Published: Fall 2021
Author: Sun Weiting (Nancy)
Sun Xiangrui, a resident of Quxi Street, has been making "soy sauce meat" every December for decades, hanging it under the sun to dry in preparation for the Lunar New Year. However, he is now concerned about how to pass on this tradition to his daughter.
Soy sauce meat was first introduced in the Northern Song Dynasty. In Wenzhou, people traditionally make soy sauce meat before the Lunar New Year. They preserve raw lean meat, chicken, duck, and eel in soy sauce before hanging them out in the sun to dry.
Wenzhou locals dry pork and fish in the sun to prepare them for salting. [Photo/ Sun Weiting]
While pickling preserved meat for the Spring Festival is a common practice across the country, Wenzhou soy sauce meat is unique because it is made during a specific time of the year - the five to ten days before the winter solstice on December 21.
The process of making traditional soy sauce meat is complicated. To create the unique Wenzhou flavor, brown sugar and yellow rice wine are added to the soy sauce when making soy sauce meat. When the core is dried, the soy sauce meat can be steamed.
"Wenzhou only has the northwest wind for five to ten days a year before the winter solstice. After this time, the wind direction changes, and soy sauce meat with that flavor can no longer be dried," Sun explained.
Unfortunately, few young people in Wenzhou are interested in learning this traditional craft, and thus there are currently no successors to the production of Wenzhou soy sauce meat.
"It takes a long time to learn this skill, and few young people are willing to put in the effort to do so," Sun said.
Du Shuqin, a 48-year-old Wenzhou housewife, shares the same concern. "My child refuses to learn how to make soy sauce meat because she thinks it's a waste of time and very old-fashioned," she said.
According to a survey conducted in Wenzhou, there is a low level of public awareness of cultural heritage, and young people are indifferent to traditional skills. Du added, "My daughter regards learning how to make soy sauce meat as unnecessary. She prefers to spend more time studying. It's just a waste of her time."
The market for traditional soy sauce meat in Wenzhou is declining because of lack of successors and social attention. Some professional Wenzhou restaurants have reduced their production and now number only in the dozens.
Zhou Xiong, the inheritor of the technique of Wenzhou cuisine, believes that Wenzhou citizens need to pay more attention to preserving traditional dishes. He is currently working on simplifying and optimizing the production of Wenzhou dishes to spark the interest of young people.
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