Yoshiko Nakano and the Story of the Rice Cooker

The made-in-Japan rice cooker is ubiquitous in Hong Kong and regarded with deep affection by people here. This phenomenon struck Dr Yoshiko Nakano of the Department of Japanese Studies as curious and inspired her to launch a deeper investigation. Through oral history interviews with users, distributors and makers of rice cookers in Hong Kong and Japan, she uncovered a story of globalisation and innovation in which Hong Kong played a major role. The results were published in her 2009 book, Where There Are Asians, There Are Rice Cookers: How "National" Went Global via Hong Kong.

The electronic rice cooker was invented in Japan in 1955, becoming part of the 1960s Japanese economic miracle when the country's consumer goods began to conquer the world's markets. Its introduction to Hong Kong under the National brand (nowadays Panasonic) was down to a local entrepreneur, William Mong, founder of the Shun Hing Group. He persuaded National to put a window in the lid so people could see the rice cooking and know when to add lapchong sausage to suit local tastes. In the 1960s, this localised model became an icon of modern living for Hong Kong people, who felt acquiring a rice cooker showed they were no longer poor. In the 1980s, Mong also advised that the rice cooker be made to produce more steam to replicate the old clay pots used for cooking rice. In this way, the Japanese electric giant learned how to localise and then globalise its product, working in collaboration with the Chinese entrepreneur. Hong Kong's position as a free port also helped to spread the rice cooker to the rest of Asia and Asian communities all around the world.

(Text reproduced from Faculty of Arts 100: A Century in Words and Images.)

Please click on the following link to access the publisher's page: http://www.hkupress.org/Common/Reader/Products/ShowProduct.jsp?Pid=1&Version=0&Cid=16&Charset=iso-8859-1&page=-1&key=9789888028085