[Wang Junxia] The practical process of intangible cultural heritage and the reproduction of gender roles

Abstract: In the practice of intangible cultural heritage, the gender of the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage has a non-negligible impact on the production of intangible cultural heritage in multiple meanings.

On the one hand, the practice process of intangible cultural heritage reproduces the norms of gender roles in rural society.

On the other hand, the practice process of intangible cultural heritage shapes the gendered characteristics of intangible cultural heritage itself.

In the research and practice of intangible cultural heritage protection, the reproduction process of social gender role norms and the gendered characteristics of intangible cultural heritage in the process of intangible cultural heritage protection are ignored, which may make the marginalized female intangible cultural heritage inheritors more marginalized.

Keywords: Intangible cultural heritage protection; craft teaching; oral communication; gender roles; reproduction Author: Wang Junxia, associate researcher at the Institute of Folklore, East China Normal University.

In the domestic movement for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, researchers often focus their research on the intangible cultural heritage itself, and rarely conduct comprehensive micro-inspections of the interaction process between individual inheritors and intangible cultural heritage.

This largely ignores the personalized characteristics endowed by individual inheritors to intangible cultural heritage, as well as the richer social and cultural connotation endowed by individual inheritors and their practices to intangible cultural heritage.

Taking paper-cutting as an example, as of 6:30 am on August 28, 2016, the word "paper-cutting" appeared in the title of the search on China Knowledge Network, and 2264 articles could be found.

In these papers, researchers mainly pay attention to the origin and historical evolution of paper-cut, the current situation of paper-cut art, the cultural meaning of paper-cut art, the protection, inheritance and development of paper-cut art, etc., while less attention is paid to the gender of individual paper-cut artists, the influence of personal life history on their paper-cut art, the process and environment of paper-cut artists creating paper-cut works, and the oral communication between paper-cut artists and others in the process of creation.

The artist's understanding of the paper-cut works created by him or her, that is, what is the meaning of a paper-cut work to him or her, and so on.

Michael Owen Jones noticed this in his study of material folkways, and he regarded the study of material behavior as a new perspective and method.

This approach "focuses on individuals, behaviors, outcomes of behaviors, and interactions between individuals and others in specific scenarios ("situational events ").

Its purpose is not only to explore the objects themselves-their nature, their creation, their use-but also to explore the people who created them and the meaning that emerges from the objects and actions." In terms of specific research paths, this will lead the study of material folk customs to the study of the producer, the production process, and the relationship between the producer and the object.

This research approach tends to regard the production process of the object as an event.

This kind of "material behavior" research advocated by Jones has reference significance for the domestic intangible cultural heritage protection movement.

In fact, if we orient the protection of intangible cultural heritage towards behavioral research, that is, study the interaction between the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage as individuals and the intangible cultural heritage they inherit, then the gender perspective will naturally emerge.

We will notice that even for the same intangible cultural heritage, the production process has been deeply imprinted with gender among intangible cultural heritage inheritors of different genders, and it itself has become a place for gender reproduction.

Some scholars have noticed this.

For example, the American scholar Joyce Ice's research on quilting criticized the neglect of the interactive approach in art history research and material culture research, arguing that the interactive research method brings women's concepts of their art into the scope of thinking, and emphasized that it focuses not only on the product itself, but also on the process between objects and people.) Based on this process-focused research approach, her study of quilting activities at the Lytton Springs Quilting Club in central Texas not only regarded the quilt as a symbol, but also regarded the quilting process as a female expression.

Canadian scholar Diane Tye's research on recipes and food preparation does not just study recipes and food itself.

She analyzes the spirit of resistance revealed in Laurene's food preparation based on recipes left behind by her mother Laurene.

However, overall, domestic intangible cultural heritage protection and related research ignore the gender perspective.

Among the existing results, there are few relevant results on intangible cultural heritage research from a gender perspective.

In the identification of inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, gender perspectives have not received due attention.

Chen Xinggui noticed that among the national-level representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, there is a serious imbalance in gender ratio.

His research found that among the first three batches of national-level inheritors, there were 39 women in the first batch, accounting for 17.26%; there were 148 women in the second batch, accounting for 26.86%; and there were 165 women in the third batch, accounting for 23.21%.

Among the three batches of inheritors, there are a total of 352 women, accounting for 23.66% of the total number of inheritors.

It can be seen that in the identification of inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, the inheritors did not fully pay attention to the personalized attributes endowed by individual inheritors to intangible cultural heritage during the formation of intangible cultural heritage and the rich gender cultural implications attached to it.

Based on this, this paper attempts to investigate the scene and process of steaming steamed buns during the Spring Festival in 2015 at the home of Shuangling, a housewife in Jicun, southeastern Shandong Province, to explore how food makers give food gender connotations and how the food production process reproduces the gender roles of rural society in specific practical situations, and attempts to reveal the importance of gender perspective in the protection of intangible cultural heritage.

1.

The Spring Festival pasta making process as an event:

The story of "steaming steamed buns"

The 23rd lunar month in 2014 is February 11, 2015, and the New Year will be celebrated in one week.

Today, Shuangling will concentrate on steaming pasta for the New Year, which is collectively referred to as "steamed steamed buns" locally.

The following author will mainly describe the process of "steaming steamed buns" this time.

Before doing this, we will briefly introduce the background of women and pasta making in Shuangling and southeastern Shandong in Shandong Province.

1) Shuangling and the traditions of pasta making in southeastern Shandong

In 1953, Shuangling was born into a traditional rural family in southeastern Shandong.

She is the eldest son of the family, and there are two younger sisters and one younger brother.

In the village, my father was respected by the villagers for his flexible mind and traditional integrity, but he was in poor health and could not do heavy work; his mother was also frail and sick.

She died of illness two years before Shuangling got married, when her brother was only 5 years old.

Shuangling and her two sisters took on the heavy responsibility of running the house and taking care of their younger brother under the care of their grandma.

In 1978, Shuangling was introduced by someone to marry into Ji Village, ten miles away from her family.

After marriage, she gave birth to two daughters and a son one after another.

She became a real housewife.

Shuangling, who has no formal schooling and can't even write her own name, has hardly traveled far and has hardly worked.

She devotes all her energy to taking care of the family's diet, daily life and agricultural work.

From her marriage to the present, the focus of her life has been entirely on her nuclear family.

As a housewife, Shuangling is an indispensable part of her housework to make various pasta dishes, such as frying pancakes, steaming steamed buns, making steamed buns, making dumplings, etc.

According to New Year customs in rural areas in southeastern Shandong, housewives need to prepare a variety of New Year noodles before the New Year, such as Fautuan cake,"real dumplings steamed buns" round steamed buns,"flag cakes steamed buns" knife cut steamed buns), noodle fish, jujube steamed buns (usually peas), bean steamed buns (usually cooked and dried kidney beans, cowpeas, eyebrow beans, etc.

with pork belly), etc.

During the Chinese New Year, these foods are used to pay homage to heaven and ancestors, visit relatives and friends, entertain guests, and reward family members.

Housewives have more experience in making these foods than usual.

Because this is not only for family members, but also for display in front of relatives and friends.

The display process includes relatives and friends 'explicit or covert evaluation of the housewife's craftsmanship.

Shuangling steams New Year's Day pasta around the New Year almost every year, and this year is no exception.

In the past, when there were many people eating at home, Shuangling steamed at least seven or eight pots every year.

She usually served the noodles the first night and mobilized her eldest daughter and second daughter to steam together the next day, which usually took a whole day.

Even if so many steamed buns were steamed, in the past, because there were so many people eating at home, it was usually only enough for the family to eat until the seventh and eighth days of the first month.

Now, as children leave home one after another due to work and marriage, fewer people eat at home, and fewer Shuangling is steamed, but no matter what, it still has to be steamed five or six pots.

After the children leave after the New Year, Shuangling and her husband can eat until the fifteenth day of the first month.

With the improvement of people's living standards, steamed buns are no longer a rarity on people's tables, and now people basically don't have to carry steamed buns to pay New Year greetings.

Shuangling no longer steamed too many steamed buns, but steamed more bean buns and vegetable buns that her family loved to eat.

2) Shuangling's "steamed buns" activity on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month of 2014

On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in 2014, Shuangling and her husband got up at around 5 o'clock in the morning to steam the dumplings.

Shuangling took the pot and her husband started the fire.

After 7 o'clock, the two pots of dough were already out of the pot.

When Liang got up, Shuangling was choking noodles in the kitchen with a large black pottery basin that she used every year.

Shuangling's husband was chopping firewood in the yard for steaming steamed buns.

Seeing Liang enter the kitchen, Shuangling said to Liang: "Spread the noodles now and you can steam them tomorrow evening.

Just as the hot kang burned by the evaporation group was evaporated, the noodles were panting." Shuang Ling said as she carried the choked noodles to the kang, which had just been steamed and was still warm, and put a lid on the pottery basin and covered the quilt to keep the basin warm and wait for the flour to ferment.

This is what Shuangling calls "panting".

In the past, Shuangling used to make a small amount of batter first, put the starter on it, ferment it and add flour to knead it.

This year, Shuangling used "one-handed noodles" and kneaded the whole dough when putting the starter on it.

Now they just wait for it to ferment.

Shuangling said that there are few "noodles" in "one hand" and save energy when kneading.

Liang asked her: "Then why didn't you use it all to face it before?" Shuangling smiled: "Who knows? You want to be lazy."

Shuangling plans to first steam a pot of real dumplings mainly for worshiping ancestors, serving guests, and eating by family members), a pot of jujube mountain for worshiping heaven, visiting relatives, serving guests, and eating by family members), and a pot of flag cakes for family members.

Eat), and steam two pots of bean steamed buns and vegetable steamed buns the next day.

At breakfast, Liang naturally told Shuangling that Shuangling would be very happy to steam with her later.

Since the eldest daughter got married in 2005, the main person who can help Shuangling steam steamed buns is her second daughter Liang.

Every year during the Chinese New Year, Shuangling takes the lead and helps, and the two work together to steam steamed buns and make dumplings.

This has almost become a tradition in Shuangling's family.

Shuangling's 9-year-old granddaughter Xiaoyi, a child from her eldest daughter's family) has lived with Shuangling since she was a child and has played enthusiastically with Liang.

Now she is also interested in asking to participate.

At this time, Shuangling's son, who worked in the city, had also returned home on holiday, but as in the past, he hardly participated in steaming steamed buns.

The dough breathed on the warm kang for four or five hours.

At about 1 p.m., Shuangling came over and lifted the top of the cover and found that the dough, which was only half a pot high, was almost growing to the top of the cover.

This is fermentation.

It's time to start making steamed buns.

Under Shuangling's command, Liang carried the noodle table from the east room (side room of the east room) to the main room of the east room (kitchen).

At this time, Xiaoyi also came to join in the fun and clamored,"I help too! I will help too!" So, in the kitchen, the three of Shuangling and the others surrounded a noodle table to form the following position.

Figure 1)

Figure 1 Spatial description of steamed steamed buns

As the leader of steaming steamed buns this time, Shuangling occupies the most convenient position in the house.

She can reach out to reach the dough in the basin, and turn back to put the cooked steamed buns on the kang to soak them.

Moreover, this position occupies most of the noodle table and is easy to spread out.

If the 32-year-old Liang lived in the village instead of working outside, she should replace Shuangling as the main force in steaming steamed buns.

However, having been studying abroad and working in the city, she has never steamed steamed buns independently.

Up to now, she is still only Shuangling's main helper rather than the main force in making pasta.

Today's steamed buns activity is no exception.

She still appears as Shuangling's main helper, so she occupies the second most convenient position on the table.

As a "soy sauce maker" in the eyes of Shuangling and Liang, Xiaoyi occupies the most inconvenient position on the table.

After each found a place, the women in Shuangling's family began to make steamed buns.

Shuangling's husband waited for the steamed buns to be ready and lit the fire.

Shuangling's son sat on the kang and played with the computer without participating in steaming steamed buns.

Shuangling first cleaned the kang and spread a layer of newspaper on it, preparing to make steamed buns and put them on it to soak.

Liang and Xiaoyi sat down and prepared to start kneading the dough.

Before that, Liang asked Xiaoyi to wash his hands first.

Then the two of them divided the whole dough in the basin into small pieces and began to slowly knead it on the dough table.

As usual, Shuangling told them to knead hard until there were no "nails" in the dough and the dough was shiny and white.

This is something Shuangling reminds her daughter every year when steaming steamed buns, and this year is no exception.

Liang then smiled and reiterated to Xiaoyi: "Did you hear that? Be sure to knead it well, otherwise the steamed buns will be black." After saying this, Liang immediately realized that she had said something wrong-her parents 'teachings and examples had long taught her that she should not say unlucky things during New Year's Day-so she fell silent.

But Shuangling still heard it, and while busy with her work, she blamed Liang and said that she couldn't speak! Shuangling is afraid that these unlucky words will have a bad impact on her family's life in the coming year.

After a while, Shuangling also sat down and began to prepare to make steamed buns.

Shuangling said, steam the dumplings first.

She first tore the dough that Liang had already kneaded into fist-sized doses, and continued to knead it on the noodle table.

When it was almost enough, she gathered the edges of the dough together and twisted it into a whirlpool shape.

Then she sat on the table and held it in both hands.

Rub it into a short column, then dipped some flour at the bottom, and then put it on the newspaper.

Liang and Xiaoyi are still doing the kneading work.

Shuangling chatted with Liang while making steamed buns.

Does Shuangling Wenliang steam steamed buns in the city where he works? So there was the following dialogue: Shuangling (hereinafter referred to as "Ling "): Don't you steam steamed buns yourself? Liang: I can't steam.

I don't know how to make dough.

Ling: Stir the primer I bought with warm water, and put a small amount of noodles in a small basin...

gesture)...

See how much people put it.

Good perfunctory): I don't know...

Ling is impatient): I won't talk to you! No, you can't learn? How good it is to make it myself! What people make is all dead materials, but what they make is nothing.

You can't learn how to cook, but even if you say you are a mother-in-law, people don't like it)...

Shuangling's husband: Good learning how to cook.

If you don't know how to cook, you'll be beaten up soon.

After a period of silence, the topic of Shuangling and Liang turned to marriage again.

In 2015, Liang was 32 years old and had not found a partner yet.In the general environment of girls in the village getting married at the age of 212, Liang made the villagers feel unbelievable.

Behind the scenes, she and another 34-year-old girl in the village who had not yet found a partner have both become the talk of the villagers.

In recent years, Shuangling and her husband have been worried about this matter all day long, and they have a big stone in their hearts.

Shuangling doesn't even want to go out-she's afraid that neighbors will ask questions.

In their view, it is the responsibility of parents to help their children become families at the age when they should have a family.

Now that I think of it again, Shuangling becomes melancholy again.

She said that one year old is very stressful.

I) am almost seventy in a flash.

The old mother here counts me as older.

When it's time to get married, leave if you want.

Or go out and talk to others.

Her mother met her that day and asked,"Did your daughter mention her mother-in-law's house?" I said,"Not yet." People said,"You're so big, why don't you call me away?" People say that a daughter cannot get married.) This means being an old man means being a parent.) No...

Liang was speechless.

Liang changed the topic): Xiaoyi, learn hard to steam steamed buns).

Xiaoyi: How to learn? Liang: In this way, rub it with your palm, not with your fingers.

Xiaoyi: The noodles are too hard.

Liang: The steamed buns are delicious when the noodles are hard.

Liang: To Mom) Who did you learn it from? Steaming steamed buns? Ling: Do you still need to learn this? Good teaching Xiao Yi is a real person): In this way, put this bottom inward.

While talking and gesturing) Liang then taught Xiaoyi to knead the dough): In this way, knead the dough first, like this, like this.

Demonstrate while talking) knead until the face is clear.

Xiaoyi looked at the basin): There is no face.

Ling: Angry) Don't let it go if you can't fart! As soon as he spoke, he said,"There is no such thing" and "There is no such thing".

Xiaoyi: There was no more...

Shuangling, who was in a bad mood because she mentioned her daughter's marriage, hit Xiaoyi because Xiaoyi said unlucky words again.

Xiaoyi cried.

Liang comforted Xiaoyi and taught him to say auspicious words during the New Year.

After a while, Xiaoyi slowly became happy again, continued to knead dough on the table and learn to make steamed buns.

Under the guidance of Liang, Xiaoyi also made a steamed bun himself.

Shuangling put all the steamed buns on the kang to ferment, including the one made by Xiaoyi.

About 10 minutes later, Shuangling picked up the steamed buns into the pot and spread cabbage leaves on the edge of the pot to prevent them from burning the pot.

At this time, Liang's father had already placed the chopped firewood in front of the stove and prepared to light the fire.

After Shuangling tidied the pot, she asked her husband to cook it over a low heat first, and then cook it over a high heat until the steamed buns were almost fermented.

In the past, Shuangling and her husband burned for about 20 minutes and stopped burning.

However, after comparing the differences between the steamed buns steamed by her mother and her third aunt, Liang strongly suggested that her father adopt the method of steaming steamed buns by her third aunt-cook it for an hour.

She said that the steamed buns would not stick in this way.

Shuangling and her husband refused to admit that the steamed buns they steamed were sticky, but in the end they accepted Liang's suggestion and burned them for nearly an hour.

After covering it in the pot for nearly half an hour, Shuangling directed Xiaoyi to go to the main room to find the cleaned top and prepare to pick up steamed buns and take them out of the pot.

The moment Shuangling lifted the lid of the pot, the heat quickly rushed up, so that people couldn't see anything.

After the heat dissipated, a pot of white steamed buns gave off an alluring aroma of wheat.

Shuangling looked at a pot of steamed buns and poked a few of them with her finger.

The steamed buns that had been poked quickly slowly climbed up again.

Shuangling said that this meant they were cooked.

Under the influence of Shuangling year after year, Liang also mastered this knowledge skillfully.

At this time, Shuangling suddenly discovered that there was a steamed bun in the middle that had not been fermented well, and there was a black piece the size of a thumb cap on the top of the steamed bun.

Shuangling was puzzled and worried, because in Shuangling's knowledge system, when steaming steamed buns, abnormalities were a bad sign: Ling: Why didn't this one gasp? What happened?...

It's just this one, and it's breathing down there, huh? It's just in the middle of the country, where is the water? Liang comfort): This noodle seems to be hot.

Ling was annoyed): What do you know! Not panting.

Put them all together.

Shuangling carefully recalled the making process of steamed buns and tried to find out the reason.

Later, she finally realized it and breathed a sigh of relief.

Ling: Oh, this is the one that Xiaoyi pinched! The implication is that the dough was crushed by Xiaoyi)

The reason was found, the taboo was lifted, and Liang and Xiaoyi seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Xiaoyi clamored to eat one.

Before Xiaoyi ate, Shuangling's husband first took one to the kitchen door, pinched it, and threw it on the ground, saying,"Gods and earth are all here to eat" to respect heaven and earth.

Then he returned to the kitchen and pinched it again.

In front of the stove, he said,"Master of the stove pot, come to eat steamed buns" to respect the kitchen king, and then handed the steamed buns to Xiaoyi.

People in Ji Village still maintain the custom of respecting heaven and earth and the Kitchen King before eating rare meals at home such as dumplings, steamed steamed buns, ground tofu, etc.).

After that, Shuangling steamed Zaoshan Heqi Pancake steamed buns according to the plan.

During the process of making steamed buns, Shuangling and Liang also talked about their views on the gossipy people in the village and their views on the marriage of Liang's cousin.

Recently, a female neighbor of Shuangling had a very bad life experience.

Shuangling first described the female neighbor's predicament to Liang, and then gossiped about what the villagers thought of her.

Shuangling said that this neighbor is kind everywhere and is not a bad person, but he likes to gossip and stir trouble behind his back and harm others.

Shuangling recalled the incidents in her life experience related to her female neighbor's "gossip" and was still indignant, and asserted that the female neighbor's current encounter was retribution.

Shuangling added that she never talks behind others 'back.

Last year, Liang's cousin got married with a young man from other places.

For some reasons, Liang's uncle was firmly opposed to this marriage from the beginning, but Liang's cousin was also very firm in insisting on her choice and became pregnant before marriage.

Shuangling recalled her own sisters 'life experiences and the views on marriage and love they accepted from their elders, and expressed difficulty in understanding and accepting Liang's cousin's behavior and attitude on this matter.

Shuangling said with some sadness that there had never been such a thing in her family before, referring to getting pregnant before and not listening to her parents 'opinions.) As children, you must consider your parents 'opinions and feelings.

By around 6 p.m., the task of steaming steamed buns was all completed.

2.

Skills transfer, oral communication and reproduction of women's gender roles

The last pot of flag cake steamed buns ended, and the Shuangling family's steamed buns steamed buns lasted for about 5 hours.

During the process of steaming steamed buns, a total of 5 people were at home, and 4 people participated in steaming steamed buns: Shuangling, Shuangling's husband, Shuangling's second daughter Liang, and Shuangling's granddaughter Xiaoyi.

Like in the past, Shuangling did not ask her son to participate in the process of steaming steamed buns, nor did he take the initiative to participate.

During this period, he kept sitting on the kang and playing with the computer.

Among the people involved in steaming steamed buns, Shuangling is the most indispensable in the process of steaming steamed buns.

If she cannot participate, the activity can only be postponed until she has time; Shuangling's husband mainly undertakes the tasks of chopping firewood and lighting fire.

Although he has taken on the task of chopping firewood and lighting fires, he can actually quit at any time because of other tasks.

For example, he runs a bicycle repair business.

When someone from home comes to repair bicycles, he stops steaming steamed buns and goes to repair bicycles.

During this period, after discussing with Shuangling, he also went to the supermarket in the town to buy a gift to visit a relative.

Shuangling's daughter Liang is an important and "natural" helper.

Also as children, Shuangling's son could not participate in steaming steamed buns without being criticized, but Liang could not refuse.

When Shuangling was older, Liang had to serve as a helper or a main force to undertake the work undertaken by Shuangling.

Because, in the perspective of Ji Village people, steaming steamed buns is mainly a woman's job.

The main people participating in labor at the table were Shuangling, Liang and Xiaoyi, who happened to be three generations from the same family.

Shuangling is the leader in steaming steamed buns and the "expert" among the three; the second daughter Liang is Shuangling's main helper.

Liang has participated in this work under Shuangling's guidance since she was eight or nine years old.

From an imitator like Xiaoyi at the beginning to become the main helper now.

Liang's main job this time is kneading dough.

She actually knows how to make steamed buns now, but she has never operated it independently; her niece Xiaoyi is a voluntary and ignorant imitator, and she participates in it because of her curiosity and her followers of her aunt and grandma.

During the long process of steaming steamed buns, they were not silent.

On the contrary, they had been communicating and interacting.

Oral communication is an indispensable part of this.

Their interactions include:

1.

The technology and significance of steaming steamed buns: Shuangling is the highest-ranking "expert" among the three of them and the best steamed buns.

She is the main master and judge of the skills of steamed buns.

In the joint labor of steaming steamed buns year after year, Liang learned the technology of kneading dough and making steamed buns from Shuangling through exposure and personal practice.

In this practical activity of steaming steamed buns, Liang You followed suit and passed on the skills she had learned to her niece Xiaoyi through words and deeds.

Xiaoyi experienced and learned this technology through personal practice, while Shuangling became a bystander and judge.

It can be seen that the passing of steamed buns is a natural process, and people do not declare seriously,"I am coming to learn to steam steamed buns today!" It is achieved through observation and imitation as we grow up.

Therefore, when Liang asked Shuangling who she learned this craft from, Shuangling asked: "Do you still need to learn?" Shuangling and Liang, as the main force in steaming steamed buns, did not really expect 9-year-old Xiaoyi to help in the process of steaming steamed buns.

Xiaoyi participated in it out of curiosity and subconsciously imitating the daily life of her grandma and aunt.

She used imitation to figure out the skills of steaming steamed buns.

It is precisely during this process that she will gradually master the craft of steaming steamed buns and understand the significance of steamed buns during the New Year.

These meanings include at least using steamed buns to pay homage to heaven and earth and ancestors; pursuing good luck and avoiding evil and not saying bad things); coordinating community relations to entertain guests); and rewarding family members.

2.

Cooking and women: Cooking is regarded as a woman's job as part of housework.

This steamed buns steaming activity was mainly attended by two women, Shuangling and Liang.

The Shuangling couple expressed regret that Liang could not steam steamed buns independently.

Thinking of Liang's poor cooking ability, the Shuangling couple expressed concern about Liang's future.

In their view, a woman who cannot cook cannot establish herself in her in-law's family.

In addition to instilling this concept during ordinary cooking time, this time they passed this concept directly to Liang through conversations at the noodle table, and indirectly to their granddaughter Xiaoyi, who is still a child.

3.

Concept of marriage: Parents are becoming increasingly anxious about the fact that their daughters are older and unmarried.

In Shuangling's words,"You have to get married when it's time to get married." Because the marriage of their children is the "task" of parents, and not getting married when their children "should" make them unable to hold their heads high in rural communities.

During the chat while steaming steamed buns, Shuangling once again expressed this concept to Liang.

So, for children, is it okay to get married? Not really.

Judging from Shuangling's story about her niece's marriage to Liang, in Shuangling's view, children's marriage must at least be discussed with their parents and their consent must be obtained.

Children should not make decisions on their own, especially if they choose to "elope" or "get pregnant" without their parents 'consent.

This also brings shame to parents in rural communities.

4.

Treat yourself: Shuangling and Lianghe Xiaoyi gossip about the gossip neighbors in the village.

Through this, Shuangling conveyed a concept to her daughter and niece: a respected woman should avoid saying bad things about others and avoiding sowing discord among others.

The inheritance of skills and concepts is transmitted day by day in the above-mentioned living situations, and skills and concepts are strongly indivisible.

Although Liang has gradually separated from rural life after graduating from high school and leaving Jicun, and with higher education, she can, to a certain extent, break out of the knowledge and conceptual system acquired through Shuangling's teachings and the influence of the environment.

However, this kind of teachings and the influence of the environment still fundamentally and profoundly affect Liang's concept.

For example, although Liang's cooking skills were not recognized by the Shuangling couple, Liang still unconsciously regarded housework, including cooking, as her responsibility; although Liang did not say it, she still often felt ashamed to her parents for not being able to marry at the age expected by her parents.

Her concept of marriage was deeply influenced by the Shuangling couple.

Liang's principles of dealing with others were also deeply influenced by the Shuangling couple.

In his interactions with others, Liang believed that he was not a chatterman, and he consciously kept a distance from such people.

Today, these skills and gender concepts are still subtly passed on to Shuangling's niece through such words and deeds in daily life practice situations.

The partial participation or non-participation of Shuangling's husband and son is also a reproduction of men's gender roles.

It can be seen that the process of making things in rural communities includes the transmission of complex cultural information, and the process of making food is also a reproduction process governed by gender roles.

This process, together with other daily life practices in rural daily life, continues to strengthen and reproduce these gender roles.

Conversely, the food production process including the food maker is also the production process of the meaning of food.

By working together in the same situation, participants gave the food a clear gender meaning.

For example, female-led food making processes reinforce the fact that women are food makers in the family, making food from the family often naturally associated with women.

3.

Research on the protection of intangible cultural heritage focusing on process and its presentation from a gender perspective

It can be said that the practice process of intangible cultural heritage is also the process of generating its meaning.

To talk about the protection of intangible cultural heritage by stripping away the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage and their interaction with intangible cultural heritage, it actually ignores the context in which intangible cultural heritage depends and the complex meaning generation process that occurs due to the complex interactions with the surrounding environment in this context, which makes intangible cultural heritage separated from its vibrant soil of survival.

From the previous case analysis, we can see that if the research on intangible cultural heritage protection is expanded to include the study of the interaction process between intangible cultural heritage inheritors and intangible cultural heritage, the influence of the gender of intangible cultural heritage inheritors on the multi-meaning production of intangible cultural heritage in the practice process of intangible cultural heritage will naturally be presented.

First of all, the practice process of intangible cultural heritage reproduces the norms of gender roles in rural society.

The previous inspection of a Spring Festival pasta making process in Shuangling's family has revealed that the pasta making process is not simply a process of passing down folk craftsmanship, but also includes frequent interactions and rich verbal exchanges between family members.

These exchanges are mainly carried out among three generations of mothers, daughters and granddaughters, and their content points to women's concepts of marriage, the division of gender roles in society, and the virtues that women should have.

In this process, gender role norms are reproduced and passed down between generations.

Secondly, the practice process of intangible cultural heritage shapes the gendered characteristics of intangible cultural heritage itself.

For example, women are mainly involved in the making of steamed buns in Shuangling's family, and the topics they communicate are closer to the daily "leisurely" characteristics of rural women-it is trivial and seemingly irrelevant, but it is in the process that social gender role norms are passed down subtly).

In addition, Shuangling's steamed buns also reflect Shuangling's aesthetic pursuit.

For example, considering that some of the steamed buns are used to visit relatives and friends, entertain guests, etc., Shuangling particularly values whether the steamed buns are white and transparent, so she constantly emphasizes the importance of kneading dough to her daughter and granddaughter.

It can be said that every practice process of intangible cultural heritage reflects the gender characteristics of the inheritors as individuals, and in turn, the intangible cultural heritage itself has gendered characteristics that cannot be ignored.This gendered characteristic is reflected in every production process of intangible cultural heritage.

For example, for the same paper-cutting, the gendered characteristics of the paper-cutting production process of a male paper-cutting inheritor and a female paper-cutting inheritor are different.

(This article was originally published in "National Art", No.

6, 2016.

The annotations are omitted, and refer to the original issue for details)