In Chinese history, food is always tied with aristocracy. In the Shang Dynasty, King Zhou of Shang, one of the most extravagant emperors, is famous for filling the pool with wine and hanging the meat in the forest so that he would enjoy wine and meat anytime and anywhere. There is no doubt food comes first for Chinese food. Mass population depend on food to survive, while the gentry distinct themselves through setting a high standard of cuisine.
A Dream of Red Mansions, regarded as the dictionary of aristocratic life, not only depicts daily diets and party cuisine, but also documents indigents and recipes of those cuisine. Cao Xueqing the author was raised up in a Jiangnan’s family. His family was in charge of silk tribute to the emperor. A Dream of Red Mansions is, in fact, based on Cao’s experience as a noble person when he was young. However, those descriptions of such high standard of cuisine point out hierarchy and political power exerted through rare ingredients and sophisticated recipes.
The most known plot, “Grandma Liu visits the Red Mansions”, demonstrates how hierarchy is established and reinforced by food. Grandma Liu is a rural woman, who is a distant relative of the royal family, and is invited to visit them at the Red Mansions. The royal family treats her with a dish called Dried Eggplant (Qiexiang, “茄鲞”). The royal family sees this dish as a home-made food not even a sophisticated one, commented, “It is not complicated to prepare. It only needs fresh eggplant to be peeled, chopped, and fried with chicken oil. Then stew in the chicken broth the fried eggplant with chicken, fungus, mushroom, bamboo shoots and nut, all chopped, until the broth is dried. Put the dried stew in a sealed porcelain jar with sesame oil. When you need to enjoy it, mix it with fried chicken claws.” Grand Liu is amazed by Dried Eggplant, and saying it tastes nothing like eggplant. Through Grandma Liu’s reactions, which teases those aristocrats, the segregation is obvious between ordinary people and aristocrats. The most important part in the plot is that those aristocrats enjoy it when someone from the lower class shows his/her astonishment. Moreover, there is power dynamic in the plot. Red Mansions require supports from a huge number of servants. Those servants who are close to family members, such as first footmen and Lady’s maids, contempt Grandma Liu, because they have enjoyed what the family enjoys while Grandma Liu haven’t. Those servants are the agency for aristocracy to exert power upon mass population. Red Mansions seem to be regarded as a world of aristocracy’s own. In fact, aristocracy is not a castle in the air. The foundation is the mass population, – who work as servants, provide indigents, and so on.
Find out here: Recreate Dried Eggplant (Qiexiang, “茄鲞”).
Leave a Reply