美食懷舊在杭州

Food Nostalgia in Hangzhou

本文考察當代杭州的「美食懷舊」與個人及階層身份構建的關係。美食懷舊既指餐飲業和知識界人士對地方餐飲傳統的追憶、再現、和再創造，也指大眾以各種物質或非物質方式消費「本地」烹飪傳統的行為。杭州老字號餐飲追求連鎖經營、標準化生產以降低成本、保證質量，另外也有意識開發、利用杭州得天獨厚的歷史文化資源，特別是它作為南宋都城的歷史地位及對歷代文學創作的影響，營造懷舊氛圍，吸引中外顧客。與此相對照，「新字號」餐館實施「精品化」策略，立足小而精的產業結構，提供與眾不同、富於趣味的商品，以滿足顧客期待被視為獨一無二消費主體的市場分層需求。當代中國美食懷舊的功能驗證了布迪厄（Pierre Bourdieu）的經典斷語：任何階級的存在都首先取決於它如何確立與其他階級的關係，而中產階級的一大特點就是對社會地位的高度敏感，對「卓越特質」的傾力追求。杭州餐飲人士標榜餐館的歷史文化地位，實際滿足了對個人與集體身份飽含焦慮的當代中產階層消費者的需求。本文首先描述當代家國政治干預下美食懷舊與中產階層身份的關係。接著介紹杭州美食懷舊的歷史沿革與當代嬗變。然後描述筆者在杭州田野調查的發現，最後探索美食懷舊現象對我們了解當代中國文化的意義。

This article explores how Chinese people represent and refashion their identities as their society undergoes vast transformations through a specific lens: how they produce and consume food nostalgia in Hangzhou. “Food nostalgia” refers to the recollection, representation, and reinvention of culinary traditions by both food service professionals and intellectuals. It also involves consumer behaviors with regard to local culinary traditions offered up for consumption through various venues. Food nostalgia in contemporary China aids the identity formation of the middle class at a time when the “culture” of this new social stratum remains unsettled. Consuming “authentic” local cuisines can produce socio-cultural distinction in multiple ways. It signals historical knowledge and cultural expertise. It marks social status in terms of individual membership within a culturally prominent social group, whether that of the affluent middle class or that of one’s hometown, in cases where the local cuisine can rank among nationally and internationally recognized cultural heritage items. The traditional and artisanal aspects of food can further act as an antidote to the increasingly banal presentations of Western and Chinese cuisines, and distinguish the consumer from the “uneducated” newly rich. I first discuss the fraught relationship between food consumption and middle-class formation in contemporary China. I then illustrate shifts in Hangzhou culinary traditions from premodern society to twentieth-century China. Next, I describe fieldwork findings collected from several Hangzhou restaurants. I conclude by examining how food nostalgia reveals and shapes identities in the contemporary Jiangnan region.