Looking through the "imperial gaze" : understanding Hong Title Kong's food culture and its implications on the development of Hong Kong identity throughout the decades, 1980-2010 Author(s) Tsang, Ling-tung Tsang, L.. (2016). Looking through the "imperial gaze" : understanding Hong Kong's food culture and its implications on Citation the development of Hong Kong identity throughout the decades, 1980-2010. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Issued Date 2016 URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/246731 The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.; This work is licensed under Rights a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences Master of Media, Culture and Creative Cities 2014 – 2016 SOCI8030 CAPSTONE PROJECT Looking through the “Imperial Gaze”: Understanding Hong Kong’s Food Culture and its Implications on the Development of Hong Kong Identity throughout the Decades, 1980-2010 Tsang Ling Tung UID: 2010528426 The Capstone Project has contributed to the British Airways’ HK80 heritage exhibition held at MC³@702 Creative Space, 7/F., The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong (http://sociology.hku.hk/events/british-airways-hk80-heritage-exhibition/) Abstract From a British colonial and post-colonial perspective, the Capstone Project chronologically examines the food culture of Hong Kong, from 1980 to 2010, through investigating its symbolic implications so evoked (depicted with “Britishness”, “Chineseness” and globalization influences), in comparing and engendering the corresponding Hong Kong identity, via the conceptualized framework derived from Said’s (1979) Orientalism, Bhabha’s (1994) cultural mimicry and hybridization as well as Chow’s (1998) third space. Deviating from utilizing the tense and agitated socio-political movements, issues and national symbols to exemplify the local people’s identity, food culture, as an everyday, neutral and versatile cultural product well infused with sociocultural and sociopolitical meanings, is argued to provide a more adept metaphoric reflection and articulation of Hong Kong identity. More importantly, this project, through using oral- history interviews and archive research, substantiates the postulation that the development of food culture in Hong Kong, allusively referenced to its local identity, is facilitated not merely by the dual influences elicited from its former colonizer (Great Britain) or its current “imperialistic motherland” (China), but rather by the dominant force of globalization and its corresponding “transnational cultural flow”. Essentially, globalization has become a leading force negotiating and interplaying with “Britishness” and “Chineseness”, in trilaterally establishing a re-contextualized third space (Chow 1998). Tsang I Acknowledgement I am extremely grateful for the guidance from my supervisor, Dr. Tommy Tse, who has provided profuse support in my Capstone Project. The useful recommendations, the constructive critiques, the countless words of encouragement and inspiration, as well as his own personal hard work ethic and scholarly prowess, have truly motivated me to devote a strong and scintillating passion in this research pursuit. I am forever indebted to him for his kindness, patience and priceless advice. It has been a fabulous opportunity and a true honor to be supervised by Dr. Tse. I also want to express my gratitude to Mr. Hon Lam, the liaison of my Community Partner, British Airways (BA), in lining up all of the interviews with BA’s frequent flyers and cabin-crew members, as well as “working around” my topic to find the suitable informants from whom lots of creative output have been solicited in the interviews and the relevant data collection process. Additionally, I hope to thank Mr. Paul Jarvis, Mr. Jim Davies and Mr. Howell Green for providing such a great tour of British Airways Cultural Heritage Centre, as well as offering immense help in retrieving the selected archives I required for this research. Lastly, I wish to acknowledge the help provided by all of the interviewees involved in this project. The avidity, patience, generosity and support of the nine informants and their responses have been great sources of motivation to me to ensure that their well-articulated memories and reactions are depicted, as much as possible, within this Capstone Project report. Tsang II Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Literature Review 4 2.1 Symbolic cultural meaning evoked from Hong Kong food culture and its development 4 2.2 Understanding Hong Kong identity from post-colonial theoretical perspective 6 2.3 Understanding Hong Kong identity from a local perspective 9 3. Methodology 11 4. Research Findings and Discussion 12 4.1 Food as the lens to evoke and articulate Hong Kong identity 12 4.2 Food culture development and Hong Kong identity studies 14 4.2.1 The declining trend of “Britishness”, the sustained “Britishness” and the evocation and implications on Hong Kong identity 14 4.2.1.1 Declining “Britishness” 4.2.1.2 Sustained “Britishness” 4.2.1.3 Evoked identity and values and its social implications (food to identity) 4.2.2 The uprising trend of “Chineseness”, the long-held “Chineseness” and the evocation and implications on Hong Kong identity 17 4.2.2.1 Uprising “Chineseness” 4.2.2.2 Long-held “Chineseness” 4.2.2.3 Evoked identity and values and its social implications (food to identity Tsang III 4.2.3 The ascending trend of “Hongkongness”, its domination and the evocation and implications of Hong Kong identity 21 4.2.3.1 Ascending “Hongkongness” 4.2.3.2 Dominating “Hongkongness” 4.2.3.3 Evoked identities and values and its social implications (food to identity) 4.3 The summarized “Hong Kong identity” - from an “evoked” perspective derived from local food culture 25 4.4 The summarized “Hong Kong identity” - from an “empirical” perspective drawn directly from interviewees’ oral history 26 4.5 The tripartite sources of influences in constituting “Hong Kong identity” 31 4.6 The prevailing importance of globalization 31 5. Conclusion 33 References 36 Appendices 39 Tsang IV 1. Introduction Hong Kong and its food culture have always been inundated with a symbol of strong multicultural and globalized influences (Chan 2010; Cheung 2002, 2005; Tam 1997), featuring an emphasis of trademark cuisines derived from British and Western culinary skills in the 1980s, to a stronger passion for traditional Chinese and Asian cookeries in the 1990s and 2000s instigated by Hong Kong’s return to China. Specifically, an array of hybridized food [such as Hong Kong style BBQ pork (“叉 燒”), Hong Kong style milk tea (“港式奶茶”) etc.], which highlights the intersection of “East meets West”, has shaped its prevalence within the city’s food scene. This perfectly reflects and encapsulates the “identity” shift, evolved from a unique, vibrant and multicultural Hong Kong community, built upon the hardworking and persevering attitudes of its people. In line with its unique “colonial” and “post-colonial reality” (Chow 1998), the identity of “Heunggongyahn” (Hong Kong local), vacillating between the liberalized values of British and the dictating communist ideologies of Chinese so punctuated by the ever significant “Handover” of 1997, has been incessantly evolving upon the ever- changing sociocultural and sociopolitical process. Never has it been seen so alarming than the return of Hong Kong back to China, which triggers non-stop debates and aftermath movements in constituting the renewed Hong Kong identity. Sociological and anthropological studies have meticulously mapped out the progressive development of Hong Kong identity throughout the period, in which it is perceived that the identity of Hong Kong people, especially evident from the three decades of 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, manifests itself due to the contested tension and Tsang 1 disparate ideals forged through the incessant dichotomous relationship between Hong Kong people and their Mainland Chinese counterparts (Fung 2001; Ma and Fung 2008; Matthews 1997). Consequently, with a brigade of political instabilities instigated in the late 1980s and the circulation of rumors of Hong Kong becoming China’s territory in the early 1990s (Tam 1997), the three aforementioned decades, 1980 to 2010, are considered the period when the most influential sociopolitical and sociocultural happenings have occurred, punctuated by the shift from British colonial rule to its native country’s control in 1997, evoking an unsettled quest to seek out Hong Kong’s true essence and identity. In the three decades, the “narrative” of Hong Kong identity is thematically and contextually centered on a heightening sense of introspection and “banal localism”. The dual ideals of “re-sinicization” (converging with Chinese ideals) (Ma 1999: 45) and “de-sinicization” (diverging from Chinese ideals) (Ma 1999: 25), albeit not diametrically opposed to one another and derived from various sociocultural and sociopolitical factors in reflecting Hong Kong people’s sentiments towards China, are very much circumscribed within the confine of the local’s fostered perspective of norms and values. In order to open up this rather restricted viewpoint and broaden it into a more panoptic outlook in contributing additional insights of Hong Kong identity to the colonial and post colonial discourse, a western angle is necessitated. The approach is ascertained following the dominating ideals of