Abstract:
This is a case study of cross-ethnicization and globalization of an ethnic food by entrepreneurial Korean Chinese. Korean Chinese (also referred to as Joseonjok or Chaoxianzu) in China came from a strong agricultural background with little tradition of commerce and no tradition of consuming lamb meat. However, when Xinjiang style barbecue lamb skewers were introduced to their community in the early 1980s, Korean Chinese fell in love with this exotic food. Soon, Korean Chinese entrepreneurs began opening their own barbecue lamb skewer restaurants. Within the next two decades, they transformed this humble street food into a luxurious gourmet food through various innovative measures. They also globalized the barbecue lamb skewer business by expanding it to other cities in China, South Korea, Japan, the United States and beyond. Based on fieldworks conducted in Korean Chinese communities in China, South Korea and Japan, we found that their transnational cothnic networks were the key behind this intriguing success in their ethnic entrepreneurialism. This paper explores how the Korean Chinese developed their transnational coethnic networks, and how these networks contributed to this formerly non-coethnic lamb skewers business.
本文是关于朝鲜族华商如何推动民族食品跨民族化和全球化的一个个案研究。聚居于中国东北地区的朝鲜族有着丰富的农耕经验,极少经商,亦鲜食羊肉。然而,自上世纪80年代初新疆羊肉串传入东北地区,其新奇口感深得朝鲜族人民的喜爱。随即,朝鲜族商人开起了他们自己的羊肉串餐厅。随后的二十年里,通过不断地创新他们将这个朴素的街头小吃变成了一道精致美食,并将其推广至中国其他城市,甚至韩国等海外地区。基于对中国、韩国和日本的朝鲜族聚居区的实地考察,发现他们之间的跨国同族关系网络是他们成功创业的关键。本文旨在探索朝鲜族华商如何拓展跨国同族关系网络,进而发展朝鲜族羊肉串生意并使之生意兴盛和全球化。