全球與在地的角力已經成為學術與現實的重要爭議。本文以台北市這個在國際政經網絡上扮演聯繫困境內外人員、金錢、商品、資訊流通的節點為對象,以日韓餐館為區域性異國餐館的代表,分析外國食文化在其中展現的樣貌與其時空形成(time-space formation)的機制,以解明全球與在地相互影響的過程與後果。「全球在地化」(glocalization)的觀念漸被接受,意味著「全球vs.在地」的二元對抗漸漸為關注「在地」因素如何在全球化過程中扮演一定主動性的觀點所取代。在「文化全球化」的課題上,大部分文獻將此「在地」主動性擺在消費面上,強調相對於生產面上麥當勞、星巴克等跨國企業透過純粹商業計算邏輯的文化全球擴散,當下情境中的在地消費者於再利用或再詮釋這些文化商品上的主動性。文本認為這種觀點因為受制於全球化的當代性而導致「結構浮淺化」(shallow structure)與「主體符號化」(symbolized subject)的缺點。本文將「菜單在地化」(menu localization)鑲嵌到生產者的社會脈絡來考察早在90年代商業化擴散之前便存在的另外兩個區域擴散軌跡-殖民化與移民化。這兩個社會過程同樣都具有「國際/國內」邊界混雜的特色。我們主張,當下觀察到90年代後台北市異國餐館的面貌,乃是受到深藏於歷史中的結構脈絡所塑造,這些線在因素是我們探索食文化主體性時不可忽視的在地動力。
The Korean and Japanese ethnic restaurants in the Taipei City, a metropolitan node in the global network, are studied to investigate the underlying mechanisms of their niche-, menu- and space-formation. I argue that study of cultural globalization is overcoming its early framework of ”global vs. local” antagonism by implicitly assuming a new set of dichotomies where globalization is seen, wrongly, as merely an accomplishment by the interplay between adaptive strategies of multinational corporations (e.g., McDonald) and active re-definitions of commodities by local consumers. With regard to the Taipei experience, empirical evidences show that beside ”commercialization,” there were two other routes of glocalization: ”colonialism” and ”immigration.” Both earlier in time and transnational in nature, they constituted the socio-political context that shaped the characteristics of ethnic restaurants in contemporary Taipei. I argue that the ”shallow structure” and the ”symbolized subject” in our commercial imagination of cultural globalization should be replaced with a more historically informed perspective which traces local origins of cultural autonomy to a society's deeper structure where local producers, as intermediates of cultural diffusion, are embedded.