Delicious heritage : investigation of the street food of Chengdu as intangible cultural heritage : the Case of the Wide Alley’s food street in Chengdu city

Abstract

In China, on the list of national intangible cultural heritage, the number of culinary items in the provincial intangible cultural heritage has obviously increased greatly since 2006. For example, Sichuan Province has a total of 70 intangible cultural heritage (ICH) items from the first batch to the current fifth batch of intangible cultural heritage representative projects, but mainly focus on the production of wine and tea, which account for 21 culinary items. Adding to the issue is that these 21 culinary items are more famously served for local eating as street food, but the street-food cultural heritage items that the city of Chengdu is particularly known for have not been highlighted in the items’ description on the list. Hence, there is a much needed research space for this dissertation, which is to explain the “street food of Chengdu” under the ICH framework. The objective of the research is to provide an even deeper understanding of Chengdu’s culinary ICH from a people-oriented perspective by focusing on the essential people factor that is fundamentally important to the nature of ICH as a living cultural heritage. Based on the research issues explained above, the focus of this dissertation is on the representative street food of Chengdu. The scope is to understand Chengdu’s street food as a people-oriented intangible food culture, by tracing its historical origins, establishing its cultural and social significance, as well as identifying the challenges and opportunities to promote and sustain this important cultural practice as part of the ICH food of China. The site selected for this research is the one of the most famous food streets in Chengdu, known as Wide Alley.