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Culture
文藝版塊
World in a dish
盤中世界
Coming in hot
熱辣而來
How the once-derided chilli pepper revolutionised Chinese palates.
曾經受到嘲諷的辣椒如何徹底改變了中國人的口味。
Tianshui, a city tucked away in China's north-western hills, does not normally make headline news.
天水，一個位于中國西北山區的城市，通常不會成為頭條新聞。
But a fiery soup that owes its unique flavour to locally grown Gangu chillies has lit up the internet.
但是，一種因當地種植的甘谷辣椒而具有獨特風味的辣味湯點燃了互聯網。
Since March, the hashtag #TianshuiMalatang, referring to a popular type of street food, has racked up more than 140m views on Weibo, a social-media platform.
自今年3月以來，在社交媒體平臺新浪微博上，“天水麻辣燙”（指的是一種流行的街頭小吃）話題標簽已獲得超過1.4億瀏覽量。
Millions have flocked to the city to try it themselves.
數百萬人涌入這座城市親自品嘗。
Increasingly the Chinese palette is craving spice.
越來越多的中國味蕾渴望嘗到辣味。
Last year Meituan, China's biggest food-delivery app, reported that nearly 80% of restaurants now offer spicy fare, a taste known as la in Chinese.
中國最大的外賣app美團去年報告稱，近八成的餐廳現在提供辣味飯菜，這種味道用中文表示為“辣”。
Look back a few hundred years, though, and chillies were nowhere to be found.
然而，回顧幾百年前，辣椒無處可尋。
Unlike ginger and Sichuan peppers, which are native to the region and widely used, chilli peppers were brought to China from the Americas by Portuguese and Dutch explorers only in the 16th century.
生姜和花椒是本土植物，使用廣泛，辣椒與它們不同，辣椒是在16世紀才由葡萄牙和荷蘭探險家從美洲帶到中國。
At first, nobody ate them.
起初，沒有人吃辣椒。
For at least 50 years, they were grown as decorative plants, prized for their cheerfully bright colour and tiny white flowers, and occasionally used as medicinal herbs.
至少50年來，它們被當作裝飾性植物種植，因其鮮艷的顏色和小巧的白色花朵而備受珍視，偶爾被用作草藥。
During China's last imperial period, a stringent system that taxed salt forced peasants in Guizhou province to look for an alternative to the condiment.
在中國最后一個皇朝時期，嚴格的鹽稅制度迫使貴州省的農民尋找鹽的替代品。
They chose chillies, which produce several crops a year and take up little land.
他們選擇了辣椒，辣椒一年可多次收獲，而且只占用很少的土地。
From there, a new flavour was unlocked.
從此，一種新的味道被解鎖。
The pepper steadily spread to other rural regions of China, but its pungent, overpowering flavour barred it from getting near the tables of imperial or upper-class families.
辣椒逐漸傳播到中國其他農村地區，但它辛辣、強烈的味道使它無法接近皇室或上流家族的餐桌。
For a long time, la was used to describe vicious-natured people, and the few urbanites who enjoyed chillies did not trumpet their taste.
在很長一段時間里，“辣”被用來形容性情兇殘的人，少數喜歡吃辣椒的城里人也不會宣揚他們的口味。
But the Communist revolution revolutionised the kitchen.
但共產主義革命也帶來了廚房的革命。
The chefs of nobles were out of favour, and their traditions discontinued.
貴族的廚師不再受歡迎，他們的傳統也不復存在。
The new leader, Mao Zedong, was the son of a peasant and a fan of chillies.
新的領導人毛主席是農民的兒子，也很愛吃辣椒。
Mao made Russian envoys eat sweat-inducing dishes and laughed when they could not handle the heat.
毛主席讓蘇聯特使吃讓人冒汗的菜肴，當他們受不了辣時，他笑了起來。
“You can't be a revolutionary if you don't eat chillies," he said.
“不能吃辣椒就是不能革命哩。”他說。
What was once a poor man's food became a symbol of China's working class.
曾經的窮人的食物就變成了中國工人階級的象征。
Industrialisation after Mao created the largest migration in human history.
毛主席之后的工業化創造了人類歷史上最大規模的移民。
Hundreds of millions of migrants poured into big cities, bringing with them the spicy favours of home.
數百萬移民涌入大城市，把家鄉的辣味也帶了進來。
Chillies are now incorporated into street food, fine dining and snacks in regions with little tradition of heat.
如今，在沒有什么吃辣傳統的地區，辣椒已進入街頭小吃、精致餐飲和零食中。
Cao Yu, a food writer and author of "The History of Eating La", argues that part of the chilli's charm also comes from its social function.
美食作家曹雨寫了《中國食辣史》，他認為，辣椒的部分魅力來自它的社會功能。
“If we've had spicy food together, we've endured pain together," he says.
“如果我們一起吃了辛辣的食物，那么我們就一起忍受了痛苦，”他說，
“It's just like drinking, it brings us closer to one another.”
“這就像喝酒，吃辣讓我們彼此更親近。”
