A Study On Application Of UNESCO ICH For Chinese Culinary Culture: Current Situation And Approaches

Intangible cultural heritage(ICH) is said to be the national image and symbol of soft power. China cuisine enjoys a good reputation at every corner of the world and is even admired as the most fascinating cuisine ever since. As typical representative of east culinary culture, China culinary culture should have already been listed in Representative of the intangible cultural heritage of mankind. However, for various reasons, China culinary culture still hasn’t succeeded in the application for the list, the culinary cultures of other countries, such as those in France, Mediterranean Countries, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Turkey and so on, are prior to our culinary culture in the applying process of UNESCO ICH. In order to enter China culinary culture into the list of UNESCO ICH as soon as possible, and make it enjoy high prestige in the world, more and more Chinese researchers in the Chinese culinary culture have made studies on Chinese and the world culinary culture from various perspectives and have put forward valuable advice. In the meanwhile, China Cuisine Association( All China Culinary Art Association) as the representative body has put in many efforts for the application and help to make the application more practical. Based on the above, it is of great significance to make a study of the status quo and the strategies of the application both in theory and in reality.With methods of literature, cross-cultural comparative study and analysis methods, this paper deeply analyzed the connotation and characteristics of Chinese food culture, and compared the characteristics of food culture of Japan, France and other countries and the successful experience of these application. On the basis of the reflections, the author summarized the great values of Chinese food culture, and explored specific measures for the application, which include the following points:Firstly, this thesis analyses the features and values of Chinese culinary culture and explores its significance. Chinese culinary has a long history and has developed typical features and charm: rich connotation rooted in traditional culture, scientific health promotion theory of medical food source, and the spirit of harmony for peaceful and harmonious society. Therefore, the important role of China culinary culture in China traditional culture is un-substitutable and make the application for UNESCO ICH more practical and hopeful. It should be realized that the application process itself can update and internalize China culinary brands and advance the national cohesion and self-confidence of Chinese people, improve the civil cultural interaction and enhance the cultural soft power of the whole country.Secondly, the thesis makes an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese food culture application. The author holds that in order to succeed in the application for ICH, we must take self-awareness and self-confidence as premise, which means to study the strengths and weaknesses of the application and provide proper theories for the work of application. This paper argues that to make the application successful, it is of great necessity to Stress the outstanding features of China cuisine and make up for the deficiencies that existed in reality. only through this way can the maximum success of application work be ensured.Finally, on the base of learning from foreign experience on food culture in the application, the paper discusses the coping strategies of the application. The paper introduces also other nations’ experiences in the application of their cuisine for ICH, French, the Mediterranean region and Japan in particular. Six approaches are proposed for future application of Chinese cuisine for ICH after making a comparison between the Chinese food and culture connotation and that of these nations. They are: refining applying titles of “Chinese cuisine/cooking”; extracting the image feature of Chinese cuisine; distilling the graphic features of Chinese cuisine; enhancing the administration and management of food safety; Improving food and diet education; Introducing Chinese food culture to the outside world. It is hoped that these strategies can be of certain reference values for the application.