Asian Food

The Global and the Local

Katarzyna J. Cwiertka, Boudewijn C. A. Walraven

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136120343
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

By documenting, analysing and interpreting the transformations in the local diets of Asian peoples within the last hundred years, this volume pinpoints the consequences of the tension between homogenisation and cultural heterogenisation, which is so characteristic for today's global interaction.

1 Eating Hong Kong's Way Out¹

Cheng Sea-ling

DOI: 10.4324/9780203037164-2

In understanding the relationship between commodity and person, we unearth anew the history of ourselves.

(Mintz 1985:214)

A mixture of tea and coffee blended with condensed milk may not be everyone's cup of ‘tea’, but yùn yèung — as the mixture is called in Hong Kong — is one of the things that have survived like a shared secret in the ex-British colony in South China. Often not listed on the menu, it can be ordered at any of the chàh chàan tèng (lit. ‘Tea Restaurants’), or Chinese cafes (Wu 1996) that have become the icons of the Hong Kong way of life. Chàh chàan tèng can now be found amongst the Hong Kong migrant communities in, for example, Toronto, New York and Sidney. With an inexpensive menu and quick service, these restaurants are very popular among Hong Kong people also for the variety of food that one can order: a rice dumpling in lotus leaves with a cup of boiled coke with lemon, or stir-fried spaghetti served with yøn yèung. The cultural significance of yùn yèung, as well as these restaurants, is maybe their epitomisation of the crossing of boundaries on both institutional and individual levels.

The readiness to explore across cultural boundaries that has given rise to the diversity of food culture in Hong Kong should be understood in the context of Hong Kong's history. As a British colony and a receptacle for migrants from different parts of China for over 150 years, the populations in Hong Kong have been engaged in processes dating from 1400 (Wolf 1997 [1982]), in which ‘populations impinged upon other populations through permeable social boundaries, creating integrating, interwoven social and cultural entities. (Wolf 1997 [1982]):71)’ It is not just a place where ‘East meets West’, a rhetoric astutely critiqued by Evans & Tarn (1997). It is far more complex than that. The flows of people, capital, knowledge and skills from different directions into Hong Kong have expanded and contracted along with the political, social and economic developments. These diverse forces have worked themselves out in and onto the social and cultural landscapes of Hong Kong.

This chapter seeks to portray how the development of a diverse food culture is intertwined with the rapid political, social and economic changes in Hong Kong, and how these developments impinge on the way in which the Hong Kong identity has been constructed and negotiated. The first part outlines a history of Hong Kong in relation to the development of food consumption, with reference to political forces such as colonisation, wars and diplomacy; economic developments from an entrepot trade to manufacturing industries and subsequently service industries; changes in social conditions with ethnic division, influx of immigrants, developments in medical services and housing, and the emergence of a locally born middle class. The diversification, stratification, syncretisation and transformation of Hong Kong society and its people find expressions in the patterns of food consumption.

The second part examines the search for a Hong Kong identity that began in the late 1960s and how it has been manifested in the arena of food consumption. The development of herbal tea shops reveals divergent historical and structural forces on the one hand, and the engagement of food and drinks in identity construction on the other. Herbal tea, or lèuhng chàh (lit.: ‘cooling tea’), is a folk practice of the Chinese medical system, which emphasises the balance between dichotomies of ‘hot/cold’ and ‘wet/dry’.² Herbal tea shops provide a convenient venue for people who subscribe to the folk ideas of Chinese medicine to consume the traditional concoctions. The unfolding history of herbal tea shops is an example of how food consumption is engaged in the negotiation between modernity, internationalisation, and a search for nostalgic Chineseness for Hong Kong people, in particular towards the historic return of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

Eating Out Hong Kong's History

Before 1841: The Fishing Village

Hong Kong was only a quiet fishing village with a population of around 4,000 before it was taken over as a British colony. In 1821, the main settlement on Hong Kong island was along the western coast, where lobsters and fish were found in abundance in the area of Sui Hang Hou (sèui hàang hàu). This is also the spot where the British fleet landed and raised the first Union Jack in 1841.

Colonialism in South China started in the sixteenth century with the Portuguese taking over Macau as its trading post in East Asia. A large number of East-West exchanges of natural and human resources thus first took place through Macau. In particular, European culinary skills were spread to the Chinese population by missionaries, merchants and Portuguese officials, this occurred through socialising with, and marriage to, Chinese people or through their employment of Chinese individuals as cooks. These people became a valuable source of culinary expertise for their Hong Kong compatriots and were seen to be responsible for the first generation of western cuisine in the British colony.

Hong Kong: The Nineteenth Century Colony

In its initial century as a colony, Hong Kong remained largely a ‘refugee city’ where the mainland Chinese came for refuge before either returning to the mainland or, after entrepot trade was established, continuing to North America or South East Asia. Waves of immigrants poured into the colony regularly, in particular after unrest such as the Taiping Rebellion in the 1870s. After the founding of Hong Kong, the first wave of immigrants boosted the population to 30,000 by 1845, reaching 110,000 in 1867, and 151,000 in 1881.

The first arrivals from the mainland in the 1840s included labourers and petty merchants. Two immigrants founded the Màhn Móuh Temple on Hong Kong Island in 1847. This became the main communal centre for the Chinese until the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals emerged in late nineteenth century as the unofficial Chinese leadership. One of the two immigrants who founded the temple gained wealth and influence by provisioning the British forces during the Opium War and thereafter investing in local dwellings, gambling houses and brothels (Smith 1971:81 quoted in Lang 1997:253).

In the area west of Sui Hang Hou, where the original settlements were found, the district of Sai Ying Pun (sài yìnhg pùn) became the base for these sojourners from the mainland. They frequented the small tea houses, tea stalls and inns, as well as the brothels. In most tea houses, stratification was organised according to the floors: the second and third floors charged double the price of that on the ground floor, which was frequented by labourers and was known as a 'squatting house’ (deih mauh gùn). More elaborate institutions such as Hahng Fà Làuh, a famous brothel established in 1845, facilitated business transactions and merchant-official agreements by providing food, alcohol and the company of women. Customers would host banquets, called ‘drink flower wine’ (yàm fà jàu), which involved dining, drinking and gambling in the company of courtesans.³ Sai Ying Pun, westwards to the communal centre in Màhn Móuh Temple, thus thrived with these restaurants and brothels and became a hub of vigour for the Chinese along the western coast of the island.

Foreigners could occasionally be spotted in these predominantly Chinese establishments.⁴ Writings and records show that western-style dishes were provided in these restaurants. Residents from Macau arrived in Wanchai (wàan jái) opening bars and inns, as well as brothels catering mainly to sailors. Amongst these Chinese migrants were experienced chefs with western cooking skills. Due to the strong ethnic boundaries, the Chinese population in Hong Kong was thus introduced to western cuisine not directly from their colonisers, but by Chinese compatriots who had already been exposed to these external influences.

Hong Kong Before 1941

The expansion of social and culinary lives took place socially and geographically. The flow of people and resources from the mainland increased, in particular from Guangzhou (gwóng jàu) but also from northern cities like Shanghai. Europeans and Americans arrived not only from their own countries, but also via China. The tram system was laid in 1904, connecting the western and eastern parts of the island along the coast, boosting expansion towards Central and Wanchai. The food scene in the beginning of twentieth century was thus marked by 1) the enrichment of local foodways from both Chinese and Western influences; 2) the stratification of eating and drinking establishments along both ethnic and class boundaries.

The first century of colonial rule had been marked by strict racial distinction between the Chinese and Europeans in terms of economic activity, residence and entertainment. The Chinese community was geographically separated from the European community, with the former's economic activities being limited to the western part of the island, while the latter community being free to expand into Central. In 1867, Chinese merchants established Na Pei Hong (nàahm bak hohng), a company that focused on North-South trade with mainland China, marking the realisation of their economic ambitions. In the 1870s, the Chinese were allowed to purchase the failing businesses of foreigners, and the fiercely guarded ethnic boundary gradually became blurred. The Peak, however, where a panoramic view of the harbour and the Kowloon Peninsula could be enjoyed, was an exclusively European residential area (with the exception of servants) with its own church, club and hospital (Lethbridge 1969:89–90). A District Reservation Ordinance of 1904 stipulated that no Chinese could reside in the Peak area. While foreigners were free to roam the Chinese parts of the island and visit their restaurants, the Chinese were not admitted to the Hong Kong Club, founded in 1846 in Central which served the social and welfare needs of all ‘non-Chinese’.⁵ The distinctions and hierarchy of colonialism could here be clearly seen.

After 1900, many Guangzhou restaurateurs started businesses in Hong Kong, bringing with them specially prepared abalone, shark's fin and other Guangzhou delicacies. They opened tea houses which served delicacies in small portions called dim sum (lit. ‘touch heart’) with tea. The Luk Yu Tea House, still a famous institution today, was opened in 1923. A whole dim sum culture evolved, indulging customers with an ever-changing range of creative dim sums. Weekly specials of dim sum were the basis for inter-restaurant competition. Chinese restaurants began to be found in Sheung Wan (séuhng wàahn), Des Veoux Road, and Wanchai. The Ying King Grand Restaurant in Wanchai was frequented by the Chinese elite. The foundations of ‘Cantonese cuisine’ were thus laid with large-scale importation of capital, skills and human resources from Guangzhou.

The government sought to clear Central of the influence of the ‘vices’ in 1903 and ordered the brothels to move westwards to Sek Tong Tsui (sehk tòhng jéui). The restaurants followed. Businesses continued to thrive and thus the period known as ‘Indulgence West of the (Sek) Tong (Tsui)’ (Tòhng sài fùng yuht) began. Yet a further decree in 1935 outlawed prostitution in Hong Kong, subsequently ending the colourful life of this part of the island. The fall of the west thus contributed further to the spread of activity towards the east.

While the Chinese elites, like those from the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, frequented Ying King Grand Restaurants and famous tea houses and brothels, the less fortunate found their niche in ordinary tea houses and street stalls. During the 1910s, a type of tea stall with dressy young girls arose in Fourth Street in Sai Ying Pun, where the male customers could find piecemeal satisfaction for their sexual and culinary appetites. Though these tea stalls were soon wiped out after repeated complaints of indecency to the government, they illustrate how food and sex were related across classassass levels, and how both were accessible to different consonsumers.

We>Western-style restaurants catering to Chinese (meaning smalmaller number of dishes and smaller portions) a) also sprouted. Examples include the Wellington Restaurant and Man Yuen (New) Restaurant in Central, with daily set meals as their major attractions. Advertisements for these restaurants’ set meals⁶ boasted eight items, always including soup, a fish special and a rice dish, and ending with tea or coffee. These items remained at the core, while trimmed versions of the set meal developed later on. Meanwhile, westerners arriving from Shanghai opened restaurants catering to Europeans and Americans. Jimmy's Kitchen (founded 1928), still as robust and famous as the old enclave of the colonial elite, was opened first in Wanchai, then in Central.

A blurring of the ethnic boundaries thus took place through food, mainly in the form of the Chinese adoption of non-Chinese foodstuffs, the syncretisation of Chinese and European traditions, and the consumption of these foods. Foreigners imported exotic foodstuffs and attempted to reserve exclusive access to them before a process of localisation or popularisation by Chinese merchants, as in the case of ice (the first batch of which was imported in 1843), carbonated drinks (brought in by the Dutch in 1850) and ice cream (first arrival from Manila in 1900). Merchants and the middle class, while not admitted to places of European exclusivity, started patronising both western-style restaurants like the Wellington and grand Chinese restaurants such as Ying King in Wanchai. From the exclusive European meals served at the Hong Kong Club to the differentially syncretised western style restaurants around the island, a decentralisation and stratification of cuisine could be seen together with much incorporation and modification by the Hong Kong Chinese.

For the majority of the Chinese population, however, health was a constant problem and medical services were never adequate. Another influx of refugees caused by Sino-Japanese hostilities only led to the further ‘aggravation of the various public health problems such as overcrowding, malnutrition and epidemic disease’ (Hong Kong Report 1938:23). The masses relied on traditional Chinese herbal medicine for their health problems. The Taoist temple honouring Wong Tai Sin, the ‘Refugee God’ (Lang and Ragvald 1993), gained a large following by offering prescriptions with limited free herbal medicine (Lang & Ragvald 1993:44). Wong Lo Kat herbal tea shop, first founded in Guangzhou, went into business in 1897 in front of the Mahn Mouh Temple and moved to Aberdeen Street in Central in 1915. Wong Lo Kat appealed to the masses with its medicinal concoctions at the affordable price of one cent per cup. Making a name for itself, packaged tea was sold as Wong Lo Kat Medical Tea locally and overseas to ‘Europe, England, America, Holland, and various ports of the South Pacific’ (Wong 1987:44).

The first hundred years in the colony thus saw the concretisation of an ethnic boundary establishing the superiority of the British colonialists over the Chinese. Active trading and exchange brought wealth and material advancement to the people, who had access to a much greater range of foodstuffs than a century before. Such expansion was accompanied by the internal diversification of the two growing communities, as can be seen in the hierarchy of the eating venues that were established.

1941–1948: The Japanese Occupation and its Aftermath

The Japanese occupation not only caused further aggravation for the masses, but also interrupted British colonial rule and provided a new impetus for members of the Chinese population to strive for their own control.

In many ways, the Japanese occupation caused great misery to more than 1,846,000 people, many of whom tried in vain to escape from Japanese aggression on the mainland (Lethbridge 1969). Food was scarce and medical services dwindled. Government rations were severely limited and became non-existent towards the end of the occupation. Starvation and cannibalism were recorded in many memoirs of the period. People added to their very meagre diet of congee by fishing, eating sweet potatoes and their roots, or buying leftover food from the Japanese military, which often included cigarette butts, toothpicks etc. Wong Lo Kat herbal tea shops’ business thrived during this time of collective crisis: ‘Ordinary hospitals, both private and public, were fully occupied, and most people could not afford the cos...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Eating Hong Kong's Way Out
• 2 Acceptance of milk products in Southeast Asia: the case of Indonesia as a traditional non-dairying region
• 3 Food in middle-class Madras households from the 1970s to the 1990s
• 4 Ladies who lunch: young women and the domestic fallacy in Japan
• 5 Wild-gathered foods as countercurrents to dietary globalisation in South Korea
• 6 Bardot soup and Confucians' meat: food and Korean identity in global context
• 7 Family hospitality and ethnic tradition among South Asian women in the west of Scotland
• 8 Eating the homeland: Japanese expatriates in The Netherlands
• 9 Chinese and Indonesian restaurants and the taste for exotic food in The Netherlands: a global-local trend
• Warm mushroom sushi? An afterword
• References
• List of Contributors
• Index