Urbanization and the Perception of Sichuan Cuisine among Immigrants in Modern Chongqing

This study examines how immigrants experienced and perceived Sichuan cuisine (Chuancai) in wartime Chongqing, China's provisional capital (Peidu). It argues that this process was not a simple culinary transfer, but a cultural phenomenon shaped by the interplay of urbanization, wartime conditions, and social memory.The research first highlights how Chongqing’s rapid modernization under warlord Liu Xiang (1920s-1930s) created the material infrastructure that later accommodated a massive population influx after 1937. As the wartime capital, Chongqing faced severe hardships―bombings, inflation, and strict food rationing―yet its commercial dining culture, partly sustained by institutions like the Chongqing Chamber of Commerce, remained resilient.For immigrants, the pungent, numbing-spicy (mala) flavors of Chuancai became more than a taste. Through writings by intellectuals such as Zhang Henshui, street foods like dandanmian and hotpot emerged as powerful cultural symbols of shared wartime life. These culinary experiences intertwined with memories of deprivation and longing, transforming Chuancai from a local, working-class food into a collective cultural memory of the “Chongqing experience.”Ultimately, this study demonstrates that food culture serves as a vital lens for understanding modern socio-historical change. The case of Chuancai in wartime Chongqing reveals how urbanization, conflict, migration, and commerce converge to reshape taste and forge new cultural identities.