Making the Local Specialty – An Analysis on the cultural circuit of Yilan’s Sanshin Green Onion
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Kuo, Chin-Hsiang
Abstract
Local special products are not unfamiliar things for Taiwanese. By adding the place-name before the product, it seems to be the guarantee for quality and let it more popular. And cause the functions of prospering local properties and uniting solidarities, There is a boom in Taiwan for developing local special products. Among them, Sanshin green onion is the special one: not just its short history, but also green onion is a commonly used and cheap ingredient in Chinese culinary culture. And how this mundane thing suddenly become a famous local special product, I think it’s from the effect of specialty, which makes things be unique.
This material culture research thesis uses Du Gay’s concept “cultural circuit” for foundation. And through the analysis of media context and interview the industries of Sanshin green onion, I observe the operation of production, consumption, representation, regulation, identity, and the interaction among their articulations, to explore the making process of specialty from the viewpoint of things: by the cultivation of farmers and the regulation from certification, make Sanshin green onions grow longer white stalk, stronger fragrance, and more reliable in food safety. Then, in the representation from media and display, not only emphasize their high quality and high price, but also use traditional, rural and local images to promote them. Under these physical and symbolic characteristics overlapped, the specialty of Sanshin green onion gradually appears, and identified by producers and consumers.
But in the responses of consumers, I find out that there is a split between physical and symbolic characteristics: although hearing the fame, they usually don’t know what the physical characteristics are certainly. And in the experiences of interviewees, selling healthy Sanshin green onions let them have some difficulties. These examples about the dislocation of identity express the features and problems of specialty: 1.Symbolized place-name becomes a crucial point of distinction and the endorsement of quality. 2. Sanshin green onion becomes the delicious local taste in gourmet and local tourism, but the physical characteristics such as health are not involved in these contexts. 3. When the consumption becomes the ultimate goal of specialty and cultural circuit, the feeling of identity is simply pure no longer, and brining the purpose of profit into the meaning of specialty inevitably.
Subjects
local special product
specialty
Sanshin green onion
cultural circuit
material culture
Type
thesis
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