Abstract

Trends in the popularity of Chinese regional food in Republican Shanghai have been related to changes in the political situation. Beijing and Tianjin cuisines were popular in Shanghai during the late Qing period. After the Xinhai Revolution, Fujian cuisine gained popularity, as revolutionary armed forces were raised in Fujian, and Sichuan cuisine also became popular because an uprising in Sichuan led to the revolution. Among the various cuisines, Fujian dishes became popular with the Chinese Navy, since these dishes were always eaten around the military port and navy headquarters in Shanghai. However, these trends did not last long, and were superseded by the rise of Cantonese cuisine. This trend originated in the cafeterias of four major department stores that were opened on Nanjing Road by Chinese merchants from Guangdong Province. These stores were situated in the busiest area of downtown Shanghai. The rise of Cantonese cuisine was so rapid that it can be compared with Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition. At that time, luxury foods such as shark fin and sea cucumber were important Japanese exports.
The long-established Cantonese restaurant, Xinghualou (杏花樓) became the standard among Japanese tourists, while the Fujian restaurant, Xiaoyoutian (小有天) became the most popular after it appeared in Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s travel account. The cuisine enjoyed by Japanese tourists in modern Shanghai was not the local Shanghai cuisine (本幫菜), which was common to the people of Shanghai, but the Cantonese or Fujian cuisine offered in expensive restaurants. As Chinese local cuisines such as Cantonese, Fujian, and Beijing styles became popular in Shanghai, they were influenced by the Shanghai style. Since the Japanese found the Chinese cuisine in Shanghai acceptable, Shanghai-style Cantonese, Fujian, and Beijing cuisines were accepted in Japan without any distinction. Because many Japanese gourmets, cooks, and tourists promoted international exchange of Chinese and Japanese food cultures, Shanghai-style Cantonese, Fujian and Beijing cuisines that were formed in Shanghai － the capital of gastronomy in the Republican China － became the standard Chinese food for many Japanese people.