Organizer: Khun Eng Kuah, University of Hong Kong
Chair: Joseph Schneider, Drake University
Discussant: Alan Smart, University of Calgary
Localization and "Authenticization" of Chinese Food in Canada
Josephine Smart, University of Calgary
Establishing restaurants has been one of the main economic specializations for Chinese immigrating to Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries. Until recently, the main clientele for almost all of these restaurants were non-Chinese. The food served was transformed in response to local tastes and the constraints of ingredient supply, becoming "Canadian Chinese food." Since the 1960s, Chinese migration to Canada has intensified again, producing large concentrations in the major urban centres. Along with this has emerged a demand for "authentic" food. This paper examines the dynamics of localization and "authenticization" of Chinese food in Canada, and its implications for ethnic relations and the culture of consumption.
The Change, Modification and Development of Chinese Cultural Identity and Image through Restaurant Menus
Cen Huang, Leiden University
"Sweet and Sour Chicken," "Ginger Beef," and "Mandarin Sauce" are some common menu items of Chinese restaurants in Britain and Canada. These menu items are not only the creation of Chinese-Western food combinations, but also a window reflecting the processes of cultural assimilation and integration of Chinese immigrants in host countries. This paper examines the relationship between the change, modification, and development of the cultural identity and image of Chinese immigrants through studying Chinese restaurant menus in these two countries.
To ‘Chinese’ as a Verb: Interplay between Chinese Food and Local Taste in Belgium
Ching Lin Pang, KU Leuven, Belgium
Chinese migration from the New Territories to Belgium set off in the postwar period, although the Chinese, mostly jumped-ship migrants, arrived in the 1930s. The majority of the Cantonese-Chinese, who settled in the port city of Antwerp and the surroundings, opened (small) restaurants there. The objective of this paper is to understand the dynamics of the incorporation of a certain kind of ethnic food, in casu Chinese food in the mainstream society and to lay bare the ongoing negotiating process between the ethnic food producers and the local consumers and thereby deconstructing the notion of ‘authenticity’ of a particular kind of food. The underlying idea is that food not unlike gender, identity, ethnicity, nationality etc. is in constant flux, a negotiated outcome of the interplay among different voices, agencies and institutions at the micro, median and macro levels. From the historical perspective, the development of the menu in Chinese restaurants will be discussed including the impact of Chinese-Indonesian food in the Netherlands on the Chinese restaurants in Belgium. Already early in the migration stage, transnational movements and information exchange were common among the Chinese in Europe. Aside from analyzing the specificity of Chinese ethnic entrepreneurship, the changing nature of the local taste will also be elaborated as to why Chinese food in general and Chinese restaurants in particular have been ‘domesticated’ and incorporated in the daily diet. Evidences of this inclusion imply: the adoption of popular dishes in mainstream cafes and restaurants; the usage of the label ‘Chinese’ to a whole range of processed food, recipes of Chinese dishes in popular magazines. The domestication of Chinese food is mostly revealed in the expression ‘to Chinese’ meaning ‘to go and eat Chinese food,’ which has become a common verbal form in colloquial speech. The findings in this paper are based on interviews with Chinese of the first, intermediate and second generation and with Belgians, who regularly frequent Chinese restaurants.
The Hawker Centres: Negotiating Chinese Food Identity in Singapore
Khun Eng Kuah, University of Hong Kong
When the Chinese migrated to the Southeast Asian countries in the 19th and 20th centuries, they brought along their own cuisine. Through time, Chinese peasant food has been brought out from the domestic and transformed into commercialised food for public consumption in both restaurants and hawker centres.
In a multi-ethnic Singapore, the hawker centre has become an important place for consumption of all kinds of ethnic and regional food. It is a place that denies class and ethnic background when it comes to the consumption of food. At the same time, it is a place where one negotiates ethnic identity within a defined space.
This paper examines how through the production and consumption of food, the Chinese actively displayed their Chinese identity within a multi-ethnic Singapore.