Speaking of wet markets, we have a few things to say

There is also a more painful memory. Last winter, I bought some very sweet and delicious white strawberries at the market. I went through a lot of effort to add the owner on WeChat via a transfer note, as I wanted to buy some for my grandfather, who was fighting cancer. But the next day, before I had even finished packing my luggage to go home for the New Year, my mother called to say that my grandfather had passed away suddenly. I rushed home for the funeral, and in the end, I never did get those white strawberries. Even now, it remains a deep regret.

What do wet markets look like abroad?

For an elderly woman from a small fifth-tier city in China, the pasar combines three elements that make her feel at home: the wet market, the language, and the human touch. To prove how great the pasar is, my mother tasked me with comparing the prices of every carton of eggs and every luffa with those in the supermarket. After some unit conversions, I concluded that the prices were much of a muchness. My mother remained unconvinced: ‘Look how fresh the eggs at the pasar are! I’ve raised chickens, so I know that only fresh eggs are hard to peel after boiling. Who knows how long the supermarket ones have been sitting in cold storage!’

On a business trip to Thailand this year, I found the wet markets to be an absolute paradise for introverts, with markets of all sizes catering to different budgets. Or Tor Kor is probably the most ‘high-end’ wet market I’ve visited in Thailand. I’d read some reviews saying it was the cleanest and most expensive market in Bangkok. It was true—it really was clean, and the fruit was indeed expensive; perhaps you’re paying for the experience. There were plenty of local specialty fruits—wax apples, sugar apples, mangoes, papayas, guavas, coconut, pomelos, baby pineapples—yet the vendor was focused on recommending imported cherries to me…

@Miantuan

I currently live in Europe. In the small Spanish town where I reside, there are street markets every Saturday and Sunday that wrap up around 2 pm, after which street-cleaning vehicles tidy up the area. You have to register to set up a stall here; I’ve seen officials checking the permits of each vendor. Here, you can buy fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables, as well as various pickled preserves, and even bedsheets, blankets, clothes, shoes, and accessories—true street-market finds. The produce here is not only fresher and tastier than in the supermarkets and greengrocers, but also cheaper.

@Ye

Around last Christmas, while travelling in Florida, we stumbled upon a wet market south of Tampa. It was the peak of the Florida citrus season, and oranges, tangerines, and grapefruits were piled high at the entrance stalls. Even from a distance, I could feel a high-saturation wave of orange heat, radiating from the tip of my nose all the way to my brain. Stepping into the market was like Sun Wukong falling into the Peach Garden: cocoa, guava, canistel, milk fruit, sapodilla, starfruit, sugar apple, plantain… a whole genealogy of tropical fruits unfolded before me. Florida is a passionate, flamboyant place, and you can glimpse a bit of that just by visiting its wet markets.

Visiting a Farmers’ Market

A ‘farmers’ market’ is a place where producers bring their own local ingredients into the city to set up collective stalls, and residents come to browse and buy produce directly from the growers. Therefore, unlike a typical wet market, a farmers’ market places greater emphasis on the direct connection between the farming producers and the consumers.

@Anubis (Female, Hangzhou, born in the 90s)

There are many wet markets in my hometown of Rizhao, Shandong, but I highly recommend the village fairs; the markets in the larger villages are incredibly lively. In my village, there are four market days every ten days, following the lunar calendar. Additionally, a morning market forms on the pavement of one of the streets every single day. The fruit and vegetables at the fair are all local varieties: sweet-and-sour cherries and grapes, tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes and cucumbers that taste like cucumbers… The farmers also take great pride in introducing their produce.

@Bingman

Footfall at the market near my home has dropped sharply since the pandemic. One day, a page for the ‘Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market’ popped up on Xiaohongshu, and it was a revelation! For someone like me, who feels they haven’t truly ‘bought’ vegetables unless they have picked them personally, the market was a godsend. From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, one should eat local, seasonal produce. Those living vegetables, still clinging to the soil, have not been abused by chemicals; they have embraced the sunlight and played in the wind and rain, and have been kissed by the hands of the farming friends I know.

@Fei (Female, born in the 80s, Guangzhou)

I rarely visit farmers’ markets, but recently, a vendor who drove all the way from Nansha to set up a stall in Liwan allowed me to buy some incredibly fresh Machong bananas and lemons!

@Adelaide

After starting work in Jinan, I noticed that some of the organic or “green” produce found in large supermarkets isn’t any cheaper than what you find at the organic farmers’ markets in Beijing, yet I have no way of verifying the production environment behind the labels. One could say that for ecological farmers, a stable connection with consumers is more precious than fleeting, localised profits. They don’t deliberately “package” their produce as the conventional food system does; instead, they candidly describe the growth and management of each crop, including those planting experiments that were relative failures.

@Zhang Xiaomao (Founder of the Chengdu Life Market)

One day every month, small and medium-sized farm owners from different parts of Sichuan carry freshly harvested grains, melons, and fruits to a certain corner of the city, rain or shine, to take part in the Chengdu Life Market and sell the rewards of their seasonal hard work. The feeling is completely different from ordering and receiving goods online; the market provides an opportunity for face-to-face human interaction. Beyond consumers meeting vendors, the vendors themselves need this monthly gathering. Going it alone is lonely; they need to build a system of mutual support. (Excerpted from “YOU Chengdu”‘s “Grab Your Bamboo Basket and Plate, Let’s Go to the Market”)

The Future of Wet Markets

Compared to the past, what has changed in today’s wet markets? What impact have these changes had? Faced with the pressure from supermarkets and e-commerce, how should they develop in the future to protect their space for survival?

@Octopus (Female, born in the 80s, Osaka)

Let me talk about the changes in the wet markets of my small hometown! Firstly, the management of the markets has become increasingly standardised. Secondly, the produce being sold has changed: it used to be people from villages around the city bringing their own crops to sell; now, it’s more often wholesalers buying from large-scale farms to sell in the market. While transportation has improved and the variety of vegetables has increased, the distinct flavour of the vegetables has grown fainter.

@Meiziqing (Female, born in the 90s, Anshun)

Things have changed. Although they used to be dirty, chaotic, and poorly maintained—my memory of wet markets is of floors always covered in a thin layer of slush that were never clean—they were full of human warmth. There were always a few stalls where the produce was cheap, delicious, clean, and trustworthy. If a family member mentioned a specific stall, you could find it instantly. Today’s wet markets have been renovated into uniform layouts with stalls paved in the same white porcelain tiles. They look clean, but footfall has plummeted; people simply don’t enjoy browsing the markets anymore.

@A-Ba (Female, born in the 90s, Beijing)

They’re cleaner than when I was a child, but most people now are sellers of vegetables rather than the producers. When I was little, there was often a group of silent elderly people in the corners of the market; they weren’t very good at sales, but their chives had red roots, and although their aubergines and cucumbers were crooked, they were all seasonal produce from the fields. Now, sometimes when I ask a stall owner how to cook a certain vegetable, they actually know less than I do.

@Vivek (Female, born in the 70s, Dali)

There are more and more restrictions on stalls; open-air fairs have turned into indoor stalls, and the commercial feel is becoming stronger. There are more vegetable vendors, fewer farmers, and more and more farmers selling or renting out their land!

@Zhong Shuru

In my view, simply proclaiming the humanistic value of wet markets is not enough. Ultimately, a wet market is a place for buying and selling vegetables. The key to sustainable development is how to attract young people to these markets and how to make the markets adapt to the pace of urban renewal.

During my research, I found many wet markets innovating within their core business. For instance, to keep up with the pace of young people’s lives, the Lingnan Group in Guangzhou plans to sell pre-cut, semi-prepared meal kits in its markets. Consumers can buy them and cook them quickly at home, allowing young people who want to cook but lack time to satisfy their urge to stir-fry. Technological upgrades are also a trend. Hangzhou is building various “Smart Wet Markets”; within a clean, tidy, and bright new environment, they have integrated elements such as QR codes for produce traceability, face-recognition payments, 30-minute home delivery for online orders, and even livestream shopping.

As long as there are people who love buying fresh produce and cooking, and as long as city managers adopt an inclusive approach to the governance of wet markets, we have every reason to believe that wet markets will continue to exist in the future, and they will become even more diverse and exciting.

Planning: Yuyang, Carrie

Editing: Yuyang