Thread: Tensions Steaming in Small-town Chinese Restaurant Scene

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_a ... 69d399News Report, Rong Xiao Qing, Translated by Eugenia Chien,
Sing Tao Daily, Dec 06, 2005

NEW YORK – In New York’s Chinatown, restaurant owners, who are traditionally Cantonese, have gotten used to the newcomer in their business – new immigrants from China’s Fujian province. Many Cantonese restaurant owners say that the cuisine from Fujian, a coastal province in southeast China, is so different from Cantonese cuisine that the two types of restaurants do not cause any competitive tension.

Even restaurants like the Golden Unicorn, a quintessential Cantonese establishment that has been in Chinatown for many decades, have turned management over to immigrants from Fujian. But restaurant owners in other states tell a different story.

In Fort Lauderdale, Fl., Hong Kong immigrant Mrs. Chen has managed her fast-food restaurant, Hong Kong Gourmet, in the popular Hollywood Beach area for seven years. She said that when she decided to open a restaurant, she had surveyed larger cities like New York and San Francisco, but decided to open her business in Florida because the large Chinese population in major cities posed too much competition for her restaurant.

Hong Kong Gourmet was once the only Chinese restaurant in Hollywood Beach, reaping the advantage of the waves of tourists every year. But in the past two years, Hong Kong Gourmet has run into hard times, mainly because the large number of new restaurants in the area owned by Fujian immigrants.

After September 11, big cities have tougher security, so a lot of immigrants from Fuzhou (the capital of Fujian province) have decided to develop business in small towns, said Mrs. Chen.

In the area around Hollywood Beach, there are three restaurants owned by immigrants of Fujian, within steps of one another. Mrs. Chen claims that these restaurants can hire undocumented workers below minimum wage, and buy cheap produce from farms in upstate New York and New Jersey. These restaurants can lowers their prices by $1 per meal compared to Hong Kong Gourmet, said Mrs. Chen. Hong Kong Gourmet and other Cantonese restaurants in the area are having a difficult time with their new competition.

“When early Cantonese immigrants opened restaurant, they tried not to be near other restaurants to avoid competition with their own people. But people from Fuzhou don’t care about this,� said Mrs. Chen. “If we keep going like this, no one can afford to operate a Chinese restaurant,� she said.

But Mr. Zhen, who is from Fujian and owns two of the restaurants near Hong Kong Gourmet, disagrees with Mrs. Chen. Zhen said that he did not open his restaurant purposefully near Cantonese restaurants. The market is open to anyone, he said. And when you do business, Zhen said, you have to open your business where the customers are. Beside Hollywood Beach, other places in Fort Lauderdale don’t see much foot traffic. “If I opened my restaurant there, I’d be only cooking for myself,� Zhen said. Zhen also said that his lowered prices are only to benefit his customers and is a part of normal business competition.

Besides, it's easier to import illegals to do the work in places with ports.