Hot Pot Evolution
Hot Pot is one of Chinaʼs most famous traditional cuisines and is still popular worldwide. For the majority of Chinese people, hot pot is not only a cooking method, but also a dining custom and a cultural heritage. The custom of eating Hot Pot has been documented since the Neolithic period. Since ancient times, people have regarded Hot Pot as a symbol of celebration, and people have constantly changed and evolved the utensils used to cook Hot Pot. From the Neolithic ceramic pots, to todayʼs wide variety of ceramic, iron, stainless steel, and copper pots and pans, people have changed and evolved their cooking utensils in order to make their hot pots more flavourful. Many of todayʼs Hot Pot utensils are modeled after those of ancient dynasties.
The left side of this journey map shows the highlights of the progress of Hot Pot utensils since the beginning of Chinese history, based on a timeline. By showing pictures and basic information about the materials and sizes of the utensils used in different eras, we are able to visualize the differences in the Hot Pot utensils of different dynasties. The different materials and sizes of the utensils can also reflect the prevailing culture of the time.On the left or right side of the hotpot utensils, the Chinese characters of the dynasty are labeled, and because the Chinese characters are similar to the shape of the utensils, we choose to use the original Chinese names to achieve a better visual effect. The English commentary for the Chinese characters is also shown in parentheses after the time points on the right side of the journey map. Therefore, the right side of the journey map tells the story of the hotpot in the context of the culture of that dynasty.
