A History of Saimin Soup Noodle in Hawaii: Ethnic Marker or Local Identity?

Saimin is a 'soup noodle unique to Hawaii,' says Arnold Hiura, writer of Hawaiian food history. Being popular on the Hawaiian Islands for more than 100 years, it started in the early 20th century among immigrant Asian laborers on sugar plantations. To this day, saimin can be frequently consumed in small noodle shops, or found in home cooking. Whereas the name saimin appears to come from Cantonese, this popular dish has been sold not exclusively by Chinese immigrants, but also often by ethnic Japanese. Today Hawaiian residents widely recognize saimin as ＂local,＂＂comfort＂ food, and care less about its ethnic origins. Saimin has such a long history as an important part of the local food culture and tradition, yet it is almost never heard of outside of the islands, for reasons in part because no serious or academic studies could be located. This paper is the result of fieldwork and literature searches over the past three years; and presents new findings about saimin's development in Hawaiian history, as well as its symbolic meanings in a dynamic multi-ethnic society of immigrants. Recent theoretical discourses in food studies often are concerned with the question of ＂origin＂ or ＂authenticity＂ of a popular food with a long history. This paper begins to investigate such questions about saimin. However, at the end we discovered that it is not an issue among different ethnic groups in Hawaii. It is more important for people in Hawaii to value becoming a proud member of the ＂local＂ Hawaiian community, and to share a common local food tradition in a multi-cultural society without a majority ethnic population.

關鍵字

Hawaii ； saimin ； origin of food ； Chinese ； Japanese

並列摘要

Saimin是「夏威夷特有的湯麵」，一百多年以來很受夏威夷居民的歡迎，據說自20世紀初由在甘蔗田裡做工的亞洲移民勞工非常愛吃開始。現時的saimin，人們常在小麵館消費，也在家裡煮食。雖然saimin這個名稱來自廣東話（細麵），但這種麵並不只有中國移民販賣銷售，而日本後裔也是主要的供應者。今天，當地居民普遍認為saimin是「本地」、「令人懷舊的舒適」食品，並不太注重其起源屬於哪個族群。Saimin雖然作為當地飲食文化傳統很重要的一部分，有長久歷史，但夏威夷以外的人幾乎完全沒有機會知曉，部分原因恐怕是沒有人認真作過關於這個湯麵的學術研究。本篇論文通過3年來的田野調查和文獻研究，闡明有關saimin的新發現，包括saimin在夏威夷的歷史發展、以及它如何代表由多元移民組成的社會動態的象徵意義。近年來飲食文化研究的理論話語，往往注重關於要界定某些歷史悠久食物的「起源」或「正宗性」的問題。本篇論文以saimin為對象進行調查，起先準備找出其答案。然而，我們卻發現，這個問題對夏威夷的各個族群並不重要；而在夏威夷，人們認為更重要的是每一個在當地紮根的居民均樂於成為夏威夷「在地」社區的驕傲成員，而在多元文化社會裡分享共同的當地飲食傳統。