Eating one’s way to sophistication: Japanese food, transnational flows, and social mobility in Hong Kong

Hong Kong rightly prides itself on being a Chinese food paradise, a consequence of the free port’s dual status as a Chinese migration hub and one of Asia’s greatest financial centers. Following the establishment of the communist government in China in 1949, chefs from Guangdong (Canton), Chaozhou (Chiu Chow), Shanghai, Beijing (Peking), and Sichuan increasingly crossed the border to enter the territory, and found employment in the kitchens of restaurants that were often financed or frequented by business tycoons. This combination of money and mobility raised Chinese regional cuisines to a level that has, over the years, consistently attracted and delighted visitors from around the world. Today, however, this food paradise is no longer uniquely Chinese. Its definition has expanded to include a variety of international cuisines, most particularly Japanese. This chapter traces a six-decade-long transnational odyssey-one that saw Japanese food evolve from providing a sense of home to Japanese expatriates in Hong Kong to representing a symbol of sophistication for local residents. According to OpenRice.com, the territory’s most popular dining guide that relies on user-generated reviews, in 2014, “Japanese” was the fourth largest category with 2,093 restaurants and takeaways; it followed local “Hong Kong-style” (8,401), eclectic “Western” (2,892), and adjacent “Guangdong” (2,374). The “Japanese” eateries accounted for more than 5 percent of all entries on the site, and outnumbered other popular “national” cuisines such as “Italian” (765), “American” (696), and “Thai” (523).2 In 2011, the Japan External Trade Organization, an independent government agency, surveyed 400 Hong Kongers on their consumption of Japanese food. The poll confirmed that a meal at a Japanese eatery is a part of everyday life for the territory’s residents: 99 percent of respondents aged between 20 and 59 had eaten at least once at a Japanese restaurant. Furthermore, nearly one third of respondents (33 percent) stated that they visited Japanese eateries on a weekly basis. This pattern was even more prominent among the more afluent respondents who gave their monthly income as HK$60,000 (US$7,692) or above: 43 percent of them said that they ate at a Japanese restaurant more than once a week (JETRO 2012: 16-7). Separately, an estimate in 2011 by the Hong Kong Eating Establishment Employees General Union put the number of Japanese restaurants in the territory at approximately 600, employing 7,000 people in a city of seven million (South China Morning Post 2011). In other words, there is one Japanese restaurant for every 12,000 Hong Kong residents. This figure of 600 includes dozens of high-end restaurants that serve the fresh catch flown in daily from not only Tokyo’s Tsukiji, the world’s largest fish market, but also other markets across the country. It includes an even greater number of highly localized dining establishments which Japanese expatriates eschew as nisshiki (Japanese-style) imitations and which Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries dismisses as restaurants that provide a “cuisine that is removed from traditional Japanese cooking” (MAFF 2007). However, the sheer volume of these “bastardizations” only goes to prove that Japanese dining establishments in Hong Kong have gone far beyond simply providing a taste of home to the territory’s more than 23,000 Japanese expatriates (Consulate General of Japan, Hong Kong 2013). In fact, Hong Kong imports more Japanese food items than any other country or region in the world. In 2007, it surpassed the United States, with a population forty times greater than that of the territory, and became the biggest international market for Japanese produce. In 2013, 23 percent of Japan’s agricultural and marine productsworth ¥124.9 billion (US$1.15 billion)-was exported to the territory (see Figure 6.1). Young Hong Kongers not only eat Japanese food for their main meals but also snack on it between meals. Local retailer Okashi Land specializes in neatly packaged Japanese snacks and carries an overwhelming variety of cookies, crackers, chips, candies, and chewing gum from major manufacturers such as Meiji, Glico, Lotte, Kabaya, and Calbee. The chain operates 51 outlets throughout Hong Kong, in shopping malls, subway and ferry stations, and at the airport (Okashi Land n.d.). Alongside such specialty stores as Okashi Land, Japanese snacks dominate the shelves at countless convenience stores across town. They are 20 to 50 percent more expensive than in Japan, once the cost of transportation and handling has been added, and usually more expensive than Chinese and Singapore, 16 Vietnam, 29 Thailand, 34 South Korea, 37 Others, 102 Hong Kong, 125 USA, 82 China, 51 Taiwan, 74 Taiwanese varieties. Despite this they have a strong following among young Hong Kongers who find them tasty, are drawn to their sleek packaging, and trust Japanese food safety standards (JETRO 2002: 22-3).3.