Hong Kong street food

According to Tang Zhiyan (Chinese: 唐摭言, "selected words from the Tang"), hawkers had sold cold food on the streets to get relief during summer heat as early as the Tang dynasty. Then, during Qing dynasty, the street-side snack stalls gradually developed into street markets.[6] As highlighted in a feature article namely 'Finding the Dining Habit of the Unemployed' (Chinese: 尋找地踎飲食), the scene of hawkers carrying wood barrels, traditional wares and stoves has become part of the history of local street snacks.[7]

In the 1950s, facing the economic downturn and high unemployment rate, the majority of grass roots were forced to become itinerant hawkers to maintain their livelihood. Owing to the limited resources, rough canopies, cooking stove and wooden carts were used. Considering the effectiveness and convenience, they sold the snacks on mobile carts in the main streets to maximise revenue.[8] During the post-war period, the political stability and economic development of Hong Kong attracted immigrants from Mainland China.[9] At that time, 300,000 of them worked as hawkers, including street food hawkers. The growth in the number of itinerant hawkers fostered the development of street food culture.[10] These hawkers mainly served the lower-income group. These stalls were in form of junkers, a kind of wooden car with wheels, allowing these junkers to be pulled and pushed around.[11] The food was very often cheap in price and with many variations.[12] They became very popular during 1950s to 1960s. However, the Hong Kong government has banned these type of shops in order to build a hygienic image of the society while maintaining public health. Thus, the owners attempted to run their business in a shop instead of utilizing their own junkers.[13][14] Although the original style of "wooden junkers service" has more or less been changed, the types of food being sold are the same as those in the past.[15]

In 1970s, the government adopted an oppressive attitude towards hawkers instead of the laissez-faire approach adopted before.[16] This showed in the change in government policies. For example, the government stopped issuing itinerant hawker licenses to control the number of hawker stalls since 1979. Later, the Urban Council and the Regional Council implemented a policy to eliminate hawkers in 1995.[17] All of the above actions suppressed the prevalence of street food at that time.

Street food does not have a high concern in regards to hygiene. The street snacks contained germs like cholera and Escherichia coli. According to a publicity film released by the Medical and Health Department in 1987, food stalls were considered unhygienic in terms of their environment and cooking process. In the video, a hawker was shown smoking while selling snacks.[18] His stall was located beside a busy road and the floor was wet with rubbish and sewage. This unhygienic condition aroused customer concern, which acted as a catalyst for change. The hawkers do not sell their goods in permitted areas, apply for hawker licenses, or fight for legislation that will make unlicensed hawking a kind of legal activity in the 1970s.[19]

[20] The presence of hawkers contributed to the surge of Mainlanders, who suffered from the end of Civil war, mainly after the 1950. Those people were trying to live a better life in Hong Kong, as an escape of Chinese Authority. However, most of the people were not educated, therefore, barely did they earn a living. At that time, people lived in extremely crammed environment, many them chose to start their 'business' in the street, including food selling, singing and story telling.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, it was the heyday of hawkers. There were more than 300 thousand people in the industry, accounting for 20% of the labor force. Thanks to the time that there were neither shopping malls nor markets, it provided many opportunities for hawkers to extend their business.

The hawkers were then no longer limited to earning a living, but started to pursue better quality of life.

Often crowds surrounding hawkers' carts are seen as causing inconvenience to other pedestrians. In some cases, the elderly might slip as they walked over the puddles, while children might get hurt by the boiled oil from the stalls.[21] The safety concern and disturbance to the public aroused their discontent towards street hawkers.

The government has set a quota in the licenses provided. According to the official document, they have let 233 contracts for fixed-pitch hawkers and 93 contracts for itinerant hawkers until 2011.[22] The number of hawkers has decreased compared to 2005, in which there were 1,075 contracts for fixed-pitch hawkers.[23] To maintain a safe and clean environment, the government has also controlled hawking activities through laws. They are listed below:

• Sections 83-86D of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap.132);
• Hawker Regulation (Cap.132, sub.leg.);
• Food Business Regulation (Cap.132, sub.leg.); and
• Section 4A of the Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap.228).[24]

Street food is readily available for sale and hawkers keep them boiling during operation to prevent the growth of bacteria.[25]

Due to the limited supply of itinerant licenses and the introduction of a compulsory deletion policy, hawkers have a fixed bunk after moving into shopping malls.[22] The distribution of street snacks was geographically dispersed throughout Hong Kong before.[26] But nowadays, street snacks are mainly located in six districts, including Eastern, Central and Western, Wan Chai, Yau Tsim Mong, Sham Shui Po and Kowloon City.[27][28]

The worldwide popularity of local street snacks has fostered tourism in Hong Kong. It is recognised locally and internationally. The Hong Kong Tourism Board website featured street food as 'must-eat food'.[29] While for the overseas media, the CNN travel has opened a column especially for Hong Kong street snack.[30] According to Reuters' article, Hong Kong street food gourmets was ranked the first in the top 10 street-food cities by online travel advisor Cheapflights.com in 2013.[31] In short, the above honour has arisen Hong Kong citizens' appreciation towards the local street food culture.

Street snacks have epitomised Hong Kong's core values of cultural diversity. An example can be the emergence of street stalls selling foreign treats like Takoyaki and Indonesia skewers.[5] This showed the diversity of choices of street snacks and matches Hong Kong's title of Gourmet Paradise. Despite all changes, it can also represent Hong Kong's identity. For example, the name of 'Hong Kong style Egg Waffle' showed its local origin.[32] The alterable essence of local street food has demonstrated Hong Kong cultural acceptance and serves as a medium to display its character to the world.

In 2015, a marked rise in nativist sentiment led to the growing influence of localist parties such as Civic Passion and Hong Kong Indigenous. Localists, feeling that street vendors – who generally representing the bottom stratum of Hong Kong society – were being increasingly oppressed by a government colluding with commercial interests and property owners, offered high-profile support for the traditional lunar new year Kweilin Street Night Market in 2015 when it was targeted for closure by the CY Leung administration. On the eve of lunar new year in 2016, FEHD inspectors carried out a pre-emptive raid against street vendors in Sham Shui Po, and made arrests and seizures.[33] This led to the 2016 Mong Kok civil unrest, where nativists defended stall holders from being victimised by FEHD inspectors and engaged in confrontations with the police.[34]