Chinese Chef Is Inspiration In Hong Kong
Master chef Li Yaoyun is patrolling the kitchen of Hong Kong's largest Shanghainese restaurant when suddenly he spots a culinary miscue.
"You've got to cut that vermicelli shorter," Mr. Li calls out to a young cook standing by a clay pot, the noodles dangling from his chopsticks. "We want the guests to get food into their stomachs, not onto their clothes."
Hawkish attention to detail isn't unusual for Mr. Li, a Shanghai native whose cooking has won so many awards that his résumé is typed in fine print to fit them on one page. What's extraordinary is that he is cooking in Hong Kong. Until a few months ago, this city prohibited mainland Chinese professionals from coming to work here, a policy that dated to Hong Kong's days as a British colony and persisted because of fears that mainlanders would swipe jobs and pull down wages.
But prompted by a struggling economy and the realization that Hong Kong's prosperity hinges on its ability to attract first-rate talent into service businesses, the government ditched the old policy. Since July, Chinese professionals are on equal footing with foreign professionals who have long had easy access to work visas here. Mr. Li is among the first of thousands of skilled mainlanders -- lawyers, technicians, architects and chefs -- expected to flow into Hong Kong's work force during the next several months.
The policy is among the most significant of recent measures designed to more firmly link the economies of Hong Kong and China. During the past two years, Hong Kong has opened the door to millions of mainland tourists, forged a free-trade pact with Beijing and approved plans for a 30-kilometer bridge linking the city's ports with factories in western Guangdong province.
Given the trend toward integration, "it's pretty silly for Hong Kong not to have been allowed to attract talent from the Chinese mainland," says Michael Enright, a business professor at the University of Hong Kong. To underscore what they see as the absurdity of the previous policy, some analysts draw an analogy for the U.S: Imagine, they say, if businesses in New York City were prohibited from hiring Americans from outside city limits.
Demolishing Stereotypes
The growing presence of mainland tourists and professionals is already helping demolish local stereotypes. Jean Liu, a mainland-born business executive and American citizen who moved here 12 years ago, recalls being treated rudely by Hong Kong salespeople who assumed she was a poor immigrant because she spoke Mandarin, not Cantonese.
"They'd glare at you and say 'this dress is HK$5,000, are you sure you want to look at it?' " recalls Ms. Liu, vice president of marketing and communications at Electronic Data Systems Corp. "Nowadays it's great," she says, "they think you're a rich mainland tourist or businesswoman."
Some prejudices still simmer, particularly against new Chinese immigrants from blue-collar backgrounds, who many Hong Kong people view as a drain on public services. Mainland-born spouses and children of Hong Kong citizens must wait in China for years before Hong Kong grants them residency rights. Police, sometimes using blowtorches to remove front doors, raid homes to round up and repatriate mainlanders who overstay their visas.
But the social discrimination doesn't reach Yang Hongzhi, a newly arrived lawyer from the northern city of Tianjin. The bespectacled 39-year-old, sitting in the 43rd-story offices of law firm Denton Wilde Sapte in the financial district, is one of more than 500 mainlanders employed in Hong Kong since the new immigration policy took effect July 15. Satisfying the immigration department's main prerequisite for obtaining a work visa -- namely, that he possess skills hard to find in Hong Kong -- was a cinch. Mr. Yang is an expert in dispute resolution in China, and already he has become a walking reference library for his colleagues and the firm's clients, says his boss, partner Martin Downey.
Previously, when the firm wanted to hire a mainland Chinese lawyer to work in Hong Kong, immigration rules forced it to choose from people who had already gained residency rights overseas. The pool of such lawyers is relatively small, and many have been away from China too long to retain good contacts with the legal community and potential clients. Mr. Yang has strong contacts with both, Mr. Downey says. And unlike unskilled mainland Chinese who have waited years to join relatives in Hong Kong, Mr. Yang's wife and daughter should be able to join him later this year. "I'm house-hunting," he says.
Salaries Aren't Depressed
The new arrivals are wrecking the old assumption that mainlanders would depress local income levels. The average salary of newly arrived Chinese professionals is 30,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$3,873) a month, on a par with Hong Kong professionals, according to the immigration department. (The best-paid new arrival, who works in the architecture and surveying industry, makes more than 10 times as much, about HK$350,000 a month). The case of Chef Li illustrates how employing a single professional can create growth and jobs. Earlier this year, investors in Xiaonanguo, a popular Shanghainese restaurant here, began deciding whether to create a second, larger Hong Kong restaurant. The risks were considerable: Hong Kong was suffering an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome that had emptied restaurants throughout town, and Shanghainese restaurants have proliferated in recent years. In late spring, the investors brought in Mr. Li, the chef who was working as a consultant to the original chain of Xiaonanguo restaurants in Shanghai, to assess the prospects. Mr. Li was flown in on short-term visas as a sort of gastronomic spy, dining at Shanghainese restaurants around Hong Kong to see what was being served and who the clientele was.
A new Xiaonanguo restaurant could succeed, he determined, but it would have to distinguish itself by frequently introducing new dishes and maintaining first-rate service. The investors were on the fence, but the new immigration rule provided an important incentive for going ahead: Mr. Li would be able to move to Hong Kong to run the kitchen. "Without him on board, we probably wouldn't have opened such a big restaurant; we'd have done something smaller," says Brenda Wu, assistant to one Hong Kong partner in the investment. The result is the Xiaonanguo Imperial Palace, a new five-story restaurant that seats 800 and employs more than 200, including 60 chefs selected and trained by Mr. Li. A large portrait of the master chef, bedecked in gold medals, sits in the restaurant window.
Each day, Mr. Li teaches his recruits braising and other techniques that are new to many chefs from Hong Kong's Cantonese tradition, which emphasizes stir-frying and steaming food. When a chef doesn't understand the teacher's Mandarin, "I just demonstrate," says Mr. Li, wearing a white, double-breasted uniform. "I'll let him cook it, and then I'll cook it. He can taste which one is better."
'Rich Man's Chicken'
He says competition in Hong Kong is intense and other restaurants in town are already serving an imitation of a signature dish Mr. Li made for his restaurant's opening. "But we're not afraid. Our creativity keeps us ahead," he says. He sees signs of inventiveness in the kitchen: One chef has substituted sprigs of cilantro for sesame oil in a steamed scallops dish; and rows of Mr. Li's own new creation, "Rich Man's Chicken" -- a play on the traditional Shanghainese "Beggar's Chicken" -- sit in an oven. The birds are wrapped in aluminum foil instead of the traditional packed earth. It is cleaner, and he insists the foil works just as well at sealing in the flavor, which comes from a stuffing of sliced pork and more than a dozen seasonings he declines to divulge.
Just how many other mainland professionals will score jobs in Hong Kong is unclear. One factor that could impede the flow is a lack of interest, not by Hong Kong employers but by the mainland Chinese themselves. "If you survey mainland Chinese professionals who are doing well in the mainland, they're not interested in coming to Hong Kong," says Louisa Wong Rousseau, managing director of Bo Le Associates Ltd., a headhunting firm. Hong Kong, she argues, should have lifted the immigration restrictions a decade ago, when the economy was hot and mainland Chinese would have been happy to establish roots here.
"Mainlanders look down on Hong Kong now," she says. "They say it's too small of a market. 'Why do I need to go there? I have better opportunities here.' And they do," she says. Chef Li has no complaints about Hong Kong's market size. Annual spending per capita on dining out, at US$1,453 is higher in Hong Kong than any other city, according to Sydney-based research firm BIS Shrapnel.
"Hong Kong is a gourmand's paradise," Mr. Li says. "And there's the competition. I'm in it for the challenge."
内地人，你愿意来香港发展吗？
此刻，香港最大的一家上海餐馆的厨师长李耀云(Li Yaoyun, 音译)正在厨房里巡视，突然他发现了一个烹饪错误，于是停住脚步。
他对那个站在砂锅旁边、正用筷子抻粉丝的年轻厨师说："你应该把粉丝切的更短些，我们希望客人把东西吃到肚子里，而不是掉到衣服上。"
这种对烹饪细节的敏锐洞察对于李耀云来说已经司空见惯了。他是上海人，在烹饪方面获过许多奖项，以至于他的简历只有用很小的字体打印才能全部写在一页纸上。值得注意的是，目前他正在香港工作。几个月以前，香港还禁止内地的专业人员到香港求职。这条政策是香港处于英国管辖时期制定的，在香港回归祖国后又延续下来，因为港府担心内地人会抢走就业机会，拉低工资水平。 但现在港府修改了这一政策，一方面因为香港经济不景气，另一方面也因为港府认识到香港的繁荣依赖于它吸引一流服务业人才的能力。从7月份开始，内地的职业人员和外国职业人员处于平等的竞争地位，同样可以轻易地获得工作签证。李耀云就是首批进入香港的内地专业人员之一。预计在随后几个月内，内地将有成千上万的专业人员，包括律师、技师、建筑师、厨师等，涌入香港的劳动力大军。
这项政策也是港府最近采取的为促进香港和内地经济紧密相连的众多重要措施之一。在过去的两年中，香港对数百万计的内地游客敞开了大门，同时与北京签订了自由贸易协定，并批准建设一座30公里的大桥，连接香港的港口和广东省西部地区的一些工厂。
香港大学(University of Hong Kong)的经济学教授迈克?恩莱特(Michael Enright)表示，在一体化的大趋势下，如果不允许香港从内地吸收人才将是非常愚蠢的。一些分析人士为了强调先前政策的荒谬性拿美国作了一个类比，他们表示，这就好比禁止纽约的企业雇用来自纽约以外地区的美国人。
内地游客和专业人员在香港逐渐增多，这已经对打消当地人的成见起到了推动作用。Jean Liu是一个在内地出生的美国籍企业管理人士，12年前迁居香港。她回忆说，由于她讲普通话而不是粤语，她曾被香港的售货员当成内地移民而受到粗鲁的对待。
在美国电子数据系统公司(Electronic Data Systems Corp.)负责营销和传播的副总裁Liu回忆说，当时那些售货员盯著她粗鲁地问：这件衣服要5,000港元，你确定自己要看一下吗？但Liu表示，如今情况好多了，他们会认为你是来自内地的富裕游客或商人。
当然，有些偏见仍然存在，特别是针对那些蓝领背景的新内地移民。许多香港居民认为是他们抢走了香港的公共服务就业机会。香港居民的内地配偶和子女必须在内地等待多年之后才能获得港府颁发的居住权。有时候，香港警察也会破门而入，突击检查并遣返那些逾期居留的内地人。
但从内地城市天津新近来港的律师杨宏志(Yang Hongzhi, 音译)却没有遇到类似的社会歧视。此刻，39岁的他正坐在位于金融区的律师事务所Denton Wilde Sapte 43层楼高的办公室内。他是自新移民政策7月15日生效后来港工作的500多名内地人之一。由于杨宏志满足移民局授予工作签证的基本条件，也就是说他拥有在香港很难找到的专门技术，因此，对他来说来港工作轻而易举。据杨先生的老板、合伙人马丁?多尼(Martin Downey)表示，杨先生在中国大陆是诉讼解决方面的专家，如今已经成为他的同事和事务所的客户在遇到困难时求助的"活字典"。
然而，当这家律师事务以前想雇用内地律师来港工作的时候，移民政策迫使他们不得不放弃，只好从已经获得居留权的海外人士中进行选择。这样，律师来源相对较少，并且大多数人都已经离开中国太久，无法与中国法律界及潜在客户维持良好的接触。而多尼表示，杨宏志在这两方面的联系都很密切。另外，尽管没有技术的内地人需要等待多年才能与在港的亲人团聚，但杨宏志的妻子和女儿今年晚些时候就能来港定居。杨宏志表示，他正在为她们找房子。
这些新来港工作的内地人也否定了认为他们会拖低当地工资水平的传统看法。根据香港移民局的统计，新来港工作的内地职业人员平均月薪为30,000港元(相当于大约3,873美元)，与香港职业人员基本持平。待遇最好的是在香港建筑业和调查业工作的内地人员，月薪是平均水平的10倍，达到35万港元之多。
厨师长李耀云的例子可以说明雇佣一个内地专业人士如何能带来经济增长和创造工作机会。今年初，一个在本地颇为红火的上海餐馆──"小南国"的投资者开始讨论是否在香港开设另一家更大的餐馆。风险是显而易见的，香港正在遭受急性重症呼吸道综合症(severe acute respiratory syndrome)的袭击，城里的饭馆都已经空无一人了。另外，最近几年上海餐馆也随处可见。今年春末，投资者从内地聘请李耀云来港评估开店前景，当时李耀云是上海"小南国"连锁店的顾问。于是，李耀云作为一个饮食界的侦探持短期签证飞来了香港，在香港的一些上海餐馆内用餐，考察这些餐馆内饭菜的质量，顾客都是哪些人等等。
李耀云的结论是：新开一家"小南国"能成功，但必须通过不断推出新菜、保持一流服务水平来形成自己的特色，使之与众不同。投资者还在犹豫不决，但这时新移民政策为他们采取行动提供了重要的契机──李耀云将可以亲自来港经营餐馆。该餐馆一位香港合伙人的助手Brenda Wu表示，如果没有李耀云在场，他们很可能不会开这么大的一家餐馆，他们会选择开一个规模小点的。如今，"小南国皇宫饭店" (Xiaonanguo Imperial Palace)有5层楼高，可容纳800名客人，雇员超过200人，其中包括由李耀云亲自挑选和培训的60名厨师。在饭店的橱窗内挂著厨师长李耀云的一幅大型照片，并陈列著他获得的金质奖章。
李耀云表示，香港的竞争非常激烈，其他餐馆已经开始模仿李耀云为饭店开张而创作的招牌菜。但李耀云又表示，他们并不害怕，他们的创造力将让他们的餐馆保持领先。 其他内地专业人士究竟会有多少来香港谋职仍是未知数。一个可能阻碍这种人才流动的因素就是：缺乏兴趣，不是香港的雇主不感兴趣，而是内地人自己。猎头公司Bo Le Associates Ltd的董事总经理Louisa Wong Rousseau表示，如果对内地的成功人士做一个调查，会发现他们对来港工作不太感兴趣。她指出，香港在10年前就应该取消移民限制，当时香港的经济还比较热，内地人可能将很高兴到香港立足。
她说，如今内地人看不上香港了，他们会认为香港的市场太小，他们没有必要移民，在内地也会有很好的发展机会。事实的确如此。但厨师长李耀云并没有抱怨香港的市场规模。根据总部位于悉尼的研究公司BIS Shrapnel的统计，香港每年人均外出就餐的支出是1,453美元，比其他任何一个城市都高。
李耀云说，香港是美食者的天堂，这里充满竞争。他愿意在这里接受挑战。
