Diet Memory and Identity Leap: The Construction of Community Consciousness in Multi-Ethnic Diet Practice in the West Sichuan Corridor

Tana Bao; Wenzhang Bi; Xiaokang Dong; Xu Zhou; Ziyi Lan

doi:10.71204/nkch5788

Authors

Tana Bao Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics Author
Wenzhang Bi Southwest University for Nationalities Author
Xiaokang Dong Aba Vocational College Author
Xu Zhou Aba Vocational College Author
Ziyi Lan Southwest University for Nationalities Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.71204/nkch5788

Keywords:

Western Sichuan Corridor, Dietary Practice, Ethnic Integration, Community Consciousness, Spatial Mobility

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between dietary practices and the formation of a shared national community identity in the Western Sichuan Corridor. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 11 participants from diverse ethnic and migration backgrounds, grouped by spatial mobility patterns, the findings indicate that historically, dietary adaptation in this region has been closely tied to local climate and ecology. However, ongoing modernization and cross-regional interaction have reshaped these practices in distinct ways: long-distance migrants use food to maintain cultural connections, intra-provincial migrants adjust their diets as a form of identity negotiation, and local non-migrants exhibit a more organic pattern of integrative regulation. Taken together, these patterns demonstrate how dietary culture, amid social and environmental change, contributes in everyday ways to the formation of shared identity and collective belonging.

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