Punchoi, Egg Tarts & Nostalgia

I recently attended a talk by Dr Selina Chan on the cult of Punchoi. She argued that Punchoi, a rural Southern Chinese dish of mixed pre-prepared ingredients, rose in popularity as a symbol of Hong Kong identity in the postcolonial era. The talk highlighted how the importance of food in Hong Kong means that it can often get entwined with discourses of nostalgia, politics, and identity.

This reminded me of another incident when the “Tai Cheong” bakery in Central district had to close because of an increase in rent on its premises. This bakery became famously associated with the last Governor Chris Patten who had developed a penchant for the bakery’s Egg Tarts. So in May of 2005 when the shop was about to close there was a sudden revival of interest in the bakery, and specifically its egg tarts.

For a number of weeks people queued for hours to get the prized egg tarts. The actual line of people became so long that it obstructed traffic and curled around buildings. On a number of days the bakery performed a marathon, only closing when ingredients ran out and nothing more could be cooked. The issue became political as government lawmakers sought to find new premises for the 50 year old business, and Lord Patten was reported to be lamenting the demise of his old haunt. Another excellent example of how food, nostalgia, and politics entwine in Hong Kong’s everyday life.

These accounts also support the argument of Abbas who describes Hong Kong as a place of reverse hallucination where what is visible is overlooked. It is only at the moment of loss, the threat of absence, that Hong Kong becomes animated about its identity, history, and passions.

International Conference on Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations

This November I will be attending the International Conference on Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations at Deakin University. My paper will be on Young Muslims in Hong Kong learning to become Muslim. The paper provides an account of multicultural youth beyond the West in an Asian setting. Everyday multiculturalism provides the conceptual frame for the discussion. The conference has a variety of streams on Race, Transnational Relations, Migration, and the Muslims Diaspora in the West. The website for the conference has a comprehensive list of the abstracts for the papers that are being presented. They make up a very interesting and diverse collection. Here is my profile for the conference.

The Other Global City (Routledge) Ed. Shail Mayaram

I wanted to make a post about this excellent book as it covers many of the themes of central to this blog. Fisrtly Shail Mayaram has put together a diverse collection of original accounts of multiculturalism in non-Western cities, multiculturalism that is often overlooked. His introduction addresses the subject of world cities and draws on Sassen’s classification of “world/global cities”. Quoting de Certeau and Lefebvre, Mayaram is clearly interested in everyday life theory. He is also concerned with space and what he tentatively refers to as subaltern cosmopolitanism. He recognises that there is an unbalanced celebration of cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism, and lists a series of popular definitions that fail to respond to lived multiculturalism (9). The strength of his introduction rests in focussing on the city and, despite its critical scrutiny, its potential for broader investigation.

The chapter by Bayat on cosmopolitan Cairo is a rich exploration about everyday relations between Muslims and Coptic Christians in the city. It succeeds in being a parochial account that through reflection poses important questions for relations with Muslims in multicultural settings. This is another particular strength of the collection as a whole; that it addresses Islam and Muslim communities in settings that provide compelling alternative accounts to the concerns regarding Muslims in the multicultural West.

This work although not about multiculturalism in Western cities is actually an necessary addition to that project. It importantly addresses how intercultural relations have been developed and take place in other locations. The use of the everyday grounds these works and provide an important balance by showing again and again, how multiculturalism is characteristic of the places from which it emerges.

Everyday Multiculturalism, Wise & Velayutham

Just in case anyone visiting this blog has not got word of this title yet. Published earlier this month, it is a collection of papers that broadly engage with what is more generally referred to as Everyday Multiculturalism. It is a timely and engaging book for anyone interested in the subject and covers a variety of locations and different approaches.

Wise & Velayutham 2009. Published by Palgrave.

ACS Crossroads 2010

The ACS conference for 2010 will be held in Hong Kong at Lingnan University. It promises to be a rewarding event with Lingnan's strong Cultural Studies department.

I will be presenting a paper on the challenges that young Muslims encounter in Hong Kong in trying to maintain a halal diet. This engages with the topic of everyday multiculturalism looking at how an essential daily practice such as eating can be enmeshed in a nexus of cross cultural encounters, negotiations, and ambiguities. The paper approaches the subject of food and multiculturalism not from the perspective of sharing and celebrating multiculture, but more specifically by addressing some of the obstacles in maintaining a food culture as an ethnic and political minority.
Please visit the conference website for more information about the event.