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New Orleans, New Territories

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Hong Kong Culture and Society in the New Millennium

Part of the book series: The Humanities in Asia ((HIA,volume 4))

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Abstract

This Chapter is neither about any Po-boys restaurant in the New Territories, nor any existing jazz club in Hong Kong. As reflected in the title—inspired by the romance road movie “Paris, Texas” directed by the renowned new wave German film director Wim Wenders in 1984—this Chapter is in fact about my first exploration of New Orleans and southern Louisianan culture. It is based on knowledge acquired from previous research on food production as well as agricultural development, heritage preservation and environmental politics in rural Hong Kong, and particularly in the wetland area of the New Territories, over the last decade.

An earlier version of this Chapter was firstly published in Hong Kong Discovery (2012), issue no. 68, 14–47.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Grey mullets (Mugil cephalus) of the Mugilidae family, was born in the sea but can adapt better to freshwater ponds than others in the same family. They can be sold at a good price in Hong Kong during the winter, and are welcomed by local freshwater fishermen for the practice of traditional polyculture over the years. They get along very well with Grass Carp, Big Head, Mud carp, Tilapia, etc. In the old days, when there is no artificial breeding of fish fry for sale, fish farmers had to catch the mullet fry on the coast on their own. The method of catching wild small grey mullets from shallow coastal areas and rearing them in freshwater or brackish water fishponds in Yuen Long is a characteristic of the local freshwater fish industry. It can be seen as part of the cultural heritage of the South China region.

  2. 2.

    Crawfish live in freshwater while lobsters live in the sea. However, crawfish resemble the appearance of marine lobsters and have been marketed as “little lobsters” particularly in mainland China because of the upscale image of lobsters there. In fact, there are more than 500 varieties of crawfish in the world and in some countries they are a popular food item. The most well known culinary style would be the spicy Cajun cuisine, which originated in Louisiana and is widely considered a working class food in the southern part of the United States. Apart from the Cajun cuisine, many Americans still consider crayfish too “dirty and muddy” for eating. However, crawfish is a popular ingredient in both Sweden and Australia.

  3. 3.

    See Cheung “The Meanings” (1999), “Martyrs” (2000), and “Remembering” (2003).

  4. 4.

    Also see Lin “Fish Culture” (1940), Fung “Pond Fish” (1963), Yeung “Pond-fish Culture” (1968), Grant “Fish Farming” (1971), Irving and Morton (1988), Lai and Lam “The Evolution” (1999), Lam “Sustainable Development” (1999), Cheung “Fish in the Marsh” (2007).

  5. 5.

    See Cheung “The Politics of Wetlandscape” (2011).

  6. 6.

    See McClain and Romaire “Crawfish Culture” (2004).

  7. 7.

    See Cheung “The Social Life” and “From Cajun Crayfish” (2015a, b).

  8. 8.

    See Cheung “From Foodways” (2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

    Sidney C. H. Cheung

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  1. Sidney C. H. Cheung
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Correspondence to Sidney C. H. Cheung .

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  1. School of Modern Languages and Cultures, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Yiu-Wai Chu

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Cheung, S.C.H. (2017). New Orleans, New Territories. In: Chu, YW. (eds) Hong Kong Culture and Society in the New Millennium. The Humanities in Asia, vol 4. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3668-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3668-2_4

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3667-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3668-2

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