Development And Prosperity Of Islamic Chinese Food Culture

The Chinese food culture has a long history and takes an important position in the food field of the world. The famous revolutionist Sun Zhongshan ever said the civilization affairs of China in modern times all fell behind other countries except the advanced status of food culture. Today the Chinese food culture remain keep its advanced status in the world. The Chinese food culture has rich contents, lots of varieties, but the food culture of minorities owns its unique and important position in the field of Chinese food culture because of its features, people particularly pay attention to the Islamic food culture. The Chinese Islamic food culture, created and developed by Chinese Muslim, draws much attention from the world now. Chinese Islamic food is a general concept of Chinese Muslim's food which is allowed by the laws and regulations of Islamism. Over hundreds of years' development, from Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty to Modern society, Chinese Islamic food culture has been a most important part of Chinese food culture accompanying with absorbing lots of features of other food culture of China. Islamic food has its unique culture, and it is well-known for clear, pure, real and clean. Islamic food has strict requirements for more aspects, such as choosing material, quality and shapes, cooking principles and skills, mixing condiments and finished products' targets, etc. All above form its unique culture. Islamic food follows ancient Chinese rules of heath in cleaning and choosing material, pursuing moderation, focusing on saving, forbidding wines and encouraging tea, etc., being a treasure of international food culture at present. And because Muslims spread all over the world, the Islamic food culture plays more and more effects in the international communication accompanying with the gradual frequency of the international trade and cultural exchange.Ji Xianlin, a famous scholar in China, has indicated that there are only four cultural systems which are richly historied, a vast self-contained, far-reaching--China, India, Greece, Islam system. As is known, Chinese Islamic culture is the product of Islamic culture and Chinese culture with a long history and profound cultural connotations. From the aspect of the cultural background, that combination not only contains the transformation and absorption of valuable ingredients from the Chinese traditional culture which takes Confucianism as the representative, but also contains the absorption and melting the cultural elements owned uniquely by the Islamic nations. Hence, It has the dual qualities culturally, both containing the common elements of Islamic culture in the world and being influenced by the unique traditional Chinese culture characteristics. The Islamic food culture in Chinese Islamic culture is a kind of diet accompanied by the foreign religious culture, meantime it also has absorbed many traditional Chinese food culture factors. So through studying the Chinese Islamic food culture, we could not only understand the the Islamic culinary culture with a unique value, but it can also reflect the elegance of traditional Chinese food culture. Diet is an important part of civilization, from which we can see the life philosophy and governance philosophy of a nation or a country. As far as the main thrust of our topic is concerned, to study the Chinese Islamic food culture, an integration of Chinese and Islamic food Civilization has an important reference value as to human survival and developed scientific concept of diet.There are mainly ten ethnic groups in China which has created the various types of halal food culture, namely, Hui, Uygur, Kazak, Dongxiang, Kirgiz, Salar, Tajik, Uzbek, Bao'an, and Tatar, involving a total population of nearly 20.3 million people. Among these ten ethnic groups, there are six traditionally inhabiting in Xinjiang as the natives, in addition to the Hui scattered throughout the country and Dongxiang, Salar, Bao'an mainly living in the Northwest China.The Muslim ethnic groups in China have a vast geographical distribution and different socio-cultural background and the natural ecological environment. In the meantime, sources and the formation of them and the time and channels of accepting the Islam are also different. As a result, a variety of their internal morphology and characteristics are showed in different regions in China. In this layer of meaning, Chinese Islamic culture can be broadly divided into two systems, namely, Islamic culture on the mainland and Islamic culture in Xinjiang, which have common points as well as individualities. Therefore, we tend to study China's Islamic food culture from the two systems, namely Xinjiang and the mainland. In the Mainland, the Islamic culture, influenced by the local traditional food culture with different characteristics, is divided into six parts-Northeast, North, East, Central Plains, Southeast, Southwest region, from which China's overall image of the Islamic food culture will be outlined. Xinjiang is a region where Islamic food culture is a concentrated expression. So there we'll study the Islamic food culture of Hui, Uygur, Kazak, Uzbek, Tajik, Tatar, Kirgiz, while in the Mainland, Hui, Dongxiang, Baoan and Salar will be the focus.As is known, Xinjiang is an important part of the ancient "Silk Road". Since the beginning of the 10th century when Islam was introduced to Kashi Prefecture, Xinjiang, the Islamic catering had been continuously enriched and developed, gradually revealing its unique geographical, national as well as religious characteristics. Now it has become an essential part of Chinese food cultural system. The Islamic diet in Xinjiang not only inherits the original form of eating habits in the Uighur period in Mobei, but also absorbs some of the food culture essence from the local residents and other ethnic groups, including Uygur, Kazak, Hui, Kirgiz, Uzbek, etc.. Especially since the reform and opening up, the Islamic food, having learned a lot of modern food production techniques from other ethnic groups and foreign nations, has become a culture with its unique characteristics melting of ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign culture elements. In addition, according to the saying of the International Natural Medicine Council, Xinjiang is one of the world's five longevity regions and the population of the long-lived people accounts for about 23% of China, and their diet is one of the important determinants for longevity, which we believe is a good research point in terms of pursuing a more healthy diet. Xinjiang are all representative in the aspects of degree in a multicultural blend, the Muslim nations, eating habits and population of Muslims, the total production of Islamic food industry, food variety, sales market and food culture. In 2007, Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang, was awarded of the title of "Capital of China's Islamic Gourmet" by the China Cuisine Association. In my dissertation, Urumqi will be the primary city to study the Chinese Islamic food culture.Through its carriers of Hui, Dongxiang, Salar and Bao'an, the Islamic food culture in the Mainland China is formed in the cumulative process of the Muslim's religious beliefs and practice. Obviously, all those four ethnic groups are deeply influenced by Han culture. Hence, Islamic food culture in the Mainland is demonstrated in many ways as a combination of traditional Chinese culture and Islamic culture, which not only reflects the excellent factors of Islamic culture, but also reflects many excellent factors of the traditional Chinese traditional culture. In this project, a sharp contrast in terms of the Islamic food culture between the Turkic peoples in Xinjiang influenced by the local culture and the Muslims in the Mainland China will be conducted.We dedicate to make selection and digest of Islamicl food culture sources which owned by ten Islamic ethnic groups of China, such as Hui, Uygur, Kazakh, Kirkiz, Ozbek, Tatar, Tajik, Sala, Dongxiang and Baoan on aspects of healthy and delicious food, scientific and excellent eating habits.