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ABSTRACT
This ethnographic study examines how “locavorism,” or food localism, is articulated in the under-studied context of Hong Kong. Influences from diverse cultures and social systems brought about by colonization and transnational financial activities have created a mosaic of “Western” and “Eastern” traditions in this land-starved metropolis, rendering it an unlikely setting to preach about “eating locally” and going “back-to-the-land.” However, localism and the discourse of reviving agriculture began to burgeon a few years after the 1997 handover. Against the backdrop of this oxymoron, this research investigates and compares ideas of young urban farmers and food activists to other interpretations of localness. By examining multi-vocality, this paper engages with debates surrounding cosmopolitanism and conceptualizes an analytical perspective, which I refer to here as cosmopolitan locavorism. This concept is proposed to argue that locavorism in Hong Kong is distinct from defensive localism, the cultural consumption of globetrotting elites, or an urban fascination with rural lifestyles. It simultaneously signifies trans-local connections and human-land bonds, mobilizing a cultural critique of local neoliberal governmentality rather than allying with anti-globalization or “anti-China” sentiments. In this context, “local food” embodies place-based experiences instead of a place-bounded state of mind.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Dr. Marvin Joseph Montefrio and the other participants at the workshop on Transecting “Healthy” and “Sustainable” Food in the Asia-Pacific (Yale-NUS College, Singapore, July, 2018) for their thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I am grateful for anonymous reviewers’ insightful suggestions about the ideas developed in this paper. Sincere appreciation also goes to the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong for their support for my fieldwork. This paper is supported by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan (R.O.C.), the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and the Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA)/Radcliffe-Brown Trust Award.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Cantonese words in this paper are in italics and Romanized using the Yale system.
2. I appreciate an anonymous reviewer’s suggestion on discussing China-wide collaboration of new farmers to clarify the contrast between cosmopolitan and defensive views of buntou. However, based on my fieldwork data, except for an NGO that works on rural development with disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the south-west of China, and a few personal connections with young farmers in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai, by the time I conducted fieldwork, there was no other regular or established collaborations between farmers in Hong Kong and mainland China. I expect more to occur in the future.
3. They explicitly told me that they have no desire to go back to the old days in agricultural villages where peasants lived a subsistence lifestyle, with limited life chances.
4. Conversations were in Cantonese. English translations are mine.
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Hao-Tzu Ho
Hao-Tzu Ho is a post-doctoral researcher at National Taitung University (Taiwan). She received her PhD in anthropology at Durham University (UK). She was a visiting researcher at Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (2016–17). Her current project focuses on food and sustainable movements, perceptions of “the good life,” cultural conservation, and social innovation. Her research involves ethnography in urban settings, political economy, East Asia, Austronesian groups, global food ethics, and discourses of sustainability.