ABSTRACT
Interestingly, yumcha has been constructed as a representative of Hong Kong culture both locally and overseas in a historical period in which Hong Kong people feel an urgency to reconstruct a politico-economic existence and a cultural identity. In tourist brochures, yumcha is always central to the construction of a 'gourmet's paradise', as competitive prices in Hong Kong's Southeast Asian neighbours have snatched away its 'shopper's paradise' title. Hence spring rolls beside a pair of chopsticks and bamboo baskets of shrimp dumplings are constant images in booklets distributed by the Hong Kong Tourist Association, a semi-government organisation. But yumcha features just as prominently in local Chinese newspapers, where elaborated reports are written on 'new trends' of yumcha and rejuvenation of 'traditional' dimsum. Perhaps more obviously using the yumcha analogy as a social idiom is the comedian Chow Sing Chi who epitomises a new generation of post-modern popular culture with his moleitau (illogical) style. His now famous quotation 'chodai yum bui cha, sik gor bau' ('Let's sit down, drink a cup of tea, eat a bun')4 which literally means to talk over things slowly, highlights yumcha's pervasiveness and symbolic power in everyday life. Undoubtedly yumcha is the way of eating that occupies both the stomach and imagination of the Hong Kong people.
