Abstract

This article will examine Taiwan’s night market foods, perceived as traditional and local, from an historical and political-economy perspective, and document changes in recent years. Night market food vending has always been seen as carried out by profitable small-scale enterprises formed mainly by family members producing authentic foods with family-based culinary styles. This view is still stereotypically accepted in Taiwan, in spite of the fact that night markets and foods have both undergone significant changes in recent years. On the one hand, night markets have become an important sector in Taiwan’s tourist industry, which has given local governments an opportunity to enact legislation to control this sector and develop the institution of “tourist night markets.” Changes in Taiwan’s economic structure have also led many middle and lower class people to set up night market stalls. The economic downturn has also forced the state to relax its regulations on vending. On the other hand, we also see that as Taiwan’s consumption power decreases, with the manufacturing sector moving out of Taiwan and increasing globalization of consumptive styles, the growing popularity of internet trading is gradually replacing the traditional retailing sector. This paper will discuss how these macro political-economic changes have transformed night market foods in respect to food items, management, and meanings.