As you walk along the main street of Sydney's Chinatown - Dixon street - from south to north, in the heart of Haymarket precinct of Sydney City, these days you will see less Cantonese restaurants and a greater variety of Chinese mainland cuisines.
Australian-born, second generation Cantonese-Australian restaurateur Valentine Yee tells SBS Mandarin that his family business, Emperor's Garden, specialising in traditional Cantonese cuisines, has been experiencing these changes since early 90s.
Source: SBS Mandarin
Growing up in the restaurant
Yee's parents were both born in Guang Dong province, a traditionally Cantonese-dominated region in southern China. His dad, Stanley Yee OAM came to Australia for high school in 1962 and opened the restaurant in 1979, near the northern end of Dixon street, right next to the iconic Chinatown Friendship Arch.
After two major expansions in 1980 and 1985, the restaurant eventually grew to combine three shop spaces, growing from a small, 80-seat restaurant to the one which contains now two storeys, seating a total of 350 people.
Source: supplied by Valentine Yee
Growing up in the restaurant, Valentine said he and his brother Jonathan have been helping with their family business since they were in school, "as kitchen hands or waiters," he says. "So we know how it was operating."
The Yee family keep all the important family occasions in their own restaurants, including their birthday parties, both brothers' weddings, and Valentines' kids' "baby banquet".
Yee recalled that when there weren't many restaurants in Chinatown, their business were doing great, especially after Yum Cha was introduced since mid 80s.
Valentine Yee (first from right) 's brother Jonathan had his 21st birthday party at their family restaurant. Source: supplied by Valentine Yee
President of Haymarket Chamber of Commerce Mr Simon Chan, who came to Australia in 1971, also recalls that back then restaurants were mainly catering for the local, Cantonese-dominated Chinese community, and Yum Cha was only on Saturday and Sunday due to not enough demand.
"On the same token, people have to queue up all the way down the stairs to the entrance," Chan tells SBS Mandarin.
Changing, but not completely
Since the early 90s and throughout the 2000s, along with a lot of Chinese mainland migrants' arrival, there grew to be a far greater variety in the type of Chinese restaurants here, such as Northern Chinese and Sichuan cuisines.
"The taste for Chinese food is more sophisticated over the years," says Chan.
"If you look to 40, 50 years ago, everyone used to order sweet and sour pork and black bean sauce beef and so on."
Chan believes more varieties is always good for the public, but could present challenges for the traditionally Cantonese restaurants.
The 2011 Census data showed that Mandarin speakers now greatly outnumber Cantonese speakers in Haymarket.
Catering for increasing Chinese tourists and mainland Chinese consumers, especially from northern China, Emperor's Garden started to add new items to their menu, including chilli chicken, pig ears, steamed buns.
Emperor's Garden in the 80s Source: supplied by Valentine Yee
"For example, Peking duck," says Yee. "The way Cantonese roasted the duck is actually different from how it is made in Beijing, where the dish came from."
"But we make it here in our ways and people just love it as Peking duck."
To embrace the continually-evolving restaurant business, the Emperor's Garden restaurant had run online promotions though platforms like Groupon and is preparing to work closely with food delivery online platforms. But changes are not always easy.
"Many local diners know exactly what dishes are traditional Cantonese dishes, such as steamed fish, since that was how they were first introduced to Chinese food by their Chinese friends," Yee said.
"We've got customers who first dined here back to 1978! They still enjoy traditional dishes."
With some of the staff chefs having been working there for over 10 years and "getting used to the laid back style here," Yee agrees that the speed of menu updates and innovation are far slower compared with Chinese restaurants in China and Hong Kong.
Emperor's Garden Chinese restaurants throughout history. Source: supplied by Valentine Yee
In terms of the previously booming Chinese banquet business, which is not often seen any more, Yee admits that now even people from the Chinese community would probably not consider to have functions like a wedding in a Chinese restaurant.
"Handwritten banquet menus? Now they are all printed," says Yee. "Many things no longer exist!"
"Time changes fast, so it's hard to say if we can pass to the next generation"
Asking what Cantonese dish they would like to keep no matter what, Chan and Yee both name Yum Cha.
"I like Yum Cha. That is Cantonese food," says Chan. "I would hate to see it disappear and I don't see it will. but to me that is the best thing about Yum Cha.”
"Many Australian customers especially like to order from Yum Cha trolley," says Yee. "It allows them to see the actual food rather than pictures on the menu."
"So the trolley is Yum Cha's uniqueness - that should remain."
"We want to keep my dad's legacy"
According to , food and drink was the second largest business sector
in the core Chinatown Precinct in 2012, accounting for about one fifth (20.4 per cent ) of the total number of businesses in the area.
Throughout the years, the Yee family have also successfully run other food businesses in the Chinatown area, including a Cantonese-style bakery and a BBQ & noodle restaurant.
Both Yee and Chan note a seemingly inevitable challenge for all businesses in Chinatown - that is, as property values throughout city go up, many property owners around Chinatown see their land as worth more if they can sell it to developers to build high rises.
"In Sydney, Chinatown has a long history and is part of Sydney culture," says Chan.
Emperor's Garden Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown, Sydney Source: SBS
"It would be a pity to see more and more development here over time."
"It would be nice to maintain the Chinatown characters and culture and history of it."
Chan also points out that over time, it will not necessarily be just Chinese migrants seeking to take over businesses in the area - anyone can do.
"It would be no different from Thaitown," says Chan, referring to Campbell st Haymarket which used to be part of Chinatown.
"It was all Chinese restaurants," he says. "How do you maintain Chinatown as such?"
Now, Yee's 72-year-old father still comes to help the business whenever he can, although he retired in 1999. It's because, Yee explains, after nearly 40 years, "it became part of his routine."
As many secondary generations of Cantonese restaurateurs seek to carve out different lives from their parents, Yee has seen restaurants ending up being sold or closed down.
The Yee family celebrated Valentine's daughter's "full month baby" banquet at their family restaurant. Source: supplied by Valentine Yee
He and his brother however still hope to keep their dad's legacy, "we grow up here, we know the difficulty."
"We want to keep it opened, otherwise it would be such a pity."
While the restaurant vows it's "heading for another 30, 60 even 90 years" on their website, talking about the third generation of Yee family, Yee reveals that his own son likes Chinese food, but his daughter prefers Korean cuisine like his Korean-born wife.
"Time changes fast, so it's hard to say if we can pass to the next generation," Yee says.
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