Kaili Sour Fish Soup Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The origins of Kaili sour-soup fish should begin with the rice-and-fish livelihood of Qiandongnan: the farming method of raising fish in the paddies and planting rice on the field ridges brought fish and rice to the table at the same time, and also made pickling and fermentation common means of preserving fish. White sour soup takes glutinous rice as its base, while red sour soup takes tomato and red chilli as its base; the two fermentation routes run in parallel, pointing to different sources of produce — one from local rice farming, the other from peppers and tomatoes obtained through exchange. A girl had to learn to make soup and to cook fish under her mother's guidance before she married. This rule shows that the craft has long been transmitted with the family as the unit: a single sour-soup jar was at once the family's rations and a skill that could be passed on to a daughter.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The craft of making Kaili sour-soup fish is a traditional cooking skill handed down through the generations by the Miao people of Qiandongnan, with its core distribution area in Kaili, Leishan, Taijiang and Jianhe and a reach extending to the 16 counties and cities of Qiandongnan Prefecture. Kaili lies in the southeast of Guizhou Province, on the northeastern foot of the Miao Ridge and the upper reaches of the Qingshui River, on the stepped great slope belt east of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. It belongs to the mid-subtropical humid monsoon climate zone, with fertile soil, luxuriant vegetation and abundant animal and plant resources. Thanks to the traditional rice-and-fish ecosystems found throughout Qiandongnan, supplemented by the various plant spices produced locally, the craft of making Kaili sour-soup fish has been handed down here from generation to generation and is widely renowned. All the ethnic groups of Qiandongnan Prefecture in Guizhou Province are fond of cooking all kinds of delicacies with sour soup, and Kaili sour-soup fish is the most distinctive of them. Its broth is clear and bright in colour, the fish flesh is fine and tender, and it is sour, fresh, tasty and appetite-whetting; it is the representative of the sour-soup delicacies of the Qiandongnan region. Kaili sour-soup fish is cooked as a hotpot and consists of four parts: preparing the sour soup, handling the fish, mixing the seasonings and boiling. Sour soup includes white sour soup and red sour soup. White sour soup is rice broth boiled from glutinous rice; after cooling it is poured into a jar that has been fired with rice straw, old sour soup is added, and the jar is placed on a stove top at 30-35 degrees Celsius or beside the fire pit. After 5-6 days of natural fermentation it becomes a soup that is clear in colour, fresh in aroma, mellow-sour with a sweet aftertaste and carrying the fragrance of rice. Red sour soup takes fresh tomatoes and red chillies as its raw materials; after washing and chopping, auxiliary ingredients are added, the mixture is put into a jar, stirred evenly and sealed, and after 5-6 months of natural fermentation it is taken out, ground into a paste and fermented for another half month. The soup is bright red in colour, fresh in aroma and mellow-sour with a slight pungency; when eating, tomatoes and chillies may be added as needed. Before a girl marries she must learn, under her mother's guidance, to make sour soup and sour-soup fish. Many rural women locally are expert makers of sour-soup fish. The friendly coexistence of the various ethnic groups of Qiandongnan has allowed the project to spread rapidly. Sour-soup fish has become a calling card of Guizhou's traditional food culture. Traditional foods represented by the craft of making Kaili sour-soup fish are the crystallisation of the wisdom with which the working people of the region have come to know and transform nature, and are vivid testimony to the friendly coexistence of ethnic groups; they possess high historical and cultural value.
Fermenting the white sour soup
Glutinous-rice rice-water is cooled into a straw-fired jar with a starter of old sour soup and left at 30-35 degrees for five or six days until clear, fragrant and sweet-sour.
Fermenting the red sour soup
Tomato and red chilli are chopped, seasoned, sealed and left five or six months, then ground and fermented half a month more into a bright red, spicy-sour soup.
Preparing the fish
The live fish are killed and cleaned just before cooking so the flesh stays fine, tender and fresh under the sour broth.
Cooking and serving as hotpot
Mixing the sour soup, cleaning the fish, blending the seasonings and cooking form the whole method, served as a hotpot eaten as it simmers.
Reusing the starter jar
Each new batch keeps a portion of the old soup as starter, so the age of the jar and the family's preferred flavour stay bound together.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Sour soup is a portrait of the life of the local ethnic groups, who, in the struggle to survive, substituted sourness for salt and used sour soup and pickled vegetables as seasonings; almost every household has a sour-soup jar, and everyone knows how to make sour-soup fish. In the course of being transmitted and carried forward, the craft has formed an industry and has continued to expand, making a positive contribution to boosting employment and incomes, promoting rural revitalisation and achieving sustainable local economic and social development.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In Qiandongnan, sour soup and sour-soup fish have moved from the family dinner table into occasions for entertaining guests and festivities. In Kaili and elsewhere, restaurants named for sour-soup fish are linked with sour-soup processing households, giving this craft both a domestic and a commercial dimension. The contemporary survival of the craft depends on the visibility of its everyday operations: young women learn to make soup from their mothers from childhood, and at banquets the live fish is killed and cooked on the spot, so onlookers can easily see the whole process. This is a favourable condition for sour soup, which requires lengthy fermentation and whose intermediate steps are invisible.
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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