1. Introduction

The rapid spread of information has brought a lot of anxiety to modern people and accelerated the process of people's lives. Documentaries, variety shows and TV plays are no longer the first choice for young people with only fragmentary time left. The emergence of Tik Tok and the popularity of short videos also reflect this. People's way of showing themselves is no longer limited to pictures, but they choose short videos with more diversified forms of expression to share their lives. Video is the most advanced media form at present, and it is the most efficient way of disseminating information. The popularity of 4G and the reduction of traffic charges have promoted the spread of short videos. Compared with medium-length video and long-length video, the shooting of short video reduces the cost of expression. App users do not need to rotate the horizontal screen of their mobile phones to watch. They can quickly switch between different contents only by sliding their fingers up and down.

The rise of short videos in China can be traced back to 2016. Today's headline provided 1 billion yuan to support short videos, the second beat used 1 billion yuan to create a platform for video creators, and Youku set up an industry fund of 3 billion yuan for PGC (professional production of content). Tik Tok also appeared this year, but was really known by the public in 2018 [1]. More and more people record their lives in this way. Tik Tok has also seized the opportunity to launch product forms such as commodity windows to help creators realize quick cash flow. Creators will naturally be more active in producing high-quality content when they receive dividends. Since then, Tik Tok has gradually become a national phenomenal app.

In early 2020, the epidemic gradually spread in various regions. When people go out less, the catering industry will have the greatest impact. According to the data, the failure rate of catering businesses in 2020 is as high as 50%-60%[2]. The famous Xu Liushan also declared bankruptcy during this period, and the emergence of many online celebrity milk tea shops became its strong enemy. The epidemic was the last straw. Many netizens said that this was the end of an era, and they also felt sorry for the disappearance of those catering brands.

According to statistics, compared with short videos on other topics, short videos on food have a wider audience. A study in May 2021 showed that the average monthly growth rate of food commodities reached 5.16%, exceeding the sales growth rate of the whole category and occupying top3, the hot category in Tik Tok for a long time. The average sales volume of gourmet analogy bloggers increased by 71.7%[3] year-on-year in October 2020. Compared with other types of bloggers, there is a broader market. Food bloggers' short videos have become the "spiritual pillar" of many families. Bilibili website's well-known up owner "Bei Bei Hungry" has brought us a taste of various delicacies in Xi 'an. With 2,538,000 fans on the website, she has become the weathervane of Xi 'an in the hearts of Chinese netizens. Because of her understanding of Xi 'an, the store she praised became an online celebrity card-punching place for tourists traveling to Xi 'an. Yang Xiaoting from Jingmen, Hubei Province, showcased the rural flavor of his hometown. Although she does not have exquisite shooting and editing, she brings Bilibili 258,000 fans full of simplicity and sincerity every day.

As a new way of communication, short video enriches the manifestations of Chinese food images. People don't have to worry about the loneliness of eating alone. Food bloggers accompany them day and night. The recovery of the catering industry after the epidemic and the popularity of food commodities cannot be separated from the efforts of food bloggers. The videos of bloggers such as “Li Ziqi" and "Japanese Food Story" let YouTube's foreign fans know more about Chinese food culture. Based on this, this paper attempts to explore the reasons for the rise of short food videos and the existing problems at this stage.

2. Literature review

2.1. Foreign research status and trends

In 2011, a short video app first appeared in the United States. Short video has both visual and auditory experience. Compared with pictures and words, it has more advantages of being more intuitive, three-dimensional and transmitting information at the same time. As a popular category in short videos, food short videos have a considerable audience base. At present, there is little research on short food videos in foreign countries and there is a lack of definition of them as a whole concept.

Vita Briliana, Wasisto Ruswidiono and Tita Deitiana take short videos of food and economic development potential as research objects. Through sampling, three scholars explored the determinants of intention of Indonesian millennials to use food video bloggers' comments in their purchase decisions. The research points out that food bloggers' recommendations, ratings and food offers are more favored by millennials, while brands, product quality and services are no longer the first priorities for millennials to consider consumption [4]; Shoufeng Cao, Marcus Foth, Warwick Powell and Jock McQueen IE studied how short video stories affect Chinese consumers' perceptions of block chain certified Australian beef and their willingness to pay. Whether domestic consumers or foreign consumers, short video stories have no significant impact on their willingness to pay. However, their understanding and trust in the quality of Australian beef have improved. The effect of short video intervention is different for different consumers. [5]

Some scholars also explore the relationship between the short video of delicious food and the development of city image. Yi Li, Xiuxiu Xu, Bo Song, Hong He, taking "Chengdu" as the research object, conducted data mining on Tik Tok's online comment text. The research shows that the short video of delicious food makes potential tourists pay more attention to the cognitive image of the destination. Neutral and positive comments affect potential tourists' emotional images of the local social environment and food characteristics. For the appearance description of delicious food, the short video produced obvious image effect. [6]

Some scholars have also paid attention to the relationship between eating and broadcasting and the audience. Laurensia Anjani,Terrance Mok,Tony Tang,

Lora oehlberg and woolibongoh studied and summarized the audience's behavior and motivation when watching the video stream of people eating large amounts of food. Viewers can indirectly experience the pleasure of food consumption and eating by watching short videos of delicious food, and can also find a companion to accompany them in their lonely time. [7]

Based on the analysis of these documents, it is concluded that foreign countries pay more attention to the relationship between short food videos and economic development potential, the development of city image, and the relationship between food and audience. The research is exploratory in nature, but the experimental samples are relatively small and the research scope is limited. Therefore, the results of the study are not objective, and those who have not been investigated may be biased towards the results. In the future, we should start to discuss the problems existing in the spread of food culture and short food videos.

2.2. Domestic research status and trends

Compared with foreign countries, the domestic short video market develops relatively late, but the development speed is very fast. With the decrease of 4G traffic tariff, Tik Tok uses the five "bases" of algorithm recommendation logic: recommendation of user content; Coordination of user information; Accurate recommendation of users' social relationships; Recommendation for content heat flow pool overlay; Recommendation of User Association Rules [8]. Only by accurately grasping the users' viewing needs can short videos gradually become active in the public's vision. And China is a country that pays special attention to food culture. Food is a symbol of a region's history and culture. Every dish on the table carries the wisdom of countless predecessors. Therefore, short food videos have a natural audience base and are characterized by low decision-making costs. It is usually the first choice for new bloggers.

Zhang Hao and Ran Linghua discussed how to shape the city image of Harbin and analyzed various short videos about food in Tik Tok. This paper provides how to use the short food video to build the ice and snow image of Harbin city and the feasibility of promoting the ice and snow sports. It can be seen the impact of the short food video on the travel promotion [8].

The innovation of narrative method enriches the content of the short video of delicious food. Taking "Sheep Cuisine" as an example, Ganlu Ying analyzes the reasons why narrative stories attract fans' attention, including: good story topics; Multiple "rollover" storylines; Unique story style; Two parallel story lines. At the same time, it is also suggested that other challenging food bloggers innovate to avoid the road of homogenization [9].

Specific measures to get out of the dilemma of cross-cultural communication. Taking "Li Ziqi" as an example, Luo Ying analyzes the reasons for the cultural differences between China and other countries from the perspective of international political environment and the identification of individual and group relations between China and the West. Because of the "commonness of view of nature" and the anti-urbanization view of people in developed countries who yearn for nature. The video of "Li Ziqi" has won great acclaim overseas and is a representative of harmonious coexistence between man and nature [10].

No matter from the innovation of blogger's narrative way, the methodology of promoting urban development, or the methodology of cross-cultural communication, etc., there has been a more in-depth analysis. However, the research methods are mainly case analysis, and the research scope is limited to some extent.

3. The impact of short videos of delicious food

3.1. The impact of short videos of delicious food on society

The individual is the main body of society. In recent years, words such as "body anxiety" and "facial anxiety" have frequently appeared in short videos of beauty bloggers. They are all expressing their opinions and trying to guide their fans to stop worrying. As a result, more and more women in our country pay attention to the correct way to lose weight.

Watching short videos of delicious food during weight loss has become a new way for some girls to lose weight. Viewers are proactive when choosing and watching videos to meet their own needs or desires. However, the short video of delicious food belongs to the entertainment category and has the function of temporarily avoiding the reality and relaxing the mood. [11] At night, when the metabolism of the human body is at its worst, many girls who lose weight will choose to watch short videos of delicious food during this time period, so as to achieve the effect of relieving hunger. They seem to prefer a food blogger who chooses to watch a good meal to a food critic who chews slowly without showing his teeth. Grumpy, uninhibited eating can make the girls lose weight to release their appetite and pressure. This not only satisfies their desire for food, but also avoids the consequences of overeating and becoming fat. They enjoy the process of "being hungry and thin”.

The reason why some people choose to watch short videos of delicious food is loneliness. In the past 10 years, large numbers of people have gathered in big cities. Office workers have little time to cook their own meals under the fast-paced life in big cities. Their choice of takeout is also very monotonous. Coupled with the loneliness of one person's diet, many people began to choose to accompany food bloggers. Food bloggers not only eat but also lament that life is just right. Real-time barrage is like a friend who can talk to. For the audience, the short video is just the time that they can spare for a moment to eat in the tense and fast-paced work. "Yang Xiaoting" is such a "companion" food blogger. The cordial and lovely smile and Hubei accent are her trademark. In the first video, there are only a few simple seats and shooting angles. Actual sound is the only one in her short video, and background music is rarely inserted. Without professional audio-visual skills, the "simple and crude" editing does not seem abrupt to her. Instead, she received 250,000 fans' attention in Bilibili. The simple and rustic country life is permeated with human kindness, which makes people living in big cities feel warm.

3.2. The impact of food short videos on economy

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, prevention and control measures have been taken in isolation at home across China. During the Spring Festival, Chinese people who love to have fun, treat people and return gifts no longer choose to go out for dinner. The catering industry has suffered a severe blow. The Report on the Impact of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 on China's Catering Industry shows that 78% of catering enterprises lost more than 100% of their operating income during the epidemic compared with the Spring Festival in 2019. [12] Many businesses did not even wait for the epidemic to improve. The famous Xu Liushan also fell in the epidemic.

In the post-epidemic era, short videos of delicious food promoted the recovery of the catering industry. As the epidemic situation improves, people begin to yearn for and choose to eat out. With the strict requirements of urbanization on the sanitation of restaurants, some small restaurants that focus on local specialties are also continuously improving the internal environment. People usually only know about these small restaurants through online recommendation. The short food videos are short in length and edited by food bloggers. The audience can quickly obtain information about the restaurant environment and the bloggers' evaluation of food taste and mouthfeel. People began to clock in with the recommended restaurants of their favorite bloggers. As a result, many restaurants welcomed the "second spring of their careers" after the epidemic improved, under the "offensive" that the short videos of food bloggers exploring the restaurants were put into the audience's mobile phones.

Short video of delicious food drives the development of the third service industry in the city. There are 34 provinces in China, and there are differences in food culture between the north and the south, as well as differences between the east and the west. Chinese food is divided into eight major factions, and the breakdown is too numerous to mention. After the epidemic situation improved, in addition to the recovery of the catering industry, tourism was also put on the agenda by most people. "Beckham Hungry" is a native of Xi 'an. Her friendly language and smile can easily bring her closer to the audience in front of the screen. She has 2.527 million fans in Bilibili and has more than 500,000 viewers per video. Every traveler who decides to travel to Xi 'an will almost brush her video of visiting the local store in Xi 'an when preparing for the trip. This Xi 'an chick's mantra of "one mouthful noodles, one mouthful garlic" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, which makes the audience curious about Xi 'an. People will also take Xi 'an into consideration when choosing urban tourism, thus driving the development of Xi 'an urban tourism. In the "White Paper on Short Videos and City Image Research", the video recording local cuisine became the most popular video on the Tik Tok app. It can be seen from this that it is feasible to promote the city image and promote the development of city tourism by using the short video of delicious food.

The short food videos also play a role in shaping the brand image. The ancient short video of “Li Ziqi" mainly records her cooking process, which is popular with a wide audience for making ancient French cuisine and using traditional techniques. Before making each video, she would go to the food source to study and even learned a lot of non-legacy crafts, which brought the audience full of sincerity and the concept of "endless life and endless learning". As of December 10, "Li Ziqi" has 6.52 million fans in its Taobao flagship store. The monthly sales volume of its popular commodities "Liuzhou vermicelli" and "osmanthus nut lotus root starch" reached 100,000+. "Li Ziqi" brand management is not limited to the current several explosive food, but also includes clothing, cosmetics, arts and crafts, etc. [13].

3.3. The influence of food short videos on culture

The domestic media want to spread China's diversified image and Chinese food culture internationally. Short video is an important breakthrough. Li Ziqi has 16.5 million followers on YouTube. Based on the huge foreign fans, the short video produced by Li Ziqi has enabled them to have a more profound and multi-faceted understanding of the Chinese food culture. In the process, they also became interested in China. The anti-urbanization in foreign countries makes them yearn for nature [10], and the video of Li Ziqi is just "use and satisfaction" for them.

The author of the theory of "use and satisfaction" is e Katz, which is different from the previous research on disseminators and media. The theory of "use and satisfaction" is based on the audience's media contact motivation and media demand. It mainly inspects the social media's psychological and behavioral effects on the audience. First of all, the short food video meets the needs of the audience for social expression, and the interactive methods such as instant barrage and comments at any time improve the audience's participation. At the same time, it also stimulates the creation enthusiasm of the audience. The blogger and the audience produce the content together. The video of "Plum Blossom" has been well received by overseas audiences, which also satisfies the aspiration of developed countries for a fresh and natural rural life. The audience's liking can motivate bloggers to create better, which is a two-way giving. Secondly, the audience can meet the individual demand for knowledge in the short video of food. During the epidemic period, many families could not go out to eat or order take-out food, so they had to choose to learn to cook at home, and the short video of cooking teaching could meet their demand for knowledge.

Li Ziqi chose to go to Zigong, Sichuan to study salt making in the short video of "Complete Piece of Chai Mi You Yan Jiang Vinegar Tea". Even if domestic and foreign audiences do not know the dialect spoken by Li Ziqi, they can also taste the pleasant idyllic life of the Peach Blossom Spring through abundant seats, exquisite pictures and a large number of empty scenes showing nature. For example, Li Ziqi used a close-up view to record her hard work in salt making. The sweat on her face revealed that she did everything by herself and was very serious. When she does not need physical labor, she will also change into a typical Chinese antique cheongsam. Li Ziqi's short video also showed the audience a large number of intangible cultural heritage projects in China. Show the Chinese nation's food culture and the humanistic feelings behind it, and build up national confidence.

4. Discussion

Cooking and broadcasting fraud has always been a common problem in short videos of delicious food. The behavior of fake eating and real vomiting has been criticized all the time, undermining the principle of truth and bringing adverse effects to the physical and mental health development of teenagers. Overeating, lack of humanistic care. Some bloggers let food fill the whole interface to attract the audience, and eventually they can't finish eating. This not only brings the audience a sense of deception, but also wastes food, which goes against the public order and good customs. Some time ago, the "teacher Guo" was rectified to alienate the network's ugliness appreciation and spread the three vulgar contents. What's more, in order to achieve the effect of curiosity-hunting, they specially made their own pet food and broadcast, ignoring the pet's resistance to it and losing the principle of kindness. [14]

In addition to the short video of teaching food, the short video of restaurant food is also popular with the audience. The audience will follow the food bloggers to the relevant stores for tasting according to their evaluation. However, there are often many stores that, after experiencing the fire, have different quality control over their food portions and tastes. Apparently, after facing a large number of customers, they thought they had mastered the wealth code. However, when the audience feels lost after tasting the "buyers show" and "sellers show", the traffic flow from such stores will gradually disappear in the food blogger's barrage. All the stores have to do is to keep their minds fresh. Don't be fooled by the temporary fire, insist on making praiseworthy food. The supervision department can also cooperate with the short video platform to strengthen the content review of the short video bloggers.

Copying other bloggers in order to gain traffic. After making unique short videos, food bloggers can't ignore their own intellectual property protection. Creators should innovate continuously to increase the viscosity of users. Create more quality content that is not replicable. For bloggers who plagiarize short videos many times, cooperation among multiple platforms should be strengthened. After checking the infringing accounts, it is also more difficult to replace the “waistcoat".

5. Conclusion

The short food videos provide viewers with the functions of "substituting for food" and "accompanying"; In the post-epidemic era, to drive the development of urban economy; Food bloggers such as "Li Ziqi" with the theme of rural life attract a large number of overseas audiences and enhance the soft power of Chinese culture. But at the same time, it also brings many problems, such as fake food and TV broadcasts, poor quality control in stores and plagiarism by bloggers. Food video bloggers and relevant stores should follow the principle of truth and follow the waves in the heat wave of the internet. Copyright issues should not be ignored, and relevant departments should also strengthen the censorship of bloggers' video content.