Wang Lizhu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

She is the third-generation transmitter of the Wang family's Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodles. From 1969 she learned to make crossing-the-bridge rice noodles from her father, Wang Dewen. Within the regional tradition and school record of Mengziguoqiaomixian Making Craftsmanship in Mengzi, Yunnan: The Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodle technique has Mengzi City in Honghe Prefecture as its main source, and the rice noodle shops of Kunming and Gejiu generally follow this method. Pressing the noodles is what most tests the local soil and water: the rice abundantly produced in Mengzi must be used, together with the sweet water of the ancient city's Great Well, and only noodles pressed to a diameter within two millimetres are chewy enough. The broth is simmered from chicken, pork and large bones into a well-aged stock. Wang Lizhu added chrysanthemum petals, white fungus and jizong mushrooms to the family broth, forming a lineage of her own. It began in the Ming dynasty, when large numbers of troops and civilians from the interior garrisoned the frontier at Mengzi and brought with them different dietary customs, which in the end developed into the specially flavoured "Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodles". The Mengzi County Gazetteer records that in the Qing dynasty a scholar was studying hard on a small island in Mengzi's South Lake, and his wife, pitying his health, brought him rice noodles to eat, thereby unintentionally creating this delicacy.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

A woman of Han ethnicity, she was born in December 1955 in Mengzi, Yunnan Province. She is a national representative bearer of Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodles making techniques, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She is a technician of Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodles making. In more than forty years of practice, building on the techniques handed down in her family, she explored and improved the simmering of the broth and the accompanying condiments and side dishes, adding chrysanthemum, snow fungus, jizong mushroom and other condiments and side dishes, and formed the distinctive Wang family brand of traditional crossing-the-bridge rice noodles. Within the documented technical tradition of Mengziguoqiaomixian Making Craftsmanship in Mengzi, Yunnan: Rice noodles are an ancient food, long prevalent in the rice-growing southern regions of our country. The Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodle making technique is the traditional handicraft of making crossing-the-bridge rice noodles in the manner peculiar to the Mengzi area of Yunnan, with Mengzi City in Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, as its main source, and, historically, Yunnan Province as its chief area of distribution. Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodles consist of three parts — the rice noodles, the fresh broth and the accompaniments — and are famed for the "jade-belt crossing the bridge" way of eating them. The Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodle making technique has three main process steps: pressing the rice noodles, making the broth, and preparing the vegetable accompaniments. First, the rice noodles are pressed out through a sequence of processes: blending the rice, grinding the slurry, fermenting, combining, initial steaming, pressing, cooking and rinsing. Then chicken, pork and large bones are used as the main ingredients and simmered into a well-aged broth. Finally the accompaniments are divided into raw and cooked: raw items such as quail eggs, sliced pork loin, chrysanthemum petals and minced ginger; cooked items such as chicken, tofu skin, pea paste balls and Chinese chives. The way to eat them is as follows: a large earthenware bowl with a mouth a full 30 centimetres across, holding scalding secret-recipe stock, is brought to the table together with several small dishes of raw and cooked accompaniments; the ingredients are added raw first and cooked afterwards, and the broth is stirred to cook the vegetables; then a suitable amount of rice noodles from another bowl is transferred into the broth bowl, leaving one end in the broth and one end in the original bowl, which signifies "crossing the bridge". The distinguishing features of the Mengzi rice noodle making technique are that the noodles are slender and chewy, within 2 millimetres in diameter, and do not easily break when cooked; that each shop has its own secret recipe for making and keeping warm the broth and the vegetable accompaniments; and, further, that the high-quality rice abundantly produced in Mengzi and the "sweet water" of the ancient city's Great Well are the indispensable raw materials for pressing the noodles. Because the rice noodles were delivered across a stone arch bridge, the delicacy was named "crossing-the-bridge rice noodles". Later the scholar went to the capital for the imperial examination and passed it with high honours, and the saying arose that "a bowl of crossing-the-bridge noodles is fragrant, a time of perfect food and beauty". Through its refined making technique, mysterious recipe and distinctive way of eating, the Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodle making technique brings together the best of Central Plains food culture and frontier food culture. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Archival Record of Process Steps": The Mengzi crossing-the-bridge rice noodle making technique has three main process steps: pressing the rice noodles, making the broth, and preparing the vegetable accompaniments.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 1998 she founded the Mengzi Wangji Chrysanthemum Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles Co., Ltd., and the Mengzi Wangji chrysanthemum crossing-the-bridge rice noodles it transmits and operates have received such honorary titles as Chinese Famous Snack from the China Cuisine Association.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Wang Lizhu · National Representative Bearer Archive