Abstract
How did “Chinese food” go from mystery food to familiar standby in the American, and global, imagination? The history of Chinese food in America can be read as a metaphor for, but also as a direct history of, Chinese-American identity. The existence of Chinese food, and Chinese people, in America helped to codify a version of American identity over the course of the twentieth century. My paper is based on a book I am currently writing, “The Secret Menu,” that brings together my personal narrative and the cultural and historical narrative of Chinese food in America. I consider one of the defining aspects of the Chinese-American experience: the unspoken rules about eating Chinese food while “looking Chinese.” Chinese food sheds lights on how American identity is bound to and defined by immigrant identity. Why are ethnic foods, and the ethnic groups that eat, cook, and serve these foods, defined as separate from the supposedly stable, fixed, identity of “American”? “Chinese food” serves as a critical reminder of the ways that cultures can fall into old, familiar, and often unquestioned patterns of keeping things separated even when they are all mixed up.
Presenters
Shiamin KwaProfessor, East Asian Languages and Cultures and Comparative Literature, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Chinese food, Diaspora, Chop Suey, Restaurants, Immigration, Identity, Ethnicity
