Textual symbol of urban spatial differentiation: An empirical analysis on nomenclature of tea restaurants in Hong Kong

Abstract

Spatial differentiation has long been a focus of scholars and policymakers due to its significant implications in urban planning and public administration. Existing research has approached this theme through structural, functional, and symbolic strands, yet the use of cultural markers to empirically reflect contrast across functionally distinct zones remains less developed. Hong Kong, a city with diverse cultural composition and stark regional divides, presents a compelling case for examining the differentiation dynamics. Drawing on the theoretical framework of spatial differentiation, the study selects Hong Kong-style tea restaurants ( cha chaan teng ) to explore urban ideology patterns, given the well-recognized role as cultural markers and cultural dynamics embedded in their names. The spatial and naming information of the tea restaurants are sourced from OpenRice , an online food information platform. Based on the functionality of different areas, the study defines historical, industrial, and commercial buffers and conducts textual analysis of content words in restaurant names within each zone. The results reveal that restaurants in historical zone tend to adopt comparatively more culturally symbolic naming, while both industrial and commercial zones show a greater prevalence of food-functional terms. The findings are consistent with a romanticism–pragmatism reading of Hong Kong's urban landscape, reflecting the influence of divergent development histories on contemporary naming practices.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Cities, 2026 · DOI ↗