Analysis of the Evaluation Criteria of UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy

: The Creative Cities Network created by UNESCO is a great model for urban transformation nowadays. Cities with unique gastronomic culture are expected to keep pace with international developments in the field of gastronomic creativity and to lead their local gastronomic culture to the world. In this paper, In accordance with the eight criteria specified by UNESCO for cultural assets in the field of gastronomic creativity in 2008, we analyze the applications from Bendigo and Portoviejo with the method of text analysis, Creative Cities of Gastronomy in 2019, to explore the changes in the evaluation criteria of the bids in recent years, and to revisit the elements of the evaluation. The result shows that proportion of the eight criteria of Creative Cities of Gastronomy in the declaration has largely changed with the shift of strategic objectives, from emphasizing local traditional culture to encouraging multiculturalism.Also, they focus more on the sustainability description of the local food industry, heritage and ecology.

obligation to protect cultural diversity, share the creativity brought by their own cultures, form creative cultural industries, and drive social and economic development.
Studying the evaluation criteria of the Creative Cities Network and exploring the development path of creative cities have become important issues for many cities.Cities with profound culinary culture are actively approaching the Creative Cities Network, hoping to maximize the use and integration of resources through collaboration and sharing of creative assets with the members after joining the network, leading the local culinary culture to the world, and feeding new vitality into the development of the cities.

Shift in emphasis of assessment criteria
2.1 From emphasizing local traditional culture to encouraging multiculturalism 1) In 2008, a document "How to Apply to UNESCO's Creative Cities Network" [2], published by UNESCO, specifies eight criteria for cultural assets in the field of gastronomic creativity.
The eight criteria of early cultural assets emphasize the preservation of local traditional culinary culture and make specific requirements on the embodiment of assets, which is an important reference basis for the city's bidding for creation.Zhan Yihong and Cheng Xiaomin (2016) [3] also explain this evaluation standard with more detailed dimensions and more quantitative indicators, providing a clearer construction direction for the bidding of Creative City of Gastronomy.
However, combining the relevant materials of successful cities in recent years, it is found that the proportion of the assessment criteria of Creative Cities of Gastronomy in the declaration has largely changed with the shift of strategic objectives.In accordance with the criteria and the measurement dimensions demonstrated in Zhan and Cheng, the application of Bendigo[4] is reorganized and analyzed in this paper.It is found that the eight criteria did not occupy much space in the application material.The results of text analysis are presented in the table below: Lack of heritage that reflects the atmosphere of production.★★★ Criteria 8 A comprehensive and detailed presentation of the various dimensions of the creative and cross-national, cross-organizational and cross-disciplinary culinary projects, with a strong focus on the concept of sustainability.

★★★★★
Text analysis reveals that the indigenous characteristics of Bendigo's gastronomic culture are not explicit in the application, but rather the application highlights the fact that, under the impact of diverse cultures that came in during the wave of gold mining, the indigenous culture was completely transformed and then re-adapted and fused into the present multicultural characteristics.In the application materials, traditional gastronomic characteristics such as indigenous ingredients, chefs, cooking techniques and methods, which are related to the uniqueness of indigenous cooking in the "eight criteria of cultural assets", are no longer emphasized in the application form.
Bendigo's tolerance, acceptance and adaptability to cultural diversity, resulting in a unique multicultural identity, is also very much in line with the Creative Cities Network's original aim of preserving cultural diversity.In addition, Macau, which was successful in its bid in 2021, has a remarkable multicultural character, with a fusion of Cantonese and Portuguese cuisines to form Macau's local cuisine.The recently elected cities are not even as distinctive in terms of local traditional cultural characteristics as Popayá n or Chengdu in the early days.
This shows that the Creative Cities Network has gone from emphasizing local traditional culture to recognizing and encouraging multiculturalism.

From the concept of sustainable development to specific strategic objectives for sustainable development
Based on the textual analysis in Table 1, it is also found that the Bendigo and Portoviejo [5] declaration focuses more on the sustainability description of the local food industry, heritage and ecology, by explicitly demonstrated how they strictly keep up with the 17 goals[6] proposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.Specific initiatives and corresponding objectives are listed below: The Creative Cities Network considers creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable development and aims to foster the building of resilient sustainable cities.So the idea of sustainability has been woven throughout.It is only through time and continuous exploration that the sustainability strategy roadmap has evolved from an abstract concept to a concrete goal guideline.
As early as 1987, the concept of sustainable development appeared for the first time in the report of the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, it has achieved final consensus with the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21 on the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.Based on ecological sustainability, its core content requires humanity to develop economy in harmony with the protection of the ecological environment.In the two decades since, sustainable development has become a strategic goal of global development.
It was not until the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 that the 17 major goals were specified.It expresses a common vision for humanity to achieve sustainable development in its three dimensions: social, economic and environmental, and at the same time serves as a covenant reached among nations.With the release of the agenda, the assessed declarations give more prominence to the consideration of sustainable development condition of the contestant cities and are evaluated in terms of compliance with the 17 goals, with a special emphasis on integration with important contemporary topics such as health and environmental protection.
The New Urban Agenda, adopted at the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador in 2016, furthered the process of sustainable urban development by clarifying the direction of urban development, including social inclusion and poverty eradication, inclusive urban prosperity and opportunity, environmental sustainability and resilience.
As it is shown in Table 2, the 2019 new members, Bendigo and Portoviejo have both clearly stated in their declarations that the process of creating a creative city in their city, from visions to actions, are fully corresponding to the 17 goals.

Analysis of Assessment Elements
There are no quantitative criteria to refer to in the application itself.Early cultural assets were gradually relaxed as UNESCO continued to emphasize inclusiveness.Hou Bing et al.(2021) [7] found that there is no direct correlation between the size of the city and the evaluation of Creative Cities.Small and medium-sized cities accounted for more than half of the cities that were successfully declared Creative Cities.According to the 2019 data, there are 18 cities with a population of less than 500,000, and even Alba in Italy, Mé rida in Mexico, Afyonkarahisar in Turkey, and Östersund in Sweden have a population of less than 100,000 people.Creative cities are not strictly quantified, which makes the evaluation process more flexible, humane and fair.Even Portoviejo, which was devastated by the earthquake, has the opportunity to tell its story to the world through the Creative Cities Network.
According to the application guidelines [8] of the organization's requirements for the conditions of reporting cities, the analysis found that the Creative Cities Network has shifted from emphasizing tradition to focusing on creativity, and from focusing on localized characteristics to encouraging multicultural characteristics.The assessment has expanded the pattern and is more future-oriented.But what remains unchanged is that the ultimate purpose of the Creative Cities Network is to protect cultural diversity and pay attention to the sustainable development of human beings.Taking into account the experience of cities that have been declared successful in recent years, the assessment elements have been organized as shown in the table below.

Conclusion
In order to build communities suitable for human habitation, the United Nations Creative Cities Network will constantly make adjustments and adaptations according to the development trend and strategic routes of the international community.
Applicants need to follow the pace of the world, pay close attention to UNESCO's policy direction and changes in the application guidelines, and look at the evaluation criteria of the application with a changing perspective as the framework shown in Table 3.
For cities with strong local traditional culinary characteristics, applications should not be composed in a way that emphasizes past glories, but should look to the future and focus on the sustainable development of traditional culture.

Table 1 :
Comparison of Cultural Asset Criteria and declaration of Bendigo

Table 2 :
Experiences in building with the concept of sustainable development

Table 3 :
Elements of Assessment