The Discourse Expression Of The Western Object In Eastern Society

In the modern world system,as a globalized beverage,coffee has formed distinctive coffee culture with local characteristics in the process of its spreading in various countries and regions.Entering China since the late Qing Dynasty,coffee has been placed on the edge of the Chinese food culture system for a long time because of its " Western goods" attribute.This "identity distinction" is an important background to understand the cultural meaning of coffee in China.This article takes fieldwork in Zhukula,which is a Yi village in Pingchuan Town,Binchuan County,Dali City,Yunnan Province of China.It examines the social life course of coffee,an alien species that was accidentally introduced by French Catholic missionaries in 1904 and planted for more than century.The research of the social life story of Zhukula Coffee involves multiple aspects such as historical narration of anthropology,globalization and localization,materiality and body sense,marketization and symbolization of objects,and shows the historical process of the integration of objects and society through human production and life practice.The study yields the following basic understanding:(1)During more than hundred years,Coffee in Zhukula has undergone the identity transformation from the other to self,from natural material resources to cultural resources with "symbol value".For a long time,the limited coffee beans produced by the coffee tree yearly meet the daily needs of the missionary community.As a ?necessity? of missionaries` secular life,coffee did not appear as a kind of drink in local people`s daily life.It has not been known and valued by the outside world,and has experienced a slow natural development in the remote mountain.After the missionaries left Zhukula in the early 1950 s,coffee met the agricultural reclamation foreign trade economic goals of Yunnan Province at that time,and it gradually developed its economic value as a cash crop in Zhukula.Although some scholars visited Zhukula in the early 1980 s for the name of "the origin place of Chinese coffee," Zhukula coffee remained unknown for decades,it ?s just a special product of the local people ?s daily life until the beginning of the 21 st century,Zhukula coffee has gained a new development opportunity.The rediscovery of Zhukula coffee related to the complexity of the historical background of Chinese society and the particularity of China's coffee industry and cultural development.The fundamental prerequisite for its marketization and symbolization is also its century-old coffee history and culture.(2)The process of Zhukula coffee becoming a local resource is the process of being "discovered" and marketized,it is also the process by which all forces concerning,manipulating and signifying it.In this process,Zhukula local society?s "small history" of the past events of the Western missionary community is linked to the “big history” of the development of the country ?s social,political,and economic systems through coffee;the century-old coffee planting history has connected Zhukula,a "small place" in a remote ethnic village,with China's Yunnan coffee industry and even the "big world" of the world coffee map;In the series of market-oriented development activities,Zhukula coffee has been continuously wrapped by scholars,experts,governments,markets and other forces and formed a united force,prompting it to be shaped as a "cultural symbol",various forces manipulate and use the symbol of Zhukula Coffee to achieve their own interests,As a "symbol",Zhukula "small society" is integrated with the entire modern market system;More and more text writing about Zhukula coffee places the historical legends and character stories of coffee together with Zhukula in a larger historical writing frame.This shows some interactions and mutual constructions between local history and national history,local village society and national society,natural history and written history.(3)The paper discusses the historical narrative and spread of Zhukula coffee,the formation of Zhukula coffee culture,the marketization of the coffee industry,and the impact of marketization on local society.The author upholds an fundamental point,that is,to recognize the existence of materiality and its feedback function to social culture.In the marketization process of Zhukula coffee,Zhukula local society is also bound to be involved in the modern market system.Coffee has brought the cultural reproduction and reconstruction of local society directly or indirectly,also the continuous change of Zhukula's concept of livelihood.It shows the shaping of the national and market society to Zhukula local society.The traditional coffee making process culture formed by Zhukula people in the practice of production and living,coffee has become a multi-identified object with cold medicine,tea,cash crops,local souvenirs,etc.It is the result of the local people's perception and physical training and grasp of coffee,and creates the special characteristics of Zhukula coffee.At this level of significance,coffee: the "Western" object,has realized new cultural practices and discourse expressions in Zhukula,the "Eastern" concrete society.Zhukula coffee contrasts with international standard coffee and shapes the local coffee culture of Zhukula and the taste needs of consumers in the market.In fact,this is also a possible orientation of the development of local culture in the process of globalization.In general,this study is still written in the category of ethnography.