A 54-year-old archaeologist gave up his "professorial burden" and became a food blogger. What happened?

"People in Guangxi ate snails 20,000 years ago"

"Malatang originated in Sichuan and Chongqing. It started with boatmen and trackers who made a living on the river wanting to eat some fast food."

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Recently, an archaeology professor on TikTok has become popular.

He is Zhang Liangren, professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, School of History, Nanjing University.

While exploring the delicacies, Zhang Liangren explained the history behind the food. With this "unique skill", he has gained 1.816 million followers and 1.548 million likes in the seven months since he joined Douyin. He has also appeared on popular programs such as CCTV's "Three Meals, Four Seasons", and has become a slash professor in the eyes of fans who "knows food best in the archaeology world and archaeology best in the food world".

Zhang Liangren's food exploration video

Archaeological footprints at home and abroad

Before becoming a Douyin store exploration blogger, Zhang Liangren was an out-and-out "digger".

Zhang Liangren studied archaeology at Peking University. After graduating in 1991, he worked at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Later, he went to the University of California, Los Angeles to do his doctorate. In 2014, he joined Nanjing University. Since graduation, Zhang Liangren has been engaged in archaeology for 33 years.

Regarding his beloved archaeological work, Zhang Liangren said: "Archaeology has given me a sharper eye, allowing me to discover more valuable questions."

For decades, Zhang Liangren's research areas have covered Chinese archaeology and foreign archaeology.

In 2010, Zhang Liangren led a team to obtain the complete stratigraphic sequence of the late Machang-Siba culture in the Hexi region for the first time, and discovered adobe buildings that had received little attention before. Because there are few written historical records of this type of prehistoric archaeology, the site itself and the unearthed artifacts are important sources of information. With the help of modern scientific and technological means, researchers can not only determine the age through carbon-14 dating, but also study the composition of pottery and the spread of crops.

Compared with domestic archaeology, foreign archaeology is more difficult. In order to better carry out archaeological work, Zhang Liangren has been learning foreign languages ​​for many years, and has mastered English, Russian, Japanese, German and French. In Zhang Liangren's view, language learning is necessary for archaeological research, which not only allows researchers to understand the archaeological trends of countries around the world, but also allows researchers to take Chinese archaeology to the world.

Zhang Liangren has been to Russia and Iran for archaeological excavations, and has also visited Pakistan, the United Kingdom and Australia. In his own words, "The countries I have visited and excavated in total can circle the earth." These experiences have given him a deeper understanding of archaeological culture. Whenever he was working hard on archaeological excavations abroad, the delicacies from various places became his spiritual comfort, which also laid the groundwork for his current work in food archaeology.

In 2016, Zhang Liangren conducted archaeological excavations in Russia.

When archaeology meets food

It is Zhang Liangren's habit to eat wherever he goes, such as Iranian saffron rice, Russian kebabs, Siberian grilled fish... These flavors in his memories form part of his archaeological career.

In Zhang Liangren's view, archaeology and food are a natural match. As an archaeologist, he has a rigorous academic background and knows how to trace the roots of each food and dig out the historical stories behind it. How to make archaeological knowledge more down-to-earth? Let more people experience the value of archaeological history, which is also something Zhang Liangren and his friends often discuss.

In July 2023, with the help of several friends, Zhang Liangren opened his own Douyin account and started to explore food restaurants. Zhang Liangren was responsible for appearing on camera, while his friends were responsible for filming and production.

In order to create this account, Zhang Liangren reacquainted himself with Nanjing, the city where he had lived for nearly ten years, and the small fireworks shops lining its streets.

In a rotating hot pot restaurant, he challenged the history of talking about what he ate; in a small community shop that has been open for more than 20 years, he ate duck fat sesame cakes while explaining the historical origins from Hu biscuits to sesame cakes... Zhang Liangren's Douyin videos have both a long sense of history and the flavor of life. In his videos, we can learn a lot about the history of food.

Zhang Liangren tastes the duck vermicelli soup

Zhang Liangren said that the history of tofu is very long, and it was recorded in the works of the famous poet Lu You as early as: "The spring is smooth like pearls, and the spun plow is softer than butter." The common ingredients of hot pot and cold noodles - gluten - have a great origin. Shen Kuo, the author of "Dream Pool Essays", once compared gluten with steelmaking: "The steel in iron is like the gluten in flour. When the soft flour is washed away, the gluten will appear. The same is true for steelmaking."

Zhang Liangren eats traditional food and talks about Chinese history. This kind of videos with warmth and cultural atmosphere have attracted a lot of fans. What was originally just a way to "save the country in a roundabout way" now occupies Zhang Liangren's time a little longer every week than teaching.

Zhang Liangren's daily store exploration on Douyin

In order to do a better job in food archaeology, he decided to explore food in Nanjing, then food in the whole country, and then food in the world; not only to make food, but also to introduce other archaeology-related knowledge. He said: "The original intention of making videos was to spread knowledge to the public on the one hand, and to "expand popularity" on the other hand, so that more people know the value of archaeology and support archaeological research in more ways." The attention and praise he has received so far also make Zhang Liangren feel that everything he has done is worth it.

As Zhang Liangren’s Douyin fans grew, many people began to ask questions related to archaeological history in his comment section. “More people are interested in our archaeology.” Talking about this, Zhang Liangren became more confident in his future efforts.