Insight | Fake international

Paulo Barbosa

It’s common to find in mainland China examples of what I deem the “fake international” model. To give a familiar example, in a newly developed area in Hengqin there is a line of restaurants next to a huge tourist complex. There you have a “Portuguese restaurant” decorated with the traditional tiles, next to several Southeast Asian eateries and other venues that feature some decorative aspects that may convey an international look.
What’s peculiar in these cases is that the food in these restaurants tastes almost the same. Even the menus are similar. I suspect that the “international kitchen” is centralized, serving all the restaurant fronts at the complex.
Places like these cater for thousands of mainland tourists that, in most cases, have never set foot outside China. Some of them have probably never visited Macau or Hong Kong. For them, the restaurants look “foreign” and thus give the appearance of an international environment. It doesn’t matter if the food is genuinely international or not. There’s no way to compare it with the real thing.
The same phenomenon is also on the rise in Macau, I’m afraid. Recently I visited a “Thai restaurant” that had just opened downtown and featured Thai flags at the entrance. The interior is decorated with wooden elephants, probably bought cheaply in Chiang Mai or even in mainland China.
The restaurant is managed and apparently owned by young local people, who are almost unable to speak any other language than Chinese and seem surprised when a “gwai lo” enters their establishment.
Once you are seated, the international façade/charade starts to fall. The food has some Southeast Asian inspiration, but you can hardly call it Thai. After consulting the menu, I picked a dish that is perhaps as famous in Thailand as the “African Chicken” is in Portugal.
In Macau we also have countless examples of “trattorias” where the risotto costs a fortune but would bring shame to any Italian tavern. Or the apparently sophisticated cafes that seem to be the only form of youth entrepreneurship in Macau, as some lawmakers recently pointed out during the Policy Address debate. It all looks very nice until you try the coffee and it tastes like dirt.
This “fake international” logic is understandably popular in some parts of China. But here in Macau, given the region’s history and the resources available, it’s possible and expectable to have genuine international influences. Nevertheless, we see that bogus logic growing and causing ramifications that go as far as heritage issues. This is the logic behind the “Parade Through Macau, Latin City,” for example.
The casinos also play a role in perpetuating the “fake international” model. Just look at the British Royal Guards greeting the guests outside a local casino, among many other possible examples, to see the point.
If Macau’s heritage is despised or commercialized, it risks becoming a façade and a ruin similar to St. Paul’s.  This logic will not contribute whatsoever to the proclaimed aim of setting up Macau as a “World Centre of Tourism and Leisure.” Like the slogan, it is a naïve pretense.