Popular Culture Co-production and Collaborations in East and Southeast Asia

5. Cooking Outside the Box: What Can Rice Cookers Tell Us about Cross-Cultural Collaborations?

Cooking Outside the Box 99 99 CHAPTER 5 Cooking Outside the Box: What Can Rice Cookers Tell Us about Cross-Cultural Collaborations? Yoshiko Nakano Hong Kong has been Japan’s gateway to Asian markets for nearly six decades.1 When Japan Airlines launched Japan’s inaugural international commercial service in 1954, Hong Kong became its first Asian destination . The free port was, and remains, an Asian transportation hub, facilitating the formal — and informal — flow and exchange of products, people and ideas. The former British colonial city was not only the place where East met West, but also where Japanese products met Chinese distributors and consumers. Countless Japanese cultural products made their overseas debut in Hong Kong, which served, in effect, as a test market. For example, Hong Kong television channels first aired Japanese superhero show Ultraman in 1968;2 anime series Doraemon in 1981;3 and primetime soap opera Tokyo Love Story in 1993.4 These television shows won the hearts of young Chinese people in Hong Kong, crossed borders formally and informally, and created shared memories throughout Asia. In this way, the tiny colony functioned as an international showcase where these television shows built their reputations. But the flow of Japanese products to Asian consumers via Hong Kong did not start with pop culture; rather, its spread capitalized on the trials and successes of previous “Made in Japan” products, including the rice cooker that was first introduced to the territory in the late 1950s (Nakano 2009: 19). The rice cooker has traditionally played only a minor, if any, role in the success story that is “Made in Japan.” As in the case of Sony founder Akio Morita’s autobiography, Made in Japan (1990), the story typically starts with the transistor radio — the first shining star that earned the 100 Yoshiko Nakano Japanese electronics industry the most dollars in the 1950s — and leads to automobiles, Walkmans, and Pokémon. The globalization of these products is usually presented as the result of heroic efforts on the part of Japanese men: how diligently their project teams worked, how their products created a sensation in the United States, and how their endeavors enriched the Japanese economy. But is this the only way to tell “Made in Japan” stories? What if we look at this globalization process not as a Japanese commercial victory but as the result of a three-way interaction between Japanese manufacturers , local distributors, and consumers? What if we expand the scope of inquiry from the United States to Asia and look at how products have crossed borders? What if we consider not only the economic impact these products have had on Japan but also their social impact on consumers in other countries? Once we begin to shift our perspectives, the rice cooker emerges as a star in Asia, where over ninety percent of the world’s rice crop is grown (FAO 2007). Where there are Asians, there are rice cookers. According to one estimate, some 43 million rice cookers were sold worldwide in 2006 (JEMA 2007). But not all rice cookers are created equal. In the last five decades, “Made in Japan” rice cookers have gone through the process of localization for various markets in Asia. Unlike more universal electronic appliances such as televisions and refrigerators, or even the iPhone, subtle product adjustments were essential to the successful localization of the rice cooker. As anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney (1993: 134) reminds us, rice is deeply cultural and a source of comfort, pride, and occasionally chauvinism. To ensure that the rice cooker would appeal to consumers in various parts of Asia, a Japanese manufacturing giant, National (now Panasonic) had to adapt the rice cooker to accommodate diverse varieties of rice and a wide range of recipes.5 National’s localization efforts provide a wealth of examples of inter-Asia collaborations. Hong Kong played a vital role in the localization of rice cookers. It was the place that National first established its procedures for modifying Japanese rice cookers to suit international consumers. As early as 1960, the National rice cooker team began to develop an Asian version of the Japanese original, in collaboration with a Hong Kong Chinese entrepreneur , the late William Mong Man-wai (1927–2010). The son of ethnic Chinese parents, born and raised in Japan, Mong became involved in product planning, making the most of his versatile linguistic skills, cultural awareness, and transnational networks. [3.144.17.45] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 02:38 GMT...