How Chinese food in Australia has evolved with new waves of migration

[haresfur]

Interesting article from the ABC News site, particularly the recent diversification and the bit about students now being the core demographic. Makes me want to get down to Melbourne more often.

 

How Chinese food in Australia has evolved with new waves of migration

[liuzhou]

Hmmm.

 

I don't know anything about the author of this piece, but she clearly knows nothing about China or its cuisines.

 

She misspells a number of well-known place names and points out that Gansu is "semi-arid and the soils are not productive enough to grow rice or green leafy vegetables". The rice part is true of all of north China, not just Gansu. Rice is very much a southern staple. Wheat has been the staple in the north for centuries for the simple reason that the north is too cold for growing rice. The vegetable part is just nonsense. Many vegetables are grown in the north, especially brassicas.

 

Yes, more regional food is becoming more available, not only in Australia but across Europe and the English speaking countries. And usually carried by students. And that change isn't new. A dear friend from here in Guangxi (not Guanxi as she spells it*) studied her master's degree in Australia, settled, then opened her Guangxi food restaurant in Melbourne 25 years ago, this year. She wasn't the only one.

 

There are several other errors but my favourite is "they did not want to eat Cantonese yum cha". Lucky for them! Yum cha means 'drink tea'. I don't want to eat 'drink tea' either. She means dim sum.

 

 

*Small difference in English perhaps, but crucial in Chinese. Guanxi means connections or 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' and is often linked to corruption.