Overseas media praises Hunan’s pickled vegetables
2023-09-13
On September 11, representatives of overseas Chinese media from 12 countries visited Linxiang City of Yueyang City to learn about the production process of soy sauce with a history of 1,000 years.
In the expo park, workers could be seen making original flavor fermented bean curd and mushroom sauce.
Shisan Village’s vegetables pickled in soy sauce have a long history and unique production techniques, which can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period.
Legend has it that during that time, General Huang Gai from the Kingdom of Wu stationed his troops in the region. When not engaged in military duties, these soldiers did farming work and cultivated the land.
Legend has it that during that time, General Huang Gai from the Kingdom of Wu stationed his troops in the region. When not engaged in military duties, these soldiers did farming work and cultivated the land.
They pickled vegetables, put them into earthen jars and hid the jars in cellars. After forty-nine days, the sauce boasted vibrant colors and delightful flavors, tantalizing the taste buds. This culinary tradition later spread from Linxiang to the neighboring regions of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi.
In February 2009, Shisan Village’s pickled vegetables making technique was selected on the list of the second batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage, making it a valuable cultural brand.
Today, the production of pickled vegetables has combined traditional craftsmanship with mechanized techniques. The products mainly include mushroom sauce and lobster sauce, which are sold all over China and to more than ten countries in Africa.
In the underground sauce cellars, where over 8,000 sauce jars were neatly arranged on both sides. The cellar stretches nearly 2,000 meters. At the end of the cellar, visitors were greeted by a big jar of over two meters tall making by Yong Qilin, a master of pottery.
“Our factory and the fermentation process are both ecological,” explained Li Guowu, general manager of Hunan Shisan Village Food Co., Ltd.
He highlighted that despite that the fermentation time can be shortened through technology to maximize economic benefits, the traditional methods of manual sauce preparation and natural fermentation were still preserved. It takes at least half a year from the moment vegetables are placed in jars for fermentation to the final packaging for sale.
Li emphasized, “Through integration of culture and tourism, tourists can experience the charm of intangible cultural heritage, farming culture and ecological culture and the brand of Shisan Village will be known by more people.”
Pickled vegetables are a symbol of culture. Therefore, it is important to get consumers to learn about the stories behind the making process of pickled vegetables.
Shisan Village has embarked on a development path of ecological cultural tourism, and transformed the scenes of sauce production, processes, and the factory into tourist resources, making the intangible cultural heritage workshop more a food processing factory than the first 3A-level scenic factory in Yueyang integrating Three Kingdoms culture, farming culture and sauce culture.
The village has also fostered, intangible cultural heritage inheritors and senior sauce makers.
Huang Xiaoxia, the 4th-generation inheritor of the pickled vegetables making technique, has taken innovative steps to change the stereotypical perception of sauce products among young people. While preserving the traditional flavors of pickled vegetables, she added a variety of new ingredients, creating a wide range of sauce products, including lobster sauce and abalone sauce, which have gained great popularity among young consumers.
The intangible cultural heritage workshop has significantly boosted the development of local homestays, restaurants, and agricultural and sideline products. Nearly 20,000 people in the region have benefited from the tourism industry, and increased income by nearly 2 million yuan.
The development model of combining intangible heritage cuisine with cultural tourism has piqued the interest of Zhu Yuhua, president of “Xinhua Times” in Italia. She said that when she returns, she will promote Shisan Village’s pickled vegetables and share the stories behind it with the public.
