We are happy to announce that ERCCT Advisory Board member Prof. Gordon Cheung 張志楷 from the School of Government and International Affairs at the University of Durham will visit Tübingen as a ERCCT Visiting Scholar from June 16 to 30. He will give a public lecture on Wednesday, June 18 at 12.15 p.m., speaking on:
Chinese Ethnics Food Enterprises in the UK: Socio-economic Changes vs. Entrepreneurial Resilience after the Pandemic
And this is a fascinating topic, because according to the House of Commons Coronavirus: Economic Impact report, published on 17 December 2021, as a result of the pandemic, the GDP of the UK declined by 9.7 per cent in 2020. It was the steepest drop ever since the record of GDP began in 1948. The government already committed £315 billion for the support of households, businesses and public services. Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, UK media covered stories about the mainstream industries and the society. Yet, the social and economic situation of the Chinese diaspora and the general responses of Chinese entrepreneur have rarely been covered. This presentation, therefore, tentatively, tries to fill that gap by looking at Chinese food enterprises (restaurants, takeaways and supermarkets), to examine the social economic impact of the pandemic as well as how the Chinese enterprises respond to the once-in-a-life-time economic tsunami. I will first provide a short history about the general overview of Chinese food enterprises in the UK. Then, I will examine the so-called food chain in the UK with reference to some big names to see the general picture of the Chinese food enterprises in the UK before the pandemic. How does the pandemic change the business practice of Chinese food enterprises in general? Because of the multiple lockdowns, how did the Chinese food enterprises adapt to the decrease of consumers eating out during the pandemic and the decline of footfall of shoppers? I will further use some new statistics of Wing Yip, the largest supermarket in the UK, to examine the performance before and after the pandemic to showcase the economic challenges. This unprecedented pandemic will test the Chinese diasporic businesses in the UK. Their responses and ways of adaptation will certainly provide some transferrable lessons for understanding Chinese diaspora’s ethnic food, entrepreneurship, and the meaning of resilience.