Negotiating Chinese Immigrant Food Culture in a Global Setting
'Food touches everything… Food marks social differences, boundaries, bonds, and contradictions. Eating is an endlessly evolving enactment of gender, family, and community relationships' (Counihan and Van Esterik 1997:1).By Josephine Smart, Cen Huang, Ching Lin Pang, Khun Eng Kuah, and Alan Smart
Introduction (JS) The phenomenon of immigrant cuisines is fairly well documented in the social sciences. A general conclusion from this type of research is that immigrants try to maintain their own cooking and eating habits as long as possible, even against strong pressure to change them. People express their cultural identity through their manner of eating and drinking. Therefore, foodways define a person as much as do their language, dress, or architecture. In looking at the case of Chinese immigrants in countries all over the world, one wonders how the evolution of the Chinese Immigrant Cuisine (CIC ) may reflect the identity/identities they accept for themselves and impose on others.Among the Chinese immigrants in London, employment in the restaurant business was tightly linked to lineage ties as observed by Watson (1975:127). He decribes 'how little the emigrants had actually changed as a result of their urban experience ... The reason, of course, is that the restaurants are virtual islands of Chinese culture in the larger British society - isolated pockets where the emigrants can interact with the alien outside world on their own terms'. Ethnic identity is a combination of self-identification and identification by others. Even within the isolated ethnic enclave of the Chinese restaurant economy, it is unlikely that the Chinese are entirely free of the forces from the 'alien outside' in their ethnic consciousness. Anderson (1991) convincingly argues that 'Chinatown' in Canada and Australia are Western constructions reflective of the cultural domination of the Chinese by European settlers who hold the power to impose their racist images of what the Chinese and Chinatown should be on the Chinese. Smith (1992) eloquently put forward the hypothesis that ethnic consciousness, like all forms of collective identity, does not spring sui generis from 'objective' conditions such as nationality, geographical origin, or racial attributes. It is a relational construct made possible through articulatory practices flowing from group-level interactions. As a form of imagined community, ethnic consciousness is continually shaped and reshaped by the gestural, the ritual, and the semiotic exchanges of discourse. It is in this context that we justify our focus on Chinese cuisine in its production and consumption as a medium of articulation of this two-way process of identity formation and contestation between the Chinese immigrants and their non-Chinese counterparts in the greater society. The following sections present a preliminary report on some observations of CIC in Canada, Scotland, Belgium, and Singapore. One common observation shared by all these reports from diverse locations around the world is that CIC, like any other aspect of culture, is ever changing. The causes and consequences of these changes, however, are coloured by local historical, political, and socio-cultural contexts. It is this diversity and heterogeneity that makes our investigation both challenging and rewarding.
The 'Hongkongization' of Chinese Immigrant Cuisine in Canada (JS) Chinese immigration to Canada began more than a hundred years ago in part as a response to the demand for labour in mining and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CIC in Canada is dominated by Cantonese cuisine which has undergone many instances of localization or indigenization over time in response to both internal and external forces.
Preparation and ingredients
The major Chinese food preparation methods include steaming, stir-frying, simmering, deep-frying, and braising, but the Westernized Chinese food has a tendency to overemphasize the deep frying method, the use of thick batter, and the creation of thick sauces. With the recent wave of Hong Kong immigration to Canada since the early 1980s, a parallel development of a 'Hong Kong'-style cuisine has emerged in all the major urban centres in Canada. This cuisine emphasizes seafood by steaming or stir-frying in a highly Asian fusion style, using ingredients from other cuisines. In addition, new dishes have been created to feature the combination of Chinese spices and Westernized ingredients such as 'Fried rice crepe with spicy XO sauce'.
Meal Patterns
The lunch/dinner buffet format has continued to gain popularity in Canada even though most connoisseurs dismiss this as a travesty of a great cuisine. The more recently established and highly popular Chinese buffets among Hong Kong immigrants have a more expanded selection that presents a range of some one hundred dishes. Chinese buffets are popular with both Chinese and non-Chinese customers.
Language
The Canadian Chinese restaurants provide their differential treatment of clients through the use of language. Those catering specifically to non-Chinese clients feature menus in English only, with meal patterns and items that are highly 'Westernized'. A distinctive characteristic of this type of food outlet is the 'combo' menu. At the other extreme, some restaurants in Chinatown areas serve menus in Chinese only. However, the majority of Chinese restaurants in Canada feature a bilingual menu that contains a set-dinner section featuring more Westernized items and an ŕ la carte menu that feature more 'Chinese' dishes.
Location
Chinatown remains a significant geographical locus of Chinese restaurants. A new development in the past two decades is the rapid proliferation of Hong Kong-style Cantonese and other regional Chinese restaurants in the neighbourhoods away from Chinatown. This new geographical dispersal of Chinese restaurants is a direct reflection of (1) the rising number of Chinese immigrants in Canadian cities, and (2) the low degree of ethnic segregation in Canada, which accounts for the high degree of integration of Chinese immigrants in all neighbourhoods in urban centres.
The Change of Cultural Identity through Ethnic Restaurant Menus (CH)
The following is a story of how the presentation of restaurant menus reflects the cultural identity of a Chinese restaurant owner. Mr Zeng emigrated to Britain in 1969 from Hong Kong and started a small take-away shop in a northern town in Scotland. During his 30 years in the restaurant business, Zeng has adopted three major menus:
- 1. Establishment of a culturally isolated menu (1969-1978)
The first difficulty Zeng faced was to make a menu in English. Zeng did not know any English, so he copied ten menu items from a nearby Chinese restaurant. This menu was used for ten years. During this period, Zeng felt very isolated and homesick because he had left his wife and two children in Hong Kong and was not able to visit them regularly. In the early 1970s, the Chinese restaurant workers were among very few immigrants residing in north Scotland. Hindered by the language barrier, Zeng rarely spoke to local customers and had almost no friends in the local community. He called his first menu lan dan, which means a 'hopeless menu'. This menu, in a way, reflected Zeng's early immigration life in which he was culturally isolated in a new environment.
- 2. Modification of a mixed cultural menu (1979-1988)
In 1979, Zeng's wife and children came to join him in Scotland. The family moved to the city of P where he set up a take-away restaurant. The middle 1970s was a watershed after which the number of immigrants settling in Scotland increased. By that time Zeng was able to communicate in simple English and began making local Scottish and other minority friends. In 1983, Zeng joined a Chinese association in the city where he went to meet fellow Chinese restaurant owners and workers on Sundays. His life was no longer lived in isolation but he often felt confused with his own identity. He believed that if he could speak English, and if he served customers more dishes to the Western taste in his restaurant, his situation would improve. Zeng's restaurant was among the few Chinese restaurants in the city to serve a mixture of Chinese and Western food. Western food made up almost a half of the menu items and there were also some Westernized Chinese dishes, such as beef in Mandarin sauce. According to Zeng, this menu reflected the state of his identity at that time, which was culturally confused and perplexed.
- 3. Development of an authentic and multicultural menu (1989-present)
In 1989, Zeng opened a new restaurant in the city of G. Both Zeng's children graduated from university and found jobs. Zeng became an active member in the Chinese community and served as a director on the board one of the associations. He also made financial contributions to the local schools and nursing houses. In recognition of this, he received several community awards from the municipal government. By this ten-year period, Zeng was fluent in English and had been recognized by the mainstream society, but he said that the process of cultural integration has made him feel more strongly ethnic Chinese than ever. The new menu reflected the change in cultural identity of not only Zeng himself, but also of his restaurant in the early 1990s. These major changes have comprised four aspects: (1) it serves authentic Chinese food, including different styles of Chinese cooking; (2) it also serves other Oriental cuisines; (3) it aims to serve both Chinese and Western customers; and (4) there is a Chinese version of the menu. The new menu represents Zeng's current cultural identity claims, i.e. to be an ethnic Chinese as well as a multicultural in the host society. The story of Zeng's menus shows that the cultural integration of immigrants may take place by a series of certain steps in a particular process, from 'culture shock' through confused feelings, finally consolidating in the building up of a multicultural identity. Although Zeng's story may not represent the experiences of other ethnic restaurant owners, as a case in point it provides insights into how a Chinese immigrant and restaurant owner sees himself integrated into a new socio-cultural milieu through the modification of his restaurant menus.
Interplay between Ethnic Food and Local Taste in Belgium (CLP)
This section explores how preferences for food develop and are reproduced in socio-cultural phenomena by elucidating the negotiation process between ethnic food producers and local consumers in Belgium.
Indonesian Chinese
A characteristic of Chinese food in Belgium and the Netherlands is its creation of Indonesian Chinese menus. In the post-war period a fusion between Chinese and Netherlands Indies (Indonesian) food took place in the Netherlands. Dishes like saté, gado gado, and nasi goreng are included on many Chinese restaurant menus. Through informal lineage networks these menu cards were imported in to Belgium.
'Foreign, but not too foreign'
When interviewing local Chinese food consumers, the issue of 'foreign, but not too foreign' with reference to Chinese food often arose. The degree of adaptation of ethnic food or the level of 'authenticity' is to a great extent determined by the consumers, but the degree of acceptance of certain Chinese foodstuffs has been a slow process. During the first half of the 1980s, indeed up to 1987, Chinese restaurants adopted new strategies. First, new dishes like dim sum, new ingredients such as ginger, and new cooking methods like steaming were introduced to prove the 'authentic' nature of Chinese food. Secondly, expensive wines were added to the wine list. Some of the new generation Chinese restaurant-owners started to consume more wine themselves and a few even took an interest in oenology. In addition, renovation of the interior decor in terms of upgrading and expansion was another option open to those desirous of remaining in business. Many customers were satisfied with this 'face-lift' or 'authentication process' undergone by Chinese restaurants.
'To Chinese'
Tastes change gradually over time, but some eating patterns seem resistant to change. In the context of the Chinese restaurant, chips are still on the menu despite the increasing sophistication of the customer. All the more since chips are considered to be indigenous and deeply ingrained in the local food folklore. In recent years, the interest in the 'Orient' or all things 'Asian' has been very prominent in popular culture, including the food sector. Recently, restaurants offering different sorts of Asian food have emerged in the city of Antwerp. In some restaurants the owners are native Belgians, but the staff consists of Asians. By providing Asian food, served by a staff of Asian ethnic background, these restaurant-owners succeed in evoking an Asian 'ambiance' or mood. It is important to note that members of the dominant group have entered an ethnic food business. Or, viewed from the other perspective, a specific branch of ethnic entrepreneurship has gone mainstream. The domestication of Chinese food is revealed most vividly in the expression 'to Chinese' meaning 'to go and eat Chinese food', which has become a common expression in colloquial speech.
Negotiating Food and Ethnic Identity in Singapore (KEK)
This section examines how the hawker centres in Singapore are an avenue to display identity through its food consumption.
Hawker centres
There are two types of hawker centres found in Singapore. The first is the covered but open-air hawker centre, usually found adjoining the 'wet market' and on housing estates. The second type, commonly known as the food court, is found in big shopping centres. In the hawker centres, the main types of ethnic food are represented according to the CMIO model. Under this model, the distribution of social resources and public facilities are linked to the ethnic distribution of the Singapore population: Chinese (78%), Malay (14%), Indians (7%), and Others (1%). Within the hawker centres, the ethnic food stalls are neatly divided up so that one section is given to purveyors of Malay (Muslim halal) food, one section to the Indians, and the rest to sellers of Chinese food. Operators serving Western food are often ethnic Chinese. In all cases, Chinese food dominates the hawker centres.
Regional identities
Apart from ethnic food being arranged according to the CMIO model, among the Chinese food is closely articulated according to the regional identities of the Chinese present in Singapore. Within the Chinese community, there are three main dialect groups, namely the Fujianese, Chaozhouese, and Cantonese as well as numerous smaller dialect groups. Through the years, each Chinese dialect group has carved a specific food niche for itself. Certain dishes have come to be associated with the various dialect groups. For example, Hokkien fried noodles and Hainanese chicken rice. All these foods can be found and are avidly consumed in all hawker centres.
Food, class, and identity
Since the creation of hawker centres on the housing estates, many people have started eating out very frequently. There are various reasons to explain this attraction. First of all, there is a large range of food available and the prices are within the reach of all classes. Secondly, food cuts across class and ethnic lines and makes those who consume it equal. It is not an infrequent sight to see wealthy people with luxury cars queue for a bowl of noodles. Thirdly, the multicultural identity of these places at which members of different ethnic groups can be seen eating at the stalls and mixing with other ethnic groups. Finally, among the Chinese consumption of Chinese food has become a negotiated process that occurs on a daily basis in the hawker centres. The criteria used for the selection by people have very little to do with their own dialect background. They are often based on three factors: speed of preparation, cost, and taste. The hawker centres in Singapore represent an important food space where the relationship between food, class, and ethnicity is played out between the various ethnic groups through the selection and consumption of food. It is also an important political space created by the government to ensure that its policy of multiculturalism is expressed into every aspect of the life of its citizens. In the case of the Chinese, the articulation of the Chinese dialect and regional identities is also kept alive through the various types of Chinese food available in the hawker centres.
Concluding Remarks: Eating Across Boundaries (AS)
One of the recurrent themes in the individual studies reported above is the relationship between foodways and ethnic identity. Food may indeed be one of the most sensitive indicators of the problems of cross-cultural communication and interaction. But why should there be such a close association? What is it about food that makes it so significant for identity issues? Surely other forms of consumption, such as fashion or architecture, would be just as relevant? A crucial factor would seem to be that in the case of food, consumption takes on a literal meaning. We need to take it physically into our body, not just display it on our walls or sit on it. Tastes for food are learned, and the result is that food can physically, not just intellectually, revolt us. The visceral nature of eating food, then, brings out cultural responses that can be very much below the surface, so that even when we may feel that we should try and eat something, we find it hard to force ourselves to do it. This is one reason that eating has often been presented as one of the rites of passage of anthropological fieldwork.
In a recent book, entitled The Anatomy of Disgust, Miller (1997) has argued for the importance of the emotion of disgust to social theory. Disgust is frequently associated with the boundaries between us and them, and eating habits are often seen as indicators of the barbaric nature of the Other. The unpleasant smell emanating from early European visitors to China was accounted for, at least in part, by their diet of cheese and meat, and what was seen as their unsophisticated cuisine supported ideas of the superiority of Chinese civilization. When we turn to the localization of Chinese restaurants by Chinese immigrants, the related reactions of disgust/distaste/disdain seem to be clearly involved in the development of the kind of food served in these restaurants. Particularly prior to the development and dissemination of cosmopolitan food cultures in North America over the last few decades, authentic Chinese food generated considerable distaste among potential patrons. This can still be seen in persistent urban myths about 'What is really in those deep fried chicken balls?', or in reactions to the suggestion of ordering chicken feet during dim sum. Conversely, the proprietors of Chinese restaurants frequently have disrespect for what their patrons want to have served to them as Chinese food, leading to the production of meals that they typically do not eat among themselves. And finally, with the development of cosmopolitan food cultures, which emphasize 'authentic' cuisines, there is considerable disdain for the localized Chinese cuisines that developed out of serving primarily non-Chinese clienteles. It is this final form of disdain that has resulted in the near absence of any sustained academic analysis of localization of Chinese food in these contexts, which are dismissed as bastardized and degenerated forms of authentic forms. Only the latter, the authentic version, has received any careful attention. It is as a corrective to this tendency that this panel was organized. Throughout the world there has been an increase in cosmopolitan familiarity with regional cuisines. Clearly the nature of the reaction of the host society to offshore food has a tremendous impact on the localization of Chinese restaurant food: the stronger the resistance to different tastes is, the more that the cuisine has had to adapt to local tastes. What is it that is driving the increase in preference for authentic food from other cultures? Is it just the fashion-setters of the food and lifestyle magazines, or the relentless search for new 'positional goods' by the elite and those who emulate them? How much of the differentiation in taste is a product of class? And how has this changed over time? All of these issues have been addressed here, but clearly there is much more research that needs to be conducted.
References
- Anderson, K., Chinatown: Racial Discourse in Canada, 1875-1980, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991
- Counihan, C. and P. Van Esterik (eds), Food and Culture, New York: Routledge, 1997
- Miller, W. I., The Anatomy of Disgust, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997
- Smith, M. P., 'Postmodernism, urban ethnography, and the new social space of ethnic identity', Theory and Society, 21:4 (1992), pp. 493-531
- Watson, J. L., Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The 'man' in Hong Kong and London, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975
The above papers were presented at the AAS conference in Boston on 13 March 1999. The current piece was edited by Dr Cen Huang, e-mail: chuang@let.leidenuniv.nl.
Dr Josephine Smart is an associate professor at the University of Calgary;
Dr Cen Huang is a research fellow at IIAS;
Dr Ching Lin Pang is a research fellow at the Catholic University of Leuven;
Dr Khun Eng Kuah is a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong;
Dr Alan Smart is an associate professor at the University of Calgary.