Why Has Hainanese Chicken Rice Remained Popular in Southeast Asia for So Long?

In Southeast Asia, especially in Singapore and Malaysia, tasting "Hainanese Chicken Rice" is a traditional custom for many overseas Chinese to celebrate the Spring Festival.

Hainanese Chicken Rice originated during the process of Hainan people migrating to Nanyang. Spanning over a century, chicken rice evolved from a common local diet in Hainan into a distinctive dietary culture of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, and eventually became the "national dish" of Singapore and Malaysia.

What is the cultural code behind the enduring popularity of Hainanese Chicken Rice in Southeast Asia? What inspirations does it hold for the construction of the cultural soft environment of the Hainan Free Trade Port, as well as for Chinese-foreign cross-cultural exchange?

The "National Dish" of Singapore and Malaysia: Hainanese Chicken Rice

In Singapore, Hainanese Chicken Rice is extremely popular. From roadside coffee shops and shopping malls to high-end restaurants, traces of chicken rice can be found everywhere.

Pang Yiling, the Operations Director of Singapore's Swee Kee Chicken Rice Restaurant, which has been in operation for over 20 years, introduced that the shop's traditional poached chicken incorporates Cantonese cooking methods, making chicken rice a food for celebrating festivals.

He Ruizhou, a representative shareholder of Singapore's San Xi Hainanese Chicken Rice Restaurant, traces his ancestral roots to Wenchang, Hainan. His father came to Singapore from Hainan around 1930, starting out as a chef before opening this shop. "Most foreign tourists traveling to Singapore will order a portion of Hainanese Chicken Rice," He Ruizhou said.

There are also multiple chicken rice restaurants in Penang, Malaysia. Mr. Lim Ri Dan is the second-generation successor of the time-honored "Wenchang Hainanese Chicken Rice Restaurant". To adapt to the tastes of young people and local Malays and Indians, they improved the traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice and innovated the roast chicken method, which is quite popular among the public.

At the same time, as a representative of Southeast Asian cuisine, Hainanese Chicken Rice has received attention from the cultural circles.

Renowned filmmaker Sylvia Chang once directed the movie "Hainanese Chicken Rice", telling the story of a Chinese immigrant single mother in Singapore who relied on running a "Hainanese Chicken Rice" restaurant to raise her three sons alone, etching Hainanese Chicken Rice deeply into the minds of audiences both at home and abroad.

Previously, Singapore designated Hainanese Chicken Rice as a "national dish" and applied for World Intangible Cultural Heritage status. This move attracted the attention of people in many Southeast Asian countries, with Malaysia reacting most strongly.

Cultural Traces Behind the Gourmet Food

Professor Zhang Jijiao, Director of the Department of Ethnology and Sociology at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and President of the IUAES Commission on C, has a personal understanding of the prevalence of Hainanese Chicken Rice in Southeast Asia.

In 2005, when he visited Malacca, Malaysia, a fellow villager from Qiong (Hainan) strongly recommended Hainanese Chicken Rice. When he visited Hong Kong, a Canadian professor, knowing he was born in Haikou, Hainan, praised the Hainanese Chicken Rice in Singapore and Malaysia as world-famous.

Hainan is a renowned hometown of overseas Chinese in China, possessing 3.9 million ethnic Qiong overseas Chinese distributed across more than 50 countries and regions.

Zhang Shuoren, Dean of the School of Ethnology at Hainan Tropical Ocean University and a professor at Hainan University, introduced that after the signing of the "Treaty of Tientsin" between China and Britain in 1858, Hainan began large-scale overseas migration.

The destinations for Hainan people's overseas migration were mostly in Southeast Asia. Hainanese Chicken Rice was originally their family staple food, but later became a means of livelihood for them in the Singapore and Malaysia regions. As more and more Hainanese migrated to Southeast Asia, more Hainanese entered the chicken rice industry. Consequently, Hainanese Chicken Rice became an inescapable part of the dietary structure in the Singapore and Malaysia region, and began to possess more commercial value.

Since the 1970s, the tourism industry in Southeast Asia has boomed. The catering industry is a pillar industry of tourism. Many countries realized that building a highly recognizable local cuisine not only boosts the national pride of local residents but also enhances the country's tourism popularity. For example, countries like Singapore and Malaysia recognized the international value of Hainanese Chicken Rice and successively defined it as their country's "national dish".

Thereafter, the structural function of the "national dish" Hainanese Chicken Rice changed again, integrating into the globalized catering market as a native Southeast Asian cuisine. Hainanese Chicken Rice restaurants with different styles emerged in Chinatowns of various countries.

Through commercial packaging, marketing, and other means, Singapore and Malaysia have continuously excavated the intrinsic value and influence of chicken rice. In particular, they have engaged in numerous discussions and debates regarding its "authenticity" and ownership of "copyright" to expand influence and attract more overseas tourists to taste it.

Zhang Jijiao believes that facing fierce market competition, the degree of commercialization of Hainanese Chicken Rice has been continuously improving in recent years. Operators are constantly innovating, excavating new functions and new values to meet the new needs of consumers and the times. Through constantly changing structure and functions, not only has traditional dietary culture been inherited, but Hainanese Chicken Rice culture has also achieved vigorous development.

"The 'copyright dispute' over Hainanese Chicken Rice makes us think again about what cultural heritage is, and how we should excavate, protect, and utilize cultural heritage," Zhang Jijiao believes. Cultural heritage is both the continuation and inheritance of traditional cultural roots and a renewable endogenous driving force for development.

Hainanese Chicken Rice in Hainan uses Wenchang Chicken as the main ingredient. Wenchang Chicken ranks first among the four major delicacies of Hainan.

Zhang Shuoren stated that the Wenchang Chicken was first recorded in the Kangxi era local chronicles "Wenchang County Gazetteer". In the mainstream culture of Hainan, "no banquet is complete without chicken"; a banquet without this dish is called "nonsense without chicken". Especially for ancestor worship, chicken must be offered. He said, "Hainanese Chicken Rice embodies the tenacious spirit of Hainan ancestors in surviving and thriving in a foreign land, and it is the emotional bond and cultural messenger connecting Hainan and Southeast Asia."

Hainan Free Trade Port: Cultural Soft Power Waiting to be Excavated

Hainan is currently building a Free Trade Port with Chinese characteristics, receiving attention from the world. "In the economic construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, the excavation and protection of culture cannot be ignored!" Zhang Jijiao believes that for over a hundred years, because Hainan has millions of overseas immigrants, it has maintained relatively close ties with the outside world. Compared with many places in the mainland, Hainan is not a closed island; on the contrary, it possesses a certain degree of internationalization.

Starting in 2016, Zhang Jijiao led a team to conduct field research in Haikou. He was delighted that "many cultural heritages in Hainan are preserved intact." "The Hainan Free Trade Port is currently creating an international tourism consumption center, and the soul of tourism is culture," he said.

Zhang Shuoren, on the other hand, believes that from attracting investment to attracting talent (wisdom) in the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, local culture is an important aspect of the soft environment and another embodiment of competitiveness.

The state plans to build a foreign cultural trade base in Hainan. In this regard, Zhang Shuoren stated that Hainan should focus on enhancing the cultural soft power of the Free Trade Port and build it into an important window for international cultural exchange.

"Hainan's overseas Chinese culture, marine culture, ancestor worship culture, Li and Miao culture, open culture, etc., are all characteristic cultures of Hainan." Zhang Shuoren suggested that the government can integrate social forces to excavate and promote Hainan's local culture together.

"Hainan can draw lessons from the inclusion of 'Singapore Hawker Culture: Community Dining and Culinary Practices in a Multicultural Urban Environment' in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity," Zhang Jijiao said. Hawker culture originated from the diverse street cooking practices of early immigrants in Singapore, carrying the daily life memories of the people and reflecting the multicultural integration of Singapore's urban society.

Inspirations of Hainanese Chicken Rice for Cross-Cultural Exchange

In today's world, cross-cultural exchange has become an indispensable part of people's lives. Zhang Shuoren stated that cross-cultural exchange enhances mutual understanding in the world and respect for cultural differences, allowing people to enjoy the different feelings brought by different cultures, thereby promoting the development of local national culture.

Food plays an important role in human daily life. There is an old Chinese saying: "When the granaries are full, people will know the rules of conduct; when people are well-fed and clothed, they will know honor and disgrace." Food reflects the cultural characteristics of a specific region, nation, or even country.

Cultural exchange in food is usually two-way. Hainan immigrants brought Hainanese Chicken Rice to Southeast Asia and also brought Southeast Asian dietary culture back to Hainan. The folk custom of drinking Dad's Tea and coffee prevalent in Hainan comes from Southeast Asia. Because Guangxi neighbors Southeast Asia, in recent years, Southeast Asian restaurants from Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, etc., can be seen everywhere on the streets of Nanning.

Zhang Jijiao said that with population mobility and the development of tourism, food, as a basic need for human survival, is a better medium for "cross-cultural" exchange.

Zhang Jijiao emphasized that for a region to open up to the outside world, it must have cultural confidence. Looking at the excavation and protection of culture by countries and regions around the world, it is also a process from reflection to excavation and then protection. In Asia, Japan saw the impact on European local culture from Europe's development experience. As a country that developed later, Japan still retains much of its own local culture; thus, it vigorously excavates and protects its material and intangible cultural heritage, such as food, architecture, etc.

"Developing the Hainanese Chicken Rice brand has a lot of potential." Pang Yiling introduced that their shop has signed franchisees in Brunei and Qatar. Hainanese Chicken Rice has the characteristics of "Chinese-ization" of Nanyang cuisine and "Nanyang-ization" of Hainan hometown cuisine. She is optimistic about the market development prospects and plans to develop chicken rice restaurants in China.

What is national is also global. "Hainan, Singapore, and Malaysia 'sharing a bowl of Hainanese Chicken Rice' is something to look forward to!" Zhang Jijiao said.