Rice Noodle Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The traditional craft of making Shahe fen (Shahe rice noodles) is a traditional technique in which late-crop indica rice is soaked in spring water from Baiyun Mountain, ground into a slurry, spread thin, steamed into a thin sheet and then cut into strips to form a rice food; it takes its name from the fact that the Baiyun Mountain spring water comes from the Shahe area of Guangzhou. In the Qing dynasty the area already had fairly large market towns, and travellers passing through often needed convenient food to fill their stomachs; the rice noodles made by local people were widely welcomed because they were convenient to make, to store and to sell. The Republican-era Continued Gazetteer of Panyu County records that "the noodles of Shahe" were "distinctive in character and unaffected by foreign goods", which shows that by the late Qing at the latest the craft of making Shahe fen had already become a systematic tradition. By the Republican period Shahe fen had become a distinctive food of Guangzhou, and trade organizations for the trade had appeared.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
This craft is centred on Guangzhou in Guangdong Province and is widely distributed through the towns and villages of Lingnan, especially the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao region; it also has consumers throughout the country and in Southeast Asia. Guangzhou has a subtropical maritime monsoon climate, with abundant sunlight and rainfall, a dense river network and many alluvial plains, and rice cultivation there is well developed; the many springs near Shahe are clear and sweet and the water is rich in minerals, which provided the conditions for the emergence and development of the traditional craft of making Shahe fen. The traditional craft of making Shahe fen has by and large preserved the process steps inherited from the late Qing, with particular attention to the choice of rice and of water. The raw material for Shahe fen is late-crop indica rice, and the rice must be soaked in weakly alkaline mountain spring water; the rice must be ground on a Lianzhou bluestone mill so that the slurry comes out fine and smooth; in grinding the slurry, attention is paid to the quantity of water added, the speed and the thickness. Swirling the slurry is the key to the craft: cooking oil is first smeared on a bamboo basket, the rice slurry is ladled in and the basket is rotated quickly so that the slurry spreads evenly, then the pot is covered and the slurry is steamed until it sets into a sheet of noodle, whereupon it is taken out and the sheet is peeled off and laid layer upon layer on a perforated bamboo tray to cool. Once the starch has aged and its toughness has increased, the sheet can be cut into noodle strips. A texture that is thin, translucent and yet elastic, with a supple and smooth mouthfeel, is what makes Shahe fen distinctive, and it is also what has made it a representative Lingnan rice product. Lingnan has a long history of eating rice products. The traditional craft of making Shahe fen was created collectively by the people of the Shahe area through constant practice and improvement in rice-food production, and it has been handed down from generation to generation to the present through family transmission and master-apprentice transmission. Shahe fen is economical, convenient to make and a common staple food in the Lingnan region. Its making technique is a major contribution by the people of Lingnan to the diversity of China's traditional rice-food making techniques.
Archival Records of Process Steps
The traditional craft of making Shahe fen has by and large preserved the process steps inherited from the late Qing, with particular attention to the choice of rice and of water.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
As a part of Lingnan food culture, it gives concentrated expression to the local people's wisdom in making ingenious use of natural conditions and of the characteristics of local produce.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Rice Noodle Making Craftsmanship · Rice Noodle Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In the course of transmission and diffusion this craft has given rise to related industrial chains, driven economic development and strengthened local people's sense of identity with their own rice-processing tradition and with Lingnan culture and Chinese culture, and it therefore has considerable economic, social and cultural value.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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