1, the most important natural factor is climate, followed by different living environments, in which different dietary materials grow.
The influence of climate on people's staple food is first manifested in the fact that "rice in the south and wheat in the north" is located in China, south of Qinling Mountains and Huaihe River, with abundant spring rain and plum rain, so it has abundant precipitation and belongs to humid subtropical and tropical monsoon climate. Summer is hot and rainy, and winter is warm and humid. At the same time, there are many rivers and lakes, good irrigation conditions, flat terrain, fertile soil and a long history of agricultural development. Therefore, the area south of Huaihe River in Qinling Mountains is very suitable for planting rice with large water demand, so rice and its products have always been the staple food in the history of the south, such as rice, rice cakes and rice balls. The vast majority of northern areas north of Qinling Mountains and Huaihe River have humid and semi-humid monsoon climate, with annual precipitation of 4 00- 800 mm, few rivers and lakes, and most cultivated land is dry land, which is known as "no drought for nine years". Therefore, drought-tolerant and early-maturing wheat has been planted in history, and people mainly eat noodles, steamed bread, jiaozi and cakes. China people's eating habits are often difficult to change all their lives. In Inner Mongolia, Northwest China and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with less precipitation, crops and trees can't grow there because of drought or cold, but grass can only grow there. The local people mainly graze cattle and sheep for a living, so they live on beef, mutton and milk. Secondly, the ancient political, economic and cultural centers of China were all in the north. At that time, drought-tolerant, cold-tolerant and nutritious millet was widely planted in the north, and millet was the staple food of the general public, especially in northern Shanxi and southeastern Shanxi. In ancient times, "country" represented the country, "society" was the land god, and "millet" was millet. It can be seen that Xiaomi was very suitable for the climate in the north at that time. As the Book of Songs said, crops are "the land of the living, and the sky of the nurturing", in which "sky" refers to meteorological conditions. Up to now, millet is still the staple food of people here. Moreover, in the southwest of China, such as Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou, local residents like to eat Chili. There is a folk saying that Hunan people are not afraid of spicy food, Guizhou people are not afraid of spicy food, and Sichuan people are not afraid of spicy food. This is because these areas are cold and humid all year round, especially in winter, eating peppers has the effect of dispelling wind and dampness, dispelling cold and strengthening stomach. Sichuan people like spicy noodles (Chili noodles) also have the same effect. Often a bowl of noodles and a head of sweat will cure a cold. In some alpine weather stations, such as the top of Wutai Mountain in Shanxi, which is 2896 meters above sea level, stoves and quilts are often built there in summer. The average temperature in July is only 9 degrees Celsius, and the climate is humid. There are no Sichuan meteorologists there, but most of them eat Chili peppers, among which dispelling cold and resisting rheumatism are the main reasons. Finally, although the main foods in different climatic zones are very different, the foods in winter and summer in the same climatic zone may also be very different. This is mainly in temperate regions, especially in China, and it is called the coldest Leng Xia fever in the world. In winter, people consume a lot of calories, so they have a good appetite. At this time, people eat more high-protein animal foods, especially hot mutton and dog meat, and middle-aged and elderly people often use drugs to supplement them. Eat hot pot. Northerners use hot pot to rinse mutton and eat it while putting it; Southern hot pot mainly plays the role of cooking and heat preservation. In addition to hot pot, Yunnan's "crossing the bridge rice noodles" and Xi 'an's "mutton bread in soup" also have effective folk insulation methods, that is, coating a thick layer of oil on the soup. The oil evaporates slowly, and the evaporation oil consumption is small. In ancient times, it was also famous for melons, hence the name Guazhou. From here, we can also see the extensive influence of regional climate factors on vegetables and sugar crops on food culture.
2. Apart from natural factors, social factors have no less influence on food culture than other factors.
The whole world is a unified whole, and the formation of China's rich food culture is not entirely the creation of China people, but many elements have been injected into other countries and nations. First of all, let's take a look at the exchange of Chinese and foreign food culture. In the late Qing Dynasty, westerners opened up concessions in Zhongwei through unequal treaties to expand the dog's activity area. The successive establishment of concessions has also increased the opportunities for China people to get in touch with western food culture. For example, after the exchange of contracts in Shanghai, outside the new North Gate, "it turned out to be a wilderness and looked vast; Buildings have been built all over the world since westerners came here. In recent years, the roof tiles have peeled off and there is no room for children. The local people call their land "Yichang". A small number of people in China learned about some western food cultures through foreign museums on the "foreign market", which formed the basis of a preliminary comparison between Chinese and western food cultures. For example, when Zhang Deyi visited France in 1866, he found that the shape of French kitchen was no different from that of "China Pavilion". It is worth mentioning that the church trained western chefs for missionaries and westerners in China, and published the book "Making Foreign Languages in Shanghai" in 1866. With its reprint, the book gradually spread outside the church at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, which greatly promoted the influence of western food in China. Those who deal with foreigners, including diplomats, founders and translators, gradually understand and become familiar with western food culture. They are the disseminators of western food culture in China. With the continuous expansion of opening up and the gradual popularization of reform, China officialdom has gradually taken eating western food as a fashion. Among them, some foreigners born in Guangdong acted as a bridge between western food and China officialdom.
3. From the perspective of political factors, food culture and social politics are intertwined and interrelated, starting with the emergence of national political forms.
In ancient China, this phenomenon appeared in the Yao, Shun and Yu periods at the end of patriarchal society. During the period of Shi Zaiyao, Shun and Yu, the political system centered on state power also began to take shape, and various political ideas such as kingship, sealing the country, governing the people, official positions and ranking began to appear during this period. Once this kind of political ideology concept is produced, it will inevitably act on the existing social and cultural fields, and produce food culture in the non-political social period, which will inevitably be branded with the era of political society.
When it comes to social factors in the development of food culture, religious factors can never be ignored.
As a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, religion has a long-standing influence on China's food culture. During the long development of China culture, it has absorbed many religions from other countries. Among them, Buddhism from the South Asian subcontinent has the most profound influence on China culture. Buddhism not only contains profound philosophical speculation, life ideals, ethics and art forms, but also the diet that people can't live without, leaving a deep imprint of Buddhist beliefs. In fact, in the history of all nationalities in the world, the emergence of mature religions has had a great impact on their social life. After 1000 years' development, the diet custom produced by Buddhist belief has become a unique cultural phenomenon, and its vegetarian dishes, vegetarian dishes and vegetarian meals are all famous all over the world. These vegetarian dishes are exquisite in materials, exquisite in cooking, exquisite in workmanship, full of color, flavor and unique in shape and flavor, and are deeply loved and appreciated by the people. Therefore, some people describe the Buddhist diet as a simple and clean flower in China's food culture garden. ?
When it comes to the diet life in Buddhist temples, people will think of vegetarian dishes. Vegetarianism is a major genre in China's traditional food culture, and its long history makes it an important part of China cuisine.
5. The most basic factor of cultural development-economic development.
Looking around the world and China, we can easily find that. With the improvement of productivity and the development of commodity economy. With the deepening of the socialization of housework, people's food life has formed a new operation mode: modern catering industry closely links catering enterprises and catering consumers with catering products as a bridge, forming a complete catering culture operation body. The phenomenon of food culture reflected in the public level of catering is manifested in what to eat, how to eat, the purpose of eating, the effect of eating, the concept of eating, the taste of eating and the etiquette of eating. It is not only an important part of catering culture, but also a reflection of catering consumer demand. The phenomenon of food culture refraction in catering enterprises. On the surface, these elements are the names of catering brands, dishes and so on; From a deep perspective, these elements are the cultural connotation of enterprise values and business philosophy. It is another important part of food culture. In today's market economy, the operation of catering enterprises is basically based on the analysis of catering consumers' needs, and according to the enterprise's own economic strength, operating ability and other factors, choose the business scope to operate.