Kao (烤, roasting) in the Chinese culinary tradition refers specifically to high-heat dry-heat cooking — but its most elaborate expression is in the Cantonese siu mei (烧味, literally fire-roasted flavour) tradition of roasted meats: Peking duck, siu yuk (roast pork belly), char siu (BBQ pork), roast goose (shao e, 烧鹅), and soy sauce chicken. Each of these preparations uses distinct techniques, marinades, and roasting methods, but they share the siu mei tradition of being cooked and hung in a dedicated BBQ oven (usually a cylindrical, enclosed oven with the meat hanging vertically), then sold by weight from dedicated siu mei restaurants.
The siu mei oven: A cylindrical, closed metal oven approximately 1-1.5m tall, with hanging hooks at the top for multiple items. A wood or charcoal fire burns at the base. The meat hangs above the fire, cooking in the surrounding heat and radiation. The enclosed cylinder creates a convection effect — the hot air circulates around the hanging meat. Cantonese roast goose (shao e): The most complex of the siu mei preparations, produced only in Guangdong and Hong Kong. The goose is inflated (air pumped between skin and body, as with Peking duck), glazed with a vinegar-sugar-soy mixture, air-dried, then roasted in the siu mei oven. The skin of a perfect Cantonese roast goose is paper-thin, deeply lacquered, mahogany-red, and crackling crisp — the flesh beneath is juicy and fragrant with the five-spice and soy marinade.
Fuchsia Dunlop, Land of Fish and Rice (2016); Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking (2009)