In simplest terms, cottagecore is a celebration of the slower pace of life involving polished images of an idyllic lifestyle living off the land and farm. In China and many parts of the world where people become increasingly disillusioned by the demands of a fast-paced, modern society and yearn for the down-to-earth experience that our ancestors lived, the cottagecore genre.
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Thereâs a reason rural escapism in China has risen over the past several years. Millions are drawn to lifestyle vloggers like Li Ziqi and Dianxi Xiaoge, who portray idyllic countryside lives spent creating everything from food to clothing from scratch. Thereâs even a small but notable group of young people called
fanxiang qingnian, who, in a departure from Chinaâs mass rural-to-urban migration of the past four decades, have opted to return to farm life. Of course, Chinese nationalism and the stateâs push to promote Chinese culture do play a role, but the fact remains that Chinaâs rapid economic growth, not unlike that of its American counterpart, has left its people wanting something more.
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Hsiao-Ching Chou first set out to write a book when she was in her 20s. What she didn’t realize then, when it failed to materialize, was that it required a crucial component: life experience. Now in her 40s, she’s written two books in the past several years devoted to home-style cooking:
Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food (Sasquatch Books, 2021).
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Try refreshing your browser. Vegetarian Chinese comfort food takes centre stage in Hsiao-Ching Chou s latest cookbook Back to video
“Things happen when they’re supposed to happen,” says Chou. “Knowing what I know, and having lived my life the way I’ve lived and all of the experiences I’ve had in other fields, I definitely value the notion that I want to knock down barriers to cooking everyday Chinese food. I don’t really care about the fancy stuff because that’s all about exclusivity; it’s not about inclusivity.”