Salted Fish · FFET10385
Salted fish (xianyu)
Fish is salted and dried; Guangdong has 2 styles, meixiang and shirou.
Fish preserved by salting, drying or curing.
Salted fish is fish cured in salt and then dried. Guangdong has 2 styles, meixiang and shirou, with local practices also found in Tai O, Hong Kong, and Hunan. Methods documented in 2022 in Guanghai, Taishan, Jiangmen, include wet salting, dry salting, storage in salt, and a meixiang type fermented before salting.
What
Salted fish is fish cured in salt and then dried.1
When
Volume 8 of the Northern Wei manual Qimin Yaoshu describes fish preserves using salt and rice, including a method using dried fish. These preparations do not directly establish the origin of today's plain salted fish. A local historical account from 2022 traces Guanghai's craft back more than 600 years and mentions a Ming garrison at Guanghai in 1394.2,3
Where
Salted fish is produced in Guanghai, Taishan, Jiangmen, Guangdong, and in Tai O, Hong Kong. Hunan also has a version made with carp.1,2,4
How
Guanghai methods include wet salting, dry salting, storage in salt, and meixiang. For storage in salt, fish are placed head-down in salt; the meixiang type is fermented before being salted. Hong Kong also has the chayan method, in which fish are inserted head-down into salt.1,2
Why
Guangdong has 2 salted fish styles, meixiang and shirou.1
Impact and influence
About 13 scattered Guanghai workshops moved into a processing zone of more than 200 mu, and 2 firms then held export qualifications (June 22, 2022 report). Guanghai salted fish making became a Jiangmen municipal intangible cultural heritage item in 2021. Few licensed makers remained in Hong Kong (February 16, 2025 report), and salted fish making entered Hong Kong's intangible cultural heritage inventory in 2014. Both listing details come from reports; the official inventory texts were not verified.2,4