Foreign retail giants are rushing to have their imported food products listed on China's leading e-commerce sites

At a sleek kitchenware store in Shanghai, Chinese celebrity chef Li Qiang is giving the audience a demonstration on how to prepare a perfectly deep-fried Mandarin fish that is slathered with a rich sweet and sour sauce.

The star of the show isn't the chef himself, nor is the squirrel-shaped fish that is famous in east China.