province. For example, regions with hot climates often eat very spicy foods. PLOS is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, #C2354500, based in San Francisco, California, US. in this area are limited. Mainstay foods, again, are meat (mutton, or sometimes When eating the classic Nanxiong dish of sour bamboo shoots and spicy chilli peppers, a person can feel at home, even when theyre far away in Shenzhen. Topological distance vs. physical distance. First, the difference between and is calculated. McColl, Robert W. "House and Field in the Karakorams." Regions characteristics: geography, climate, agriculture resources require a diet higher in fat and calories. China is well endowed with mineral resources, and more than three dozen minerals have proven economically important reserves. Learn more. Most Chinese migrants worked in existing industry and on large commercial farms producing mostly soybeans and corn. Climate obviously plays an important role in shaping food culture, because it both limits the availability of ingredients and affects the usage of spices [14]. Despite its manifest importance, few studies have taken quantitative, systematic approaches towards food culture, mainly due to the scarcity of systematically collected databases. Each circle represents a pair of cuisines. Farming techniques It is not surprising that eating with chopsticks from small bowls, apparently developed in China in the Han Dynasty. Basically, the Northeast is rich in coal and petroleum, the central part of North China has abundant coal, and the southwest has great hydroelectric potential. Junfan Lin is a postdoctoral researcher at the Sun Yat-sen University, China. YBXSZC20131035, YBXSZC20131034) and China Scholarship Council. The kind of food produced and the cooking practices of different areas in China depend on the nature of the geography of each particular region. Physical characteristics: The overwhelming distinctive characteristic of the Loess Plateau is the wind-blown alluvium (dust) that has accumulated to depths of over 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) in some places and is known as loess. Hsieh Chiao-min and Jean Kan Hsieh. (A): result for all regional cuisines; (B): result when neglecting outliers. When we delete the two outliers mentioned above (Yungui and HK), the Pearson correlation coefficient between the temperature difference and PCC becomes 0.216 (Figure 8C). The kind of food produced and the cooking practices of different areas in China depend on the nature of the geography of each particular region. School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University, Bloomington, United States of America, The 1,200-mile (1900 km) Huanghe or Yellow River begins in the western Qinghai Province and travels a meandering route through North China to the Bohai Sea in Shangdong Province. While it lies within Guangdong Province, its close to the borders of the Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. A distinct geographic print might include the following variables: physical and environmental features, such as climates, soils, topography, and location; historic patterns and their relationship to the natural environment; the economic activities and resources that define the area today. Celebrate & Learn Through Food. A formal dinner includes 4-6 cold dishes, 8-10 hot dishes, served with soup and fruits. All the symbols used in our model are listed in Table 2. Most of the soybean crop is derived from the North and the Northeast, and corn (maize) is grown in the centre and the North. Both countries have removed government controls, increased foreign trade, and built strong export-based economies. ---, ed. Spiciness, though, is considered part of what has made Nanxiong a great city. Other cities along the coast also have been designated "special economic zones." The alpine beauty of the Tian Shan separates the Tarim Basin from the smaller Junggar Basin, which is characterized by more moisture and grass. general characteristics of cooking and culture by location: North, South, Tobacco comes from the centre and parts of the South. View PDF File Tweet For example, one participant said that he smelled the combination of sour bamboo shoots and spicy chillis coming from a neighbours home. We develop a model of regional cuisine evolution that provides helpful clues for understanding the evolution of cuisines and cultures. Popular tourist sites include the Thousand-Buddha Cliff, Qingcheng Mountain, the Bamboo Forest, the Corridor of Cypresses, Woolong Nature Reserve (for panda conservation), and Xiling National Forest Park. Lins research uses a regional framework to understand the complex connections between taste and place. This gave him ample opportunities to interact with the flavours of the food and gauge how this impacted the locals consuming it. We showed that the results of our model agree with our empirical findings. In North China wheat is of the greatest importance, while in the central provinces wheat and rice vie with each other for the top place. 9 indicate significant difference ( for both cases). Eastern Lowlands are rich in both natural resources like coal and iron, We quantify geographical proximity using two distance measures: physical distance and topological distance. The kind of food produced and the cooking practices of different areas in China depend on the nature of the geography of each particular region. Although the use of farm machinery has been increasing, for the most part the Chinese peasant depends on simple, nonmechanized farming implements. While loess is rich in calcium and thus fertile, the overall aridity of the region coupled with the fact that loess does not hold water makes traditional methods of irrigation and farming useless. dishes. Oil is a major resource in Gansu, Xinjiang, and the contiguous country of Kazakhstan. In doing so, its possible to feel deeply connected to a place, even when youre a long way from home. Performed the experiments: YXZ. Qian-Ming Zhang, We assume that the annual average temperature approximately captures one of the most fundamental aspects of climates. dishes are polo and laghman. The Chinese Houses. Social organization, transportation, and food are other important aspects of a fingerprint. cuisine is very similar to Cantonese cooking in its careful attention We build an evolution model of Chinese cuisines based on the simple notion that geographical proximity breeds more communication and migration. One was human poverty and isolated communities; the other a dependency upon trade with nomadic peoples and the empires beyond the Great Wall. Transportation remains the most crucial factor. Still, there are areas along its southern and western boundaries, where rhododendron and banana trees grow in the shadow of active glaciers. Regions characteristics: geography, The study showed that the regional approach is a useful one because it has a long historical duration, is concretely identified, and covers a large area. Hunanes are especially fond of using chilis, sweet peppers and Variety is Our investigation suggests that geographical distance alone plays a more important role than climate. High and difficult mountains surround the basin. Today "fingerprint" carries the same idea, namely some thing or place that is distinctive. 2 (1991). As shown in Fig. Housing: plaster or brick to offset rain in rural areas, apartment buildings in urban areas, Social organization: class, family, or business compounds, Transportation: boats and ships on rivers and canals, cars, buses, and bicycles, Food staples: rice, seafood, and tropical fruits. its skin (a delicacy) are served with Hoisin (Peking) sauce in flat-bread As the means of tying the country and its regions together proceeded, a common written language and shared cultural values evolved. Notable flavors and dishes The Pearson correlation coefficient between the temperature difference and PCC is 0.134 (Figure 8A), indicating a weak correlation between similarity of regional cuisines and their temperature difference. More valuable, however, has been the cultivation and export of opium, an activity developed as a result of Britain's Opium War with China. For the best experience, we recommend using a modern browser that supports the features of this website. School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University, Bloomington, United States of America. Close friends or colleagues usually go to food stalls for dining and drinking. but, as the Yangtze River flows through the region, the best farming (flat hand-pulled noodle. Physical maps show different landforms and elevations and bodies of water. FOCUS, 39, no. Research Outreach, Available at: https://researchoutreach.org/articles/taste-and-place-how-cuisine-affects-geographical-identity/ (Accessed YYYY/MM/DD). As an overview, we apply Principal Component Analysis to identify principal components of the ingredient usage matrix [25]. The mining of tin, another major industry of this region, is the only distinctive economy that is both traditional and modern. Coal and iron mining are also central to the region's economy, and ginseng, soybeans, and timber are major products. PLOS ONE promises fair, rigorous peer review,