The image of street food eventually fades away while I grew up. It is more and more difficult for me to see a vendor or food pushcart right now. The older I am, more difficult for me to see a vendor. It is difficult for me to recall when it was for the last time, I saw a vendor, and when it is for the last time I bought something from a vendor.
Last time I wanted to find a vendor was a few years ago. Few of my best friends wanted to experience culinary culture in my hometown, Shantou. Then I searched online and found out that, there was a street named Changping Road near my home, and there would be night market there around the road. So I took my friends there and found nothing. And it is after that I realized that, the vendors had been expelled because of the policy “construction of civilized city”.
The most frequent interaction between me and vendors should be traced back to primary school time. After school, in front of the school’s gate, there were a lot of vendors. We could buy BBQ, or some little toys with pretty low prices.
When it came to middle school, it was the time the word “chengguan” become popular. I kept hearing news of contradiction between chengguan and vendors. My brother told me that he once did not pay what he ate at vendor because chengguan was coming, then vendors rushed to escape.
However, if mentioned about the disappearance of vendor in cities, chengguan is one of the reasons, but, as for me, it is not the main cause. It is the modernity, the digitalization and the algorithm. The modernity of city requires efficiency. However, it is difficult to have regulation for vendors, which actually would increase the cost of vendor owners, however, but contrary to the requirement of low-cost investment.
Cities themselves supply a lot of chances and job opportunities toward public, however, those vendor owners do not have chance to receive better education or handle certain skills to enable them to have the jobs in the city. They are not the people who benefit from the city’s development.
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