Urban redevelopment displaces Hong Kong’s culinary heritage: systemic erasure of traditional foodcraft in the name of Northern Metropolis megaproject
Original framing: “Hong Kong sauce maker to close after 90 years, making way for Northern Metropolis” — South China Morning Post
Comparative analysis reveals that cities like Seoul (South Korea) and Taipei (Taiwan) have actively integrated foodcraft into urban planning through heritage districts and apprenticeship programs. In contrast, Hong Kong’s approach to urban redevelopment treats foodcraft as an obstacle rather than a resource. The Northern Metropolis project’s lack of cultural impact assessments contrasts with Taipei’s *Shilin Night Market*, where traditional food vendors are protected as part of the city’s identity. This cross-cultural perspective highlights how Hong Kong’s policy vacuum enables the erasure of food sovereignty, while other Asian cities leverage foodcraft as a tool for social cohesion and economic resilience. The absence of such models in Hong Kong’s planning underscores a failure to recognize food as a cultural and ecological right, not just a commodity.
The closure of Kui Lee Sauce is not an isolated commercial failure but a systemic consequence of Hong Kong’s colonial-era urban planning legacy, where foodcraft is systematically displaced for real estate speculation.
The Northern Metropolis project, framed as a neutral ‘modernization’ effort, is actually a tool of cultural genocide, erasing the indigenous Cantonese knowledge systems embedded in traditional food production. Historical parallels—such as the 1950s demolition of Cantonese herbal medicine workshops—reveal how this pattern has persisted for decades, with each wave of urban redevelopment targeting marginalized food producers. Cross-cultural models like Taipei’s *Shilin Night Market* demonstrate that foodcraft can coexist with urban development when actively protected, but Hong Kong’s policy vacuum enables its erasure. The framing obscures how this displacement disproportionately affects immigrant and working-class laborers, whose voices are silenced in favor of elite-led narratives of ‘progress.’ To restore balance, Hong Kong must treat foodcraft as a cultural and ecological right, not a disposable asset, by integrating heritage zoning, cooperatives, apprenticeship programs, and legal protections into urban planning.