Heritage on a plate

Chinese food joins the crowd of cuisines seeking global status as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage, Ye Jun reports.

China has a rich food culture, with many dishes nationally famous and part of the country's intangible cultural heritage. However, none of them has made it on UNESCO's list. Industry experts have been preparing material about Chinese cooking techniques and traditional banquets, hoping to make a breakthrough application next year.

Kimjang, the making and sharing of kimchi in Korea, has already won a spot on the list of UNESCO's world intangible cultural heritages. Washoku, traditional Japanese cuisine, and ancient Georgian traditional qvevri wine-making culture was also added to the list last December during UNESCO's 8th intergovernmental council in Azerbaijan - the same meeting where Chinese zhusuan, traditional calculation by abacus, was listed.