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Abstract

This study examines how the nomenclature of street food names includes trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales in local language resources. The study adopts a qualitative case study on street food names in Malaysia. The study sample comprised 856 street food names collected in Kuala Lumpur. The food nomenclature framework and the concepts of trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales were adopted to elicit the data. It was found that: (i) there are more complex combinations based on ingredient, cooking method, food attribute, commemorative aspect, and good name; (ii) there are scale-making ways, via the presentation and the transliteration of street food elements. In conclusion, the nomenclature of street food names labels Malaysia as a multiscalar locality in which trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales can be discerned. Thus, this study reveals how nomenclature shapes and is shaped by geographical scales. Therefore, it contributes to the nomenclature of food and place marketing.

Keywords

Malaysia multiscalarity nomenclature sociolinguistics street food names

Introduction

Some of the widest-ranging topics of discussion nowadays are food-related issues due to the significance of food as the basis of human existence. Food names attract more attention in linguistic and cultural studies because a name may be symbolic of a place or its inhabitants (Algeo & Algeo, 2000) and food names are a group of living fossils that support the concept of language reflecting society (Lam et al., 2018) which means that food names serve more functions. In real life, a food with an ear-friendly name will psychologically enhance the consumer’s experience of the food and improve the reputation of the restaurant that serves it (Ng et al., 2015). Thus, understanding the food nomenclature helps to build a good relationship between the food and food consumers and realize the important role played by food names.

Although many studies have investigated food nomenclature (Markantonatou et al., 2021; Tang & Gu, 2017; Tsujimura, 2018), few studies have specifically focused on the names of street foods and their cross-cultural natures. The Food and Agriculture Organization defines street foods as ready-to-eat foods and beverages prepared and sold by vendors or hawkers, especially in the streets and other similar places (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2016). In Asia, hawker centers in Singapore and Malaysia, night markets in Taiwan, street stalls in Korea, and yatai (mobile food stalls) in Japan are typical examples of street food vending forms as part of tourism resources. It is estimated that street food is consumed daily by 2.5 billion people worldwide (Morano, 2018); hence, the popularity of street food around the world can easily be seen. The wide varieties of food sold by street food traders have become cultural landmarks and tourist attractions (Henderson, 2017). Previous studies, however, focused more on food safety, the economy, and tourism. Specifically among food tourism literature, sustainability issues draw insights from street food vendors (Gaffar et al., 2022), and street foods are also regarded as a motivation for traveling (Gupta & Sajnani, 2020; Okumus et al., 2021), and street food tourism is a marketing tool (Banerjee, 2015). This means that the attention of scholars had mainly been on the food itself, principally on the taste, the ingredients or broth used, the cooking methods, and the price, especially in food tourism, rather than on the languages and cultures of the localities that offered the food. As pointed out, street food contributes to the preservation of the culture and food heritage of a place (Alfiero et al., 2019). Therefore, a study on the cultures arising from street food names should not be ignored.

Street food tourism has become popular in several countries. In Singapore, street food, which is the focus of marketing, has become a by-word for Singaporean culinary culture with Michelin starred restaurants and a destination-fine-dining culture (Tarulevicz & Ooi, 2021). In Warsaw, street food landscapes play a role in the regeneration and gentrification of urban areas (Giampiccoli et al., 2023). In Thailand, a business development model for street food stalls is designed to develop street food tourism as a niche tourist attraction by focusing on price, people, process, product, and physical evidence (Praesri et al., 2022). In Malaysia, the success factors for the competitiveness of street food stalls in gastronomic tourism are examined (May et al., 2021). The influence of street food authenticity and the degree of its variations on the overall experience of tourists at the destination is also studied in India (Gupta & Sajnani, 2020). As a result, street food tourism plays a major role in many aspects such as food culture, cityscape, and business competitiveness.

The street food in Malaysia has gained much recognition, and the country is a popular street food destination for tourism. Malaysia is a multilingual country in Southeast Asia, and its large population mainly consists of speakers of Malay, English, Chinese, and Tamil languages. This multilingual and multicultural background is a significant factor that must be taken into account in a study on street food names. The diverse street foods consumed in Malaysia result in a fusion of local and non-local situations. This distinction between locals and non-locals falls under the consideration of scale due to the fact that scaling has been positioned as a category of practice (Gu, 2021) and the social actors play a role as the scale-makers (Blommaert et al., 2015). This could reflect the relationship between languages and society through scaling practices.

This study assumes that scale, as a theoretical lens, can help explain the different levels of language use in street food names. In comparison to existing studies on multilingual analysis, this study focuses on a scalar analysis based on street food names written in Chinese. The range of scales employed is from trans-local to trans-regional and trans-national, so that the connections between locals and non-locals from the street food names could be reflected. This study specifically intends to address the following research questions: (1) What are the elements in the nomenclature of Chinese street food names in Malaysia? (2) In what ways does nomenclature shape and is shaped by the local and national scales? This study argues that the complexity of street food nomenclature arose from the multiscalarity (trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national) reflected in street food names.

Malaysian Context

This section focuses on Malaysian society and its language use, which emphasizes the specialty of sociocultural background. In Malaysia, Malay language is the national language, and English is the second language. Chinese and Tamil are also practiced and recognized in the government-backed Chinese, and Tamil vernacular schools in Malaysia (Tay, 2018). Locally used languages in Malaysia mainly consist of Malay, English, Chinese, and Tamil. As a result, people in Malaysia often have bilingual and even multilingual abilities, having inherited their own mother tongues as well as being influenced by the other languages around them. The situation regarding the practice of Chinese in Malaysia is complex due to the use of standard Chinese and Chinese dialects. Standard Chinese is referred to as Mandarin in Malaysia. When the Chinese migrated to Malaysia, they also brought with them a plethora of dialects, which included Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, and Foochow (Albury, 2021). This results in standard Chinese and Chinese dialects being commonly used in Malaysian society. This practice dates back to the existence of Chinese clans in Malaysia, a clan being a group formed with a patrilineal blood relationship based on a common ancestor at its core (Sun, 2005). The dialects of different Chinese clans, such as Cantonese, Hokkien, and Hakka dialect groups, have prevailed among the Chinese in Malaysia.

For Malaysia, foreign languages such as Japanese, Korean, and some European languages are also used following the globalization of the country (Coluzzi, 2017). The diversity of languages, with standard languages and dialects, provides a more complex context than before in which these languages exchange usage and interact together. The country’s multilingual society, often associated with migration, has resulted in highly complex, messy, and hybrid sociolinguistic phenomena that defy established categories (Blommaert, 2014). Thus, the language use and the boundaries of local languages and foreign languages in the Malaysian context are not regarded as pure or unadulterated since these languages may be mingled; loaned words and word-borrowing situations often exist. Even many informal conversations employ code-switching patterns that extend beyond these more typical borrowings (Carstens & Ang, 2019). A key emerging concern in Malaysia is that language becomes blurred. It may be over-simplistic to assume a clear-cut distinction among these languages, and between locals and non-locals in Malaysia. It can, therefore, potentially be illuminating to center on the Malaysian case against this contextual background.

Nomenclature of Food Names

Scholars have developed some ways of classifying the nomenclature of food names for different kinds of foods. Restaurant menus form the main material of food studies, in which the nominal phrases and ornaments are the main findings for the nomenclature of food names. For example, in Markantonatou et al. (2021), most of the named dishes were headed by a noun of the main ingredient or by the preparation method used, based on the menus, which were written in modern Greek. The category, which is based on culturally specific names and factual names, is also included in restaurant food names. In Chinese food menus, restaurant food names often include the contents or ingredients of the food as well as legends, historical events, classic literature, and imaginary metaphorical elements (Li, 2019). It was found that the naming practice in previous studies mainly focused on restaurant foods and analyzed the food elements mentioned in the food names.

Nomenclature analysis based on the elements of food names was also similarly conducted by researchers for a few other kinds of foods. This is in line with the argument that what a food is called is just as important as what ingredients the food contains (Zhao, 2021). For example, the elements of cooking ingredients, food attributes, cooking methods, commemorative aspects, and good names in Chinese food names have been discussed in other studies (Tang & Gu, 2017). In terms of food elements, food nomenclature can also be analyzed via the names of recipes, such as those illustrated in Japanese cookbooks (Tsujimura, 2018). These elements included ingredients, cooking methods, mimetic vocabulary, cooking utensils, and appliances, as well as symbols like the tilde, the asterisk, and the exclamation point. Except for the symbols used in Japanese food names, the food elements were similar to those used in Chinese and Japanese food names.

The foods or dishes served during festivals in Malaysia have also been analyzed from the perspective of food elements. Chinese New Year dishes are mainly named by using nomenclature pertaining to good values, illustrating the Chinese people’s particular preference for what is auspicious during the festival in order to obtain good fortune in the coming year (Ng et al., 2015). Attention was also given to wedding dish names (Ang et al., 2016). It was found that the naming of Chinese Malaysian wedding dishes focused more on the ingredients, followed by the cooking methods, auspicious numbers, colors, and good names, while less emphasis was given to impressionistic nomenclature such as allusion and consumer fashion. Previous studies also focused on the concrete and abstract naming of Chinese dishes from the wedding menus and the lunar new year recipe books of Chinese restaurants located in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor (Lam et al., 2018). While concrete naming shows tangible aspects such as ingredients, processing method, taste, and color, abstract naming involves the use of analogy, metaphor, exaggeration, homophone, pun, sayings, or poems. The results of the previous studies carried out in Malaysia revealed that the nomenclature of different types of food had different preferences.

In addition, previous studies identified five methods used for naming snack foods in China, namely, descriptive names, metaphorical names, names referring to Chinese folktales, names expressing wishes or religious beliefs, and others (Zhao, 2021). The descriptive names were found to be the most used since they helped inform people about unfamiliar foods. Metaphorical names such as Mi Dou Fu (rice tastes like tofu) were used for snack foods, which could be related to metaphors and metonymies (Tang & Gu, 2017). Snack foods can be references for street food names since both categories of food contain snack food features. However, the snack names selected in this study were taken from one cuisine book that had a limited sample size and thus may not have given a deep insight into the nomenclature of this type of food.

To sum up, this reveals two gaps in the nomenclature of food names. First, previous studies did not specifically distinguish the food types. Most of those studies focused on the nomenclature of restaurant food, food from cookbooks, or food names from festivals. Fewer studies concentrated on the foods that, in real life, mushroomed at the corners or the edges of streets. These street food names were mostly given by different street food vendors, most of whom had low education levels (Abrahale et al., 2019). Such food names were often casually painted on boards or handwritten on simple self-made menus. The question arises whether the nomenclature of street food names mirrors that of food names found in cookbooks, or for food dishes offered during the New Year and weddings. Since previous studies were only carried out on food names in general, a study on street food names is also needed. Street foods are eaten by most people, and they have influenced people’s lives. The increasing number of instant and ready-to-eat foods has largely influenced the modern lifestyle, causing people in Malaysia to forget and neglect their special heritage foods (Omar & Omar, 2018). Therefore, the impact of street food cannot be ignored in future studies.

Second, studies found that the nomenclature focused more on the elements of the food names, mainly on ingredients, methods, commemorative aspects, food attributes, and good names. In previous studies, these elements were categorized into realistic nomenclature (ingredients, food attributes, cooking methods, and commemorative aspects) and impressionistic nomenclature (good names). Food is intimately and irrevocably linked to culture (Chiaro & Rossato, 2015). The nomenclature of food names is a reflection of people’s cultural conventions, such as eating habits and naming preferences, thus revealing the importance of culture in food names through these cultural elements. However, the analysis carried out in those studies did not extend beyond the food elements, and the study did not take a deep look at the different levels of cultural signs of street food, given that multicultural Malaysia has attracted street foods from all over the world. To address this, the current study will use the concept of scale as a theoretical lens in order to account for the different scales behind the food nomenclature.

Scale as a Theoretical Lens

Scale is originally a spatial concept, and the stratified space in which national and regional scale levels occur is often framed. Scale also refers to the scope and hierarchies of context (Bailey et al., 2016). In their case languages are categorized on higher scales, such as English, and on lower scales, such as Swahili. Scalar analysis was introduced into sociolinguistics as a significant approach to analyzing the dynamics between different spaces of communication (Blommaert, 2010). A space obtains meaning in relation to other spaces, which can be mapped onto different sociolinguistic scales (Song & Xia, 2021). Thus, the use of scale is to differentiate different spaces in communicative activities, which helps to capture the differences between spatial areas from local to global. Studies often view scales from centered or peripheral levels, which is due to the hierarchical nature of the scales. In this study, instead of evaluating the hierarchy of higher or lower levels, scale refers to a shifting category of practice, an epistemological construct that enables subjects to negotiate meaning and value for their community practices (Canagarajah & Costa, 2016).

The nature and scope of the scales prompted this study. This study aims to examine the geographical scales reflected in street food names. For this study, the scale as a theoretical lens was used to identify the geographical scales emerging in the street food names concerning the geographical terms. The rationale for using scales lies in the nature of scales in sociolinguistics to describe the relationship between globalization and localization (Blommaert, 2010), and scale is also another feature that distinguishes the region (Paasi, 2004). Therefore, the concept of scale and its category could show different layers of place of origin in street food names.

For the classification, the scales were developed into local and trans-local levels (Blommaert, 2010). The term “local” often occurs as a synonym for synchronic, the things that happen here and now in a particular speech event (Blommaert, 2015). Hence, the terms “trans-local” and “trans-national” refer to transcending beyond the level of the local and the national, indexing the diversity of actors engaged in new configurations of communicative engagements (Hawkins, 2018). The “trans-” emphasizes connections across dividing lines or spaces, to continuities created or mentally constructed by human agency (Hoerder, 2012). Thus, trans-local refers to an exchange or movement of units, activity patterns, or symbols across real or imagined boundaries, whereas trans-national emphasizes the importance of crossing the borders of nation states in the process (Freitag & Oppen, 2005). For example, a street food called 福建面Fu Jian Mian (Hokkien noodle) is consumed in Malaysia. Chinese elements are added by the place name Fu Jian to the food in Malaysia. Thus, the “trans” in this example shows the connection between the food and the place. This creates spaces in which people with diverse backgrounds gather to interact with different language resources, values, and beliefs.

In the use of scales, the earliest and most popular classification of scales was introduced in a study in which the scales were defined as having two aspects: space and time (Blommaert, 2015). “Space” referred to both local and global spaces, while “time” included the idea of momentary periods as well as timelessness. A later study drew on these two aspects and extended them to explain the phenomenon of shop names in different parts of Macao (or Macau) when it researched the concepts of local and trans-local scales (Zhang & Chan, 2017). Zhang and Chan (2017) found that different scales could capture the variations or extent of eroticization, and the sign-makers displayed various forms of eroticization by positioning themselves on corresponding scales. In yet another study, shop signs in Brussels that frequently displayed English, Thai or Chinese languages did not imply the local presence of a vibrant speech community, but they did indicate globalization or cultural exoticism (Vandenbroucke, 2015). That study introduced the idea that language displayed in shop signs is related to the considerations of global or cultural specialties. The scope of scales of the signs (which were in Estonian, Russian, English and Finnish) was extended to display trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales (Soler-Carbonell, 2016). The three concepts are co-created by different types of mobile people with different linguistic resources. According to Soler-Carbonell (2016), the concepts are regarded as the orientation to receive trans-local or trans-regional mobile citizens. The trans-national scale features a higher degree of linguistic heterogeneity among its passersby. This enlarged the geographical scales to cover a wider, but not more extreme, area than a local concept.

These previous studies reflected the feasibility of using scales to analyze the language used by society to refer to names. However, two gaps exist. First, scalar analysis can be applied to names to depict the interchanges or communication between languages, but it has not been applied in grassroots contexts where the scaling process and language use may be different among people with less privileged backgrounds. Second, the use of scalar analysis often focuses on multilingual texts to distinguish the trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national levels. The reason for this could be that language was regarded as an element that distinctively distinguished the locals from the non-locals. However, fewer studies focused on the scaling process in one language. It is also necessary because the melding together of foreign languages could also reflect the mixing of languages and cultures in multilingual societies. Thus, there is a need to develop a method to identify the scales in one language because the scales used in previous studies were often judged by using different languages.

Methodology

Research Design

This current study used a qualitative case study design. The qualitative method was chosen in order to provide in-depth, detailed insights into the food nomenclature and scales. As Sengani (2008) maintained, “names are discourse and therefore fall within a naturalistic inquiry which is best explored through a qualitative descriptive method” (p. 393). The advantage of qualitative study in street food name study is that it could have deep insights into the languages, scales, and society. A case study is the preferred method when the focus of the research is contemporary and when addressing research questions that are preceded by “how” and “why” (Yin, 2009). This study attempts to reveal the different scales of cultures reflected in the nomenclature of street food names. It is hoped that deep insights on how the nomenclature shapes the scales could be obtained from the street food names in Malaysia specifically. To achieve the purpose of this study, a case study in Malaysia was conducted. As a multicultural country, Malaysia is home to speakers from several linguistic and cultural groups, which makes the languages used by its populace more diverse. People from such a multicultural background are more likely to be faced with the challenge of local and non-local choices.

Research Setting

The research setting was Kuala Lumpur since the city was listed as one of the Top 10 Cities with the Best Street Food Around the World (Heelan, 2016). As the capital city of Malaysia, a wide spectrum of people can be found there as one of the results of globalization. The specific sites chosen for the study were locations where there were concentrations of street food that also offered a diversity of food vending forms: Jalan Alor Food Street, Taman Connaught Night Market, Lot 10 Hutong Food Court, and Petaling Street Market in Google map (see Figure 1, marked by spoon and fork icon). Jalan Alor, a street in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, is a food heaven. Taman Connaught has a special night market with some of the capital’s best selections of street food offered by a series of movable stalls. Hutong Lot 10 is an indoor food court that has gathered the old and famous hawker stalls of Kuala Lumpur. Petaling Street Market is a mixture of different forms of street food vending, such as a food court and outdoor moveable stalls. These four sites represent the typical street food settings in Kuala Lumpur.

Figure 1.

A map of view on four research locations.

Data Collection

The purposive sampling method was used in this study in order to ensure an adequate category of street food was involved. This criterion-based sampling focusing on particular characteristics could quickly help get homogeneous samples. The specific inclusion and exclusion criteria applied were as follows.

First, three types of street food names were used, namely, rice foods, noodle foods, and “others” (such as kuih and dim sum). This was because rice foods are the staple foods in almost all Asian countries, including Malaysia (Omar & Omar, 2018), and the basic principle of Chinese food intake is influenced by cereal grain-based noodle foods (Radzi et al., 2010). Kuih and dim sum include cakes, cookies, dumplings, biscuits, and pastries. “Others” was also selected since the foods in “others” are usually made from flour, rice, or glutinous rice. Drinks and beverages (any alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink) were excluded from the study. This was because they are distinctively water-related words (Chan & Huang, 2001), which are different from rice foods, noodle foods, and “others.”

Second, street food names written in Chinese characters were included. This was because, from the standpoint of the consumers, Chinese characters are the most characteristic elements of the Chinese language in Malaysia, so the food served would be meant for Chinese consumers. Mandarin Chinese has great significance in differentiating the Chinese communities from the other communities in Malaysia (Saraceni & Jacob, 2019). This is also because using the Chinese language to name something is very different because Chinese uses a logographic writing system that cannot be used to coin a name by scrambling some letters in an alphabet, such as the Roman alphabet (Chan & Huang, 2001).

The data collection procedures involved five steps: identification of the collection locations; collection of street food names by photographing them; non-participant observation with field notes; quick interviews with vendors and consumers; and transcription of food names in photographs into textual form.

This study integrated non-participant observation data with textual data. The aim of the non-participant observation was to gain a better understanding of the environment in which street food vendors operate and of the consumers. The field note was used to record the consumers and vendors involved in the street food vending. It is hoped that this non-participant observation could help realize the nomenclature in a special Malaysian context. Quick interviews were conducted as a complement to the findings. There are three street food vendors and six consumers (three local Chinese Malaysians and three international tourists) in the interview. The interview for vendors was guided by the questions “What are the differences between your stall and others?,”“Why do you name the food with geographical names?,” and “How do the geographical names help to attract consumers?” The interview for tourists was based on “What are your attitudes to the street food names with geographical names?” It is hoped that the quick interviews could support the insights in the arguments.

Regarding the data collection procedure used, the street food names were collected in June 2022 by taking photographs with a digital camera. Then the names were extracted from the photographs and written as text. To ensure the saturation of textual data, this study collects rich (quality) and thick (quantity) data (Dibley, 2011) by trying to collect each appropriate street food name in each research area. The sample size depended on whether there was no new food nomenclature that could be elicited from the data. After recognizing that the collected street food names continuously fall into the existing coding of categories of nomenclature, it meant that the data had reached saturation. A total of 856 street food names, consisting of 355 noodle foods, 94 rice foods, and 407 “others” were collected in this study (see Table 1).

Table 1.

Research Locations and Street Food Names.

Research locations	Noodle	Rice	Others	Number
Jalan Alor food street	74	17	105	196
Taman Connaught night market	101	20	143	264
Lot 10 hutong food court	57	27	62	146
Petaling street market	123	30	97	250
Total	355	94	407	856

Data Analysis

The unit of analysis during the data analysis process was the whole street food name presented in Chinese characters. Ng et al.’s (2015) taxonomy of food naming was adopted because it combined previous taxonomies for Chinese food nomenclature and has been applied to Chinese food nomenclature in Malaysia (Ang et al., 2016; Lam et al., 2018). From the taxonomy, realistic nomenclature included ingredients, food attributes, cooking methods, and commemorative aspects: (1) ingredients referred to main ingredients and added ingredients; (2) food attributes referred to color, taste, appearance, and vessel used; (3) cooking methods referred to process and cooking method; (4) commemorative aspects referred to aspects such as people’s names and place names; impressionistic nomenclature included good names: and (5) good names referred to allusion, good values, numerics, and homonyms, which were elegant names for the foods. The justification of the category of nomenclature of each street food name was based on the definition of the above five aspects. For example, 鸿记瓦煲鸡饭Hong Ji Wa Bao Ji Fan (Hong Kee clay pot chicken rice) was justified in the category of commemorative aspect (Hong Kee), food attribute (clay pot), and ingredient (chicken rice).

For the second question, this study focuses on geographical scales through the names, which reflect their place of origin. The importance of place of origin could be seen in that a place is a marker of a certain regional culture since place-bound taste is not homogeneous but has the feature of regional orientation (Avieli, 2005). Therefore, taking place into consideration could show the geographical relations between the specialty of food and place. It is expected that the regional cultures can be identified from the street food names according to place names. The places in food names show the connections with the specific cooking or eating habit, which is the prominent cultural tagging for one place.

Place identity, as a place marketing strategy, shows its energy in street food names. In an age of mobility, place is tied to food, which generates an attachment or feeling of home or territory that is experienced when a particular meal is eaten (Lin & Waley, 2022). Thus, place identity and food are closely interrelated; place stands for both a geographical concept and a sense of belonging. This place identity helps identify a meaningful scale. The current study, a place-bound analysis, drew on trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales (Soler-Carbonell, 2016) to explain the nomenclature issues of Chinese street food names in Malaysia. In this way, it is hoped that the levels of nomenclature of street food names, from the local to the global, can be captured by the different scales. Previous studies that analyzed the categories of names (that were not necessarily food-related, for example, of places and shops) were based on the names being written in various languages, but this current study on street food names focused on the names written solely with Chinese characters. This means that the identification of trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales on one language is not as prominent as the justification based on several languages (English or Chinese). The elements in different languages have been transformed into Chinese. Thus, there is a need for another method to differentiate among these three scales and how they apply to street food names.

These scaling processes are valid at the world level, within a state, within a city, and within neighborhoods (Dong & Blommaert, 2009). Together with Lin and Waley’s (2022) way of categorizing scales on food taste from city to province, it is reasonable to identify the scales with a local-global viewpoint in geography. Thus, to analyze the scales in the Malaysian context, they were divided into three levels: place names referring to Malaysia as trans-local scale, place names referring to other Asian areas as trans-regional scale, and those beyond Asian areas as trans-national scale. All the geographical locations in Malaysia shown in the food names fell into the trans-local scale since the term “trans-local” draws on linguistic and cultural resources from multiple locations (Sultana, 2019), and these locations stressed the local-local connections. The difference between trans-local and local could be seen. The trans-local scale also included the ethnic special elements, such as “Cantonese style” and “Hakka clan” since they are the parts of Malaysian society and represent the Cantonese and Hakka groups, respectively, rather than the traditional, ancestral beliefs of China. Geographical locations in the Asian region are regarded as the trans-regional scale, and the trans-national scale extends to geographical locations that are beyond the Asian region.

It is to be noted that the analysis of this study was based on the place names in the language of street food names. Whether the linguistic origins in the food names are the food’s real original place is beyond the scope of this study. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the elements in street food names for the two questions. A schematic figure of three levels of the coding process (see Table 2) (street food names to elements, elements linking the scales, and in what ways for their link) is used to help find themes. The first level, street food names to elements, is to identify the nomenclature category in the first question. The second level, elements linking the scales, is based on the keywords showing the geographical names and elements from other languages. The third level, in what ways for their link, reveals the link from nomenclature to scales.

Table 2.

A Schematic Figure of Three Levels of the Coding Process.

Levels	Coding process	Operations
1	Street food names to elements	Identify nomenclature categories in line with the definition of elements
2	Elements linking the scales	Be based on the keywords showing the geographical names and elements from other languages
3	In what ways for their link	Reveal the link from nomenclature to scales

Findings

Street Food Nomenclature

A total of 22 categories for the nomenclature of Chinese street food in Malaysia were identified (see Table 3). The nomenclature included five elements: ingredient, attribute, method, commemorative aspect, and good name. A typical example was provided for each category.

Table 3.

Distribution of Nomenclature of Chinese Street Food Names.

No.	Category of nomenclature	%
1	Ingredient	26.52
2	Method + ingredient	18.22
3	Commemorative aspect + ingredient	16.24
4	Attribute + ingredient	11.21
5	Commemorative aspect + method + ingredient	8.53
6	Attribute + commemorative aspect + ingredient	4.67
7	Good name + ingredient	3.39
8	Attribute + method + ingredient	2.45
9	Commemorative aspect + good name + ingredient	2.10
10	Good name	1.52
11	Good name + method + ingredient	1.05
12	Good name + commemorative aspect + attribute + ingredient	0.70
13	Attribute + commemorative aspect + method + ingredient	0.70
14	Good name + attribute + ingredient	0.58
15	Attribute	0.35
16	Commemorative aspect + good name	0.35
17	Commemorative aspect + good name + method + ingredient	0.35
18	Commemorative aspect + attribute	0.35
19	Commemorative aspect + method	0.35
20	Method	0.12
21	Commemorative aspect + method + attribute	0.12
22	Good name + commemorative aspect + method	0.12
Total		100

The food names that only have ingredients accounted for the highest percentage with 26.52%, followed by cooking method plus ingredient at 18.22%, commemorative aspect plus ingredient (16.24%), attribute plus ingredient (11.21%), commemorative aspect plus cooking method plus ingredient (8.53%), attribute plus commemorative aspect plus ingredient (4.67%), and good name plus ingredient (3.39%). These were the top seven categories of street food nomenclature. Other categories accounted for less than 3%. Since “good name” belongs to impressionistic nomenclature, the realistic nomenclature outweighed the impressionistic nomenclature.

The study found that the nomenclature could be formed by using only the names of ingredients, from a minimum of one ingredient to a total of five ingredients in a row. For example, 米粉Mi Fen (rice noodle) contains only one ingredient, which is a thin noodle made of rice. 虾面Xia Mian (prawn noodle) has both the ingredient prawn and the noodle. 咖喱鸡面Ga Li Ji Mian (curry chicken noodle) consists of three ingredients: curry, chicken, and noodle. 叁巴臭豆虾球饭San Ba Chou Dou Xia Qiu Fan (sambal smelly beans shrimp balls rice) shows sambal (a chilli sauce or paste), petai (smelly beans), shrimp, and rice. 姜酒蔬菜蛋花米线Jiang Jiu Shu Cai Dan Hua Mi Xian (ginger wine vegetable egg rice noodle) contains five ingredients: ginger, wine, vegetable, egg, and rice noodle. This shows that the nomenclature has more sub-categories, although the combination is a simple addition of ingredients.

The names of ingredients are also combined with other elements to create the name of a street food. These elements are: the cooking method used, commemorative aspects, attributes, and good names. Four structures exist in the ingredient and cooking method combination: method plus ingredient, two methods plus ingredient, ingredient plus method plus ingredient, and ingredient plus method plus two ingredients. For example, 淋面Lin Mian (lam noodle) shows the cooking method (lam) and the ingredient (noodle). 淋Lin (lam) means to pour the boiled and thickened soup over the cooked noodle. 叉烧干捞面Cha Shao Gan Lao Mian (roasted dried noodle) consists of two methods (roasted and dried) as well as one ingredient (noodle). 蒜茸炸鱼Suan Rong Zha Yu (fried fish with garlic) shows the ingredients (garlic and fish) with the method (fried) inserted between the two ingredients. 蜜糖卤肉饭Mi Tang Lu Rou Fan (honey braised pork rice) shows the ingredient (honey), method (braised), and two ingredients (pork and rice).

The commemorative aspect calls to mind the place of origin of the food or which style of cooking method was used for the food. Commemorative aspects are usually combined with one or more names of ingredients in a street food name. For example, the name 福建面Fu Jian Mian (Hokkien noodle) consists of the commemorative place name Fu Jian and the ingredient (noodle). Fu Jian or Fujian, a place name, refers to a province in southeastern China. Another example is 海南鸡饭Hai Nan Ji Fan (Hainan chicken rice) which consists of one commemorative aspect (the place Hainan) as well as two ingredients (chicken and rice). 鸿泰新加坡福建虾面Hong Tai Xin Jia Po Fu Jian Xia Mian (Hong Tai Singapore Hokkien prawn noodle) shows three commemorative aspects: the founder and also the brand name Hong Tai, the place names (Singapore and Fu Jian) as well as two ingredients (prawn and noodle).

In an ingredient plus attribute combination, often the attributes are color, taste, appearance, vessel used, and price. For example, 黄金鸡Huang Jin Ji (golden chicken) shows the golden color of the chicken ingredient. 甘香螃蟹Gan Xiang Pang Xie (sweet and fragrant crab) highlights the fragrance and the sweet taste as well as the ingredient (crab). 车轮饼Che Lun Bing (wheel cake) is a kind of dessert with a shape that is similar to a wheel. 瓦煲海鲜粉Wa Bao Hai Xian Fen (clay pot seafood noodle) shows the vessel (clay pot) and the ingredients (seafood and noodle). The cost of the food is also used, such as in 经济粉Jing Ji Fen (economic noodle), to show the price attribute of the noodle.

In addition, another realistic nomenclature is also found. For example, the combination of commemorative aspect, method and ingredient, such as in 韩式炸鸡Han Shi Zha Ji (Korean style fried chicken), not only points out Korean as a commemorative aspect, the method (fried) and the ingredient (chicken) are also highlighted. Another example is 裔记茨厂街猪肠粉Yi Ji Ci Chang Jie Zhu Chang Fen (Yee Kee Petaling Street pork intestine noodle) which shows commemorative aspects Yee Kee and the street name Petaling Street, the attribute (the shape of pork intestine) as well as the ingredient (noodle). Moreover, 原味砂拉越干捞面Yuan Wei Sha La Yue Gan Lao Mian (original Sarawak dried noodle) shows the commemorative aspect (Sarawak), the attribute (original taste), and the dried method for the noodle ingredient.

Although the names of ingredients are mostly seen in street food names, there are some food names without ingredient names. For example, the name 广府炒Guang Fu Chao (Cantonese style of frying noodles) only points out the Cantonese style and the cooking method (frying) but the name does not contain any ingredients. Some foods also just use one food element without an ingredient, such as an attribute. For example, 马脚Ma Jiao (horse’s foot) is a fried food in Guangdong, China, and its shape is similar to the horse’s foot. 泰式火锅Tai Shi Huo Guo (Thai style hotpot) shows only the commemorative aspect (Thai style) and the vessel attribute (hotpot).

Apart from the above realistic nomenclature, good names are also used in street food names to show impressionistic nomenclature. The forms are: good name only, and good name plus one, two or three other food elements. For example, 四大天王Si Da Tian Wang (four heavenly kings) is used to show a kind of food consisting of four sorts of beans or vegetables, which originally refer to Buddha’s four great warrior attendants. 鸿图面Hong Tu Mian (grand prospect noodle) contains the good name 鸿图Hong Tu (grand prospect) and ingredient面Mian (noodle). It is named based on people’s best wishes to have a grand prospect or great success in the journey of life and work. 龙记贵妃肉干Long Ji Gui Fei Rou Gan (Loong Kee imperial concubine dried meat) is another category which uses “imperial concubine” as a good name to show its high status. Loong Kee is a brand name and dried meat shows the ingredient. 槟城驰名鸭蛋炒粿条Bin Cheng Chi Ming Ya Dan Chao Guo Tiao (Penang famous duck egg fried kway teow) comprises good name with adjective (famous), commemorative place name (Penang), fried method and two ingredients (duck egg and rice noodle).

It must be noted that the nomenclature of street food names uses metaphorical names and foreign names although these metaphors are categorized into food elements based on the real intentions. For example, the nomenclature uses 猪肠Zhu Chang (pig’s intestine) and 马脚Ma Jiao (horse’s foot) to show the appearance of the street foods.

Another point to note is that some names originated from foreign countries, such as 三杯鸡San Bei Ji (three-cup chicken) and 提拉米苏Ti La Mi Su (Tiramisu). San Bei Ji is a Jiangxi cuisine from China and refers to chicken with three cups of sauces which are a cup of soy sauce, a cup of tea oil or lard oil and a cup of sweet wine. Ti La Mi Su is a coffee-flavored Italian dessert, which is named in honor of the culinary skills of Francesca Valori-Tiramisu.

The Way Nomenclature Shapes the Scales

The trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-nation scales were formed in two ways: the presentation of commemorative aspect (mainly place names) and the transliteration of ingredient, cooking method, food attribute, and good name (see Table 4). To avoid the overlap of the two categories, the presentation of place names focuses on only place names, while the transliteration of elements in food focuses on the ingredient, cooking method, food attribute, and good name. Though some place names, especially those on a trans-national scale, are from translation, they are still classified as the presentation of place names.

Table 4.

The Way Nomenclature Shapes the Scales.

Ways	Scales	Elements in nomenclature
Presentation of commemorative aspect	Trans-local	三间庄Three-house Stall茨厂街Petaling Street; 北海Butterworth; 怡保Ipoh; 沙劳越古晋Sarawak Kuching; 广府Cantonese; 福建Hokkien; 客家Hakka; 潮州Teow Chew
	Trans-regional	泰国Thailand; 印尼Indonesia; 越南Vietnam; 印度India; 日本Japan; 韩式Korean style; 蒙古Mongolia; 新加坡Singapore; 香港Hong Kong; 澳门Macau; 台湾Taiwan; 隆江Longjiang; 海南Hainan; 重庆Chongqing; 万州Wanzhou; 上海Shanghai; 江南Jiangnan; 扬州Yangzhou; 山东Shandong; 唐山Tangshan; 东北Northeast China; 新疆Xinjiang
	Trans-national	南极Antarctica; 古巴Cuba; 巴斯克Basque;西班牙Spanish; 法式French style; 葡萄牙 Portuguese; 纽西兰New Zealand; 纽澳New Zealand and Australia
Transliteration of ingredient, cooking method, food attribute and good name	Trans-local	Ingredient: 苏东sotong; 云吞won ton; 哥罗kolo
	Trans-local	Cooking method: 叉烧char siew
	Trans-regional	Ingredient: 乌冬udon; 沙嗲sate; 咖喱curry; 宋担som tum
		Food attribute: 东炎tom yam
		Cooking method and ingredient: 撒撇Sapie
	Trans-national	Ingredient: 起司cheese
	Trans-national	Good name: 提拉米苏Tiramisu

Presentation of Commemorative Aspect

The scales could be shaped by the presentation of commemorative aspect, mainly place names and clan names. On a trans-local scale, the popular place names in Malaysia are maintained as food names. In a street food name 三间庄猪肉丸粉San Jian Zhuang Zhu Rou Wan Fen (Three-house Stall meatball rice noodle), it uses the place name Three-house Stall, which is located in Kuala Lumpur, to show the popularity of its meatball rice noodle through the place name. Trans-local scale was created since Three-house Stall states the place within Malaysia. A particular trans-local scale is shaped by the clan names. A famous street food 福建面Fujian Mian (Fujian noodle), translated in Malaysia as Hokkien mee, shows its clan nature instead of a region in the Fujian province of China.

On a trans-regional scale, the street food names preserve a lot of place names, ranging from Southeastern Asia to Eastern and Northern China. Within China, there are different regions identified by street food names. The street food name 香港花生糖Xiang Gang Hua Sheng Tang (Hong Kong peanut candy) is one of the examples to show scale from the presentation of the place name, Hong Kong region of China. As the place name is presented in street food names, it builds a trans-regional relationship between Malaysia and China within the Asian scope.

On a trans-national scale, Commemorative aspects such as place names, couched in foreign words, are closely related to trans-national scales. For example, 巴斯克蛋糕Ba Si Ke Dan Gao (Basque cake) shows the commemorative aspect of Ba Si Ke (Basque), which is a region near northern Spain and south-western France. The commemorative aspect of this street food signifies that it is related to the cake tradition in Basque. Thus, a trans-national scale was formed due to the translation from the European region of Basque to 巴斯克Ba Si Ke, written in Chinese.

Transliteration of Ingredient, Cooking Method, Food Attribute, and Good Name

The scales can be presented through transliteration (translation by the corresponding target language sound) of special ethnic ingredients, cooking methods, attributes, and good names. On a trans-local scale, the ingredients in street food names derived from local Malaysian words are often transliterated to Chinese. For example, 苏东Su Dong (squid) refers to squid and octopus in Malaysia, and Sotong is transliterated from Malay. This formed a trans-local scale in Malaysia since this transliteration connects street food names with the Malay language. The trans-local scale can also be formed by the transliteration of cooking methods. For example, the special cooking method used by the Cantonese is 叉烧Cha Shao (roast or barbecue), transliterated by the Cantonese pronunciation char siu or cha siu. This method results in a trans-local scale since it connects the method with the Cantonese group in Malaysia. It is a reminder of the popularity of Cantonese foods in Kuala Lumpur.

On a trans-regional scale, the transliteration of street food ingredients is also found. In the food name乌冬面Wu Dong Mian (udon noodle), 乌冬Wu Dong (udon) refers to a thick noodle made from wheat flour and is used in Japanese cuisine. Udon is transliterated to Chinese as 乌冬Wu Dong based on the pronunciation in Japaneseうどん. Therefore, this formed a trans-regional scale because of the Japanese infusion. Similar examples are: 沙嗲Sha Die (sate, seasoned, skewered, and grilled meat) in Indonesian spelling, the ingredient 咖喱Ga Li (curry, sauce or relish for rice with the leaves of the curry tree) from the Tamil language கறி, and 宋担Song Dan (som tum, green pawpaw) from the Thai language ส้มตำ. The transliterations from different languages created a trans-regional scale that showed Asian foods. Trans-regional scales can be formed from food attributes. For example, 东炎Dong Yan (tom yam) refers to a type of hot and sour Thai soup that is transliterated from the Thai language (ต้มยำ). The food “tom yam” shows the trans-local scale on which Thai characters are presented through transliterating the food attributes. Scales can be made with a combination of methods and ingredients. For example, 撒撇Sa Pie (Sapie, mixing bovine bile or bitter intestine) is a famous summer food for the Dai people (refers to several Dai-speaking ethnic groups living in the China’s Yunnan Province and is one of the 56 ethnic groups of China). Sa is the method of mixing raw materials, and Pie is an ingredient called bovine bile, or bitter intestine. The Dai pronunciation of Sa Pie reflects the Dai ethnic food in China, which forms the trans-regional scale in Asia.

On a trans-national scale, 起司Qi Si (cheese) is an example of transliteration from the English word cheese to show this dairy product. This ingredient, written in transliterated form in street food names, reflects its foreign taste. 提拉米苏Ti La Mi Su (Tiramisu, pull me up), a famous Italian dessert, is transliterated from Tiramisù in Italian. From cheese to Tiramisu, the street food names bring European culture to the food with the transliterated ingredient and good name.

Discussion

The nomenclature of street food names echoes previous studies conducted in Malaysia in which ingredient, cooking method, attribute, commemorative aspect, and good names were used (Ang et al., 2016; Lam et al., 2018; Ng et al., 2015). However, the nomenclature of street food names is more complex due to different combinations. This shows that these names could include one or more elements, and the combinations are diverse in street food vending. This is because different cultures are represented in street food names, and these cultures can be from a wide range of different scales. The data suggests that the existence of trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales has created the multiscalarity of street food names in Malaysia. In other words, the complexity is the result of the introduction of foreign foods into the local food market and a mixture of the local food elements. The input of Asian and global cuisine elements into the local Malaysian food scene, together with its inner trans-local mobility and interchanges, created a cultural diversity of street food names in Malaysia. Therefore, scales in street food nomenclature reveal that food nomenclature is not only a cultural phenomenon, as Ng et al. (2015) suggest, but also a layered culture. In this sense, food nomenclature shapes scales by capturing the cultures in the place of origin of the foods. In this way, scales help to reveal the complexity and diversity of the intercultural experiences (Song & Xia, 2021) of street food names.

The notion of scale as a verb (Canagarajah & Costa, 2016) depicts its scaling practices of shaping local and non-local languages in street food names. The multilingualism of places like Kuala Lumpur is undergoing rapid and dramatic restructuring, with a shift from regional Chinese languages to Mandarin. As Wang (2019) points out, the Mandarin Chinese spoken by Chinese Malaysians is a localised variety of Mandarin with a heavy influence from Cantonese, Hokkien, and other Chinese dialects. Mandarin Chinese in this study is also influenced by non-Chinese languages and dialects, such as foreign place names, and ingredients through translation to Chinese. This can be regarded as the result of the engagement in assigning, negotiating, and contesting the values of linguistic resources as well as norms of communication (Canagarajah, 2013) for the scale-makers to balance Mandarin Chinese and other languages. This is related to the language use in the Chinese-Malaysian community with different language speakers. From non-participant observation, the languages of vendors include both Mandarin Chinese, Chinese dialects mostly spoken by Chinese Malaysians, and English, Malay spoken by non-Chinese. The consumers are not only local Chinese Malaysians but also tourists from all over the world. Communication in Malaysia is achieved through the oral daily learning of borrowing words and code-switching practice towards food names. Not resisting the heterogeneity, the fact that trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales, following the speakers of different language groups, occur in street food names shows not only the preservation of cultural tagging with specific elements but also the transliteration role in integrating foreign languages into Mandarin Chinese. By bringing regional Chinese, Thai, Malay, Japanese, and English into street food names written in Mandarin Chinese, the street food name constructs a space that allows diverse cultures into it. Therefore, the rescaling process reveals that the nomenclature is not simply meaning-making to consumers but acts as a communicator to balance the local and global cultures.

This is also a strategic move for the Chinese language in a multilingual society that creates new scales for accommodating linguistic and social needs within Mandarin Chinese. For example, the scales form the main source of marketing strategy (Zhang & Chan, 2017), and nomenclature with local and global scales could attract both local and global consumers. The street food vendor (Interview) who owned a stall named Ipoh Chicken Rice in Lot 10 Hutong Food Court, suggests that place names represent the authenticity of the street foods.

This stall’s proprietor is from Ipoh. The fact that the components, particularly the sprout, are shipped daily from Ipoh is the main draw. Even though we are in Kuala Lumpur, we make every effort to maintain Ipoh’s traditional culinary style.

The famous street food place intends to show its original ingredients, cooking methods, and also the hometown of the owner and this food. For the local consumer (Interview), place names are a marker of food taste.

In Malaysia, there are several varieties of Hokkien Mee, each with a distinctive flavor. The soup and shrimp in Penang Hokkien Mee are legendary. In my opinion, Penang is a symbol for the sweet-and-spicy noodle. Hokkien Mee in Kuala Lumpur, however, is distinguished by its rich soy sauce.

The place names awaken the image of the taste; as Gilbert (1988) says, a region is a way of thinking about elements within it. Penang Hokkien Mee is distinguished from Kuala Lumpur Hokkien Mee. A tourist from China (Interview) shows that the place name, which is similar to China, brings them familiarity.

I will likely be drawn to these stalls because of the ease with which Fujian and Hainan’s place names conjure up images of my own country. I am more inclined to sample some street food and compare how it tastes to Chinese foods.

For international tourists from England (Interview), place names may not be the main motivation to eat the street food but the repurchase guidance for the next eating choice.

Penang and Hainan are unknown to me, and the sole draw for me when choosing where to eat is the quality of the food. However, the geographical name in that food name will help me remember it because it is a specific aspect that makes remembering things easier. Maybe the next time I could locate it with ease.

Therefore, both from the vendors’ intention and the tourists’ attraction, the place names in street food names have marked the specialty of the street food and become a marketing strategy for food through the place identity. Thus, traditionally regional street foods are opening up to local and global consumers by embracing multiscalarity through place names.

A territorial connotation could be seen from the place-bound street food names in Malaysia. From the different scales of street food names based on the place names, such as Penang, Hainan, and France, this reveals the impact of localization and globalization in economic and cultural terms across the nations and regions. This no doubt labels Malaysia as a society with cultural diversity, providing a diverse gastronomic experience for tourists. This multiscalarity with its complexity is different from the previous studies on food names in China (cf. Tang & Gu, 2017) and Japan (cf. Tsujimura, 2018), which reflect the territorial characteristic of multilingual Malaysia in frequent language contact and communication surrounding different scales of cultures. In a similar multilingual society, in comparison to Soler-Carbonell’s (2016) findings that the coexistence of languages in particular environments (Finnish at the port, Russian at the bus and train stations, English at the airport), the cultural diversity in Malaysia is also an outcome of the different groups of people. However, these influential people are mainly the ethnic Chinese food vendors rather than the tourists who transit these spaces. The specialty lies in the fact that ethnic Chinese in Malaysia have diverse clans such as Hakka and Cantonese. These sub-cultures, together with nation-based cultures, shape the street food nomenclature with multiscalarity.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that the nomenclature of Chinese street food names in Malaysia shows complexity from the interchanges among the trans-local, trans-regional, and trans-national scales in Malaysia. The presentation and transliteration of street food elements create the multiscalarity of food nomenclature. This study argues that this multiscalarity reflects not only the layered cultures of street food names but also the rescaling practice, a process of new formation of the Chinese language. Thus, the insight from scales to street food names reflects how the Chinese language in Malaysia maintains local characteristics and highlights the influence of cultural fusions with place-based connotations.

This study contributes to the field of food and its theoretical development as well as its practice. First, this study regarded street food as a specific food type in order to explore the issue of language-related nomenclature. This could widen the scope of studies in the food research category. Second, it provided a new perspective from the viewpoint of scales to reveal the complexity of the nomenclature of street food names. The application of scales in food nomenclature analysis opens the potential for future studies with a scale-sensitive approach, which will allow for a deeper understanding of complex connections between language use and the scales. The consciousness of depicting geographical scales from place names is highlighted in encounters among and between different cultural groups or sub-groups. Thirdly, this study has practical contributions in terms of economic and commercial impact. Naming street food with geographical names as a marketing strategy sets up a link between place marketing and consumers, especially tourists, due to place identity. Public policy, accordingly, could improve place-based brand creation.

There is also a limitation to this study’s data collection, especially in the context of epidemic threats. This study confines the data collection to four places in Kuala Lumpur and some street food stalls during the epidemic period are not open along the streets. More data from other research settings and more stalls in the post-epidemic period could be included in future studies so as to generalize the findings.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Ethic Statement

The ethical permission was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Universiti Putra Malaysia.

Informed Consent

All participants received an interview request and a description of the study. Informed verbal consent was obtained from all respondents prior to the interviews.

ORCID iDs

Lay Hoon Ang

Nor Shahila Mansor

Kai Chee Lam

Data Availability Statement

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to the nature of the study,which has no specific or relevant database or repository.

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