CHINATOWN IS EVERCHANGING, FILLED WITH CONTRADICTIONS
survival, a wave of next-generation Chinese residents are taking up the reins of their family businesses and driving them forward for a modern audience with a lick of art school branding, hipster decor and millennial-focused marketing.
In London, Amy Poon is the prodigal daughter taking on the mantle of Bill Poon, chef-founder of the Michelin-starred Poon’s London, which revolutionised Chinese dining in the 1970s. She sees her responsibility not so much as modernising, but as re-couching what her parents established. For her, communication is the secret ingredient – using a language acquired through a generation’s worth of social integration. ‘I think my Britishness just makes it easier for me to explain the Chinese part. I find the language of Chinese food fascinating, yet the translations are so lacking,’ she says. Amy hopes to inject Chinese food into the culinary vernacular by launching a bistro-deli concept, much like a Chinese version of Eataly, the Italian food hall.
Meanwhile in New York, Wilson Tang took over the century-old Nom Wah Tea Parlor from his uncle a decade ago and pushed the family brand into global consciousness with fast-casual concepts, signature products such as their house chilli oil and retrochic streetwear collections. And now, Nom Wah has exported its Chinese-American take on dim sum back to China, with a new opening in Shenzhen. ‘Our restaurant is a representation of the ChineseAmerican taste in dim sum—and we’ve taken that aesthetic back to China. It’s wild, coming full circle like that,’ says Tang.
Just around the corner, multigenerational operations such as porcelain store Wing On Wo & Co (founded as a general store in 1890), and tofu manufacturers Fong On (founded 1933), escaped extinction when young family members stepped in. At Wing On Wo, the founder’s 26-year-old granddaughter Mei Lum has reimagined the antique shop as a community space for business forums, political talks and art exhibitions, while Paul Eng, the youngest grandson of the Fong On dynasty,
在倫敦，大廚潘偉廉創辦的潘記於1970年代以革新手法經營中餐館，贏得米芝蓮星級殊榮。現在他的女兒Amy Poon「浪子回頭」接手家族生意，不僅要令餐廳趕上時尚潮流，更認為自己有責任令父母建立的事業重新煥發光芒。她相信傳訊宣傳是成功的秘方，利用她們這一代人已融入當地社會，掌握在地語言的優勢。她說：「我相信自己的地道英語，可以輕易解釋中國的理念。其實中國的美食文化引人入勝，在這裡卻一直沒有好好演繹。」她希望把中菜推廣成為當地的餐飲特色，引入小酒館及熟食店模式，就好比是中國版的意大利Eataly美食市場。
在大西洋彼岸的紐約，鄧偉於十年前從叔父手上接棒，負責打理百年老店南華茶室。他引入休閒快餐的經營理念，令家族品牌聞名全球，更推出招牌產品如自製辣椒油以至復古型格的街頭服飾系列。南華茶室更「回歸故里」，於去年在深圳開設分店，把美式點心帶回中國。鄧偉說：「我們的餐廳代表美籍華人的點心口味，並把這種風格帶回中國，真是難以想像而又非常圓滿的回歸旅程。」
同樣位於紐約唐人街內，一些數代經營的老店都幸得年輕家族成員及時接手，才險險逃過結業的厄運，例如瓷器古玩店永安和（1890年開業時是雜貨店）及於1933年創立的鮮製豆腐店宏安。永安和由26歲的女孫林美虹打理，她把古玩店變身為舉行商業論壇、政治講座及藝術展覽會的社區空間；宏安則由家族中的孻孫伍啟芳主理，他購入先進的設備及採納新的市場推廣策略，令家族生意更上一層樓。
保存文化是振興唐人街的其中一股力量。老一輩陸續離世，全球各地唐人街的歷史亦瀕臨湮沒的邊緣。