Rurban transformation: food cultural workshop: explore Teochew cuisine in Shanwei

Abstract

This thesis is a design process of a local food culture workshop located in Jieshi Town, Shanwei City, Guangdong Province, China. The region is abundant with a long history, rich natural scenery and strong folk culture, especially food culture. In recent years, influenced by the surrounding metropolis, tourism has emerged on the east coast of Guangdong, including Shanwei, which bringing with it economic vitality. In order to avoid losing local identity under rural and urban transformation, it is of great important to study the reginal ecologies of Shanwei to preserve the local culture. It is aimed to provide a platform for villagers and visitors to learn, communicate and experience with various local cultures in this region in terms of food and its related traditional activities, to awaken villagers' self-identity to the land and strengthen cultural inheritance and innovation. Inspired by how Reyner Banham describing ecologies, this thesis categorized the ecologies of the village as the flavour of the land, the flavour of the ocean, the food trail and the shrine in area and village scales, which provided environmental cognitive support for the design process. In the design proposal, a pathway was reshaped to connect the gap between ecologies of the village and its contexts. The food culture workshop acted as an adaptor between village ecologies, in terms of daily work, communication and leisure, seeking balance and communication between villagers and tourists. The research provides a way for rural tourism industries and urban planners to better understand the local ecologies, which also showcases the surrounding potential of local food culture to radiate the influence of the tourism to the surrounding towns and areas.