I’ve been living in Shanghai, China for the past seven years. My husband who’s allergic to wheat (among many other things) has been living here for almost three years.

This article is about being, eating, and living gluten-free in China. It’s NOT easy because China is not a gluten-free friendly place to live. There are many challenges for those who have celiac disease or are severely allergic to wheat.

1. Chinese food is gluten-loaded. You can’t cook Chinese food without soy sauce or oyster sauce! What most people don’t realize is that 99.9% of soy sauce contains wheat. If the food isn’t drenched in soy sauce, then it’s simmered in thick sauce. Wheat starch is often used as sauce thickener. Wheat starch is also found in everything – potato chips, corn chips, ham, sausage, seasonings, spices, cooking sauce, rice noodles, etc . . .
2. Not many people have food allergies in China. I don’t know the statistics, but it seems as if there aren’t many local Chinese people that have food allergies. Shanghai, with a population of more than 20 million people, is one of the biggest metropolitan cities in China. I have yet to meet anyone living in Shanghai that has wheat allergy or celiac disease. However, all our expatriate friends could always name someone they knew (back home) with this allergy. Apparently, wheat allergy and celiac disease are more popular in developed countries but not third world or developing countries. This explains why China is not a gluten-free friendly country.
3. Lack of allergy awareness. Either very few people in China are allergic to wheat or they’re just not properly diagnosed. Most people don’t seem to understand what “allergies” are and how serious they can be! When eating out, most waiters and waitresses won’t take special requests seriously. They either won’t know what ingredients are used, make up the ingredient list themselves, or take your order and ignore your request. Many times, we specifically requested not to use specific ingredients (like tomatoes) but the food is served with them anyway. We’d request to have the dish re-made and most likely, they’ll just take it behind the counter, pick out the ingredients, and bring them back out. Thankfully my husband doesn’t have any life-threatening allergies like peanut allergies!
4. Lack of specialty/organic shops. There aren’t many (if any) specialty stores like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods Market that have  a good selection of gluten-free products.The only place that carries a semi-decent selection of gluten-free products in Shanghai is CityShop. There are several CityShop in the city, but only the one next to Portman Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai Centre (near Jing An subway station) has a portion of one shelf dedicated to gluten-free products. The prices are ridiculously expensive and the expiration dates are usually like . . . the following month.
5. Lack of proper labeling. Local supermarkets like Carrefour and Metro won’t have anything labeled “gluten-free” so you will have to read the labels very very carefully, that is, if you can read Chinese at all. Even then, the ingredients listed aren’t very clear or specific. Everything powdery is “starch.” It could be cornstarch, potato starch, tapioca starch, wheat starch, or modified food starch. Spices and seasonings are also all lumped as one item. Not all seasonings are created equal so chances are, there might be traces of soy sauce, MSG, or modified food starch. (Note: I heard that MSG in China is derived from wheat)

There aren’t too many options for buying gluten-free products or eating out in China. We don’t eat out at all. We make everything from raw ingredients, including gluten-free flours and bread.