摘要

Today, rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important food ingredient of the dietary cultures in South China. It is consumed not only as a staple food, but also as an essential ingredient for rice noodles, deserts, cakes, pancakes and dishes in urban and rural areas.
This food ingredient is domesticated from its wild ancestor, perennial wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.). South China is one of the major habitats of wild rice, and domesticated rice is the major cultivar in this area today. However, recent archaeological studies indicate that the occurrence of rice cultivation and consumption in South China are the result of prehistoric migration and/or cultural expansion from the middle and lower Yangzi River Valley. Based on archaeological data, as well as results of neutron activation analysis of pottery, and phytolithic and isotopic analysis, it is argued that the cultivation and consumption of rice as food began by about 6,500~6,000 years ago in northern South China, and by approximately 4,000 years ago in the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong. Cultivation in both these southern locations resulted from continuous migration and/or cultural influences from the Yangzi River Valley.
However, rice cultivation was probably not the dominant economic activity, and rice was not a staple food for many people in this region in the prehistoric period owing to a variety of local natural and cultural factors. The introduction of new tools and migrants from the north in the aftermath of the Qin invasion of Lingnan in 218 B.C.E. is an important turning point for the development of rice farming and consumption in South China. Thus both pre/historic migrations and a historic war have produced significant impacts on the food culture in this region.