The History of Hong Kong Cuisine: Looking at a Future Through Food
By Michael Koy
From traffic-jammed streets to the infamously crowded MTR trains, a defining feature of Hong Kong is its hectic and unceasing atmosphere akin to a “New York of the East”. Like New York’s $1 pizzas or local delis, Hong Kong’s food culture was developed to match the pace of its city. As a result, the development of its cuisine reflects Hong Kong’s unique history from a sleepy fishing town to a global city, and in a city desperately looking towards its past to navigate its current identity crises and cultural divide, food serves as a methodology to trace Hong Kong’s rise and future.
As a British Colony with a majority Han Chinese population from the Southern Chinese city of Canton (modern-day Guangzhou), the earlier history of Hong Kong was marked by division stretching from rights to food. While the upper classes continued to indulge in their British tastes of milk tea, the commoners from Canton kept drinking their tea straight. In extension to this bare metaphor, the cuisine between the two peoples was divided. Consequently, Cantonese cuisine laid the foundations of Hong Kong cuisine by being the dominant food culture of the port city’s working-class throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
This division of food lasted until after the Second World War. With the start of China’s Cultural Revolution, Hong Kong became the central destination for immigrants from the Mainland. As the city’s economy and population exploded in the 1950s and 1960s, the simple narrative of British colonization and oppression was beginning to change. By the 1980s, negotiations regarding the Handover of Hong Kong were prominent in news media and public discourse, and a reaction was on the rise. As a result, more traits from “Western-styled” cuisine seeped into the daily consumption of the city’s working class. Quick diner-styled foods such as Cha cha tengs (茶餐廳) and open street vendors known as Dai Pai Dongs (大牌檔) that served quick meals had existed in Hong Kong for decades, but it was during the last decades of British rule that they became staples of the city’s cuisine.
These fusions of East and West were originally viewed as “lower class” food, but with the immigration of many Hong Kongers to the West in the 1980s and 1990s which coincided with the slow democratization of the city, local Hong Kong cuisine rose in status and international recognition. Increasingly, Hong Kong cuisine embraced a sense of self-agency, one that was not determined by the omnipresence of its parent countries. Consequently, British cuisine lost its previous status as “upper-class food” by the last decade of colonial rule, with airplanes and rich jockey clubs switching over to more fusion-based foods. In addition, the nature of Cantonese cuisine also changed, as the foods adopted were increasingly localized as “Hong Kong-styled”. As a result, the 1990s were a pivotal period for Hong Kong cuisine. In the anxious years leading up to the 1997 Handover, the city necessitated a desire for a fully realized culinary third space due to ongoing fears of Hong Kong’s return to China.
As the past can tell much about the reasons for its existence, the future will reveal its fate. Hong Kong’s food scene is becoming increasingly more globalized with Western fast-food chains such as McDonald's continuing to achieve new heights; however, traditional restaurants are increasingly left with the scraps. In an essential factory for Hong Kongers' diet, the Cha cha tengs, more businesses are closing due to the recent political turmoil coupled with the increasing rent of the city. In addition, the Dim Sum scene faces problems with preservation, as fewer young people are enjoying more “old fashioned” foods on the extensive menu. The past and the future of Hong Kong cuisine are representative of the city. From the transition from British to Fusion and pure Cantonese to localized Hong Kong style, the city’s origins rested on its ability to form a distinct character by mixing East and West. Similar to the fall of British cuisine’s reputation as “fancy” food on the eve of the Handover, the city is increasingly taking on a globalized landscape as a response to the increasing external cultural influence placed on the city. Like in the past, Hong Kong cuisine will continue to serve as a reactive reflection of the city’s ongoing issues to serve as a silent outlet for contemporary issues and lasting divisions.
References:
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